The New Guardians come together to take on Invictus and he tells them why he created the Orrery.
The Good
The New Guardians are slowly starting to work together as a team and we see the turn in this issue! Obviously, we all knew that was the direction this book was going, but it was nice to see this team slowly develop from wringing each other's necks to working together against a common enemy. Even Arkillo is coming around to work with everyone else, and I love the fact that they work together, but there is no true leader to this team.
Larfleeze is quite the bastard. This issue really develops this character as not only a pawn in someone else's game, but a character who is willing to go to the distance to accomplish his task and destroy everyone in his way. Without spoiling anything, Larfleeze could prove to be a great villain for the New Guardians, even though Glomulus seems to be a full-fledged member of the team now.
This book is a perfect example of expounding upon a universe. Johns set the idea up of the multiple Lantern Corps, and Bedard has taken over and made this book not only a perfect fit into the world Johns re-established, but he made it strong enough to stand on its own. It may be a un-popular opinion, but this book is my favorite out of all four of the Lantern books.
The Bad
Lots of talking in this issue, lots of flashbacks, and lots of explanation of how characters are acting and changing in this issue. It's all needed info, and it's an enjoyable read, but half-way through the issue, I felt a tad bogged down with all the talking, especially since it takes place in the middle of a fight.
The Verdict
I said it once, and I'll say it again, this is my favorite of the Lantern books that DC currently publishes. It's an incredibly fun book and I love how the New Guardians came together as a team over the course of the series, but it starts to show in this book more than anything else. What this issue did better than anything else was show how horrible a villain Larfleeze is capable of being. This book also fits perfectly into the world that Johns created, yet it's strong enough to stand on its own. The only problem I had with the issue was that it was full of explanatory dialogue, and it got to be a bit much in the issue.
Overall, this is a great book, and although most Lantern fans are just reading Green Lantern, you should really pick this series up. It's a great, fun read.