Green Lantern #38

This was the best issue of Green Lantern that I have read in a very long time.  Why is that you may ask?  There weren't any huge epic fights against overwhelming odds!  No Giant Crossover!  No Intergalactic menace!  Nobody even got dismembered!

Thank goodness!

It was just Hal, having some downtime, as the new New Guardians sent him home while they ponder over his actions.  He disobeyed their orders but saved their wizened little blue butts...as usual...but being Guardians, they have to pretend to find this disconcerting.  So, he heads home for a bit, and naturally runs into Guy, who once again reminds him that Earth is under HIS protection.

Hal goes stumbling into Pancho's, which is a seedy little bar next to Ferris Air, if I remember correctly, or maybe next to Edwards, or whatever, and he's crying in his beer a little bit, but cheered up as the bartender gushes about how utterly ginchy he is.

Then Guy wanders in. 

I'm already smitten. 

Hal isn't particularly happy to see Guy, but then he never is. Or at least pretends that he never is. Guy is exercising his particular brand of concern, which consists of making Hal pay for a pitcher of beer, and then skunking him at pool.  Being quite a bit smarter than Hal, Guy realizes that he's feeling a bit on the depressed side, and figures this is one way of cheering him up...or at least getting him out of his doldrums.  And then there is a whooooosh...and Barry Allen shows up! 

A happy young Barry, who is just so happy to see Hal, because he misses the fun that they used to have in the Justice League, and Superman is ok, but man, Batman is such a downer!  He also plays pool with Guy.  And accidentally spills a pitcher of beer on some surly airmen, and naturally, a bar brawl ensues, which they all enjoy thoroughly.

Except for Hal. 

Then...Carol shows up.  Guy immediately denies having summoned her, and he and Barry wander off to drink some more and actually...enjoy themselves.  Hal is still whining of course.  He's still pissed that she has dumped him to run off with Kyle...and I honestly can't blame him all that much, not that Hal is a particularly glowing example of being a great boyfriend.  I don't think that Kyle is all that fabulous in the boyfriend department either, since he didn't seem to have a clue that Carol even liked him, and also seems more or less rather bemused by the whole arrangement.

But Hal of course is so used to getting everything that he wants...and getting it more or less effortlessly, simply by BEING Hal Jordan, that he's having a lot of trouble realizing that things are not going his way for once. 

So he sulks.  Carol is actually probably still in love with Hal, and Hal is still in love with Carol, but we certainly can't have either one of them actually...admit this and be happy, because where would the fun be in that?  Their parting is a bit on the ambiguous side, as she suits up and flies off, but it was such a delight to actually see characters that I adore sitting around doing normal things for a change.  The art by Admira Wijaya was actually very nice, and the butt shots, especially of Guy...were plentiful.  This is always a good thing.  I always love a book that actually takes the time between epic battles to slow down a bit and let us catch our breath and see the characters interact and be real...for a change. 

I assume this is all leading up to the biggie in March where they are cancelling all the ancillary Green Lantern books, with the exception of Green Lantern, and rather surprisingly, Sinestro, and of course, there is a huge change in the future.  I rather hope that this means the Green Lanterns can actually go out and Do Their Jobs for a change and not another tedious Crossover.  I would also appreciate getting Hal out of actually running things because that certainly isn't his forte.  He's not a man for details, he's a man for swooping in at the last minute and saving the day by the seat of his pants.  His tight, well-fitting pants.  It's his schtick.

And as much as I have enjoyed Charles Soule's version of Guy as a Red Lantern, I wouldn't mind him going Green again, and being his usual thorn in Hal's side...because like it or not, Hal needs someone there who doesn't think that he's the greatest thing since sliced bread.

So I liked this issue.  I liked it a lot.