Green Lantern Corps #9

Well!  Things just got a little crazy in a hurry, didn't they?

When we left John Stewart last issue, he was just hanging out with Guy at Warriors, making bridges out of toothpicks and being moody.  Guy had been promoted by the Guardians, which was making him a bit giddy, but he wasn't rubbing it in...except maybe to Salaak.  Then the Alphas showed up, and they are feeling awfully cranky.  And they WANT John Stewart!

Naturally, Guy isn't having any of THAT shit going down in his nice bar, and all of the OTHER Lanterns are pissed as well.  This doesn't stop the Alphas from throwing their collective weight around and demanding John's surrender.  And then they show some scenes of John snapping poor Krrt's neck, which REALLY makes Guy mad.  Nobody believes it...until John breaks down and admits what he did and why.  There are various reactions from all of the gathered Lanterns, from disbelief, to outrage, to confusion, till Guy tells them all to back the hell off, and John agrees to go with the Alphas.

Guy immediately heads off to confront the Guardians, naively thinking that his new status actually will mean something.  The Guardians play dumb, saying that they can't intervene, and that there isn't anything they can do, which is codswallop, and Guy rightly enough, calls them out on it.  He also notices that the Earth Lanterns are the ones being picked off, which doesn't sit really well with him either.  They tell him to keep control of the other Lanterns and send him on his way, but he isn't happy at all.

The Guardians on the other hand, are delighted that their machinations seem to be going so well, although one of them notices that Guy's perceptions are surprising and that apparently he IS smarter than he looks, so they might have to marginalize him a little sooner than they thought.  God, they're so...so...EVIL!

Meanwhile a bunch of Lanterns have busted into the Crypts, and Morro is outraged that Vath wants to destroy the statue of Krrt, who committed the ultimate sin of being a wuss...at least in Vath's opinion.  Guy shows up and tells them to chill out and also points out that Krrt wasn't the ONLY Lantern who was ever afraid and that perhaps the rest of them shouldn't be throwing stones.  They sulk and grumble a bit, but do see the reason of his words, and stomp off, .  Really, Guy is just SHINING in this issue.

So, we cut to the trial, and John very calmly and patiently explains what happened, and his motives, and all.  He also notices that the only scans that the Alphas have, show him breaking Krrt's neck, and while that is true, what happened to the hours and hours of torture that lead up to that moment, and how the heck did they even access that moment, when none of their rings were even working?  A fair point, I might add.  When one of the Alphas asks if anyone has anything to say in John's defense, Guy hops right up and launches into what John calls  a helluva filibuster...for all the good that it does. 

Later, John is in his cell and Guy is outside, and they are talking.  Guy is still just outraged, although John seems fairly philosophical about the whole thing.  At this point, Guy tells John how he was all set to kill Sodom Yat, when Arisia spoiled his shot, which is a nice touch, since that happened before the War of the Green Lanterns,and I wasn't sure that it was still in continuity.  Which means that Zardor and Yat are still floating around out there...somewhere.  So Guy was almost in John's position, and he can understand what it is that he's going through.  Then Voz shows up and tells them that the verdict is in.

Guy figures he's going to be a rap on the knuckles...but oh, it is more than that.  John is sentenced to Death.

Sheesh! 

May I just say that Guy is written beautifully in this issue, and so is John.  John seems resigned, and remorseful, but he's calm and stoic, which is more or less his nature.  Still, I don't imagine that he's particularly happy.  Guy is volatile, and angry and stunningly loyal.  What I really don't understand, is WHY the Guardians are going through all of these motions?

They've decided that they want to stamp out all emotion and that the Green Lantern Corps is no longer what they need.  So...why don't they just...disband it?  They did that before, when they went off to make sweet sweet love with the Zamarons.  If they all got together and told the Corps that they appreciated their services, but that they were no longer on the payroll, what could the Corps do?  Instead, they are pitting them against each other, spreading rumors, going around killing innocents, and just in general, being complete jackasses.  EVIL jackasses.  Have they all been possessed by Parallax? 

I can hardly wait to find out!