Green Lantern: New Guardians Annual #1

Summary

This annual deviates from the regular New Guardians storyline to give a side story of Carol, Saint Walker and Arkillo going on a mission for the Zamarons. Carol must track down the Lady Styx and ask for her assistance in the war against the Third Army. Aided by a renegade undercover Lantern, Carol and company infiltrate a planet which glorifies hunting criminals for entertainment in order to locate the Lady Styx.

Alternate Summary

Green_Tea_Light, the diehard Green Lantern fan, just got mugged off again.

What I liked

· The sort of stories I would like to see: My main complaint with Green Lantern New Guardians, under Bedard’s writing, is rushed and inconsistent (but at least it is fun). While I have much to say about what I didn’t like about this title – at least it was methodically planned and had a structure which I didn’t feel was going to come crashing down at any moment.

What I didn’t like

· Dialogue: The dialogue in this issue was stilted at best and incomprehensible at worst. Giffen has tried adding his own brand of alien slang which comes across as generic and stereotypically sci-fi. It made the “story” hard to follow and never bore any sense of emotion or humour (although I believe both were attempted).

· Poor Characterisation: I won’t complain too much about there being inconsistencies between the annual and the main series in terms of the already established characters. I mean, who does Arkillo like or dislike at this point? I can only fathom.

However the introduction of a new character, Jediah Caul (Threshold #1 hitting shelves next week) was the most unremarkable character to enter the Green Lantern universe in a long time. For a character to be likeable to the audience he or she must be somewhat relatable or at least understood. What we were given in this issue was a bland stereotype of the “renegade” with no likeable features and nothing remarkable about himself to latch onto.

Do you remember that early issue of Green Lantern Corps years back now, where Guy Gardner went on a mission with a black ops Lantern who had to give up his identity and loved ones to do his job. This bit part character managed to leave more of an impression and have more worth than Jediah Caul.

· Poor attention to detail: I may be nitpicking here, but I believe if you are to writing Green Lantern, you need to know the basic concepts. Therefore, when the ship teleports into “Sector 9001”, you have a right to be a little annoyed at the writing. To add insult to injury a character also comments how close they are to Zamaron (aka Sector 1416). It is simply bad research and begs the question of who is editing this thing.

· Boring: This issue was so dull. This was not helped by the drab colours this issue seemed to be drawn in; as Green Lantern issues should be bright and vibrant, it’s sort of key to the series. The story, which exciting in premise seemed to be a slog and by the end of the issue I was positively fatigued. An annual should be a side story, but it should also be worth the money and be in keeping with the universe it is set in. This issue was not either.

· This issue gave me a headache: True story.

· Was this just a glorified advert for Threshold #1 (hitting shelves next week)? Yes.

Verdict

I really want adventures in Green Lantern: New Guardians which are well paced and sturdily structured. Although I felt this issue was paced well (possibly due to the excess amount of pages it was given) it was for the most part drab, boring and even at point unintelligible. This in many ways felt less like a Green Lantern title than normal. Even if you are a massive Green Lantern fan, this issue can be put right on top of Red Lanterns in the pile of Green-Lantern-Stuff-Not-Worth-Buying

2/10