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| "And you know what? Your mask is stupid!" |
Writer: Tony Bedard
Artist: Tyler
Kirkham and Batt
Collects: Green Lantern New Guadians #8-12 and Blue
Beetle #9
Background
Information:
In the last volume of New
Guardians, Green Lantern Kyle Rayner received rings from Lantern Corps of
all of the emotional colours. It got him on the bad side of the Guardians of
the universe and allowed him to inadvertently put a team together consisting of
Blue Lantern Saint Walker, Red Lantern Bleez, Star Sapphire Fatality, Sinestro
Corpsman Arkillo, Orange Lantern Glomulus and Indigo Tribesman Munk. They
raided a giant floating and encountered the archangel Invictus, who charged
them with killing Orange Lantern leader Larfleeze.
If you want more information, please refer to my review of Green Lantern New Guardians Vol. 1: The Ring
Bearers.
Review:
Beyond Hope does a
far better job than its predecessor at tying into the rest of the Green Lantern books, which really helps New Guardians to feel like it’s part of
the bigger picture. That said, this collection still reads like it’s about to
be cancelled which makes it hard to believe that this title is leading into a
crossover event.
So the New Guardians have been charged with killing
Larfleeze in order to save a bunch of planets from being destroyed by Invictus.
But first they have to charge their rings. This leads to the New Guardians
separating to recharge their rings, and get into their own kinds of trouble by
extension. For Kyle and Bleez, going to earth means getting into a fight with
an assassin sent by the Guardians and meeting Blue Beetle. For Saint Walker, it
means fending off an invasion of the Reach from the blue lanterns’ homeworld.
For Arkillo, it means returning to the Sinestro Corps’ homeworld of Korugar, only
to find that his corps has been decimated by Sinestro himself. Finally,
Fatality goes to investigate where the archangel Invictus came from.
In the last volume, Writer Tony Bedard spent most of his
time with Kyle Rayner. It was essentially Kyle’s book, and the other lanterns
were just in it. Thanks to this different story structure, though, all of the
New Guardians get some time in the sun, and you come out liking these other
lanterns a lot more. Each lantern here does something cool and that’s pretty refreshing
after reading a lot of team books from both DC and Marvel that really only
focus on one or two characters.
By far the high point of this book, though is Saint Walkers
defence of the blue lantern world against the Reach. Blue Lanterns have limited
attack power without a green lantern nearby. Without their green friends, they
can only hope to heal and defend. Bedard though, shows that their lack of
attack power is hardly a weakness. The Reach’s army is made of beings from
other planets who have been possessed by scarabs- small bug like devices that
control whoever they latch on to, while giving them a tech-suit with different
weapons and abilities. Healing them means disconnecting them from the scarab.
It’s nice to see characters without a lethal ability hold their own against a
foe that formidable and if anything, this volume made me desperate to see a
Blue Lantern series in the future.
My only real problem with this story was that the end of
this collection feels like a series cancellation. The decision is ultimately
made that a team like the New Guardians cannot possibly succeed, and the team
breaks up. That would be fine if the series were to actually be cancelled, but New Guardians is on its 27th
issue by now- it seems strange that the team would break up now. What’s more,
that breaking up doesn’t feel all that justified, the one responsible for Kyle
getting the rings is revealed, and that causes everyone to leave- it doesn’t
quite make sense.
Art here is fairly consistent with the first volume. As a
slight improvement, the penchant Tyler Kirkham had for showing Fatality’s
cleavage instead of her face is gone, but now he has one panel where only
Bleez’s backside does more or less the same job. It happens less than the
previous volume, but it still feels kinda tacky.
Beyond Hope is an
enjoyable showcase for the non-green lanterns, but does leave you feeling a
little deflated. It gets a three out of five replacement backsides.
***
+ Feels like it’s part of the bigger picture.
+ Good showcase of all the lanterns.
+ Feels like a cancelation.
+ Bleez is the new sexualised character.
Alternate Option: Green Lantern Corps: Fearsome
If you read one Green Lantern Book, you have to read them
all.
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