Green Lantern: New Guardians #32 – Review

By: Justin Jordan (writer), Brad Walker (penciller), Andrew Hennessy with Scott Hanna (inkers), Wil Quintana (colorist)

The Story: “I didn’t want to but they know how to make you.”

The Review: The original adventuring party has splintered over the last few issues of Green Lantern: New Guardians, with Quaros leaving his brothers in between issues and Kyle separated from the group at the climax of GL: NG Annual #2. Appropriately each division has marked the entrance of uncertainty and powerlessness into this uniquely godlike group of wanderers. As this issue opens we still don’t know what’s happening to Kyle, what he truly saw beyond the Source Wall, whether Oblivion still exists, or even where our hero is really. This trend reaches, what seems to be, its lowest point this issue.

I’ve previous noted in my reviews of this series that the Templar Guardians have started to become a bit of a literal Deus Ex Machina, frequently appearing at the last-minute to save the day, rendering Kyle’s actions a mere distraction. Well this issue clearly answers that concern, at least in the short-term. Justin Jordan does an impressive job of hiding the Guardians’ panic behind their usual wisdom. While it’s not exceptionally complex character work, the execution is effective, immediately and fiercely conveying both their worry and their pride.

Jordan has always enjoyed homage to horror movies in his work, but New Guardians has never reached this level of eeriness before. The story plays with dramatic irony, feeding the reader little bits of information every so often without actually answering questions. In the meanwhile, Jordan takes a slow burn strategy, playing on the expectation that things have to come to a head. The fact that the reveal has to justify each page of suspense puts a time pressure on the book that becomes more stressful the further you read.