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Green Lantern Corps #46

Publisher: DC Comics
Writer: Peter J. Tomasi
Artist(s): Patrick Gleason
Cover: Patrick Gleason

*Spoilers Ahead*

We are nearing the end of Blackest Night, and boy does the fun never end. Green Lantern Corps follows Earth’s Green Lanterns John Stewart, Guy Gardner, Kyle Rayner, as well as some of the more prominent lanterns like Kilowog. Lately though, a lot of focus has been given to Guy Gardner, who was consumed by a red ring of rage, and has only recently been back in top GL form. Our story takes us right into the thick of combat, with all of the colored corps having teamed up to take down the Black Lanterns. An alliance was declared by each of their respective leaders, not allowing them to attack each  other, but instead work together to take out the forces of Nekron.

Even with the combined power of yellow, red, blue, violet, green, and indigo, the tide seems to be in favor of black, and only when Guy Gardner suggests they try a “Tholian Web” (nod for our Trek lovers) tactic, do things seems to come together. The Tholian Web will only hold so many Black Lanterns though, and soon the group is overwhelmed. Kyle Rayner and Guy Gardner then struggle with past lovers, in the form of Black Lanterns.

So far, things have been pretty interesting. Between the web tactic and past girlfriends coming back to haunt our Lanterns, there has been tons of action. This is all overshadowed by the big reveal at the end of the issue. Our group is attacked by the master of evil himself, the Anti-Monitor!!!!!! This is where the real test comes in for this unlikely gathering of “heroes.”  I don’t want to ruin how they do it, because me explaining it will not do it justice, but each of the Lantern Corps plays a role in fighting this gigantic threat.

This is my favorite issue coming from Green Lantern Corps during Blackest Night. It was a lot of fun seeing all of the Lanterns forced to work together. On top of that, it’s not like they were fighting just any threat; they had to contend with never-ending hordes of Black Lanterns, and the Anti-Monitor himself. Peter Tomasi shows in this issue that he can roll alongside superstar writer Geoff Johns, and has just as much creativity when it comes to writing a book of this magnitude. I loved how even in the midst of battle, he managed to show the relationship between the various colored Corps as a shaky one.

Guy Gardner: …. But don’t ya wanna wipe these things out so we can get back to killing each other again?
Three-eyed Sinestro Corps member: Yes.
Guy Gardner: Good. Then shut yer ugly yap, we got work to do!

The story flowed well, with Tomasi not missing a beat. As he pits the heroes up against threat after threat, the roller-coaster of winning/losing keeps readers at the edge of their seats. He mixes hordes of fighting with personal demons and cosmic threats, all in one single issue. This is what cosmic event books are all about.

The art is some of the best I have seen from Patrick Gleason. I have to be honest, when I first started seeing his stuff on this book, I was not very impressed. A lot of times it looked like a mish-mash of colors and shapes, but he has only gotten better. Now to be fair, he has to draw a million characters in each panel, but he has really started to get good at it. I know how hard the art aspect of a book like this can be, so I have to give Gleason a lot of props for knocking this one out of the park. The pages showing Kyle’s “cold” ex-lover were creepy, and the Anti-Monitor looked as large and ominous as ever.

Like I said before, this is my favorite Green Lantern Corps book to date. Tomasi has really come into his own, having a great handle on the large cast of characters he has to write, and Gleason has really caught his stride when it comes to displaying so many characters in only so many pages. We are getting close to the finale of Blackest Night, and this has only made me want more.

Rating: 4.5/5

Mike Parente
mike@comicattack.net