After last week’s battle in Green Lantern Corps #24 our protagonists suffered a devastating blow by means of the destruction of Oa and as part three of Lights Out begins in Green Lantern: New Guardians Hal Jordan’s anger pushes him to want to strike at Relic, but luckily for him he’s surrounded by Carol Ferris, Kyle Rayner and the Templar Guardians who prevent him from making a grave mistake. With their rings running on fumes Hal makes the fateful decision to depart for Ysmault, thinking that Guy Gardner is the key to their continued survival.
Most of the emotional entities make an entrance and all six of them bond with Kyle, transforming him from a White Lantern into…something more. Justin Jordan’s script takes a pause in the ongoing struggle with Relic to set the characters up for the conclusion to this mini event within the Lantern family of titles. As Kyle struggles to gain control of the massive forces that have merged with him the main contingent of the Green Lantern Corps are conveniently transported to Ysmault for next week’s confrontation with the Red Lanterns, meanwhile John Stewart manages a long overdue “Nok Nok” joke when he and his squad arrive at the homeworld of the Indigo Tribe.
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| The emotional entities find refuge in Kyle Rayner |
While most of the issue does little to propel the overall narrative it is still a great read and the issue ends with Kyle regaining control of himself and the forces within just long enough to provide the revelation that he intends to take sides with Relic and help him in his elimination of all of Corps of the emotional spectrum. While both Parallax and The Butcher remain respectively bonded with Sinestro and Atrocitus, it’s clear in Kyle’s mind that the entities’ knowledge and Relic’s share a common understanding that has yet to be revealed to us, but lands Kyle on the opposing team. Where this leaves the Templar Guardians remains to be seen, but given the value they’ve placed on Kyle in recent issues it seems likely that they’ll continue to support him as the arc comes to a close.
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| Kyle aligns himself with Relic |
Brad Walker’s pencils are stunning in this issue and his facial work on Hal Jordan does a great job of capturing his internal struggle to balance his anger at the loss of Oa under his watch and the responsibility he has for the rest of the Green Lantern Corps. The arrival of the entities looks awe-inspiring as well as does the evolution of Kyle’s uniform, both extending his iconic crab mask into something that looks like a natural evolution of its design while evoking the design elements of the classic Parallax costume. There is one slight faux pas inside where the issue is called “part four” accidentally, but other than perhaps a quick double take it does little to detract from the issue.
While Green Lantern: New Guardians #24 doesn’t seem to push the story along very far it provides enough pause in the action to allow the reader to really digest what’s gone on so far and let the realization of the loss of the Blue Lanterns and Oa sink in. Four out of five lanterns.
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