GREEN LANTERN CORPS: RING QUEST (DC)
Written by Peter Tomasi, drawn by Patrick Gleason & Carlos Magno
Collects Green Lantern Corps #19, 20, 23-26
Usually skipping issues in a trade paperback is a pet peeve of mine, but I think (much as I hate to admit it) that it works pretty well for this collection. See, issues #21 and 22 tell the story of Boodika after she becomes an Alpha Lantern, something I’ll cover in the next Books Of Oa. If memory serves, those two issues aren’t so great and definitely don’t fit into the larger story going on here, though I do hope they get collected at some point in some form. One other quick bit of housekeeping to mention is that the version of GLC #19 collected in this volume is the full issue unlike the edited excerpt you can find in Sinestro Corps War Volume 2. I assume they included what they did in that volume because it all had to do with the GLs dealing with the aftermath of the war while the bits they didn’t are all moving on type moments, like Guy meeting up with the newly undead Ice (his former girlfriend who died a while back).

Okay, so as I mentioned, this book picks up right after Sinestro Corps War which I reviewed yesterday. Also, as I mentioned, the first issue in this collection deals with how the different GLs deal with the end of the war/surviving. Kyle and Guy aren’t really sure what to do with themselves on Earth, Soranik helps wounded GLs, Kilowog heads to Oa for a dinner with his family, Iolande tries to balance being a queen with being a GL and, the best moment to me, Vath Sarn sits in a bar making constructs of every dead Lantern and taking a drink for him. I’m really growing to like that character and his rough soldier ways. Anyway, Kyle and Guy soon decided to move to Oa where they’ll open a new Warriors (the bar/restaurant Guy opened in Guy Gardner: Warrior which got destroyed in Rebirth).

All the good fun times come to an end pretty quickly when Kyle, Guy, Soranik, Stel, Iolande, Vath, Arisia, Sodam and Bzzt get tasked by the Guardians to track down Sinestro Corps rings in the Vega system which used to be off limits, but things are changing in the universe. As it happens, Mongul (Mongul Jr., to be exact) got his hands on a yellow ring in a manner pretty much like Hal got his from Abin Sur. Mongul’s been killing any nearby Yellow Lanterns who don’t want to follow him except a two-headed psycho called Duel who becomes his first lantern. Then, Mongul heads to the home planet of the Black Mercy which eventually attracts all the other GLs on the mission. There’s lots of craziness I don’t want to spoil and we get the history of both Mongul (quite concise) and the Black Mercy (including its involvement in No Fear). During all this the Guardians, including the one who got jacked up by the Anti-Monitor in SCW and who will soon be going by Scar, notice that the Pink Lanterns are starting to spread their light over the galaxy. It’s interesting, even though Mercy winds up trying on both sets of green and yellow bling at the end of the issue, she seems more apt to join either the Pink or Blue Lanterns. Her original intent was to help people by easing their pain, which could be considered an act of love, but she also gave hope. I wonder if she’ll come back eventually.

I kind of love seeing people try to explain old Alan Moore stories. I’m sure he never cared too much where the Mercies or Mongul came from, he just wanted to make up some characters and elements in order to tell the story (of course, I could be completely wrong on that one). Anyway, I think it’s interesting that, when Dave Gibbons wrote this book, it felt more like a cop show popping in and out of different cases worked on by different officers, but when Tomasi took over, everyone’s thrown together and treated more like a traditional superhero team. I still really liked this book and had fun with them throwing down with Mongul (he’s one of the toughest villains around). Another element I appreciate is that, at the end of SCW, the yellow rings didn’t just go away. Just like with WWII, there’s still Nazis running around being evil and they need to be rounded up. That’s kind of what GLC did for a while between big giant events. Fun stuff.