Green Lantern Corps #43 Review

It's been a while since I've done one of these image & spoiler (well, more so than my usual casual spoilers) filled reviews, so, in a week where most comics failed to overly impress me, I decided to spotlight the one, true stand out of the week - Green Lantern Corps #43.

If you recall, the last issue caught everyone by surprise with the shocking death of Kyle Rayner. This issue is set to deal with the aftermath and is one we've all been waiting for ever since the cover, which features Guy Gardner becoming a Red Lantern on it, was first released. Want to see the carnage unfold? Want to find out what other shocking things Peter Tomasi and Patrick Gleason have in store for us? Hit the jump to find out!

GREEN LANTERN CORPS #43

Written by Peter Tomasi

Art by Pat Gleason

The issue picked up right where the last one left off - with Kyle Rayner lying cold and dead in a crater of the fallen Black Lanterns.  Apparently, those Black Lanterns were wiped out completely, rings and all, but there are still countless rings swarming about Oa and many Black Lanterns still causing havok, so it's not a clear cut win for Kyle's sacrifice.  The immediate threat of the giant Black Lantern construct, which was trying to destroy the power battery, was taken care of, but the Black Lanterns are still very much a threat.

Guy attempting to prevent Kyle Rayner's ring from proceeding to a new host.

What I loved about these opening pages was the emotion of the two closest people to Kyle - his best friend, Guy Gardner, and his girlfriend, Soranik Natu.  Guy goes through the first few stages of grief in the span of a few pages, from shock and denial, as pictured above with him attempting to prevent Kyle's ring from leaving to search for a new owner, straight on to the third stage - anger and rage:

Guy Gardner - Red Lantern

Patrick Gleason deserves all the credit here.  We literally knew this was coming for months, yet it's still a sight to behold and both shocking and stunning at the same time.  It's an amazing splashpage that is just the tip of the iceberg of an otherwise fantastic issue.  Just how badass is Guy Gardner while wielding both a green and red ring?  Those may be Christmas colours, but this is no holiday for the Black Lanterns...

Kryb gives Guy a hand dealing with his rage.

Or Sinestro Corpsmen, Kryb, for that matter.  After literally wiping out countless of the Black Lantern Corphans, the undead babies of Kryb assaulting Oa, Kryb attempts to stop Guy Gardner only to have her own arm ripped off and then shoved down her throat.  These images only show off a few of the crazier moments of Guy's rage induced rampage.  The entire first half of the issue is literally him tearing apart Black Lanterns.  He even goes on to beat many Black Lanterns to death with Kryb's corpse.  Hardcore is the only way to describe it.

By your powers combined - wait, wrong joke.

However, it is around this point that I'm a bit conflicted on how much I loved this issue.  Miri Riam had been accompanying Kryb on her search for the Corphans.  In the middle of all the chaos on Oa, Miri's ring detected "death attempting to extinguish eternal love", which was a reference to Kyle's dying and his and Soranik Natu's budding romance.  This prompted Miri to use her powers to, for lack of a better term, link Kyle's and Soranik's hearts together and this somehow magically brought him back to life.

Death is not permenant nor did I expect Kyle to stay dead.  However, killing and bringing him back to life in the span of two issues should be something that annoys me, but there was no hype to the death nor indication he'd be back so soon and both caught me off guard.  Magic power of the heart mumbo jumbo aside, it was also well written and led to...

Kyle's back - $%^& YEAH!

...a complete and total $%^& YEAH moment with the splashpage of him putting his ring back on and rejoining the corps.  I don't care who you are or how much you hate deaths and rebirths in comics - this was just one of those moments you can't help but smile and want to shout out how great it was.  Welcome back, Kyle.

Let the bodies hit the floor, let the bodies floor...

And with his return, he's sporting the badass attitude now.  "Oh, Guy's a Red Lantern?  Meh, no biggie.  I'll fix that."  I half expected him to shout, "To me, my corps." in a Cyclops, "To me, my X-Men", homage.  Oh, and there's Guy using Kryb, arm still in mouth and all, as his own personal beat stick.  How can one panel be this awesome?

weeklycrisis RT @mogo saved the entire universe today.  otherwise uneventful. will update later if not busy.

And to cap off a completely epic issue, the Green Lantern Corps, still heavily outmanned and outgunned by the Black Lanterns, gets reinforcements in a the form of Mogo, the sentient planet who hasn't been seen since he and Ranx went at it back in the Sinestro Corps War.  My theories on how badass next issue will be?  Mogo takes the Central Power Battery into his core, destroys the entire planet and then goes on to kick the crap out of the Black Lantern's planet, Xanshi, which we saw created a while back when John Stewert was written out of this storyline.  Yes, you know shit just got real when Mogo's socializing.  Hell, I can't wait for his Twitter feed to start updating. 

Verdict - Must Read.  These last two issues of Green Lantern Corps have turned the Blackest Night event on its ear and I'm willing to call these "tie-ins" the main event.  Must read for everyone, Green Lantern fan or not.

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