As is the case with "Green Lantern" and Geoff Johns, "Green Lantern Corps keeps its writer, Peter J. Tomasi, after the reboot. While the flagship title focuses on Hal Jordan, Lantern 2814.1, this book focuses on Lanterns 2814.2 and 2814.3, also known as the smug jock Guy Gardner and "the black Green Lantern," architect John Stewart. (Kyle Raynor, Lantern 2814.4, was instrumental in building up the Corps before the reboot but now appears as part of a mutli-colored honor corp in "New Guardians.")At the start of issue #1, both Guy and John are looking for earthly work; Guy is trying to get a job as a high school football coach, and John is struggling to sell plans for a new building with super-expensive added safety measures. Neither is successful, and the two lament at their next meeting that perhaps they were mistaken in not protecting their identities with masks as Hal and Kyle have. Meanwhile, lanterns in sector 2599 are being executed by a mysterious force unable to be contained by an Oan science cell. Soon, Guy and John are headed to the planet Nerro, where all life has been extinguished, the ocean-surfaced planet drained, and dead lanterns hung out as a warning, the fingers holding their power rings missing.
Additional lanterns are sent in to assist. The lanterns next head to the planet Xabas, where this time the natural resource being stripped is its trees. Isamot Kol, one of the more famous green lanterns who is not Sinestro or from Earth, is severely injured, losing all of his limbs, and a storm of soldiers who appear immune to the power of the green light attack. On Oa, Salaak assembles additional lanterns to assist in combating the ambush, while John discovers that the beings they are fighting match the lanterns in willpower, which is allowing them to withstand the lanterns' counter-attacks. John is among a group of lanterns captured, and Guy returns to Oa to figure out how to rescue them. In a surprising twist, Martian Manhunter arrives and tells Guy that these beings are called The Keepers, and they are headed to Oa to take over the central power battery.
Guy Gardner asks Kilowog to assemble a group of the toughest men in the Corps, who learn from Martian Manhunter that the Guardians nurtured a planet called Urak at the edge of the universe which, due to the planet's unusual core, allowed green lantern power sources stored there to send their powers to lanterns anywhere in the universe. The people of the planet, in exchange for protecting the batteries for the Guardians, had their world rebuilt by them and were provided for. The batteries, because of the planet's makeup, functioned like an energy crop, and when the Guardians suddenly removed the batteries from the Keepers' custody (presumably to set their plan to replace the lantern corps with a third army...see "Green Lantern"), their world began to die.
Knowing that they have to instill fear into the Keepers to get to them, Gardner and his crew attack the base where John is being kept. Inside, Lantern Kirrt is buckling under the pressure of their painful interrogation and John snaps his neck and kills his comrade in an attempt to defend the information the Keepers are looking for. Shortly thereafter, John Stewart and Vandor escape, but are immediately surrounded by Keepers. Fortunately, Guy's crew joins them at that moment, and the lanterns gain control by dropping a "fear bomb" made up of some yellow lanterns from their prison cells.
As John Stewart watches Lantern Morro, the Corps' cryptkeeper, perform burial rites on Kirrt, he is overcome with guilt and volunteers to escort Kirrt's body back to his home planet. Meanwhile, Gardner is reprimanded by the Guardians for using Sinestro Corps members as "weapons of mass destruction." In issue #8, we are introduced to the Alpha Corps, green lanterns who exhibit properties of the first army, the Manhunters, and "render justice without the distortion of emotion." Guy Gardner is once again summoned by the Guardians, but instead of being reprimanded again is complimented by the Guardians for his choice to bury the main yellow lantern power source. He is offerend a command position in the Corps. Later, in the Corps bar, the Alpha Lanterns arrive to arrest John for murder.
Furious, Guy goes to the Guardians demanding that the Alpha Lanterns release John Stewart, even though John has admitted that what happened did happen. The Guardians won't interfere, and after Guy leaves, they reveal that all of this is part of their plans. On trial, John questions why the Alpha Lanterns replay footage of his killing of Kirrt but do not show any of the torture they endured leading up to it, and Guy argues on his behalf. Still, John Stewart is found guilty and sentenced to death.
Kirrt's family is brought in so that John can apologize to them, and not long thereafter, a small group led by Guy breaks John from his cell on the day before he is to be executed, initiating a war with the Alpha Lanterns.
To me, "Green Lantern Corps" is a must for continued reading if for no other reason than to see the bigger picture of how Hal Jordan and Sinestro fit into a larger corps, a fact that I think last year's failed attempt at a film tried hard to account for and perhaps confused some who didn't know about this already. Naturally, I'm curious to know what happens next, especially to John Stewart, who has been convicted of killing one of his fellow Corps members. But I also think this book is significant because it's where a lot of the Corps mythology and history is going to be located, which makes understanding "Green Lantern" easier. The team of Tomasi and excellent artist Fernando Pasarin are drawing a book that looks and reads great, and while it's not my favorite thing I've read so far, it's by no means weak. Guy Gardner, in particular, is one of the great characters in the DCU, and while his inclusion in "Justice League International" is welcome, it's good to read his sarcastic dialogue in its natural environment, which is here.
"Green Lantern Corps" has a lot of potential. It's worth sticking around to see where it will go.
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