Green Lantern: Emerald Warriors #1
Written by Peter Tomasi
Art by Fernando Pasarin
It’s high time for Guy time as Guy Gardner gets his own soloish series again! Not only that, but former Green Lantern Corps writer Peter Tomasi gets to keep working his magic on the #1 Lantern in the Green Lantern Honor Guard. But is it a good effort? Does Guy do well enough to support what is, essentially, a solo title? Yes and no.
The characterization is right on, and right off the bat you’re given the clearest of visuals into just what kind of a space cop Guy Gardner is, and why he’s nothing like Hal Jordan. He’s rough around the edges, not a fan of protocol, and anything but pretty in his execution. Guy loves his job, and he’s really, really good at it. Though not unlike Hal early in the current GL run, he goes after an uncharted sector to take on anonymous bad guys. And then he argues with the Guardians, which is really more of a Guy thing since, well, that’s what he did in Green Lantern Corps. He argued and bitched and didn’t follow the rules.
The book has a Brightest Day header on it, but I’m still not sure where the Brightest Day ties are yet aside from the pact Guy made with Ganthet and Atrocitus….or even if that’s a Brightest Day tag. It’s a new direction coming out of Blackest Night, so I guess that’s good enough. And I mean, it’s great to see Tomasi sticking with Guy since he left the Corps…Tomasi, I mean. He’s able to pick up on plots from his GLC run and continue to expand on them, like Book of the Black, and Sodam Yat. Not that I don’t trust other writers to pick up on these things, but I like the Tomasi sandbox.
Things are lightly introduced to the plot in this issue, which is really just set up for the new status quo more so than anything really happening, and it looks like Tomasi is going to be expanding on some plots and characters that haven’t had too much time given to them. Like a Red Lantern named Bleez who has her origin told during the Tales of the Corps miniseries, but hasn’t been much more than just another Red Lantern in the books thus far. Johns has made the leaders of the respective Corps into valuable characters with depth and purpose, but those who follow them….notsomuch. It will be nice to see someone in Red that isn’t Atrocitus or Dex-Star get a little love.
There’s a few twists and turns in this issue that only do more to add to my excitement, especially a plot that Tomasi picks back up on that could easily have been washed aside. Given the right handling of it, this title could completely reinvent Guy Gardner without needless retcons or pointless character changes. I have the utmost faith in this book.
Fernando Pasarin isn’t an artist I’m incredibly familiar with, but I do know his work, and I do like his work, and I do think he’s a great fit here. The level of detail is just awesome, whether it be Guy’s constructs of the wall of skulls on Ysmault, he goes above and beyond here. I can’t find any complaints on the art front.
First issue is done and in the can, and it was a solid first issue in my book. Tomasi is just picking up where he left off on Green Lantern Corps, only without Kyle and Sora. I can not wait for Kilowog, Vath, and Isamot to show up, these four cutting loose and playing space cop would just be SICK!
Overall?
8.5/10
