Green Lantern Corps #13

Oh My Goodness! This is good. Really good. Fabulously good. All those sneaky little hints and clues that Mr. Gibbons and Mr. Gleason have been planting for the last thirteen issues come to a head, and it is wonderful.

When we last left Guy, he was on the run from the Lanterns, after being accused of the murder of Tanakata Z and Quond. Kilowog is all set to hunt him down and execute him. Vath and Issamot are going after him, and have teamed up with Mogo's partner, Bzzd. Bzzd is a fly, and he is cool. He's also pretty smart for a fly.

The plan is for the three of them together, to take down Guy. They catch up to him pretty quickly, because Guy is being a little distracted by the hallucination that Mogo whipped up for him, namely the image of his drunken, child-beating ass of a dead father. Vath, Issamot and Bzzd try to take Guy down, and STILL can't quite manage it. Guy's actually trying to talk to them (as well as fending them off) and it actually works for a change. It turns out that Issamot ran into Green Man when he was last on Mogo, and agreed with Guy that he was acting pretty weird.

Guy is the first one to realize that something isn't right with Mogo. He's never had to personally use Mogo's gifts, but he knows the theory, so when Mogo starts pulling out nightmares, he's bright enough to realize that something is seriously wrong. He also spots the little glowing bug thingies that have been infesting Mogo for the last thirteen issues, and gets his shields up in time. Too bad the rest of the Lanterns weren't so lucky, but they also had their guards down and were already in a fairly vulnerable state of mind.

Bzzd goes off to investigate, after some initial skepticism, and they realize that they aren't bugs, they are a fungal spore, and that Mogo is being infected big time. Vath is still skeptical, and suggests that they call in a doctor. Guy is way ahead of him of course, and right then Soranik Natu shows up. Soranik remembers the little glowy thingies too, and starts investigating. So, Mogo of course hits them all with the hallucinations. Guy's Dad is still chasing him, Soranik is confronted by dead bodies, Vath by Thanagarian soldiers, and Issamot by Rannian soldiers. A little bit of irony there! Even Bzzd is being menaced by a bigger yellow bug. They manage to fend the apparitions off and realize that they've got to get rid of the infection. They are even smart enough to access Oa and find out if any other Lanterns have been exposed. The most recent visitors were Green Man, Tanakata Z and...

...Kilowog. There is an absolutely gorgeous full page shot of Guy standing in the forground with a VERY menacing Kilowog standing behind him, complete with little glowing spores . Scary as heck. Kilowog has also been infected and filled with unreasoning rage is trying to kill Guy...his best friend. He keeps calling Guy a Murderer, which rather confuses Soranik, but Guy points out that the only one trying to kill anyone is obviously Kilowog. Vath and Issamot try to occupy Kilowog while the others try to find and get rid of Mogo's infection.

Issamot and Vath are both good soldiers and good Lanterns, but they've obviously bit off a bit more than they can chew. Kilowog is bringing in the spectres of his own destroyed world, and is being all scary and badass. Soranik and Guy meanwhile have discovered that the infection is a lot more massive than they had originally thought. Bzzd meanwhile comes up with a really splendid idea. He may be tiny, but he packs a mean wallop in that his venom can take down a Thungoronian Ironbeast. I don't know what that is, but it sure sounds impressive. The three of them rush back to help Vath and Issamot and it's a darned good thing. They all manage to hold down Kilowog long enough for Bzzd to sting him, and down he goes.

Soranik goes to work on Kilowog, trying to get rid of the infections, when suddenly all this yellow glop erupts from his mouth and coalesces into this giant gooey yellow sentient monster, who starts to say that "Mogo belongsss to Sssssin...Nnoooooooooo!" Sinestro eh? He doens't get a chance to finish, either they zap him, or he gets pulled back by Sinestro to Qward, I'm not sure which.

Mogo starts to communicate at this point, he finally realizes what has been done to him, and is taking measures to fix it. He tells the rest of the Lanterns to get away, because he's put himself in the path of an asteroid...the impact will burn out the infection and cure him. The others get the heck out of the way, just in time. The asteroid...which has some rather interesting purple crystalline structures on it...hurtles into Mogo in a cataclysmic explosion. That is one of the reasons why Mogo is just so awesome! It takes serious attitude to collide with an asteroid for a little self-surgery!

Subsequent scans show that everyone is clean, with the central mass of neural energy cut off, the residual infestations withered away. Both Guy and Salakk believe that this wasn't a fluke, there was planning and malevolence behind it. Green Man is properly ashamed, and Kilowog is back in his right mind. There is a lovely bit where Vath and Issamot apologize to Guy for suspecting him, and he just smiles and says he'd have done the same...except HE'D have slapped their asses in jail before they could have blinked. Which is true of course. Heh.

Finally, Soranik visits Mogo and tells him that he's all right now, the infection is gone. She even connects with Bzzd, which is rather nice.

I must say that the art and the coloring are simply superb. There is a giant crator on Mogo now, where the asteroid hit, and the final page shows Mogo in space, backlit by a star, showing the ravages of the asteroid on his surface. The star glows in yellow, and there are swirls and gasses in space in purple...all of which is quite ominous as well as gorgeous.

A VERY satisfying issue. Next up, is the Sinestro Corps!