Release Date: February 15, 2012
Cover Date: April 2012
Story: Peter Tomasi
Pencils: Fernando Pasarin
Inks: Scott Hanna
Cover: Andy Kubert
Guy Gardner and his commando squad race to the planet Urak, while John Stewart and the other captives are tormented by the Keepers. When one of the other Green Lanterns is about to snap and sell out Oa, John kills him, then uses his last bit of willpower to break free. He escapes with Vandor, but is quickly surrounded by Keepers. Guy’s team arrives just in time, and the battle is joined! The Keepers will fight to their last breath, so Guy orders Aldo to drop their “fear bomb.” That knocks out their foes, and the Green Lanterns quickly secure the area. The Keepers are dumped on the planet Nerro, and forced to dig the graves for the countless inhabitants they’d killed.
Green Lantern Corps (Vol. 3) #6 was a step up from its predecessor, but it’s still far from perfect. The Keepers were a fascinating enemy, but their impact was lessened considerably when we found out they’re sapping lifeforce from their own kind to stay alive. That makes the Keepers too much like generic despots rather than wronged race trying to get revenge. Continuing a nit from the last issue, the Lanterns’ firearms were specifically referred to as Earth weapons. So again…why the hell did the Khunds have them, instead of more advanced guns?
Also, the battle seemed to wrap up a bit too quickly. Granted, this story has spanned six issues, but you’d think the final assault would’ve been a little more complicated. Instead, everything went too perfectly according to plan. Last but not least, the “life” sentence is a joke. The entire point of the Keepers’ attack was that their planet and race was dying due to the loss of the power batteries. Merely dumping them on a different planet will surely kill them, as they still don’t have the batteries, nor do they have the rest of their people from which to sap energy!
On to the good. The interceptor that Guy and crew are flying is clearly a nod to Green Lantern: The Animated Series, though it does not seem to contain an artificial intelligence like Aya.
While the story tends to falter, the art still looks great. The two vertical panels featuring the lead Keeper and their giant power source are fantastic, though I bet Scott Hanna wanted to throttle Fernando Pasarin for putting in such an insane level of repetitive detail!
A point of note is John murdering a fellow Lantern, and Guy ordering the death of two Sinestro Corpsmen. Granted, they had legitimate reasons, but it still goes against everything the Green Lantern Corps stands for. Hopefully the consequences of John and Guy’s actions will be addressed in the future, but I doubt it.
The Keepers storyarc had a lot more potential, but revealing them to be even more evil rather than desperate turned the tale into a bit of a dud.
