By: Tony Bedard (writer), Daniel HDR (penciller), Keith Champagne (inker), Nei Ruffino (colorist)
The Story: I don’t care where this gig leads, but I’m keeping the ring.
The Review: In the course of a splashy, eventful storyline, writers will throw in every twist in the book to keep up the momentum, and then neglect to deal with the consequences when it’s all over. So commendations are in order as Bedard gives us a chance to check out the fates of all those temp recruits Mogo hired at the height of War of the Green Lanterns, what could’ve easily turned into one of those troubling questions that hit you a couple months after the fact.
Allow me a moment to cock my eyebrow at the notion that almost all the “recruits” would be so willing to give up their rings, except for the proactive Qurina. You can understand why the injured folk would be raring to let their green outfits go, but surely there has to be a good handful of aliens who’d like to hold on to their new bling for noble or unscrupulous purposes.
That little wrinkle aside, Bedard writes a fairly credible guest protagonist in Qurina, a lady cop who sees her membership to the GLC as a major expansion of her jurisdiction and peacekeeping abilities. Her respectable background makes it easy for us to sympathize with her reluctance to let go of her Lantern status—too easy in some ways, since at no point do you ever feel like she’s somehow less qualified than the other random aliens you’ve seen chosen for Lanternhood.
Qurina probably has a more intuitive sense for her duties as a Corpsman than most, explaining the slightly artificial obstacles Bedard places into her first mission. Disarming the warring Tog and Vorrinians, after all, seems a very reasonable first step, regardless of whether diplomacy or coercion comes afterwards. The Vorrinians’ decision to escalate the conflict in response seems less Qurina’s mistake and more their lack of “common sense,” as she accurately concludes.
It’s clear Bedard portrays her actions as a rookie misstep just to give John Stewart a chance to show off his “experience” as a veteran Honor Guard in the Corps, reminding us that despite having watched two planets die, John has his virtues. In theory, the story should’ve worked far better than it does, but Bedard tries way too hard to shine a good light on John, at the cost of unjustly making Qurina seem incompetent.
Otherwise, Bedard crafts a surprisingly solid story. I appreciate how he distinguishes the varying levels of star-travel and otherworldly awareness among various planets. The conflict between the Vorrinians and Tog is actually quite clever in that it sets up the two races as warmly collaborative when their lives are at stake, but once money comes into the picture, they’re out to waste each other. That said, the Vorrinians definitely come off the jerkier party here.
HDR offers serviceable artwork with some imaginative alien designs (though I’m disappointed we have to stick to the usual humanoid for our protagonist), but largely uninspired, awkward body language and action. Champagne’s careful inkwork and Ruffino’s straightforward color choices gives it all a very smooth, polished look, but the result is still unremarkable.
Conclusion: A so-so execution of an interesting epilogue idea. More thought into synchronizing story with context is needed.
Grade: B-
– Minhquan Nguyen
Some Musings: – I got really hacked off when I saw John clasp his forehead with a world-weary expression at Qurina’s “mistake.” Oh, I’m sorry, John—we can’t all come up with genius tactical choices like, “Blow up entire planet,” like you do. Talk about a chess-work mind!
Grade
Conclusion