Green Lantern #36-42
Originally released in 2009
Written by Geoff Johns
Art by Ivan Reis (#36-38), Philip Tan (#39-42), Eddy Barrows (#41-42)
It's been a while since I've read Geoff Johns' run on Green Lantern, so I'm continuing with that. In the aftermath of the Sinestro Corps. War, many other types of Lanterns are spreading through the universe. Some are allies to the Green Lanterns, while others are enemies, but the Guardians of the Universe seem to want all of them (aside from Green Lanterns) gone regardless of their status.
The first few issues in this group deal with the rise of the Red Lanterns, a group that expanded greatly with all of the loss and devastation of the Sinestro Corps. War. In addition, it properly introduces the Blue Lanterns, with the group's first member being Saint Walker.
The Blue Lantern Corps. was created by former Guardians who were expelled, Ganthet and Sayd. The other Guardians don't trust their former allies, though they seem to be unaware of (or intentionally ignoring) the increasingly large possibility that the Guardians of the Universe are slipping into a dictatorial role.
It seems like there's some kind of ulterior motive surrounding the creation of the Blue Lantern Corps., though. When talking to new recruits, Ganthet and Sayd make it sound like the Blue Lanterns are going to be sacrificed for something.
Hal, Saint Walker, and the elephant-like Warth travel to the home planet of the Red Lanterns, Ysmault, where Sinestro has been taken prisoner. Each Corps. has their own plans for him - the Blue Lanterns want to take him alive, the Red Lanterns want to kill him slowly and painfully, and Hal wants to take him back to Oa for immediate execution.
When a group of Yellow Lanterns show up to rescue Sinestro, it turns into a battle between the four groups. The Blue Lanterns are, in theory, on Hal's side, but they want to make Hal into the leader of the Blue Lantern Corps., which he firmly rejects. (He believes that hope alone, without the will to act, is meaningless)
However, witnessing Sinestro murder a former Green Lantern who had been infected by a Red Lantern Ring fills Hal with murderous rage, causing that same Red Lantern Ring to possess him.
To cleanse this infection, Walker puts a Blue Lantern Ring onto Hal, destroying the Red Lantern Ring but altering him in a strange way. I have a feeling that, by the end of Johns' run, Hal will have used every type of Lantern Ring out there - I'm not sure if that's meant to show how multi-faceted human beings are, or if Hal's special in some way and is able to use any kind of Lantern Corps. Ring, even if (in cases like rage or causing fear) he might not want to.
The trio returns to Ganthet, where the ex-Guardian makes it clear that he wanted Hal to lead the Blue Lanterns as a Green Lantern - Blue Lanterns can't create constructs of their own, and they support and power up Green Lanterns. Ganthet also mentions the Blackest Night prophecy - I thought that storyline was a long ways away, but the next arc is labelled "Road to Blackest Night", so it seems like it's coming up sooner than I expected.
Before the Blue Lantern Ring can be removed, Hal is dragged back to Oa, where the Guardians of the Universe have sensed the "corruption" of the Blue Lantern Ring and seek to remove it by force. There's also another problem: while chasing a Sinestro Corps. member, a Green Lantern entered a forbidden sector where the Orange Lantern and embodiment of greed, Larfleeze, lives.
One of the Guardians, who is badly burned and seems to have ties to the villainous side of the Blackest Night event (I assume that's the Black Lanterns, though I'm not sure if there are other evil groups involved), is pushing the rest of them in a more militaristic direction, as he basically tells the rest of them that the Green Lanterns and the Guardians of the Universe are going to murder Larfleeze.
It becomes increasingly clear that despite claiming that they would add ten new laws to the Book of Oa, the Guardians of the Universe had absolutely no idea what those laws would be and are just making it up as they go along, because the decision to make it so Green Lanterns can travel into Larfleeze's sector after being banned is made into the fourth law despite it being something that just came up seconds beforehand.
Much like the Red Lanterns, the Star Sapphires (also known as the Violet Lanterns) are spreading throughout the universe, basically possessing whoever has their rings, while the Indigo Lanterns (who embody compassion) seem to be missing. The Green Lanterns and the Guardians trying to fight off Larfleeze, but it's easier said than done - Larfleeze is the sole Orange Lantern in existence, with the rest of the Orange Lantern Corps. consisting of constructs of his victims over the course of at least a billion years.
Larfleeze sees the Blue Lantern Ring that's still stuck to Hal's hand, and since it's something that he's never seen before, he wants it. Until he can find something that he's hoping for, the Blue Lantern Ring is described as being like using a gun with the safety on.
Once he successfully activates the Blue Lantern Ring and drains it until it flies away, the Guardians are able to negotiate with Larfleeze, while Hal has a vision from the ring about an event that will seemingly happen in the near future.
In return for being left alone, Larfleeze won't attack the Green Lanterns as long as he gets one thing: knowledge of where he can find a Blue Lantern Ring. The Guardians point him to the homeworld of the Blue Lanterns, which comes across as an attempt by them to have Ganthet and Sayd killed. (since the handful of Blue Lanterns that they've managed to gather have no way of directly fighting back)
Issue 42 ends with a pair of Green Lanterns discovering the corpse of the Anti-Monitor, where it wound up after the events of the Sinestro Corps. War: in a gigantic Black Lantern.
The next issue is labeled as a prologue to Blackest Night, so it seems like I'll be reaching that storyline much faster than I thought. I honestly wouldn't be surprised at this point if the Guardians of the Universe wind up being the final threats of Geoff Johns' run at the rate that they're going, using the cyborg Alpha Lanterns to enforce their will on the universe and forcing Hal and the other Lanterns (regardless of which Corps. that they're from - I could see members from all seven Corps. banding together because the threat is so great) that will stick with him to take a stand against the corrupted Guardians. Then again, maybe it will wind up being Sinestro or Parallax who winds up being the final villain; that's the nice thing about only having a loose idea of what will happen in a series.
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