Green Lantern Corps #43 – Review

By Peter J. Tomasi (writer), Patrick Gleason (penciller), Rebecca Buchman, Tom Nguyen & Patrick Gleason (inkers)

The Story: Red Badge of Rage: Between the cliffhanger of last issue (the death of Kyle Rayner) and the cover of this issue (Guy Gardner becomes a Red Lantern), you have all I can tell you without spoiling.

What’s Good: When Joe Quesada was talking about Civil War (check it out on numerous Marvel podcasts), he said that it was really important to not just kill a whole bunch of fourth rate characters no one cares about. He wanted to kill one or two characters whose death would profoundly affect those left behind. Tomasi and company have done that here. This entire issue is about how characters we care about react to the death of a hero we really liked. This is good, good stuff and I felt (I actually felt) emotion throughout this issue. I felt the pain of Guy and Natu as they huddled over Kyle’s corpse. I felt their frantic grief as they struggled to hold his green lantern ring from going off to find a new bearer. I felt their fear and panic as they warded away the black lantern rings trying to claim Kyle. And I had a choked up high when the cavalry arrived, even though they could not turn the tide. And best of all, the emotions of this story drove the climax in a way that was totally unexpected for me. Tomasi earned his pay on this issue.