Green Lantern: Emerald Warriors (DC)
Written by Peter J. Tomasi, drawn by Fernando Pasarin
Collects Green Lantern: Emerald Warriors #1-7

After reading every post-Rebirth Green Lantern comic culminating in Blackest Night, I needed a bit of a Green Lantern break. Then, a week or two back I realized I had most of the books that followed and decided to give them a read. I should say that I only read a few random Brightest Day issues and have very little idea of what happened in that book, but from what I can tell by the Green Lantern, Green Lantern Corps and Green Lantern: Emerald Warriors issues I read, it doesn’t really matter all that much. I should also say that I read these collections a bit out of order. It would have been best to read GL: Brightest Day first and then Emerald Warriors and the GLC books, but it’s not that big of a deal, I’ll explain as I go.

The reason I chose to read Emerald Warriors first is because I really enjoyed Tomasi’s run on GLC and because I’m a big Guy Gardner fan, so it seemed like a natural fit. Basically, Guy hears about some trouble in the unknown sectors which are pretty much what they sound like, areas not patrolled by GLs. He asks the Guardians about exploring these areas and they agree, deciding to send Kilowog and Arisia along as well. Meanwhile, Sodam Yat makes something of a come back as a kind of religious leader.

While the series seemed a little like a fresh start that still dealt with Tomasi’s elements from his GLC run that would stand on its own, giving some fan favorite GLs the spotlight, it turned out to be a big lead into War of the Green Lanterns which I have yet to read. See, Guy was actually working on prophecy that he saw and shared with Ganthet and Atrocitus. The three decided to work together in secret and this formed the backbone of all three GL books. The main threat is an alien named Zardor who has enslaved an army of psychics to help cloud the minds of Green Lanterns into thinking they’re fighting evil when they’re really fighting for him.

Normally I’d throw in a bit here about how I wish the whole series was collected in one volume, but as the few remaining issues of EW were part of the larger War of the GL storyline, it makes more sense for them to be collected in that order. This book isn’t really satisfying on its own, but it is a fun step towards the next big, huge GL story. I probably would have preferred letting each book do it’s own thing after Blackest Night, but what I’ve read of the in-between stuff, War is probably worth the build up. I hope.