Green Lantern Corps. # 44

By Koppy McFad
January 23, 2010 - 20:05

This is part of the big BLACKEST NIGHT event with the Green Lantern Corps. fighting to prevent their home planet of Oa from being overrun by the undead Black Lanterns. One of the main characters, Guy Gardner, has been transformed into a rage-powered Red Lantern and is now lashing out wildly. It is starting to look bad for the green guys, forcing their biggest member to resort to extreme measures to take out the Black Lanterns.

Its too bad this issue made no attempt to inform new readers what happened in previous issues. But then this practice seems to have been discarded by DC Comics completely. Still, it would have been good just to be told what is happening before we get thrown into a story with a cast of millions. In the middle of this issue, a Green Lantern commander shows up and tells Kyle Rayner to leave Guy alone. Even I, a regular reader, could barely remember who this guy is. A single caption telling the readers that this is "Green Lantern xxx, an xxx from xxx" would have made a big difference.

Maybe they figured this issue was too big in scope to focus on such small details. The great battle is entertaining if rather chaotic and the scenes of Guy finally cutting loose are fun. Surprisingly, they don't make Guy's red-green combination the ultimate weapon that people thought it would be. But they do realise how entertaining it is to have an angry Guy Gardner around... which is why he survives the battle with red and green rings intact.

The art is both breath-taking and head-scratching. There are scenes of gigantic battles that enflame the imagination. But there are also scenes where it is unclear what the characters are doing-- mainly because there are so many things happening and there isn't enough space to show what is going on. The fact that characters are creating energy blasts and energy constructs all over the place does not make things easier. The cover of this issue is a perfect example of this lack of clarity.

Despite its faults, this is a very exciting issue and sets the stage for more Gardnerrific goodness next issue.

Rating: 8.5 /10

Last Updated: August 31, 2023 - 08:12

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