I think that Keith Champagne is my favorite new writer

If you have been reading the last couple of posts, you may have noticed that I have been a bit on the grumpy side lately. Captain America's "death" has only increased this feeling of pessimism on my part. Or, to put it bluntly...STOP killing everybody off already! It's old, it's boring, and it has lost most of its impact!

Which brings me in a roundabout way, to the latest three episodes of Green Lantern Corps, as written by Mr. Champagne. Entitled "the Dark Side of the Green", it has a super secret branch of the Green Lantern corps, called the Corpse, which handles all the nasty things that the regular Lanterns and Guardians don't want to touch. We end up with two very interesting new characters, Von Daggle, a Durlan, who with his utter lack of morals and cold intelligence is more than capable of handling anything that the Guardians throw at him, and R'amey Holl, the adorable little butterfly woman from Papilliox, who originally comes in as Guy Gardner's partner.

Mr. Champagne of course, puts Guy through the wringer, and has a deft and sure touch with him as a character, his motivations and dialogue are simply priceless. But what REALLY enchanted me, is his take on R'amey.

At first I thought she was a bit of a lightweight, a rookie, and the obligatory female protential victom. Afterall, she gets taken out by Von Daggle in about 30 seconds at the beginning of the story. Plus, she's just so darned...cute! She has braids and freckles and pretty pretty butterfly wings. However, the more that we see of her, the more interesting she gets. She rather successfully manipulates both Guy and Daggle, and while she may be a Green Lantern rookie, she is certainly no novice...as she herself points out.

Then she gets disembowelled by the villain. And my first thought, was "Oh crap!" I LIKED R'amey, and was quite disappointed that she seemed to be ready for that old refridgerator in the sky. The only redeeming thing was that Guy seemed to be in just as bad of shape, so Mr. Champagne was apparently an equal opportunity killer.

And then a funny thing happened. R'amey falls at the foot of the artifact that has evolved the Dominator, who is the original villain...and she doesn't die. We see her in a glowing cocoon, from which she emerges beautiful and powerful. Guy doesn't rescue her, SHE rescues HIM. She's now capable of creating black holes, she can heal Guy's mind...and still is "human" enough to confess her schoolgirl-like crush on him. And while Guy is the one who defeats the bad guy, SHE'S the one who rips him into little vilain pieces...while Guy stands there with his mouth open. Furthermore, she's the one who erases his memory of the whole episode...although I get the impression that she regrets having to do it.

And what do we end up with at the conclusion? Guy has had a REALLY bad couple of days, the Guardians have the Corpse back, and Von Daggle has a new recruit. And R'amey Holl ISN'T DEAD! She's grown and evolved and is stronger and more interesting than ever. And she didn't even get raped. Yes, there was some blood and violence along the way, but only in service of the story, and I don't think that any of it was gratuitous. The art by Pat Gleeson was sensational as usual, but the prettiest art in the world isn't going to be enough is the story isn't a strong one...and this is a strong one.

So...can we have some more of this please? Beautiful art and story-telling. It isn't really that difficult of a concept.