Emerald Warriors Picks Up the Pace
After what feels like a long build-up, things finally heat up with the Emerald Warriors as we are shown how it all fits into the larger Green Lantern epic and Guy Gardner faces off against Zardor.
Undeniably, Pete Tomasi writes a great Guy Gardner. He is so in tune with the character, and that really shines through with Guy's dialogue. This is what the issue works so well. Kilowog and Arisa, two characters Tomasi does not write so well, sit the bulk of this issue out. There is no cliched dramatics from Kilowog or one-note obsession with Sodam Yat from Arisia, which is something that has really dragged previous issues of this series down.
This issue gives us a much clearer picture of how things fit together, including how Sodam Yat connects to everything. His subplot in the series no longer feels like some awkward tangent. What any of this has to do with Krona becomes far clearer as well with connections being implied to both Yat and Zardor.
Zardor continues to pale in comparison to other Green Lantern villains running around, but he is not a terrible one. His stockpile of telepaths is an interesting and unique concept. It's just that the character's design, his fiery sword and his whole thing with snakes leaves him seeming more at home in a supernatural story than a cosmic one like this.
Thanks to it focusing more on Guy Gardner and Sodam Yat, this is the strongest issue of the series so far. I would still rank it third amongst the Green Lantern titles, but if it keeps up to the level this issue is at, it will definitely not be a distant third.
