Green Lantern Corps #0 – Review

By: Peter J. Tomasi (story), Fernando Pasarin (pencils), Scott Hanna & Marc Deering (inks), Gabe Eltaeb (colors)

The Story: When being an interstellar space hero still leaves you the family disappointment.

The Review: What I’ve appreciated thus far from the #0 issues is they’ve avoided retelling the same old origin story of characters you’ve heard a dozen times before.  There’s no point seeing again Batman’s parents getting shot, Superman arriving on Earth in a rocket, the Flash cooking in lightning and chemicals, or Green Lantern coming upon a dying alien with a ring.  If anyone’s origins are ripe for revisiting, it would be those of the “other” Green Lanterns in the DCU.

Tomasi only gives you one of them.  No doubt the choice was made out of economy and to deliver a meatier story, but I still raise my eyebrow at the focus on Guy instead of John.  I suppose there’s an argument to be made that of the two, Guy has the edge in popularity, but stacked against John’s five years as primo Green Lantern on the animated Justice League series (and big cameos on Young Justice), I wonder at the truth of that.

But like with all pointless speculations, let’s do the proper thing and set that aside.  Always on the watch for clichés and tired plotlines, my alarm bells started ringing the moment I saw this issue tackle the father-son conflict, mixed with the old legacy cop bit, and then throw in the drunk old man and some very mild sibling rivalry for good measure.  Still, Tomasi has taken these yarns before and prettied them up so you forget how ancient they actually are.  There’s a reason, too, why we return to them again and again: we recognize those stories in our own lives.

What makes this story work is Guy’s warm, sweet relationship with his brother and sister.  I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: it’s really a shame how little page-time in comics gets devoted to family material.  You see a lot of stuff involving lovers, friends, even co-workers, but somehow parents and siblings get a bit shafted.  The last truly serious family bit I saw in a comic was probably Wonder Woman reeling from her mother’s affair.  Anyway, I’m happy to see Guy interacting in a well-adjusting way with his big bro and little sis; it’s refreshing, if nothing else.

Maybe Tomasi didn’t intend to resolve the problems between Guy and his dad right away—maybe it’s not meant to be resolved at all—but it doesn’t escape you that after half an issue of straight drama, the action leaves all that behind once the Green Lantern ring shows up.  Worse, the event driving the tension between the Gardners never gets investigated properly.  Because we never find out the truth of that “report” which tarnished Guy’s law-enforcement rep forever, it’s hard to tell if Guy spiritually absolves himself from the mistake he did/did not make.

That doesn’t seems so important though, against all the good things Tomasi does for our hero’s character in the issue.  Guy very impressively extracts himself and his brother out of a rough corner himself, with no sci-fi help.  His ring, in a very cool move, doesn’t get used initially for violence (which is your first thought with Guy involved), but for helping him save his loved ones.  It starts out in love, of all things.  Very cool, indeed.

Pasarin is one of the most human artists in DC’s stable, so focused on making the characters appear as real and true to us as possible.  His depiction of Guy as a younger man is spot-on.  It’s not just the longer hair, but his defiant features are unmistakably Guy’s, just infused with that youthful, baby-faced uncertainty that makes a new adult so distinctive.  Pasarin can also make the family resemblance among siblings clear even if you ignore their trademark red hair.

Conclusion: It’s a familiar story, but Tomasi reminds you why it has such appeal.  Although Tomasi leaves a few open questions, he dives deep into Guy’s personal life.

Grade: B+

– Minhquan Nguyen

Some Musings: – Again with the black friend who dies in the end?  Intellectually I know I shouldn’t make a big deal about it.  Emotionally, I actually don’t think it’s that big a deal or purposeful or anything.  But it’s an interesting observation to make.

– It is so very like Guy to offend the veteran Lantern right out the gate, even though he only earned his fighting stripes ten seconds earlier.