Comic Info
Comic Name: Green Lantern: New Guardians
Publisher: DC Comics
Writer: Tony Bedard
Artist: Tyler Kirkham/Harvey Tolibao
# of Issues: 7
Release Date: 2012
Green Lantern: New Guardians #2
Reprints Green Lantern: New Guardians #1-7 (November 2011-May 2012). When Kyle Rayner finds himself a magnet for all the rings of the Lantern spectrum, he becomes the central interest of Oa and the Guardians of the Universe. Kyle also finds himself the target of all the Lanterns and discovers him forced to work with Arkillo, Bleez, Fatality, Saint Walker, Munk, and Larfleeze to survive. When the New Guardians seek out the cause reason behind Kyle’s new found power, they discover the Orrery…and learn that the reason behind their gathering is darker than they expected!
Written by Tony Bedard, Green Lantern: New Guardians Volume 1: The Ringer Bearer is part of DC Comics’ New 52 relaunch after Flashpoint. The series features art by Tyler Kirkham with additional artwork by Harvey Tolibao.
The New 52 was a real spark when DC decided to relaunch all of their titles…again. With so much to choose from, there were some really strange titles and many of the “Lantern” titles were on the odd side including Green Lantern: New Guardians.
Green Lantern: New Guardians #3
I always felt sorry for Kyle Rayner. He was a lame Green Lantern that wasn’t as cool as Hal Jordan, John Stewart, or Guy Gardner. He always felt like a desperate attempt to modernize the character. This apparently was obvious to many people, but in creating a sad-sack of a Green Lantern, they also created fans. Here in the New 52 universe, Bedard works to make Kyle Rayner more relevant.
Despite Kyle being the “leader” of the New Guardians, I do find it interesting that Larfleeze is actually the New Guardians’ boss. The team-up has a bit of the Avengers with Larfleeze playing the Loki role of bringing the unlikely heroes together. Books where there are built in enemies on the team don’t always work…especially when half the team is “good” and half the team is “bad”. It will be interesting to see how they keep having the team work together to advance the story without it seeming tedious.
The story feels like seeds of things to come. Green Lantern: New Guardians isn’t the most flowing of stories but it mostly serves as an origin piece. The first four issues of this collection probably could have been condense or expanded, and I wish that they had done more with the Orrery before the arrival of Invictus. Regardless, the story keeps moving and it could lead to a fun ride with some tweaking. Green Lantern: New Guardians 1: The Ring Bearer is followed by Green Lantern: New Guardians 2: Beyond Hope.
