Green Lantern: Emerald Warriors No. 1
Published by DC Comics. Written by Peter Tomasi. Pencils by Fernando Pasarin. Inks by Cam Smith.
The Deal: The Green Lantern family of comics increases by one with the debut of Emerald Warriors. The new title stars (so far) the tough guy of the Green Lantern Corps, Guy Gardner, on a mission to, uh, do ... something. I'm not exactly sure what the concept of this comic is yet. Time will tell, I guess.
The Good: With a Green Lantern film in production, now is a great time to expand the mythology of this particular franchise. And expanding via a book starring Guy Gardner is smart move. He is a great character, after all, and has tons of personality (much more than fellow lanterns John Stewart and Kyle Rayner) — which shines throughout this first issue as he spouts off mucho macho one-liners and snappy repartee. On the art side of things, Fernando Pasarin and Cam Smith make a great team, turning in some amazingly clean, yet superhumanly detailed, illustrations. I've seen Pasarin's work on a few other DC books, but he really showed the depth of his talent this time around.
The Bad: What exactly is this book about? For me, first issues are a time to get readers geared up for everything a comic has in store. But Emerald Warriors No. 1 just sort of teases us with the mystery of a direction — and, honestly, the creative team didn't offer up enough to make me stick around and find out what's really going on. Moreover, this issue is so vague, I kind of think that the folks at DC know that there really isn't much to this series ... other than the fact that they need to milk the Green Lantern cow while they can.
The Verdict: The art's great. The star of the series is great. The story, however, just ain't there.
Quick Hits
The Walking Dead No. 76: A title must be good when I'm so nervous for the characters that I'm actually afraid to read the comic. The Verdict: Buy this book.
Ultimate Avengers 3 No. 1: Am I the only one who still enjoys Mark Millar's writing? His breezy style still feels fresh to me. But I'm amazed that Steve Dillon avoided drawing backgrounds for, like, the entire comic. The Verdict: Ah, go ahead and get it.
Buzzard No. 3: This limited series ends on an incredibly gruesome and dreary note. How can you not like this book? The Verdict: Buy it, sissy!
Reviewed materials provided by Heroes Aren't Hard to Find: www.heroesonline.com.