“You know we’re peeing in the time stream’s pool, right?”

For the second time in three issues the Green Lanterns have come face to face with one of their most deadly enemies, both of whom are unaware of what there future holds.  Now with both Krona and Relic as allies the lost army faces a confrontation that they might not be able to emerge from unscathed in the pages of Green Lantern: The Lost Army #3.

The Green Lanterns are walking a fine line with how much information they reveal to their unlikely allies because, as Guy Gardner colorfully points out, “…we’re peeing in the time steam’s pool…”, and depending on your theory of time travel things could end up going very badly with one wrong move.  As a reader I find that part of the story more fascinating than learning how the lanterns made the leap backwards in time in the first place.  Unfortunately for me that’s not necessarily Cullen Bunn’s focus at this time.

What I really liked about this issue is the dynamic between Guy Gardner and John Stewart.  Stewart makes a decision to use deception with Relic and Krona in a vacuum which riles Gardner and it’s his questioning of the decision which provides the most enjoyment to me as a reader.  John is clearly a better tactician than he is a liar and even though his deceit is successful he’d better learn some finesse quickly before his inability to talk on his feet lands the entire group in a dire situation that could cost a lot of lives.  It’s an interesting position to put John in as it shows the weaker side of his personality and creates the potential for character growth.

Most of the rest of the issue feels like the series is in a holding pattern as nothing else happens of any note until the final pages when the light pirates arrive and we see the Green Lanterns rapidly losing all that energy they absorbed last month.  The revelation that the Corps are displaced in time doesn’t carry any weight at this point for anyone who’s been reading the Green Lantern family of books since Geoff Johns left given how many clues that were left in plain sight.  From a story perspective there’s not a whole lot going on and other than seeing the “death” of one of the lanterns provides a little bit of tension until you think about the fact that this character has natural regenerative abilities which allowed a return from the dead once before.  Bunn has said not everyone will survive but I hardly think that this is one of those deaths.

One question that remains unanswered at this point is the size differential between how we see Relic and the Lightsmiths in this series versus how they’ve been shown in the past.  We know that Relic is rather giant sized when he has appeared before, but here he is the same size as the Green Lanterns.  That begs the question as to whether Relic’s survival of the death of his universe supersized him in ours, or did the Lanterns change size when they were teleported backwards in time?  Not a major question but it is something which nags at the back of the brain while reading this series – perhaps exacerbated by Relic’s appearance in the main Green Lantern series where he’s still large and in charge.

Jesus Saiz continues his run on the series, joined this issue by Cliff Richards.  Their styles compliment each other and the transition between the artists doesn’t pull the reader out of the book.  Where there is more of a noticeable difference is in the coloring and inking.  Saiz’s work is very dimensional and once the artists switch the styles work well but Richards’ work ends up looking flat as compared to Saiz.  Not a major complaint mind you, but something which did affect the overall presentation a little bit.  The white boots in the final pages of the issue – well that’s another story as it is one of my pet peeves about the depiction of Green Lanterns that rubs me the wrong way.

Overall Green Lantern: The Lost Army #3 is an average book that does little to propel the overall story but does succeed in terms of creating some friction between Guy Gardner and John Stewart.  The art is pretty but neither Jesus Saiz or Cliff Richards are given much to do and in the end the issue feels like we’ve “been there, done that” already.  Six out of ten lanterns.