Green Lantern Annual #2
And so, the whole "Lights Out" saga comes to an end. As Crossovers go, this was a fairly decent one, in that it didn't drag on for a year, and it was confined to the Green Lantern books only. As a story...it was...ok. I didn't love it, but I didn't hate it either. Robert Venditti did an adequate job on the story and Sean Chen did an adequate job with the artwork.
Hal has managed to get his corps, drained of most of their power, and without a Battery or Oa, to Ysmault, to meet up with Guy and the Red Lanterns. For some reason, Hal is surprised that Guy isn't overflowing with love and warmth. For some reason all of the rest of the Lanterns are just standing around watching Guy and Hal snipe at each other. Considering how many friends he has in the Green Lantern Corp, you would think that...oh say Kilowog and Arisia...at least would be interested in what had happened to Guy.
Carol Ferris as Star Sapphire is there too, and knows where Kyle is, because she has a...connection to him. Oh jeez. Hal immediately starts having a jealous fit, while the rest of the Lanterns stand around and awkwardly shuffle their feet.
Meanwhile at the Source Wall, Relic has arrived and is having trouble getting through. Well...duh. Kyle and the Guardians show up, and mill around for a while, then Kyle says that they are actually there to HELP Relic, but naturally they have to fight for a while. Defending "life" Kyle's powers begin to regenerate, and all the entities who are within him give a lot of encouragement.
Then all of the rest of the Green Lanterns somehow show up, along with the Red Lanterns, and they all start fighting some more. Back with the Indigo Lanterns, John who actually isn't dead, works out a deal with them and Natromo, and off they all go, showing up in just the nick of time. Guy is quite happy to learn that John isn't dead. John is really pissed that Guy is a Red Lantern now, not knowing all of the details.
Guy and the Reds attack Relic's ship, NOT using any of their light powers, since now they have magic as well, then Hal, Guy, John and Kyle all attack Relic while the rest of the Lanterns stand around, as far as I can see. and using his "white" power, Kyle and Relic go through the Source Wall! There is a blinding flash of light, and Relic emerges, all happy that the Light has been restored, before his is swallowed up by the Wall. No sigh of Kyle, unfortunately, so not unnaturally, the rest of them assume he's been killed as well. Hal also assumes that they are all out of power and about to die now, so he dramatically urges Carol to leave. She tells him to get a grip, she's getting a ride with the Indigos.
In fact, the Indigos send everyone home, Guy and the Reds to Ysmault, and Hal, John and the rest of the Green Lanterns to...Mogo. Mogo is going to be the new home of the Green Lanterns! Woohoo. Hal then leads the Corps in a rousing recital of the Oath, only to be stunned when Graf Toren and Hannu don't recite it and say that they want to quit.
Meanwhile...back at the Source Wall, the Guardians are milling around stupidly, when with another burst of light, Kyle pops back out! This is unprecedented! It turns out that all of the entities (with the exception of Parallax) sacrificed themselves to replenish the Light in the Universe, but beyond that, he can't remember anything. One of the Guardians probes his brain and is overwhelmed by whatever it is that is revealed, so they all decide that while it is nice that Kyle isn't dead, they can't let anyone know that he is alive, and therefore, he's ready to go out and do whatever it is that Kyle will be doing.
Well.
This does bring things to a conclusion and clears the decks for the next stage in the Lanterns adventures. Kyle is presumably going to be off doing his own schtick. I assume that Guy is going to be stuck with the Red Lanterns for the foreseeable future. Hal will be "leading" the Green Lantern Corps, and hanging out on Mogo.
There were some things that I rather liked. Having Mogo be the home for the Lanterns is a good idea. I don't see why he couldn't use his gravitational powers, and Green Lantern stuff to put Oa back together, but maybe that will happen...eventually. It was nice to see Kyle saving the day. Relic is gone.
There were however somethings that bugged me. Firstly, the implied attachment between Carol and Kyle. Excuse me? Where the heck did that come from? A couple of issues ago, they barely knew each other, and all of a sudden Carol is warm for his form? Granted, Kyle IS adorable, and has a superb behind. But then so does Hal. Hal having the equivalent of a Hissy Fit in front of everyone in the middle of a crisis was absurd. And totally unprofessional.
I was also unimpressed with the fact that every single other member of the Corps did...nothing. They all stood around while the Earth Lanterns had their squabbles and heroics. Guy disappeared from the Corps without a word, when Hal sent him undercover to the Reds, and not a single person in the Corps noticed? Or was worried? Maybe John, but that's it. And when they all found out he was with the Red Lanterns, no one expressed some concern, or relief?
It's nice that Guy was so upset about what he thought was John's death,and it's nice that Guy and John are friends now. That certainly wasn't always the case...heck it wasn't the case just a year ago, KYLE and Guy were bestest buds, and now Kyle is "dead" and we barely got any expression of grief or anger from any of the Corps! The last time Kyle "died" Guy went Red! Now...nada. zip. Barely a reaction at all.
Personally I think that Graf Toren and Hannu aren't quitting because they are uncomfortable with the idea of using up a finite source of power. They just probably can't stand to work for Hal anymore.
So, I guess the conclusion is that while this certainly wasn't the greatest Green Lantern story to come down the pike, it DID make me think, and question and wonder and puzzle and worry about my favorite characters, and in that respect, it did its job.
3 Comments:
I was going to say I think letting everyone think Kyle's dead is an old Guardians move, but I guess if they know he survived, they'd all want to know what he saw and either it would be bad for them to know, or bad for Kyle. Or both. I still can't see it ending well, Kyle's not real great at keeping a low profile.
S the Light that was replenished is what all the Corps use for their rings? Like, their emotions make it go, but the Light is the actual fuel?
Hmm. I'm not sure about the "finite source of power" thing. Seems like it's a new form of "Kryptonite," designed to create an artificial weakness for the Corps, and cheap plot devices like that irritate me.
And I also felt a tad squicky about the Kyle/Carol thing. It did seem to pop up out of nowhere, and is intended as another source of "tension." (See finite power, above). I don't know, I'm just not grooving on either of these new plot points.
I do like Guy as a Red. It works, and springs fairly naturally from his background. Mogo as Oa works for me too, but I would like to see Oa back some day.
So far the new Guardians are showing themselves to be a whole lot smarter than the old Guardians.
I'm still a bit queasy about the whole Carol/Kyle thing as well. Talk about coming out of left field! Not that Hal has any right to bitch about it. But having a hissy fit in the middle of a crisis is just immature.
So, the sacrifice of the Entities was able to replenish all of the light used since the creation of the Universe, or some 14 billion years worth? I'd say that they have a ways to go before they use it up again.
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