I have a new-found respect for Guy Gardner and for the Green Lantern Corps in general after finishing off this amazing book. After laying so much love on the previous issue, I went into this one with a little hesitation. Could it hold to what had already come, and could it surpass what I wanted from a book like this? The answer to that question is a resounding, yes! With Convergence – Green Lantern Corps #2, David Gallaher and Steve Ellis put the finishing touch to one of the best mini-series DC has put out all year.
This Green Lantern universe was pulled right out of the 80’s and not only does it look like it fits with the style of the time-period, but the writing gives us a wonderful blend that we normally don’t see in today’s modern comics. Green Lantern Corps #2 manages to be comedic, yet serious; action-packed, yet somber; introspective, yet outwardly powerful. The writers have crammed so much content in this single issue, in an easy to follow manner that it puts so many other longer books to shame.
The thing that has kept me away from most Green Lantern stories over the years is due to the one-dimensional nature of most of the Lanterns. Aside from Hal and the original Paralax storyline, and his 70’s era time with Green Arrow, he always felt pretty bland. The same thing could be said of most of the people that wielded a power-ring with respects to a lone wolf that never quite fit the mold. Also, after the whole women in refrigerators fiasco from years and years back, I just sort of ignored the Green Lantern world. Still, Guy Gardner was everything that I loved and identified with, especially in my teens. The perennial backup that was always passed over, always second best, and almost always being written as the cocky fool.
Everything that really makes Guy, Guy, is on display in this issue with Gallaher and Ellis really understanding the internal struggle that haunts him as a hero. This issue is more than just Gardner overcoming the demons of his past, –of which would have crippled any other hero– but about what really makes a Green Lantern something special beyond the ring. He is brash, arrogant, bull-headed, but more importantly he is scared. As we all know fear is biggest enemy of a Lantern, and listening to Guy’s internal monologue about how he deals with it throughout this issue is simply brilliant. As he Guy so eloquently puts it, “If life isn’t a title scary, you aren’t living it right.”
Guy starts this issue with nothing. No active power-ring, no special Guardian spirit powers, nothing that would even remotely give him any chance of survival against world ending odds. And with the entire deck stacked against him, Guy marches forward into the face of doom. Along the way he takes a bat to a magic dragons face, defeats Hercules in an arm wrestling match –using a real world trick that I learned myself from an old biker friend of mine–, and manages to save both lanterns by turning the worst moments of his life into the thing that saves the entire world. Without all the terrible things that happened to this universes Guy Gardner, the would would not have survived.
There is just something really special at the core of this run and I am so very happy to have stumbled upon it, especially when I’ve be so disinterested in this whole Convergence thing. Guy Gardner has finally taken his place among the Green Lantern elite with this book, and I can’t wait to see what the future may hold for the character. If you pick up one book this week this is the one you should get. In fact, pick this one up and grab issue #1 if you can still find it. Convergence – Green Lantern Corps #2 is a fantastic comic book and comes highly recommended.
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