War of the Green Lanterns

I'm going to do something a little unprecedented here, and review ALL THREE of the Green Lantern Books that came out this week. Unusual perhaps, but it all reads as though it were simply ONE large book, flowing quite seamlessly into one another.

And...it was spectacular. And heroic. And Tragic.



Let us begin with Green Lantern #66, or Part Seven of the War.

While Kyle and John go off to stop Mogo, Hal and Guy have managed to bust into the Battery, so that they can free Parallax and hopefully stop Krona's hold over the rest of the Green Lanterns. That doesn't work out so well, since Krona has placed the remaining Guardians, each of which is possessed by the various colored entities. Hal actually is a tad on the concerned side.



Fortunately for the two of them, the possessed Guardians prefer to attack them one by one, instead of in concert, and the two of them are actually holding their own...for a little while anyway. Hal is starting to become more and more entranced by the yellow light however, and Guy...well Guy is just cranky as hell. Since their yellow and red rings aren't doing a heck of a lot, Guy decides to give the antique Green Power Gauntlet a whirl...and it does pretty darned well...for about a second or two, when they both get hit by ALL the Emotions At Once. This puts them down for the count.

Meanwhile, imprisoned in the Book, Sinestro, out of all of them, has figured out what is going on...and he's not happy. He's particularly not happy when he remembers that Abin is dead, and he's...he's not a Green Lantern anymore. He also stumbles upon Indigo and her crew,and discovers that they aren't at ALL Compassionate. He almost makes it out, but Krona shows up, and says that although he's got Willpower to spare, he doesn't have what the Earth Lanterns have...which is Heart.

Next thing you know, Hal and Guy wake up, and find themselves chained up, and dressed as Guaridans! It is not a look that flatters them. Krona really drops a bombshell however when he declares that the old Guardians are a bunch of losers (which they are actually) and that he's going to wrap Hal and Guy up in the mummy bandages to transform THEM into Guardians, and that they can rule the Universe at his side!

Holy Crap! Krona sure does love him some Earthmen!

Green Lantern Corps #60

While Hal and Guy are getting their surprise makeover, John and Kyle finally manage to teleport over to Mogo's surface...and it's not looking good. Rings are flying off all over the place, Krona's plan is to flood the Universe with Green Lanterns, all of whom would be under HIS control. Kyle tries to stop the rings, but his blue power isn't working. John however, can channel whatever other rings happen to be around, so he swipes some nice green power and tries to shut down the flight of the rings. It's a valiant effort but doesn't work, and the two of them are drawn down into Mogo's interior. They realize that since Mogo is a telepath, he knows that they are there, and that he's going to be messing with their heads, and right on cue, John sees Katma Tui.

She tries to warn him, to look out from behind. John's not falling for THAT old wheeze, and sure enough...he gets zapped from behind. Oops. They're being chased by GL's, all of whom are ramped up on Kyle's ring. In desperation, he tries to heal them, and lo and behold, it works! Some of the Green Lanterns wake up! But way too few to count.

They finally make it to Mogo's core, and brain...and his ring. Kyle figures that he can use his healing Hope power, and sends in a construct of Bzzzd. It is working, until suddenly all this horrible black goo starts to leak out.

Well crappity crap. Remember when Mogo absorbed all the Black Lanterns into his core? That power is still there, and it's corrupting Mogo. They're running out of time, and John is getting desperate, so he decides to channel the Black energy as a weapon. Kyle thinks that this is a SERIOUSLY bad idea...but John feels that they have no other choice.



And he blows up Mogo.

Double Crap.

Green Lantern: Emerald Warrior #10

Back in the Battery, Hal and Guy are still hanging around, while Krona babbles on about how utterly FAB it is all going to be. Then suddenly, he screams, Ganthet screams, heck EVERYBODY screams...except Hal and Guy,who figure that they don't know what just happened, but it's not time to look a gift horse in the mouth, and they manage to bust out of there.

Back on Mogo...well, back where Mogo USED to be, all hell has broken loose, and Mogo chunks are raining down on Oa. Kyle is just beside himself, and tells John that what he just did was the opposite of Compassionate, and if they had just tried a little harder, they could have saved Mogo. John isn't particularly happy either, but defends himself by saying that he didn't have any choice. Kyle tries to put Mogo back together, but John stops him, saying that Hal and Guy need them, and then teleports the two of them back to Oa.

On Oa, Hal and Guy have grabbed Ganthet and the book and are getting the heck of of there, when they find themselves being pelted by Mogo bits. They're a bit confused until it dawns on them what must have happened...and let's just say that Guy isn't too pleased. Neither is Hal, but he's a bit more stoic about it.


Eventually, they all get together, and Ganthet wake up, and they realize that if Ganthet is up and about, then Krona and his cohorts will be too, so that they had better get cracking. Cracking open the battery is a good start, but even the five of them can't make a dent in it. Ganthet finally realizes that they need ALL of the rings powers, and that there are still two left. So Hal gets Orange...and Guy gets Violet. Oh, you just KNEW that Guy was going to end up with pink! Sadly, he doesn't immediately get a thong, just one side of his uniform ends up with a Star Sapphire emplem and he's pink and red now, which disappointed the hell out me!

They pour on the power, and still...nothing, and now all the rest of the Corps has shown up. Ganthet realizes that Guy is the one who controls the two extremes of emotion...Love and Hate, and that he has to tap into his innermost being, and let those feelings out. He starts by saying that he loves Tora and that he hates his Father...but nothing is happening.

And then...

'

Guy realizes that the thing that he loves the most in all of the world...is the Green Lantern Corps itself...and that he hates...HATES being filled with Rage. And next thing you know, Parallax is free, and so are the Green Lanterns. Guy falls, and almost goes splat but Kyle is there to grab him, which is nice. They all want to take the rings off and get back to Green, but Guy is stuck, if he takes off the red ring, he'll die. Kyle points out that all he needs is a Blue Lantern. Guy's a bit skeptical, but Kyle pours it on...and the red ring and the violet ring both dissolve, and Guy is free. The Green rings zip onto their fingers, and it's back to being in the Corps, baby!

Krona simply sneers that it is more convenient for him to turn ALL of the Earth Lanterns into Guardians now, but all of the Green Lanterns are there, and full of piss and vinegar...and there is just ONE MORE EPISODE TO GO!

I'm going to assume that Zardor and Sodam Yat and Bleez will show up eventually.

But man,oh man...this was epic. And fun, and beautifully drawn, and some really great stuff was going on! Too bad about Mogo however. But before I start to mourn, I'll wait and see if it sticks. Kyle came back in only one issue after all.

But there are all sorts of repercussions that are going to be happening in the fallout of all of this...and I can hardly wait!

If you haven't been reading this, you are missing a really fabulous story. All of the three books have been flowing into one another quite seamlessly, and it is going to make a helluva collection if you want to wait and buy it in the trade version. If you have that much patience...and Willpower.

Twelve Thumbs Up!!!!