Green Lantern #67

And here we...finally...had the conclusion to the War of the Green Lanterns. I had high expectations going into this, and a LOT of pent up desire, since it was a month late. So...were my expectations realized? Yes indeedy...and THEN some!



As usual, the artwork by Doug Mahnke was sublime. They were even smart enough not to clutter up that pretty pretty splash page with any dialogue or captions, with the exception of one little "Oa" at the very top.

So, we have the newly freed Green Lantern Corps, not to mention all of our favorite Earth Lanterns, squaring up against Krona and his possessed Guardians. The various Emotional Entities that have possessed the Guardians aren't giving up without a fight, and Krona still can't quite understand why everyone is mad at him. Isn't he providing the Guardians with their much-needed comeuppance? Isn't he trying to right any number of ancient wrongs? He...he actually has a POINT!

Hal, for a change actually uses his brains, and realizes that for the Entities to give up their hosts, they need to GO somewhere so he hauls Kyle over to the Book of the Black, and has him "draw" Sinestro, Carol and the rest...out of the Book. It is a rather elegant solution really, and Kyle comes through, as you knew that he would. Once Sinestro, Carol, Larfleeze and the rest are freed, off go the rings, to rejoin their erstwhile hosts. The rings are just about to fly onto some waiting fingers, when suddenly, they are all overridden.

Who would have the power needed to accomplish that? Why none other than Krona, who takes ALL of the rings for himself, so that he can beat the crap out of Ganthet. Then he goes after Hal, and continues to argue his case against the Guardians. Hal however, doesn't go along with him however, he's not fighting FOR the Guardians, he's fighting for the Ideals of the Corps...and the potential that the Corps has. Somehow, what Hal is saying strikes a chord in Sinestro, who has had a lot of time to think while trapped in the Book.

Krona is closing in for the kill with Hal, when he's jumped from behind by a ringless Sinestro, who declares that Hal would die for the Corps...and so would he. And then a very astonishing thing happens. Krona has Sinestro chained up next to Hal, when a little green voice proclaims that "Thaal Sinestro of Korugar has the ability to overcome great fear."

And suddenly, Sinestro is welcomed back into the Green Lantern Corps!

He looks quite surprised by it all, and actually stands there stammering for a minute, while Hal tells him to just fight, and they do. Krona is gloating of course, and does the usual villain monologuing, he's immortal and all-powerful and blah blah blah...but Hal has finally had enough and summons up ALL of his Willpower...and Krona is blown into itty bitty Krona pieces, which also releases all the Emotional Entities, and they fly back towards their chosen masters.

Atrocitus is particularly pissed, since HE wanted to be the one to kill Krona. I have a feeling that the little bargain he and Guy made with Atrocitus is going to come back and bite at least Ganthet in his tiny blue behind. Indigo, whose name turns out to actually be Iroque, is demanding to know where Abin Sur is, until the ring flies onto her finger, and it's Nok-time. Unbelievably, Larfleeze doesn't WANT the Orange ring, but he doesn't have much choice, and then it's "Mine!" St. Walker is Blue again, and Carol is back to being a Star Sapphire, oh, and the Guardians are free, and eveyone is standing around looking at each other sideways, and wondering what to do.

And then there's Sinestro. This is...a little awkward to say the least. And then, the Guardians, those happy little blue munchkins, their asses saved ONCE AGAIN by the Earth Lanterns, bustle forward, and immediately send all of the various Emotional Entities on their way, without a word of thanks. Guardians are real dicks.

Then...they turn their attention to Hal. Are they grateful that he helped to save them? To save the entire Corps? To defeat their greatest enemy, Krona? They Are Not. They are pissed beyond belief that he actually had the balls to summon up enough Willpower to kill a Guardian. Seriously, that's their first thought. So all the good that he has done over and over, means nothing, because he somehow managed to off one of them...in order to SAVE them, and they immediately strip him of his ring, and boot him out.

And poor Hal is left alone and ringless and powerless in the middle of a desert in the middle of the night, with a stunned look of complete disbelief on his face, and saying that "...this isn't how it's supposed to end".

Well!!!

I'll be damned! I pretty much figured out that Sinestro might make it back to the Corps, there has been a fair amount of sympathetic treatment going on, and let's be frank here, Sinestro is a pretty fabulous character. Whether or not, he has exorcised his personal demons enough to become a Green Lantern again...whether he'll be accepted by the REST of the Corps remains to be seen. I would imagine that he's not going to be sitting down in the Oa cafeteria and having lunch with Soranik or Kyle any time soon. And it opens up a huge can of worms concerning his little OTHER club...aka the Sinestro Corps. Somehow I don't think that they'll all go quietly into that Good Night. It should be interesting to say the least.

But I honestly didn't see Hal's little predicament happening. I don't for a moment consider that it is going to be particularly permanent...not with his movie out, and with him showing up in all of the Justice League covers...but still! Hal himself seems awfully perplexed, not to mention shocked.

And why wouldn't he be shocked? Everything has always come pretty damned easily for Hal Jordan. He's quit the Corps and rejoined the Corps any number of times. Opportunities are handed to him on a silver platter. He has the esteem of his peers, and literally gets away with just about anything. Kill his friends and try to restart the Universe? It wasn't his fault, a Fear Bug made him do it, and all of his old buddies turned out to be alive afterall. Take back Guy's ring, and the guardianship of Earth, and kick poor Guy out of the Corps for no other reason than he felt entitled? Well, now the boots on the other foot, isn't it, Hal? At least you still have your eye, and no broken bones, it's not like you're in a coma for heaven's sake.

Guy picked himself up, went out by himself, and managed to get new powers...twice. How are YOU going to handle being ringless and powerless, Hal? You've got a lot of friends to help you, which Guy certainly didn't. I'm sure that Barry and Ollie and the rest will be falling over themselves to give you a hand. And sooner or later...probably by next Tuesday, something will happen to threaten the Guardians, and the big cry-babies, will be calling you name all over again.

Seriously, something has to be done about the Guardians. They aren't fit to be in charge of ANYthing at this point. All they do is cry and be afraid and screw up the Universe...over and over and over. They never learn from their mistakes, they have NO capacity for forgiveness or gratitude and the sooner we get rid of them the better, the little jerks.

But for Hal...I love Hal, but I have to admit that I'm a tiny bit happy to see him have a little bit of adversity to overcome for a change. It will be fun to see how he does.