7/27/2011
Emerald Warriors continues its run with a post-war tale that pits Guy Gardner against an unknown threat that makes its attempt at revenge on the Guardians while the Green Lantern Corps appear to be in a state of disarray. With only one more issue left in the publication of the title the creative team continues to tell standalone one-shot stories that bridge the gap between the current continuity and the DCnU that launches in September.
The Story -
Green Lanterns Adellca and Vegar are on duty in their sector house out on the edge of know space in sector 3595. Lamenting the lack of activity in their sector the duo are called to action when an alarm goes off signalling that someone or something is encroaching their base. Alerting Oa, both Vegar and Adellca destroyed along with their sector house which we see seemingly torn to shreds.
On Oa the Guardians and Salaak discuss the situation with Salaak puzzled by the fact that the power rings have disappeared along with everything else. The Guardians appear to recognize the modus operendi of whatever caused the obliteration of the sector house and summon Guy Gardner to the Citadel. As the Guardians inform Gardner that he is needed to lead a mission that calls for his level of extreme prejudice they are informed that the precinct house of sector 3530 and its occupants have also mysteriously disappeared.
The Guardians then share with Salaak and Gardner the story of a creature that the Guardians imprisoned eons before that was released when a piece of the destroyed Mogo shattered the shell of the prison. The being within is a creature that eats the emerald energy of will that the Guardians have stored on Oa, making it an instant target for the creature's voracious appetite. It becomes Guy's task to take out Gigorr the Hungry before it reaches Oa but he choice of teammates is limited by recent events.
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| Headed for a showdown |
Joining Gardner is Thedoric of Sector 3930(?) is cut from the same cloth as Guy Gardner despite his somewhat Medieval boar appearance and his similar nature makes him an easy choice for the team as do both Kruul and Squillic who share the same love of excessive force that Guy does. Lastly the team is joined by "Art", a sharphooter who Guy adds to the team for some more firepower.
The gung-ho bunch arrive at the next sector house in the path of Gigorr's route to Oa, but they find it still intact, that is until the giant creature Gigorr appears before them having uncloaked after killing Squillic. Gigorr makes quick work of Gardner's team until only Guy and Theodoric remain. The two jump right into the belly of the beast to discover the remains of all fifty of the Green Lanterns that Gigorr has devoured inside the beast's stomach. Gigorr has kept them alive in a slowly decomposing state which makes rescue an impossibility.
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| Gigorr revealed |
As Theodoric combats the arriving antibodies Guy Gardner uses his ring to charge up all the rings of the fallen lanterns, causing Gigorr to erupt from the inside out. With that the rings start looking for new masters and a gore covered Guy Gardner and Theodoric are left alive and ready to return back to Oa as this issue comes to a close.
The Writing -
Pete Tomasi has a great way of telling self-contained stories that play off of the science fiction elements of the Green Lantern Corps. He adds dimension to the Green Lantern universe and I give him a lot of credit for the universe building he has done as a part of the Green Lantern creative team. Other than the error with numbering a sector beyond 3600 the only thing that I questioned was the ring's ability to scan for a replacement when the Corps are still dealing with how that is going to function now that Mogo is no longer among the living. But that's probably putting too much thought into it on my part.
I do like the continued notion that there are things out there that we've never been exposed to despite the fifty plus years that make up the publication history for this part of the DC Universe. It keeps the mythology fresh and evolving and it's one of the things that keeps the Green Lantern books at the top of my comic reading food chain. Unlike other issues of late this issue seemed to fit in well with the post-war Corps - a tale that firmly takes place as they start rebuilding once again and alludes to recent events without being necessarily bound to them.
The Art -
I'll admit that I kind of snickered when I read the name Gigorr, the image of a goofy giant Japanese movie monster immediately springing to my mind. But one look at what artist Chris Batista came up with and all those images were immediately replaced with the visage of the vile looking creature he came up with.
As good as Gigorr looks, however, his work on Guy Gardner is equally atrocious. So bad that I almost put the book down and didn't read it. In fact I'll go so far as to say that if it weren't for Tomasi's script and great Gigorr design I likely would not have finished the issue and just filed it in my longbox.
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| The intensity of Guy's efforts are undercut by the poor artwork. |
What do I Think?
I would have given this a better rating, but the artwork, Gigorr aside, drags the book down. It really demonstrates to me how both parts of the creative team need to have their game faces on to put out something that's truly above average. Despite a great science fiction script and a nice self-contained adventure story the artwork pull this down to a three lantern rating.
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