It's no secret if you've read any of my other comic reviews this month that I think the quality and planning by the creative teams have not been spot on. In my opinion much of what we've seen from them has been a bit of filler rather than really bridging the events between the War of the Green Lanterns and the post relaunch Green Lantern universe in a way that sets it up for long time readers. That may be okay for some people, but my own opinion remains that this was an opportunity missed to spend the final issues of the ongoing series really digging into the meat of our four human Green Lanterns and setting the events that leads to the launch of the four new titles. With that said, I'm going to try to let my overall opinion not interfere with my review of the last issue of the Green Lantern: Emerald Warriors series and the last Green Lantern book of the "old universe".
The Story -
Guy Gardner is on Earth really trying to enjoy his R&R that has been interrupted with intra-galactic crises since it began. This time it's an incident on board the International Space Station that comes between the red headed lantern and a baseball game, with the incident being the suspicious death of an astronaut who was just about to test a high speed space plane.
Arriving at the station Guy encounters Batman who has rocketed to the station since the death could not only spark an international incident, but Wayne Enterprises is funding the space plane and the astronaut was a personal friend of his. The history between Batman and Guy Gardner's time on Justice League International come into play with Guy trying to establish this as his case while Batman let's Gardner play good cop, bad cop so he can do the real detective work.
 |
| Guy only thinks he's the primary |
The victim is peppered with holes so Batman makes a beeline for the a control room while Guy interviews the rest of the crew. A final examination of the victim later and Batman announces that he has deduced the identity of the murderer but the station's defenses kick in before he reveals it to anyone else. Batman heads off to shutdown the defense systems, leaving Guy to protect the rest of the crew from the stations automated defenses.
When Guy turns his back the murderer, Doctor Owens, escapes and soon has the station rocketing towards Earth orbit as he escapes in the space plane, revealing himself to be a member of the League of Shadows. Knowing that his rocket won't be able to catch the experimental plane, Batman orders Guy to take off after Owens while Batman leads the astronauts to find escape on his rocket after alerting the Justice League of the impending disaster that will occur when the space station debris crashes into Opal City.
 |
No team-up would be complete
without this reference |
Guy catches Owens and returns with him just in time to create a giant catapult to sent the falling station back into a stable orbit. Landing on Earth the issue concludes when Batman confronts the murderer, one punching him to the delight of Guy Gardner who no doubt was waiting for this moment to remind us all of the infamous fight between him and the Dark Knight Detective.
The Writing -
This is Pete Tomasi's swan song on the Emerald Warriors series and it's very clear as I've commented in the past that he really knows and understands Guy and has found the voice of the character in a way that evolves him passed the "brash to the point of annoying" point to where the reader can see that there's more to him underneath the gruff exterior. While many may not always agree with his tactics and even fewer with his interpersonal skills, the one thing no one can deny is that Guy Gardner is willing to do whatever it takes to accomplish the job with his "the ends justifies the means" mode of operation.
In this issue Tomasi plays with the long history between Batman and Guy Gardner, with Guy trying to be the alpha male all the while he's really being played by the Dark Knight. It's a fun relationship in contrast to how Batman interacts with the rest of the human members of the Green Lantern Corps although I'll admit it's far better in small doses.
This issue is long on the action and character interactions and short on actual plot with the murder mystery really just acting as a catalyst to bring the two men together. The intentions of Owens and the League of Shadows never really plays out and we never really find out what their end game was. The potential destruction in Opal City is too coincidental timing wise to have been the goal, and we never find out what they want with the space plane if anything. Again, it's not important to the issue which is just serving as a light romp.
The Art -
I'm not really familiar with Ron Frenz's work but it is serviceable for this issue. Like the story, the art doesn't spend any time on detail or depth and mainly just serves to illustrate the action of the script. It's not the worst artwork I've seen in a comic, but neither is it outstanding, failing to really tell the story in a graphic way.
What Do I Think?
Thus ends the Emerald Warriors series, a run that began with the early plot points of what became the War of the Green Lanterns and the pact between Ganthet, Guy Gardner and Atrocitus. From that perspective this issue is a bit of a let down, failing to serve as a suitably epic bookend for the first issue which saw Guy questioning his future and the actions that were about to unfold. Ignoring that, as a single issue Green Lantern: Emerald Warriors #13 is a fun romp between two men with a storied past that could have easily been an issue of the Brave and the Bold. It never tries to be anything more than an average action story and on that level it succeeds in being just that. Three out of five lanterns.
8/31/2011
