Green Lantern: Emerald Warriors
Title: [amazon_link id=”1401230792″ target=”_blank” ]Green Lantern: Emerald Warriors[/amazon_link]
Creators: Peter Tomasi, Fernando Pasarin
Page Count: 176
Cover Price: $22.99
Release Date: August 16, 2011
Collects: Green Lantern: Emerald Warriors (2010) #1-7
Review: I love the concept of Green Lantern. I have ever since I was a kid. It’s not like I just jumped on board in 2004 when Hal Jordan came back, I’d been a fan of the character and the concept for 20 years before then.
I initially didn’t care for Johns’ reboot. When the first hardcover collected edition came out ([amazon_link id=”1401225748″ target=”_blank” ]Absolute Green Lantern: Rebirth[/amazon_link]), I read it cover-to-cover in a single sitting, and I remember saying to myself, “That sucked.” So I let it sit for a while and didn’t pick up any new Green Lantern trades for a year or two. When [amazon_link id=”1401233015″ target=”_blank” ]the Sinestro Corps War[/amazon_link] was coming out, I kept hearing good things about the series. I then went back and reread the Rebirth book and then I was hooked. I don’t know what happened the first time around, but after the second reading, I was in 100%. I went straight to Amazon and picked up all the books that I was missing, and pre-ordered all the available books, and I been reading them religiously since.
Enough preamble – with all that said, this was a weak book in the otherwise solid ‘A’ Green Lantern family of books.
The art was excellent throughout. The same artist, Fernando Pasarin, pencilied all 7 issues, giving the series a nice even flow.
As for the story, it’s nothing against Peter J. Tomasi, but I didn’t find the story compelling or riviting it any way. The storyline itself, Guy Gardner sets out to explore the Unknown Sectors to follow a dream/premonition that he had. Along the way, Kilowog and Arisia join his search and they set off as a merry band. There’s loads more to it, but I don’t want to give away too much. Let’s just leave it at, everything that you think will happen during their trips, happens.
I don’t know if Tomasi has free reign over his books, or if he has to works between Johns’ greater plan, but this book feels like it fit too perfectly into the grand plan. It was a typical bridge book, slightly setting up back story and moving players around from one event (Blackest Night/Brightest Day) to the next (War of the Green Lanterns).
The series that Tomasi had left to write this series (Green Lantern Corps) had been a great addition to the Green Lantern saga. Maybe it was the fact that there were hundreds of charactors that could have been called in at any time, keeping the series fresh, but with these three characters, it just felt like the same old same old.
Summary: I haven’t read any further in the Green Lantern mythos yet, and my opinion might change after reading War of the Green Lanterns, but as for this book on its own, it just felt like it was buying time.
Overall: 3 out of 5