REVIEW: Green Lantern Emerald Warriors #8 – War of the Green Lanterns Part Three

We wrap up MLD’s Green Lantern Thursday with the title with the longest name and the issue with the most words, Green Lantern: Emerald Warriors #8. This series focuses on another Green Lantern replacement for Hal Jordan, namely Guy Gardner. Gardner is probably the character I least care for among the Green Lanterns from Earth, but this issue actually makes some strides toward changing that. Again the issue begins by focusing on what’s been happening previously in this title, but it concludes with by converging with what’s happening in Green Lantern and Green Lantern Corps.

PTB: I really went back and forth between loving and hating this book as I read it. I think it all came down on the plus side though.

Early on Guy Gardner, Killowog and Arisia spend a lot of time talking about Zardor, Sodam and Yat. I don’t know who any of these people are and while I got some of it from the context I felt it was somewhat poor form for a crossover issue.

KevinMLD: It really is designed to help catch people up on what has happened in previous issues. The key points being that Ganthet and Gardner have been secretly working with Atrocitus and that Krona had been siphoning power from Green Lantern Corps rings, which helped enable him to take over. Sodam and Yat are references to Sodam Yat. One being who used to house Ion. He basically is/was Superman armed with a Green Ring. Zardor was the villain Krona has been conspiring with to control the Lanterns.

PTB: I didn’t even realize that the names Sodam and Yat were referring to the same character. There’s so much talking in this book they could have easily explained more.

KevinMLD: And yet still, so many pages are wasted on the pointless Jordan-Gardner fight.

PTB: The way the green rings/battery keep saying “impurity restored” when referring to Parallax entering the main power battery gives me the impression that it’s meant to be there. If it were an attack, it feels like a different word than “restored” would be used.

KevinMLD: The impurity used to be there previously when Parallax was imprisoned in the power battery. It’s why Lanterns were powerless against the color yellow. When he returned to the battery, the impurity was restored. I think it’s the right term.

PTB: I guess “restored” just connotes to me that it’s been repaired in some way, as if the impurity’s absence was a problem. It could also be that the negative connotations of the word “impurity” are affecting my perceptions.

The two page spread of the horde of Green Lanterns heading to Oa was awesome. It really shows the strength of Fernando Pasarin and Cam Smith’s art in this issue. There’s a lot of odd creatures in there and my eye was immediately drawn to a grey man/whale thing in the top left corner whose symbol is different from everyone else’s (though I’m not sure if that’s intentional).

KevinMLD: I love the crazy Green Lanterns, like the mushroom guy. There’s a squirrel Green Lantern and of course an entire planet Green Lantern. Just fun concepts. This scene is the strongest one in the book as far as I’m concerned.

PTB: The artwork is solid throughout, but putting so much of the action in “The Green House” is what really did it for me. I can’t get enough of stuff set in the snow and ice. I totally would have made this Hoth world my secret Green Lantern base as well.

KevinMLD: I particularly LOVE the cover. It’s so much better than the Green Lantern Corps cover from Part Two.

PTB: Felipe MassaFera’s cover is amazing and while Hal and Guy’s fight inside its pages was interesting, this is what I want from a Green Lantern fight. I greatly prefer using the ring to make simple weapon than some of the things that kind of hurt the issue for me during this sequence: Guy’s slapshot attack complete with hockey pads and equipment, Hal’s magic minisub and torpedo blast, and of course “Guy Gardner’s might!”

I realize the magic rings open up a lot of story and artistic options, but this is a level of silliness that seems out of place given the seriousness of the threat they’re facing. I feel a little bad picking on those things since it is a comic book and that’s part of the fun with these power sets, but it’s something that’s always made hurt my perceptions of the Green Lantern titles.

KevinMLD: I’m not enjoying these fights. Better writing would have established the resentment and rivalry between the characters without having a pointless silly fight featuring bad exposition. Hopefully, we’re done with the Earth Green Lantern vs. Earth Green Lantern mini-fights… Unless we’re going to see Kyle vs. Hal and John vs. Guy next issue.

PTB: Guy and Hal’s confrontation did reveal a lot about what Ganthet, Gardner and Atrocious set up and pursued in their titles. Hal didn’t know about all this, but I’m assuming readers did.

KevinMLD: Yes. That was all the set up for the status quo of this third Green Lantern title.

PTB: As you said, their fight touches on a lot of the general resentment toward Hal we discussed in earlier issues. Even though Parallax was creeping in, these two are certainly not over anything the other has done wrong in their lives.

KevinMLD: Exactly. I repeat. I’m REALLY not enjoying these fights. I was hoping for a genuine split in the Corps (Civil War-style). Not mind control. Who cares? And what does it say about Hal Jordan that it took him pages to fight Guy Gardner when Batman took him out with one punch. One punch!

PTB: Good point. We end with all the stories running through the three titles converging and things are set up nicely for the final chapters. Separated from their rings though, Guy and Hal do have one other thing to worry about: freezing to death. Guy’s only wearing a hoodie!

KevinMLD: Don’t worry, they’re about to be chased into a cave where they will be saved by future Spock.

PTB: That was the best part of that movie. The snow planet deserved more screen time. Not sure if we should end on that, but I do like how we’re down to essentially the Green Lanterns of Earth powered down and forced to really fight at the ground level to save the Corps (and most likely the rest of the universe).

KevinMLD: Too bad they’re not on Oa. I don’t think they are anyway.

Follow all of our War of the Green Lanterns posts:
Green Lantern Corps #58 (Part Two) / Green Lantern #65 (Part Four)