GREEN LANTERN CORPS #0
GREEN LANTERN CORPS #0 Review by Jamie Dunst
Peter J. Tomasi: Writer; Fernando Pasarin: Penciler; Scott Hana & Marc Deering: Inks; Gabe Eltaeb: Colorist; Dave Sharpe: Letterer; Pasarin, Hanna & Eltaeb: Cover
The issue begins in the past where we see a bunch of recruits fighting a very tough opponent name Xar. Among those recruits is a young Guy Gardner. As the recruits are all killed and Guy is left at the mercy of Xar, we flashback to three months earlier as Guy arrives late for celebrate his younger sister Gloria become a cop. When he arrives to join his older brother Gerard and Gerard’s partner Marcus. Papa Gardner on the other hand is not pleased to see Guy who congratulates his youngest and then leaves. Gloria gets Marcus to take a picture of her and her two brothers before she goes off to celebrate with her class. Gerard gives Guy two tickets to see the Orioles tonight and see if Guy and their dad can try and make up.
When Guy comes to his dad’s house, he’s not very pleased to see him. They begin to argue about how Guy’s dad only seemed to have room in his heart for his siblings and the dad comes back saying how the Gardner family have been cops in the town of Baltimore since 1860 and that a supposed screw up on Guy’s part that got innocent people killed and Guy kicked off the force tainted that. They continue to argue and it looks like nobody is going to budge until daddy Gardner passes out from too much scotch and Guy hears over the radio that Gerard and Marcus are in trouble. Marcus and Gerard are over-powered by a gang and both are injured. Before the gang can finish them off though, Guy comes riding in on his motorcycle and runs the lot of them over. Guy then uses a tire iron to knock a few of the gang members out and he gets Gerard and Marcus into their car and drive away as Guy continues to shoot at the gang members. Marcus passes away during the drive but suddenly a green ring lands on Guys finger inducting him to the Green Lantern Corps. Guy then gets Marcus and Gerard to the hospital a blink of an eye.
The next morning, we see Guy visits his brother. Gloria is also there. They talk about all of the criminals that Guy put away the previous night and Guy declares that he’ll be the best Green Lantern around. We then go back to the battle between rookie Lantern Gardner and Xar, Guy somehow gets the upper hand and defeats Xar. On Oa, Guy gloats a bit in front of Xar who is now in a Guardian jail. Kilowog states to Guy that because of his recent actions, he’s earned his Green Lantern symbol and is inducted into the Green Lantern Corps. Its then that Guy meets his Hal Jordan who Guy seems to like to call Harold. They banter a bit before Kilowog offers to buy them both drinks.
Overall a very good issue. The art was fantastic as always but it’s the origin story of Guy that really had me enthralled. This is a rather different origin story than what we’re used to and I really liked it. Having Guy in a family of cops is an interesting choice and I love how it seems everyone in that family has the double “G” to their names. The beef between Guy and his father was very interesting and realistic and it’s one of those things that I now want to see more of Guy’s family in the book. Loved the issue and I can’t wait for the Third Army arc to begin.
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