Spinning Its Wheels
The Emerald Warriors face off against Zardor's unit of brainwashed Green Lanterns, and we find out a little more about Guy Gardner's secret alliance with Ganthet and Atrocitus. However, we don't find out enough and the entire issue feels rather light on plot progression.
This whole time Guy Gardner has seemed like an awkward fit in the [act between him, Ganthet and Atrocitus. Why would Guy of all characters be involved in something like this? Well, this issue presents a satisfactory explanation for that, pointing to the Red Lantern taint in his blood. The idea that Guy has been made privy to some disturbing information regarding what's on the horizon works well to explain his current role in things. The blood prophecy he witnesses is probably the best part of the issue.
The way in which Zardor deals with his mind-controlled unit of Green Lanterns has made him grow on me more as a villain, but he still has a long way to go before I can see him as a strong new villain up there with the likes of the new Weaponer, Atrocitus and others. His name and visual design still make him feel like kind of a generic cosmic villain that I have seen many times before, and he doesn't really carry his own weight as the apparent main villain of this series. Hopefully, this will change as we find out more about him and his past connection to the Guardians.
Unfortunately, Peter Tomasi' grasp of Kilowog is as poor as his grasp of Guy Gardner is great. Tomasi can't seem to do anything with Kilowog that is not painfully cliche or overdramatic. From repeatedly shouting why over the corpses of the dead Green Lanterns to irrationally trying to find a way to resuscitate them, this is just a weak take on the character of Kilowog. It disrespects the character to have him acting such a way. Being trouble and disillusioned over all the deaths of Green Lanterns he has trained lately is an interesting direction to go with the character, but Tomasi is handling it terribly. It's overdramatic cliche after overdramatic cliche with no sense of who the character is we are dealing with here.
Guy's explanation of his pact with Ganthet and Atrocitus seems like it is being put off until next issue, which is a shame because this issue could use a bit more story meat on it. The fight against the brainwashed Green Lanterns is okay, but it is a standard action scene that doesn't try to give us much. We do not even find out much about who these brainwashed Green Lanterns are. The whole situation would have be more interesting if they weren't treated as just stock Green Lanterns. As I have already mentioned, Kilowog's emotional outburst is lame, but it also only reiterates what we already knew he was going through and doesn't progress much with the character. All we really get to chew on this issue is Guy's brief story about how he ended up getting involved with Ganthet and Atrocitus.
This is a solid issue with some good stuff in it, but this Green Lantern title feels like it has a serious problem when it comes to momentum. At five issues in, it still feels like we have barely moved from the starting point, and this is not a problem the other two Green Lantern titles have. If you aren't already reading this title, then you really have not missed much.
