Green Lantern Corps #14

"Nothing Man"

Credits:

Peter J. Tomasi Story and Words
Fernando Pasarin Penciller
Scott Hanna Inker
Gabe Eltaeb Colorist
Dave Sharpe Letterer
Wil Moss Associate Editor
Matt Idelson Editor

The cover is by Scott Clark and Peter Steigerwald. It is a pretty gripping and exciting image that gives you a good idea of what happens in the book. I'm also glad there isn't any extra text (a rarity these days) that might say something dumb like "Guy Gardner's Last Stand!" At first I thought the black-and-white version had too much black, but now it's grown on me. Very solid cover.

The story starts near Saturn, where Guy Gardner is leading a group of Green Lanterns in a fight against the Third Army.

However, the zombie-soldiers prove too powerful for the Lanterns and are able to penetrate their shields, rip off their rings (usually by ripping off their finger or entire hand) and convert them into more Third Army soldiers. Soon, Gardner is the only one left. He makes a hasty retreat back to Earth and takes his family to the Justice League Watchtower and leaves them in the care of Cyborg and the Flash.

And ... that's all we see of the Flash in this issue. There a couple of other story lines going on here that I don't fully understand and don't directly involve the Flash, but it does seem like a couple of Lanterns were able to start unraveling the Guardians' plot. However, this issue ends with Gardner resigning from the Corps at the behest of the Guardians.

The Good:

I don't think anything really stood out as particularly amazing for me. The art was satisfactory and the story was OK, but there was a lot of stuff going on that confused me. Unlike Geoff Johns' writing on Green Lantern, Tomasi's writing pushes me farther away from the Green Lantern mythology, reminding me of how much I don't know. For Green Lantern fans, this is probably a great issue, but for Flash fans like me ... well, not so much.

The Bad:

Basically no Flash. Yes, he is physically there, and he even does say something, but it's only in one panel and we don't get to see his face. I know Tomasi had a lot to do in this issue and space is limited, but I think he missed out on a great opportunity here by not having the Flash interact directly with Guy Gardner, especially after the Flash just barely wish he was dead. Alas!

Final score: 4 out of 10

Next time: Let's quickly review Barry Allen's life from the past couple of months. While he was fighting Captain Cold, Iris West and three others got sucked into the Speed Force. Flash went there to save them, but instead found Turbine. He eventually escaped the Speed Force, but wound up in Gorilla City. Meanwhile, everybody assumes Barry Allen is dead and they even hold a service for him. He finally escapes from Gorilla Grodd and then saves his girlfriend Patty Spivot from the Weather Wizard. Turns out, Patty blames the Flash for Barry's death, so he decides to keep Barry dead for her sake. Until he decides what to do, he goes on a couple of adventures with the Justice League, taking down David Graves, the Cheetah and briefly encountering the new Green Lantern, Simon Baz. Now that that's all done with, it's finally time for Barry to return to the Gem Cities and begin his new life.