REVIEW: Green Lantern Emerald Warriors #10 – War of the Green Lanterns Part Nine

It’s time for another Green Lantern Thursday at MyLatestDistraction where we’ll take a look at the most recent chapters of DC Comics’ War of the Green Lanterns. This is a big series with big things happening for DC’s cosmic heroes and the final three installments before the finale are full of important moments. It’s also worth mentioning that a Green Lantern motion picture is coming to theaters everywhere on June 17th, 2011. It’s hard to believe readers of the various Green Lantern comic books wouldn’t have this on their radar already, but to make certain no one would miss it DC added a big green banner to all their books this month.

Spoilers for the issue and series will follow.

PTB: We get another Miguel Sepulveda cover on this issue (this time with Alex Sinclair) and I think it may be the best of the regular cover images of these three books.

KevinMLD: I’d agree, but I can’t help but feel John looks dopey in those Indigo Lantern fatigues.

PTB: Thankfully, the cover didn’t spoil John Stewart’s Black Lantern-ness from the previous issue. Although it seems that he’s back to pure Indigo in this issue. Does this mean all of the Black energy he absorbed from Mogo went into that bullet Stewart used to destroy him.

KevinMLD: This is as good an explanation as any. I think the Black Lantern energy should be more dangerous than we’re seeing here. It shouldn’t be something so easy to manipulate.

PTB: I know this is Guy’s book and all, but Pete Tomasi really goes out of his way to crowbar in obnoxious lines for him. The shampoo/toothpaste bit on the first page almost feels like he’s making fun of himself for it.

KevinMLD: That’s a pretty bad line. Who knew becoming a Guardian was such a creepy process? Is it wrong that with Abin Sur being Flashpoint‘s Green Lantern, I’m kind of rooting for Krona to succeed in turning Earth’s Green Lanterns into Guardians by the end of this series?

PTB: Not at all. The two-page spread that follows is pretty spectacular. I don’t recall seeing a page laid out quite like it with the panels spanning both pages for some time. Fernando Pasarin and his crew of six inkers really make it look great. The “unnhh” and “yarrgh” sound effects of the Green Lanterns falling from space may have been a bit much.

KevinMLD: The grunts seem excessive. Speaking of weird dialogue boxes and comics that are completely off-topic, Action Comics has been including thought balloons lately… How old school is that? Thought balloons always remind me of Claremont’s X-Men and Colossus missing Russia randomly in unrelated panels.

PTB: (I miss thought balloons the same way).

The other GLs of Earth do not seem happy with John Stewart’s actions, particularly Kyle Raynor. His desperate attempts to put a planet back together really typify why he should permanently have a Blue Ring.

KevinMLD: Stewart killed a Green Lantern. They could justify killing any of the possessed Lanterns if they really wanted to, but they haven’t. It’s a weird act for a Lantern powered by compassion, but there’s always been something sinister about the Indigo Tribe. Kyle certainly could be a Blue Lantern, but there are very few members of this corps. It’s not like the Sinestro Corps or the Red Lanterns.

PTB: Sterwart makes reference to Xanshi and it sounds like this may have been someone else whose death is on his hands. Guy also makes a crack that John being responsible for Mogo’s death wasn’t all that surprising to him. Is this another reference to Xanshi?

KevinMLD: Yep. The entire planet. He’s now responsible for the death of two planets. Does anyone know his whereabouts when Krypton exploded?

PTB: Haha! You even explained Xanshi in the last post and I completely missed it.

We get an interesting combination of rings/colors/powers that Ganthet proposes using to crack open the Green Battery and expel Parallax. It’s interesting to me that Hal and Guy are chosen to dual wield with Orange/Yellow and Red/Violet rings respectively. I’m assuming Ganthet is providing the Green energy to complete the Emotional Spectrum?

KevinMLD: I think that’s a safe assumption though it’s not 100 percent clear in the art.

PTB: It’s also worth noting that Hal and Guy began the process of being converted into Guardians of the Universe at Krona’s hands. I can’t help but think this is going to come back to hurt them in some way, as is John Stewart’s exposure to the Black Energy.

KevinMLD: I’ll be disappointed if it doesn’t come back to haunt them. There needs to be consequences for these actions.

PTB: If they had found a way to connect Kyle Raynor to the White Energy of Life here they could have had each of them with a pair of rings and brought everything together.

KevinMLD: There is no White Lantern. Brightest Day didn’t happen. There is no White Lantern. Brightest Day didn’t happen. There is no White Lantern. Brightest Day didn’t happen.

PTB: Nice try. Colorist Gabe Eltaeb deserves a lot of credit for his work thoughout this issue, but the pages where the Green Lanterns of Earth combine their powers is gorgeous.

It comes down to Guy Gardner to save the day (as we said this is his book), but I particularly liked how he used the two rings from the extreme ends of the spectrum to tear open the battery. Channeling his love for the Corps and his hate for the Rage within himself really went a long way to make the character more endearing to me.

KevinMLD: Yeah he’s a lovable rogue. He gets everyone eventually.

PTB: Clayton Crain’s variant cover for Green Lantern: Emerald Warriors #10 is amazing again as we see Guy dragging himself forward to complete his mission. Of course he’s in a Green Lantern uniform in the image rather than his Red/Violent hybrid costume that he wore when this moment actually occurred.

Guy and the other Green Lanterns of Earth do appear in their classic uniforms by the time the issue ends, but I’m intrigued by Kyle’s use of the Blue Ring. He not only heals Guy after his exposure to the Red ring, but he also seems to expunge all of the other wavelengths from his allies including his own Blue Ring. I can’t imagine it’s all going to be that simple.

KevinMLD: I hope you’re right. I hate when things are too simple.

PTB: Krona seems unfazed by the freeing of the Green Lantern Corps and happy to have the Earthborn Green Lanterns together in the same place to continue his plan to make them the new Guardians. After the way the entity infused set of current Guardians dealt with Hal and Guy, does the assembled Corps pose a threat?

KevinMLD: Krona has never been this large of a threat before. He was most recently a villain in the boring Trinity series. So this is really a reinvention of the character in some ways.

PTB: Obviously, the Green Lamterns will find a way to overcome as we head into the conclusion of War of the Green Lanterns in Green Lantern #67. I just wonder what sacrifices they’ll have to make.

KevinMLD: As I mentioned before, I’m rooting for them to all become Guardians and for Abin Sur to make it out of Flashpoint as the Green Lantern of Sector 2814. Why? Because we’ve learned he’s possibly nefariously tied to the Indigo Tribe and I think fun could result from such a massive shift in the status quo.

Besides we know everything in comics is temporary and will only last until they decide to revert things back to the Super Friends status quo, so what is there to get worked up about? So there’s four less Green Lanterns? It’s just numbers. Who cares about numbers, be it 900 or 1? Numbers can always be reinstated at a later date…

Wait. What was I talking about again?

PTB: I also love the way Krona has muzzled Parallax ready to unleash him when the time is right. I still think Ganthet is going to be possessed by Parallax at some point and don’t have a lot of faith that the Guardians will survive this. Although if they do in their possessed forms I think it could make for some good stories.

Follow all of our War of the Green Lanterns posts:
Green Lantern Corps #60 (Part Eight) / Green Lantern #67 (Part Ten)