Green Lantern Corps: Peter J. Tomasi, Fernando Pasarin, Scott Hanna, Gabe Eltaeb, Dave Sharpe

Alpha Lanterns: “John Stewart, you are under arrest for murder!”

John: “But he was gonna send the Keepers to destroy Oa and the Guardians.”

Alpha Lanterns: “…Oh, well…we forgot that part…”

John: “Yeah, I was doing my duty as a GL to protect our home.”

Alpha Lanterns: “I suppose that is more important than one Lantern’s life…”

And then John was free to go! YAY!

…Well, that’s how it SHOULD have gone down! Instead, John does basically say those things, but the Alphas don’t listen and force a trial upon our stoic GL. Guy has some really excellent character moments in defending John to basically anyone who’ll listen. The Guardians love how this is all fitting into their skeezy little plan. And here I am thinking, “REMEMBER WHEN ALL THIS WAS SIMPLER?!”

I admit, I miss the days when our heroes were all fighting external forces, and not each other. Used to be the majority of comics that were released were about fighting an enemy, either alone or on a team. It was a rarity, a special occasion that people excitedly talked about when something happened BETWEEN heroes and they started fighting.

Now it’s flip-flopped. And I’m sitting here shrugging and hoping things improve.

I’m not interested in my favorite heroes fighting each other. I don’t find myself sitting here going, “What would happen if all the Teen Titans fought each other?” I just don’t care! I don’t wanna see that! I wanna see my heroes working together! Being an awesome team! A focused weapon that totally rocks!

Well nobody in the New 52 seems to understand that. So John Stewart’s on trial for Kirrt’s murder. It’s so open-and-shut it’s ridiculous, but the spectacle is made and we’re given pretty much the cliche, predictable ending…but it’s still intriguing. And here’s why: This is pretty much all leading up to the whole Third Army deal - and apparently a new GL from Earth. So what does that mean for John?

Surely they won’t kill him. But will he become a refugee? An outlaw? Will they fight back and defeat all the Alpha Lanterns? Hard to say, and that’s the exciting part. I literally have no idea what happens next.

Still digging Pasarin’s art here. There’s lots of detail in his work that really adds depth to the panels. I especially like how the Alpha Lanterns lift their face shields, removing all possible links to their former, biological selves, when they announce their sentence of John. It’s just…creepy. In an “I’ve-lost-control-of-my-robot” way.

Green Lantern Corps #9, the verdict: Guy is really the one who shines in this issue. Poor John is merely left to protest his - not innocence, but justification. Guy, I’ve decided, is my favorite Green Lantern. John is kind of a plot device character at this point, but I’m hoping he’s going to have a bigger role in future issues. He really was in the right for what he did, but apparently Alpha Lanterns are dicks. Hence everything in this issue. I can’t help but think the Guardians are just sitting back, sipping champagne, and eating this all up. After all, Palpatine’s behind it all!!

(Photo Source: Science Fiction)