DCU Comic Book Reviews

GREEN LANTERN CORPS #26

RingQuest, Conclusion

September 2008

Written by Peter J. Tomasi

Pencils by Patrick Gleason

Inks by Drew Geraci

Cover by Patrick Gleason and Prentis Rollins

Synopsis

On the Black Mercy Planet, Mongul orders Mother Mercy to deal with the Green Lanterns and return the green power rings to the surface.  Mongul then leaves Duel behind to wait for the rings.  Mother Mercy talks to the green lanterns and sees a visions of each others worst fears.  Finally, a green ring arrives on the surface.  When Duel reaches for it, he is blasted to death.  Guy Gardner then emerges, followed by the rest of the green lanterns.  Together, they go after Mongul.  At first Mongul beats down the lanterns, but Bzzd disables Mongul from the inside out.  The lanterns then toss Mongul back to Mother Mercy, who consumes him.  However, the effort cost Bzzd his life.  When he dies, his green power ring flies to planet for Mother Mercy.  At the same time, Duel’s yellow power flies to the planet, also for Mother Mercy.  The sentient plant form chooses the green ring.

Review by Binkley (e-mail)

Hey, look, an issue that wasn’t filled with exposition.  And it was a damn good finale to the story.  Imagine that!  See what happens when the writer shows us a story rather than telling it to us.  Okay, that may be a little harsh, but Tomasi and Gleason do a wonderful job with this story.  I liked the ending with Mother Mercy having to choose between the two power rings.  While it was obvious which one the plant would choose, it made sense the Sinestro ring would find Mother Mercy given what Mongul had done to it. 

I both liked and did not like Bzzd’s death.  I liked it because the little guy’s death mattered since it provided the turning point to the fight with Mongul and directly lead to his defeat.  However, on an emotional level, the death didn’t resonate with me.  Bzzd has not appeared much in this comic so it is hard to feel the loss of character we don’t really know. 

Well, in one sense I was right (see previous review), Duel was essentially set up to die.  However, I must admit I was not expecting it to happen at the hands of a green lantern, especially Guy Gardner.  It is interesting to note that the dialogue specifically mentions this is the first time that Guy has taken another life.  While it was brushed underneath the proverbial carpet in this issue, I really hope this is something that is explored deeper in future issues. 

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