Green Lantern Corps: Peter J. Tomasi, Cafu, Scott Hanna, Gabe Eltaeb, Dave Sharpe, Ivan Reis, Oclair Albert, Rod Reis

Wow, I really wasn’t thinking I would ever get invested in this Third Army stuff DC’s pulling on us. But here we go with my favorite of the “Green Lantern” books, making me care, making me fear for my favorites of the GLs. The Third Army creatures make a hell of an attempt at becoming a legitimate threat to everything we know in this issue, and they only appear at the beginning and end of the issue. That’s power, my friends.

The issue starts with two major hits…two huge blows that really stack the cards against our plucky hero, Guy Gardner. First, the Third Army dudes attack space miners, assimilating everyone quite gruesomely…and then somebody on Oa goes into the deep sub Science Cells, where the most dangerous of dangerous enemies are kept, and breaks out Xar. Now, if you’re unfamiliar with Xar then you probably didn’t read the Zero Issue…this was a dude that Guy Gardner takes down at the very beginning of his GL career, before he even has his badge. And, looking at the walls of Xar’s cell, he’s never forgotten that.

We then go to the upper parts of Oa to find the Guardians commend Guy, and promote him to the new rank of Lantern Sentinel. This is, of course, all a dog-and-pony show because we know the Guardians have put into place the dismantling of their Corps. I do like, however, that Guy is getting this kind of recognition, regardless of whether the smurfs are being murderous douchebags while doing it.

Next, Guy takes a group of GLs on a diplomatic mission to Alderaan Ronos to oversee the journey of peace ambassadors to Oa in order to negotiate a cease-fire on their war-torn planet. John is called before the Guardians to let him know that pieces of the GL planet, Mogo, are traveling through space to some unknown point of origin…and the Guardians believe he is re-assembling himself. I actually love this news…it’s awesome. The blue dudes send John on a lone mission to find where Mogo is, possibly, rebuilding. I can definitely see this tactic putting John easily into harm’s way.

Meanwhile, Guy gets word that Xar’s escaped the Science Cells, and he heads to Earth to keep the alien from hurting his family out of revenge. The Guardians are livid, and order Guy to stay with the ambassadors…but they predicted he would fly away, and have arranged for a special someone to intercept the ambassadors instead. Tricky little f*$&s.

As Guy, Vandor, and a smaller group of GLs head to Earth, they are ambushed by the Third Army posse. Someone gets torn to pieces and assimilated. And it’s CRAZY, and very gruesome. I do like how Tomasi and Cafu (guest pencilling for Gleason) aren’t afraid to show these horrors of war - throughout the entire series, people have been getting hacked up, murdered, and maimed, with nothing held back. This team fearlessly shows the dangers of being a space cop.

This scene in particular is…pretty horrific.

Speaking of Cafu, nice job on the guest pencils. He does a really great job of emulating Gleason’s style that I honestly didn’t notice the difference, shame on me. Everything’s pretty much the same. The colors are rich, as usual, courtesy of Gabe, and once again there’s not “too much” green.

Green Lantern Corps #13, the verdict: I loved it. The Third Army actually felt menacing, and extremely dangerous. Their ferocity and strength is displayed very plainly, supplying the issue with very strong bookends. Seeing what happened to the character at the end of this ish made me really fear for my favorite GL characters for the first time. I honestly don’t expect Tomasi to kill off John or Guy, especially so early in the series’ life, but there are other GLs around them that could very easily kick the bucket, and no me gusta. I like that this book remains my favorite of the “Green Lantern” titles, because it shows consistency in the creative team in terms of pumping out great work month after month. Year 2 of this one is starting off just right, I feel, and I can’t wait to see what’s coming next.

(Photo Source: Digital Daily Fix)