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Green Lantern: New Guardians Annual #2 – Review

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By: Justin Jordan (writer); Stephen Segovia, Edgar Salazar, and Jed Dougherty (pencils); Stephen Segovia, Jason Paz, Jason Gorder, and Jed Dougherty (inks); Andrew Dalhouse and Hi-Fi (colors)

The Story: Kyle finds himself drawn back to Earth when a mysterious artist starts trying to ‘put things right’.

The Review: Green Lantern: New Guardians Annual #2 gets off to a strange start, and I mean strange. One of the major themes of the issue is the feeling that things are just wrong and, while it never gets to quite that point, the early pages of this issue summon up some of that feeling, for better or worse.

The major problem with this issue is that it’s a little hard to get your feet. The transition from the last issue of the series to this story is extremely abrupt and Justin Jordan’s absolute focus on the here and now over the first nine pages doesn’t help at all.

It seems as though Jordan’s script is fighting his page limit a bit. Despite the extra storytelling power of an additional sixteen pages, things are kind of rushed. Part of that is a lack of economy that had been very much present in Jordan’s previous New Guardians work, but it would be dishonest to think that the scope of the story wasn’t a large factor in it. So even after the opening pages on Earth, Kyle is Deus ex Machina’d back to Earth and finds himself at an extremely important location to the torchbearer Lantern.

Though we have to play an unnecessary round of the pronoun game before Kyle can come face to face with our antagonist, things pick up in a big way once we land in Arizona. Jordan does an impressive job of portraying the psychic effects of the battlefield upon Kyle, something that frequently fails to connect. There’s also some solid battle dialogue. This conflict could have been completely by the numbers, but there’s an honesty in how Kyle and his doppelgänger interact that saves the issue from that fate.

While the way that negotiations break down is a little hard to believe, the villain of the piece is wonderfully realized. Particularly as someone with a lot of experience with the dangers of that ‘not right’ feeling, the conflict is well grounded and highlights the best and worst of Kyle, of art, and probably of many of us. There were even a couple of moments where the way our villain rebukes and is rebuked brought to mind stories where the world is turned against a protagonist. That’s a powerful invocation in this scenario and one that helps the foggy surreal quality of the issue.

I’m not sure what to think about the handling of Carol Ferris in this issue. On one hand she’s clearly a Lantern in her own right and her thoughts about Hal are particularly interesting, but I have trouble believing that Carol would be so flippant about Ferris Air. I also have to say that I’m disappointed in where the annual leaves Carol and Kyle.

It’s a very interesting story, one that is inextricably tied to the here and now of the New 52 but, nonetheless, effectively serves as a reboot of a classic Kyle Rayner yarn. In fact, the issue shows a lot of what’s right and what’s wrong with the New 52 some two and half years later. It’s a fantastic look at Kyle, one that brings back a little more of his 1990s glory days and revitalizes a classic part of his mythos, but elements like Kyle’s relationship with his father are far too unclear in this new world and the story’s inability to clarify this relationship is indicative of many of its problems.

Stephen Segovia handles the vast majority of the book’s pencils, but it’s a somewhat uneven job. While I suppose that it’s better not to have whole pages where your weaknesses show, the way that Segovia’s compositions stumble or drift into the uncanny valley at seemingly random intervals highlights his limitations, something no artist wants to happen.

Indeed, given the rather generous layouts that Jordan has scripted, the panels are just a bit too cluttered. It’s not a serious impediment to reading the issue – they just lack flow – but I know that I should be saying that the arrangements aren’t economical enough, and with this level of clarity, I can’t.

That said, Segovia is a really good choice for the issue. The confident realism of his style brings out the strangeness of any deviations from that form, and trust me that there are crucial deviations. Segovia does a great job of bringing out the eeriness of Jordan’s script and the juxtaposition of the adult and the childish. In fact, the art of the issue depends deeply on the same feeling of wrongness that motivates so much of the story.

The final pages of the story are penciled by Edgar Salazar and Jed Dougherty, who both play their parts well but don’t get the chance to fully assert their unique artistic voice. Salazar is probably the most conservative of the pencilers, providing some lovely compositions that use fairly flat, simplified versions of the characters. He also has a couple of chances to draw some really lovely faces when the panel focuses on them, but it would have been nice to see this more consistently. Our villain is certainly his preferred subject.

Dougherty’s lines look very different from the others’. I’d actually be quite interested to see what he could do with some space to stretch his wings, as the final panel of the book and his sharp, cartoony rendition of the Source Wall are quite lovely. Still, when you’re only drawing a couple of pages, everything counts and the major panel of the last page, especially the way he draws Carol’s body, is a serious mark against him.

The Conclusion: Justin Jordan amps up the creepiness, calls back some beloved elements of Kyle’s past, and introduces some fascinating new twists in the story. A rough start and rushed presentation hurt this annual, but the atmosphere is top-notch.

The artists each do solid jobs but there’s a lack of consistency in their work. Nonetheless that means that there are high notes scattered throughout.

Green Lantern: New Guardians Annual #2 has some definite issues, but the story itself is engaging, the characters lively, and the tone strong. Though it lacks the finesse of Jordan’s finest work, it’s an enjoyable addition to Kyle Rayner’s story and one that won’t fail to excite fans of the series.

Grade: B-

-Noah Sharma


Filed under: DC Comics Tagged: Andrew Dalhouse, Carol Ferris, Edgar Salazar, Ferris Air, Green Lantern New Guardians, Green Lanterns New Guardians Annual 2, Hi-Fi, Jason Gorder, Jason Paz, Jed Dougherty, Justin Jordan, Oblivion, Stephen Segovia, White Lantern

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