DC Comics
Green Lantern: Emerald Warriors #1
By Colin Andersen
August 13, 2010 - 20:00

DC Comics
Writer(s): Peter J. Tomasi
Penciller(s): Fernando Pasarin
Inker(s): Cam Smith
Colourist(s): Randy Mayor
Letterer(s): Steve Wands
Cover Artist(s): Rodolfo Migliari
$3.99 US



    Even though it has only been a few months, I was already missing writer Pete Tomasi on Green Lantern Corps, arguably the book that allowed people to realize how talented Tomasi was. I followed his work on the Corps from the very beginning. He did some truly amazing work on the emerald ring slingers and came up with some of the most creative uses for a Green Lanterns’ ring I had seen in some time. He even did something I thought was nearly impossible and made all of the Lanterns, of which there are many, feel like actual characters. Possibly his greatest success story in this regard was actually making Green Lantern Guy Gardner an enjoyable character to follow on a regular basis.

 
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Needless to say, I was pleased when I heard that Tomasi would be coming back to the Green Lanterns with a Gardner-focused series called Green Lantern: Emerald Warriors. I’m also pleased to say that I was not disappointed with his return. This issue very heavily focuses on Guy as he contemplates a mission he had previously agreed to with former Green Lantern Guardian Ganthet and their enemy, rage-fueled Red Lantern Atrocitus. This mission is still very much in the dark, but learning what the mission is isn’t the point of the issue, seeing Guy deal with his feelings about it are. It really is a great dissection of just who Guy is and how he works. Unfortunately, this is both a strength and a weakness of Emerald Warriors.

    Though it very much feels like a Pete Tomasi-written issue, it also feels hugely different. Where Tomasi’s previous Lantern outing focused on a huge cast, this one mainly focuses on a small cast, mainly one person for the time being. It almost feels like you follow Guy too much here. It’s already been announced that Atrocitus and Lanterns Kilowog and Arisia will be big players in this book so I wanted to see more of them here. In fact, the latter two don’t put in so much as an appearance, though Atrocitus has a couple pages. Also, despite how interesting Guy is in this issue, I really just wanted to hear more about what his mission was, but we don’t really get this. Some readers might find the last page reveal of a new player to be a fun twist, but I honestly had no idea who this character was and I’m fairly well versed in Green Lantern characters. I had to do some research just to figure out if this was an interesting ending or not and, honestly, it isn’t that exciting.

    I did enjoy the art by Fernando Pasarin, though. He has a style that is very much like a cross between Tomasi’s former GL partner, Patrick Gleason, and Ivan Reis. Pasarin creates some very dynamic shots and renders all of Tomasi’s crazy constructs excellently. There’s nothing quite like seeing Guy tear through space on an emerald-energy motorcycle or create solar system chalk boards as a visual aid. It’s just a fun book to look at. If there’s one thing that bothered me about the art, it’s that the characters sometimes seem to floating about in some really unnatural positions, but this only happens a few times.

    In the end, Emerald Warriors #1 is a solid book. As of right now, it can’t hold a candle to Tomasi’s run on Green Lantern Corps, but this is an unreasonable expectation of any book, especially when the series is only one issue in. I’m certainly interested enough to return for more next month, but I really hope the story ramps up and makes this a series worthy of its creative legacy. However, if you’re hesitant about it, I wouldn’t blame anyone for waiting for the first trade paperback.
Rating: 7/10