Release Date: January 20, 2010
Cover Date: March 2010
Story: Peter Tomasi
Pencils: Patrick Gleason
Inks: Rebecca Buchman, Tom Nguyen, Keith Champagne, and Patrick Gleason
Cover: Patrick Gleason and Rebecca Buchman
Variant Cover: Greg Horn
Mogo may have moved into Oa’s orbit, but it doesn’t seem to be doing anything while the Black Lanterns are assaulting the Central Power Battery. Guy Gardner’s tearing them apart with his green and red power rings, but it’s not enough; the Battery falls. Kyle wants to go out and stop Guy, but Vath says that Guy’s actually succeeding in destroying the Black Lanterns permanently, and they should just let him continue doing so until the tide is turned. Kyle flies off anyway, and tries to talk Guy down. At first, Guy thinks it’s a trick and attacks Kyle, but Kyle keeps trying. Guy’s rage subsists for a moment, and he even asks Kyle to kill him before the red ring takes over completely, but it’s too late: his anger boils inside him once more, and Guy renews his assault.
During all of this fighting, Salaak is still busy manning the monitors in the Green Lantern Citadel when Mogo finally makes contact with him. Mogo invokes the Primacy Directive given to it long ago by the Guardians, and begins its “purge” of Oa. By amplifying its gravity exponentially, Mogo pulls every Lantern off of the surface of Oa. Our heroes are protected by their rings’ auras, but the Black Lanterns don’t fare so well. As they fall with increasing speed towards Mogo, we see that Iolande is already there, caring for other Green Lanterns who had been injured. The living Lanterns are held back while the zombies are absorbed into Mogo itself. The sentient planet breaks them down into their component atoms, and holds them at its core, where they can never reform and will burn forever. The rest of the Green Lanterns are ordered back to Oa by Salaak, leaving Kyle and friends to deal with an incensed Guy who is now focused on them instead of the undead!
Continuing “The Red Badge of Rage” storyline from the last issue, Green Lantern Corps (Vol. 2) #44 manages to keep the action consistent. There’s plenty of violent battle scenes, but they’re tempered with some good character development. Guy Gardner is one of the only Red Lanterns other than Atrocitus who still has some control of his own mind while wearing the red ring, and that makes him far more interesting than the usual Red Lantern raging beasts. (The fact that he’s still got a green ring on probably helps.) He’s clearly fighting the ring from the inside, but given his propensity for violence in the first place, it’s not a battle he can easily win.
The Black Lanterns buried within Mogo was a nice trick, too, and a convenient subplot that could be resurrected (no pun intended) in the future. As we all know, you need two kinds of light to destroy a Black Lantern, and Mogo’s only got the green. It’s entirely possible that the zombies within the planet could be released someday.
