Justice League of America #16

Well, this wasn't so bad. It's got John Stewart and Guy Gardner in it for one thing. And Roy. Roy is always nice. It also picks up on a plot point left over from the Ion mini-series...just what the heck happened to that Tangent Lantern that Kyle left with Guy anyway?

We begin with a couple of lowlifes breaking into Guy's storage rental, and rifling through his stuff, looking for things to steal and sell on eBay. Unnoticed in a box, labelled "Kyle's Green Lantern thing" is the Tangent lantern that Kyle gave to Guy for safekeeping quite some time ago. It starts to glow for some reason, and a bolt of light bursts out of it, along with the words "Joker...Flash...Atom" THAT can't be good. Then good old Al disappears, only to be replaced by a really cheesed off Tanget Atom.

Meanwhile, John Stewart is sitting at the computer monitor back at JLA headquarters playing chess with a mopey Red Tornado. He's been downloaded into the computer while they try and figure out a way to get him a new body. Reddy picks up the distress call from the police, and John heads out to the storage rental place, meeting Black Canary and Roy. Paul, the remaining thief is busy spilling his guts to the cops about what happened. I do rather enjoy the fact that John...a Green Lantern no less...is highly skeptical about the kids finding a magical lantern.

Turns out that the first responding officer disappeared, and then the new Atom beat the crap out of her backup. John's still not quite sure why the League has been called into this, when the cop in charge points out that the rental unit was one leased by none other than Guy Gardner. You can just see them sigh, and head into it.

John calls up Guy on his ring. Guy unfortunately for John, is a leeetle bit busy at the moment, fighting a large tentacled, toothy space monster, with a glowing green chainsaw, so he says he's busy and that's that. John is just astounded that Guy "hung up" on him. Tee hee!

Meanwhile Canary and Roy confront the Tangent Atom guy, who is trying to make the Tangent lantern work. His attitude is a bit truculent, to say the least, and he makes Dinah intangible, and sends her through the floor into the basement, so of course Roy starts shooting at him. Then Atom breaks Roy's bow, which has to make him cranky, so he starts using Guy's assorted junk to beat him up. Exactly why Guy would have rakes and hoes up against the wall is a little baffling. Despite his last name, he's never struck me as the gardening type.

John gets Dinah out of the basement without causing any massive destruction of private property which is actually rather nice. Then she gets on the ring line and starts yelling at Guy, who is STILL a little occupied, but not quite as occupied as he was, as there are lots of pieces of tentacles floating in space. At first Guy is a little confused, since obviously he doesn't keep his regular battery in his rental storage, but then realizes that it's the lantern that Kyle gave him to hold.

Well isn't that a fine how-de-do?

Dinah and John rush back upstairs only to find that Roy has managed to beat the Atom into unconciousness, which I find to be a little unbelievable, but I'll let it slide. Then there is another zap of green glowing light and the thief Al is back and the Atom is gone.

Now the narrator changes, and it turns out that the poor policewoman who got zapped has been exchanged for the Tangent Flash, the scantily clad young lady from the cover, and that now she's stuck here.

They never do explain why the lantern said "Joker" in addition to the Atom and the Flash, but methinks that will be a plot point for another day.

So...not a terrible story. But by God, it sure was horrible art. Ed Benes and his butt fetish didn't do this issue, instead we had Joe Benitez, who apparently has gone to the Turner school of Scratchy Artwork. Gosh, but I do NOT care for it. AND, he has portrayed Guy with that goddamned bowl-cut hair that he hasn't had in more than ten years for heaven's sake! READ a BOOK once in a while! Guy also has white boots, which is incorrect. There are a number of ways that the artist doesn't mesh up with the writer, such as when Roy says that the Atom broke his Quiver...and that is why he beat him up. He didn't break his Quiver, he broke his BOW! Oh, and Guy doesn't have green eyes, he has BLUE eyes. And Dinah has Ice's hairstyle ofr some reason.

Isn't this supposed to be one of DC's premier books? Could we PLEASE find a good artist for it? And by that, I mean of course, one that I like? Because it's all about me, me me. Howabout Dan Jurgens? I like Jurgens. Or Mahnke, or Tom Nguyen or somebody. Not Ivan Reis, because I want him to draw Green Lantern until he's old and grey.

Any thoughts?