The Latest Chapters in Geoff John’s Rise of the Third Army
For the first time in my memory, I went to the comic shop and did not purchase a single Marvel title. That is weird. Regardless, there were three installments in the Green Lantern world this week. Each is part of the larger Rise of the Third Army arc. For those of you unfamiliar, the Third Army is essentially a creation of the Guardians (who created the Green Lanterns in an effort to maintain peace and order across the galaxy) to remove free will from the entire universe.In their view, emotion and free will have lead to chaos (the Green Lanterns like Hal Jordan being prime examples of this).
Thus, the Guardians have created these zombie-like creatures that infect other humanoids who do the same in turn. The result? mindless automatons that are completely subservient to the Guardians.
Yes, terrifying. Below are spoilers, consider yourself forewarned.
Our first stop this week is Green Lantern 16. This has been my least favorite of the Green Lantern titles over the past month. Largely, this is due to Johns introducing yet another Green Lantern from Earth. This new Lantern, Baz, was accused of committing a terrorist act, but we find out he’s innocent. Meanwhile Hal Jordan and Sinestro are trapped amongst the dead and they send their ring (one ring split into two, then reunited) to find a new lantern, ostensibly like themselves. So the ring goes to find the perfect combination of Hal Jordan and Sinestro and sets upon Simon Baz. Baz is all kinds of similar to Jordan. He’s moral, kind and cares about his family. But where is the Sinestro? I need to see a little more deviousness then being falsely accused of a crime. Otherwise, we have yet another human Green Lantern when there are already four. This was my complaint about Green Lantern for years, there’s too many of them to really identify with one character. Johns has done an excellent job of building out the Hal Jordan character and an even more masterful job of developing Sinestro. This title was focused on them, let’s not muddy the waters with a new character. The artwork is good, I’ve enjoyed Mahnke’s art throughout Green Lantern. If I were to offer a critique it’s that he elongates his humans to the point where they all seem a bit tall and thin, but with six packs. I’m nitpicking a bit, but I do like my humans to come in more than one shape.
Green Lantern: The New Guardians is our next chapter in the GL universe this month. This series has been my favorite in the recent past. I love the concept of multiple Corps representing different parts of the emotional spectrum. Some brief history. Previously, Green Lanterns were vulnerable to all things….yellow. That’s right, yellow snow would send a mighty superhero running. Due to the fact that this was so incredibly lame, Geoff Johns began to tease out why Green Lanterns were vulnerable to yellow, that in turn led to the parallax storyline. Essentially, yellow is the color of fear on the emotional spectrum in John’s mythology. All of this rebooting was so ingenious that it will get its own post. But now that Johns had begun this myth of the emotional spectrum and the power that could be drawn from them, he spiraled off into other emotions and the power that accompanied them. Yellow for fear, Green for Will, Red for Rage, Orange for Avarice, Indigo for Compassion, Blue for Hope and Light Purple for love. In script, that might seem fairly lame, but in the comic medium with a mythos behind it, it’s a compelling explanation for where these superheroes and villains derive their power. So, in an effort to battle the Third Army, Kyle Rayner (who was a graphic designer, so lame) has united with members of all the other corps to master all elements of the emotional spectrum. Once he does so, he will wield a power that should be able to defeat the Third Army and the Guardians. New Guardians 16 is the book in which he finally masters the last of the emotional spectrum; love. He does so by drawing on his experience with Ganthet who becomes a pseudo father figure to him, but who has been stripped of his emotion by the other Guardians and ends up fighting Kyle. The book ends with Kyle and the other corps members getting ready to take the battle to the Guardians. Good stuff. Aaron Kuder’s artwork is solid, again though, the humans look a bit off, not in the same way as Mahnke’s, just a little boxy. The aliens all look awesome. Tony Bedard has been the writer and he’s done a great job of expounding on Geoff Johns framework for the various Corps.
Our last stop this month is Green Lantern Corps 16. Guy Gardner has been the central character here. We find him without his power ring and in jail. He’s totally human and moping about due to losing his ring and then messing up a police investigation by his brother and sister. All of this has been orchestrated by the Guardians who take pleasure in his downfall and then send the Third Army to assimilate Guy and his family. However, the Gardners all fight back with the jail’s armory, they are about to be overrun when Baz (the new GL) and B’dg the talking squirrel GL that has been mentoring Baz, show up and save the Gardners. They then prepare to face the Guardians in the finale of the arc. This book was entertaining, but really served as a bridge to the finale and the eventual reunification of all the GLs as they fight the Third Army and the Guardians.
The Third Army Arc hasn’t ended, but I’ve realized that it is simply setting us up for the arc involving the ‘First Lantern’ who is being abused by the Guardians to power their Third Army. In a way, this has done what it is supposed to, get me really excited to see Hal Jordan, Sinestro and the other Lanterns to unite to battle the Guardians and the First Lantern.
At the same time, using the Third Army arc to investigate philosophical issues like free will, emotion as power and chaos vs. order has brought a level of depth to Green Lantern that was lacking when he could be defeated by simple school buses. Because they were yellow.