The War between the Green Lantern Corps and the Keepers reaches the final chapter but the events that unfold in Green Lantern Corps #6 create ripples that will be felt in this title for months to come with John Stewart once again making the tough choices needed to assure peace.  Guy Gardner and his band of action heroes make their assault on the Keeper home-world of Urak with their living fear bomb ready for their final assault in hopes of saving John Stewart and their fellow lanterns and preventing the Keepers from taking the central power battery.

On board the Interceptor Guy Gardner and his team are enroute to Urak with their fear bomb, the Sinestro Corps members known as Fat Man and Littleboy.  Meanwhile the leader of the Keepers continues to torture John Stewart and his fellow Green Lantern prisoners of war.  As their plan unfurls we learn that the portal being used by the Keepers are powered by members of their culture who keep the stargate powered by the energy of will absorbed by them during their time living in close proximity to all of the power batteries that were once stored on Urak.

One of the Lanterns, Krrt, can no longer stand the pain being dished out and offers to provide the information the Keepers need to enter Oan airspace.  Before he can do so, however, John Stewart reaches over and grabs Kirrt’s head and snaps his neck to prevent the vital information from falling into the hands of the Keepers.  A moment later when the Keepers angrily begin to torture them again John manages to break free when he is somehow able to channel what remaining energy was in his ring to get both himself and Vandor out alive.

With the Keeper Army surrounding John and Vandor the rest of the Green Lanterns arrive on the scene to make the last minute rescue and all hell breaks loose on Urak.  Bronchuk loses his arm but heroically creates a construct replacement as the bullets fly.  Guy provides bulletproof suits to John and Vandor as he plucks them from the surface with Vandor effectively covering up John’s murder of Kirrt.  

High above Aldo prepares to drop Fat Man and Littleboy on the unsuspecting Keepers and essentially kills the two Sinestro Corps members as the only way they feel they can bring an end to the conflict and prevent a greater number of casualties.  While the Keepers have been able to use the power of will, they do not necessarily have the ability to overcome fear and the resulting fear gas that permeates the air brings the Keepers to their knees, paralyzed.

A day later and the Keepers have been relocated to Nerro, the planet that they stole all the water from back in the first issue.  The Guardians have found the Keepers guilty and sentence them to bury all the dead that the Keepers left in their wake on the once flourishing water planet.

Pete Tomasi brings a satisfying conclusion to the saga of the Keepers that leaves them on the table as a viable threat in the future or even as a part of the Third Army.  While this issue was more rings to the wall action as we’ve seen throughout this story arc and I really got swept up in it all, I was left scratching my head wondering why John waited until after killing Kirrt to free himself.  Perhaps it’s a simple matter of  the Keeper energy not “jump starting” John’s ring until after Kirrt was dead, but the way the scene plays out it’s unclear.

I also find myself wrestling with the moral dilemma when the Green Lantern Corps willingly kills beings even when it’s to prevent more losses.  As someone who grew up in the Silver Age that was always the line you didn’t cross.  But that was a different era and while I still find myself wishing that the “good guys” didn’t go there I also understand the need to show just how high the stakes are and how far we sometimes have to go for the greater good.  I do like that when John is put in this situation he’s able to make the hard choices and we know through the solicitations for upcoming issues that this decision isn’t going to be looked at the same way as when he blew Mogo apart during the War of the Green Lanterns.   

Fernando Pasarin does a wonderful job this issue with visually creating the frantic action come to life and other than one continuity slip where we see Bronchuck sporting his construct arm before it has been removed the work this issue more than fits the bill.  

The war with the Keepers is over for now and this first arc comes to a close with our protagonists shaken but not fallen.  While I don’t think that the ending had the epic feel I’d hoped for, the story was certainly not a let down overall.  This issue has all the action that one would expect from a book that has been described as a cosmic war comic.  Luckily for us the Keepers are left on the playing field for use by writers in the future as is fitting for characters which further define some of the modern interpretation of concepts that make up Green Lantern’s mythology.  Four out of five lanterns.

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