Review:
The best super-teams bring together characters with a range of powers and personalities. They bond as a team, learning each other's strengths and weaknesses and how best to deploy them in their battles.
The New 52 era Green Lantern: New Guardians team consists of one representative of each of the seven different Corps. As such, there is a sameness to their powers - rechargeable power rings able to manipulate light at the bidding of its wearer. And their personalities, while distinct (and paired visually to their physical characteristics too), are tied to the emotion driving their power rings. Atrocitus's rage bubbles over on a hair-trigger; Carol Ferris's love drives her decisions, including giving her a willingness to manipulate others when it benefits her passion. And so on.
With this foundational sameness, writer Tony Bedard needs to take extra care to distinguish the nuances in this team. He does not always succeed in the larger group settings, but in the smaller scenes where two or three are gathered, these emotions and motivations do shine through. The goading of Atrocitus, the raw self-centeredness of Larfleeze, and more do peek through at appropriate moments.
Green Lantern Kyle Rayner visits each in turn as he seeks their guidance in his quest to master all the colors of the emotional spectrum.Anyone who has struggled with mastering any one of their own emotions will marvel at how quickly he masters most, with only one or two stretching more than a few pages. Yet he is under immense pressuere to succeed. Can he master them all in time to stop the end-of-life plans of the Guardians of the Universe?
As impressive as is the combined might of the seven Corps, as powerful as Kyle Rayner becomes once he achieves mastery and becomes the White Lantern, they still need the assist of a back-from-the-dead Black Lantern Hal Jordan to defeat Varthoom the First Lantern and the Guardians themselves.
Lead artist credit in this thick 9-chapter volume goes to Aaron Kuder, although he only drew half the book. Nearly two dozen other artists finished the rest, which leads to a loud and stylistically erratic visual experience. Where this works best is in the series of manipulations of time and emotional experiences that the First Lantern puts each member of this team through.
The cover work is amazing! Each cover is included at the start of the chapters in this volume, and they are filled with raw, intense emotion, so visually striking!
The final chapter of this story feels very much like an end, with moving visits around the team to wrap up their final fate after the cosmic battle. It does give a satisfying conclusion to this otherwise jumpy and chaotic collection.
Description:
Tying into the latest Green Lantern event masterminded by comics' hottest writer Geoff Johns, Kyle Rayner and his fellow Ringer bearers must join forces to beat back "The Third Army" and survive "The Wrath of the First Lantern!" Green Lantern Kyle Rayner must master the emotional spectrum itself in order to stand a chance against the Third Army. But even then, a more dangerous threat lurks in the shadows--The First Lantern!
Collects: GREEN LANTERN: NEW GUARDIANS #0, 13-20
Authors: Tony Bedard
Artists: Aaron Kuder and more than 20 others
Published By: DC Comics
Published When: Feb. 4, 2014
Parental Rating: Teen
ISBN: 978-1401244064
Pages: 288 pages
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