Don'T Tell Me That's Supposed To Be the Big Fight
The fight between Guy Gardner and Hal Jordan that Emerald Warriors has been hyping from day one explodes here, and does it live up to that hype? No, it really does not. It is a solid enough third chapter of War of the Green Lanterns, but the mind control premise and some poor dialogue from Peter Tomasi hold this issue down.
As far as plot progress goes, this issue is really just Guy and Hal coming together and comparing notes with their fight serving as an action piece to pad the issue out. It is similar to the latest issue of Green Lantern Corps with Kyle Rayner and John Stewart's fight. Guy's distrust of Hal over Parallax and Hal's distrust of Guy's hot-headed nature are both natural motivations for the two characters.
That similarity to Kyle and John's fight is what makes this one rather disappointing. If this is really the big throwdown between Guy and Hal that this series has been foreshadowing the whole time, the fact that it is just another mind controlled fight between two Green Lanterns is disappointing. There is nothing really epic about it. In fact, the Kyle and John fight was better. It was much fiercer and more personal, and there was the sense that those two said things that they cannot take back. This slugfest between Guy and Hal reads more like a simple bar brawl where the two guys could buy each other drinks and laugh about it afterward. There is no sense that this fight has any impact on their friendship.
The other problem with this issue is that there is so much exposition in the dialogue that it is really terrible, and the exposition is mostly all stuff we already know. There is the slim chance that readers of this series are not readers of the other Green Lanterns and do not know everything that is going on, but the point is not that the exposition exists. It is that Tomasi does not handle the exposition very well. The worst of it comes during the fight when Guy and Hal realize it is their rings influencing them. They are still at each other's throats but talk like they have control of themselves again. It is a total clash of dialogue and what we see on the page. It is just clunky and over-written dialogue.
We do get a much needed explanation in this issue about why Parallax's influence can suddenly control the entire Green Lantern Corps. It is a little vague about how it actually works, but it does at least give a satisfying reason for it.
Fernando Pasarin does a good job on the art and has some fun drawing a huge group of Green Lanterns early on in this issue. He also handles the fight between Guy and Hal pretty well.
Not living up to the hype does not make this a bad issue, but Tomasi over-writing most of the dialogue does keep it from being a great one. He really does not sell the big fight as anything special or notable. This issue does not do a whole lot to progress the plot either, but that is forgivable since the major story moments most likely come from the Geoff Johns written series. It does what it needs to do, showing the yellow impurity hitting Guy's corner of the GLC and bringing him and Hal together. Though not epic, the action is entertaining as is Guy's usual antagonistic behavior. This may be the weakest issue of War of the Green Lanterns so far, but it is definitely not without its entertainment value.
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