Emerald Fallout

There seems to be a fair amount of "If Beau Smith were writing this, it would be good" feelings lately, so I thought that I would go back to the beginning as it were, and discuss Emerald Fallout, which took place in Guy Gardner:Warrior, numbers 18-21. Issues 18 and 19 were actually written by Chuck Dixon I believe, and were setup, Guy still has the yellow ring he stole from Sinestro, but it is going haywire, and isn't being reliable, so Guy goes to Beetle, and persuades him to lend him one of Booster's old armor prototypes. Seems to work ok, so Guy goes off to find Ice and see if they can still get along, when who should show up by Militia, Guy's whacky older brother. Guy also gets to find out why Mace/Militia is so mad at him, turns out that Mace is jealous that Guy got to be the hero. Sheesh! Guy is pretty much getting the crap kicked out of him, when KAFLOOOWY, the ring comes back on, and Mace gets his...with interest.

Then all of a sudden out the blue, Alan Scott, the original Green Lantern appears, and he's in a big honkin' hurry. And so, we come to issue #20, written by Beau Smith, and drawn by Mitch Byrd.

Wow! Captain Atom is being crushed, Martian Manhunter is on fire, and Wonder Woman is being pounded, while the Ray is being swallowed, and Guy, well Guy is thinking that things could probably have gone better. So, flashback time, and Guy and Alan are discussing what is going on with the destruction of Coast City and with Hal going nuts. Guy is actually a little confused, since he's actually been out in space getting cloned by the Draal, it was really his double who was in on all of this, and Alan has to spend some time getting Guy up to speed on what has been happening. Needless to say, Guy isn't happy about it. Then one of the Darkstars named Colos shows up, and all three of them start a "Quien es mas Macho" contest.
Heh heh. However, Guy believes that the answers lie on Oa, and Alan actually agrees with him. But Guy and Colos have a little more male posturing to display before Wonder Woman shows up, and miracle of miracles, she agrees with Guy about the need to go to Oa, and to follow Guy's lead, since he knows the most about Oa. They bring in the Ray (who's being something of a little smartass) and Arisia tries to come along for the ride too.

Guy is telling them all that it won't be any sort of picnic, and if they aren't completely committed, then to back out now. He's being his usual charming self of course, which doesn't go over well, but he does have a point. The others all agree to go with Guy, although most of them are pretty disgruntled about it. As they turn to leave, Guy is left standing there, and he calls out to Wonder Woman as she too is turning to leave, and starts to stammer out...that he's grateful to her for standing up for him. He doesn't actually get the words out, but she realizes what he's trying to say, and pats him on the shoulder, and tells him he's welcome and to call her Diana. I've always loved this little bit of characterization, Diana was really the only one of the "Big Three" to ever even try to understand Guy. She asked for his advice, she didn't hurl curt orders or threats at him, and she even stood up for him when he was right...something that Batman and Superman could never handle.

Well, they are just about ready to fly off to Oa, in a rather cool yellow ship construct created by Guy's ring, when Arisia shows up, locked, loaded and ready for BEAR! So she gets to go along. There is a final poignant moment, when Tora comes out, and wants to go along too. They seem to have worked out their differences, but I think the relationship is still a little fragile. He doesn't want her to go, because he doesn't want anything to happen to her, and he's not too sure that he's going to make it back in one piece anyway. I actually think that this is the last time that they see each other, the ship leaves, and Tora is standing there crying tears that turn to ice. Very nice.

So...they are almost to Oa, when they come across a bunch of bodies floating in space, and none other than a former Green Lantern known only as Probert, the Bad One. This name just makes me giggle, I don't know why. Considering all the macho posturing that Guy and Colos went through, Probert and Guy seem to hit it off right from the start. Probert lets them know, that the carnage is the result of Hal's going Parallax, and that things are about to really hit the fan. They land on Oa, and it is reduced to ash and rubble. Guy is wandering about a bit, and sees Kilowog's skull...from when Hal Jordan killed him. Guy had had a weird vision of what was going on a while back, but didn't know that it was real. There is a lovely shot by Mitch Byrd of Guy kneeling in the dust and holding Kilowog's skull. He's not quite in tears, but damned close to it. The others come up and everyone is pretty broken up, especially Arisia.

They don't have too much time to mourn however, because they are all attacked, and it isn't going well for anybody. Their attacker seems to know just how to defeat them too, which is ominous. The only ones not completely rendered useless are Arisia, Alan and Guy, when who should appear...but Parallax! Woo, cliffhanger!

To be continued...!