Release Date: January 9, 2013
Cover Date: March 2013
Story: Keith Giffen
Art: Scott Kolins and Andrei Bressan
Cover: Scott Kolins
While Arkillo and Saint Walker investigate the remains of a Third Army attack, Kyle Rayner and Carol Ferris travel to Zamaron to seek the counsel of the Star Sapphires. Kyle is brushed aside to train with a hulking Star Sapphire, and their queen sends the other Lanterns to the Tenebrian Dominion to break the Guardians’ nonaggression treaty with Lady Styx. They figure her reprisal will help push back against the Third Army, and they’ll need deep cover Green Lantern Jediah Caul to get the Lanterns in. Jediah hooks them up with smugglers, but the seedy group sells out Carol to a game show called The Hunted once they arrive in Dominion space. Saint Walker and Arkillo threaten Jediah into helping her, but it’s of no use; they’re forced to flee Dominion territory while Jediah himself is captured and thrown into The Hunted.
I had high hopes for this book, but as with a lot of recent Lantern comics, I was let down. As a science fiction story, Green Lantern: New Guardians Annual #1 was okay. As a Green Lantern story, it was terrible. The title character was only there for a few pages, and even then, he was quite literally brushed aside and ignored! (Which is exactly how many DC Comics powers-that-be have treated Kyle in general over the past decade.) I understand that the whole point of this annual was to set up the storyline in the upcoming series Threshold, but this was a piss-poor way to do it, especially at the expense of Kyle’s story. He’s supposed to be learning to master the violet light; is that shit actually going to be handled off-panel?!
Even the other Lanterns don’t get off easy. Carol’s got some fight in her, but she was taken out far too easily. Saint Walker and Arkillo seemed like a forced pair of buddy cops, and the disguises they wore with nothing short of ridiculous. What about the new guy? Instead of a mysterious deep cover Green Lantern, Jediah just comes off as an unrepentant asshole. (The finest scene in the book was when Arkillo rightfully knocked him on his ass for being worthless.) I’m assuming that will change in Threshold, but his introduction was still terrible. And how the hell did the Zamarons even know about him if he was off the Guardians’ radar?
The art for this annual was split right the middle. Most of Scott Kolins’ pages were great, with only a few missteps. Andrei Bressan’s work just wasn’t up to snuff, and Arkillo in particular just looked awful.
It’s a shame that this double-sized issue turned out so badly. It could’ve been a great stepping stone, but it ended up being a total waste of the Lantern characters, not to mention a blatant insult to Kyle.
With that issue in mind, do you think its like a stand alone issue because issue #15 doesn’t mention the annual on the last page
Yep. And the “Rise of the Third Army” banner does not appear on the cover, even though the characters inexplicably mention it by name, as well as somehow knowing that the Guardians are behind it.
I just had too many questions. Where the hell is Larfleeze? I mean he’s actually going to be in Threshold so why was he not here especially when he was with the group last issue? Why is Saint Walker here? We haven’t even seen him since Issue #12 and while I like having him back it just drives me loopy that no ones explaining anything.
I get that Annuals can tell out of canon or stand alone stories, that’s why I can like them. But they typically have the ability to slot into a period of time. And if New Guardians #16 opens with Carol still locked into The Hunter, Saint Walker with the group and Kyle having wrapped up his training, I’m going to be just a little annoyed. And if not, are they going to take place before and after? Because I sure love comics that say “Want this gap explained? go read another book”
I get that this was a lead in to Threshold, but honestly the New Guardians were so god damn auxiliary to this that I see no point for this to have been their annual. You could have called it Threshold #0 and it would have been much more fitting. This isn’t a book about the New Guardians, about there plot, and nothing really changes for them. The readers are just left confused as to when this takes place and that’s bad enough when you consider how horrifically compressed the issues have been since the #0.
Honestly I’m no more hyped for Threshold than I was in the past, I was always going to pick it up and this didn’t really do anything to sell me on the book.
Now despite all that I agree that it’s a pretty decent cosmic story, It’s just not what I wanted out of this Annual.
Although I will say I loved the bit where Saint Walker points out that- yes- Kyle has a NAME. ‘Lantern Rayner’ is the most god damn annoying title in the world, there’s no sense of personality or warmth and it’s so professional to the point of being stupid when you consider that our protagonist is literally a vagrant now. I know they sometimes remember to call him Kyle, but Saint Walker calling them out on not using it was nice.
What a waste of money this was… for exactly everything you wrote.