The Good
It's time for a cross-over of epic proportions! I'm not a regular Blue Beetle reader, but I am aware of what's going on in the book, overall. I loved seeing the Reach make their way into this series. It makes sense and does not feel forced. It's a bit weird to see the Reach at first, but by the end of the issue, you quickly realize they are a force to be reckoned with and they will not go down easily.
There's more than one way to kill of a Blue Lantern, which we find out in this issue. One new element I really liked was that is a Blue Lantern loses all hope, they lose their ring. Of course, if the lantern is flying, they'll fall and die, like we see in this issue. It's cool to see some new rules to the ring here, which this book has been great at building upon.
There is a great feeling of hopelessness in this issue as the Reach invades. This issue mainly focuses on these two battling each other, and we get to see the full extent of how powerful these two teams truly are. I like the fact the focus here is just on this battle. Sure, I'd like to see more from the other corps, but spending more time with the Blue Lanterns leads to a better understanding of the inner workings of the corps and makes them more than another group with a colored ring on. Although this series contains a lot of different teams working together, it's done a great job at developing these teams individually.
Great page and a half plash as the Reach invades by Tyler Kirkham. While Tony Bedard's stories and writing have been top notch, Kirkham has done a great job on this series and should be commended as well. The opening pages alone are so great to look at and so full of detail. He's highly under-rated as an artist.
The Bad
Two different art teams on this book. It's midly distracting, and if Kirkham was on the whole issue, it would have flowed so well. Tomas Giorello takes over for 3 pages, two of which deal with the Star Sapphires, and his art is solid, but you can tell there is a change.
The Verdict
Green Lantern: New Guardians does what many books fail to do well, take over another writer's mythos and work with it perfectly while continuing to build onto it. Bedard and Kirkham are a great team and I love what they're doing with this book. There's the start to a great story line as the Reach and the Blue Lantern Corps go at it here and I love how powerful the Reach truly are. This is the start to a great cross-over.
The only problem I had with this issue was that there were two different art teams on this issue. Not a big deal, but it was noticeable.
Overall, I highly recommend this series. It's a great companion piece to the Green Lantern universe.