By Cat Wyatt
We were left at a pretty crazy cliffhanger at the end of the last issue. With Hal Jordan and the Green Lantern Corps #47, we’re finally given the resolution we’ve been looking for the last couple of weeks. Last we saw Arkillo had arrived just in the nick of time to prevent Guy from doing something horrible, Hammond had taken away Hal’s memories, and John was making preparations for the next move against the Darkstars. So yeah, needless to say, there’s a lot going on here.
The variant covers for Hal Jordan have been absolutely outstanding lately. If you haven’t been keeping an eye on them, you really should start doing so. In this one it’s a beautiful rendition of Hal Jordan as Atlas, only instead of the globe, he’s carrying the Green Lantern. It’s absolutely beautiful.
This issue starts off with Hal Jordan, who doesn’t remember his own name, stuck on a dead world in sector 563. He’s not alone either. Hammond is with him, having just wiped his memory. Supposedly he’s doing it for Hal’s own good, but once again that raises more questions than anything.
Still, you know Hal. He’s going to resist this with everything he has, even if he doesn’t know what’s happening or why he feels compelled to fight back. Here’s hoping it’s resolved in a timely enough manner so that he can rejoin the battle.
Meanwhile, the fight has only just begun between Arkillo and Guy. Honestly, we’ve seen these two fight again and again. And it never ever gets old. This one is no exception, except maybe it could have been just a wee bit longer, you know, for science and stuff…
Its times like this that we’re a force to acknowledge that Arkillo is actually a pretty amazing person when he wants to be. He managed to get to Guy’s father relatively quickly, especially when we consider the fact that the Darkstar suit would have allowed Guy to travel even faster than normal. Additionally, he was totally willing to throw down with Guy, on principle alone. Then there’s the fact that he quoted Guy back to his face, demanding that they both take off their rings/mantles in order to have a more interesting (and probably fair) fight. Wow. Just wow.
Guy may be okay with killing his father, there are plenty of reasons for him to hold a grudge, and likely the mantle is influencing his emotions even further in this case. But Guy can’t see Arkillo as anything other than a friend, not after how far they’ve come together. The last thing he wants to do is fight Arkillo…
And cue the guitar solo of this issue. When Guy’s father, Roland, tries to get Arkillo to back down and away from the fight, Arkillo only has one thing to say about it, and it’s absolutely perfect, true, and beautiful: “Be silent. Roland Gardner. Have the acumen to recognize this is no longer about you.”
Full stop. Seriously, think about that one for a moment. This is coming from a guy that has begrudgingly become Guy’s friend. That means that he hates the man he’s protecting as much as, if not more than Guy himself. But this is bigger than that. This is about justice. This is about what’s right. This is about saving his friend.
And so an epic, though relatively quick fight, begins between the two friends. Once again Arkillo manages to surprise us here. He points out to Guy that if Roland deserves lethal force for being abusive, then he himself deserves lethal force as well. After all, he used to be a killer. If the Darkstars have no regard for penance, regret, or rehabilitation, then there’s no reason why Guy should be allowing Arkillo to live, especially when he’s already gotten him beaten and pinned down.
This logic of Arkillo’s forces the mental break that Guy needed. Guy can’t let himself be a Darkstar and allow Arkillo to live, but he also refuses to kill Arkillo. That leaves only one option: to abandon the mantle.
As it turns out there was more to this than was immediately obvious, which is saying something. Guy did the whole thing on purpose. Okay, maybe not the trying to kill his dad part, but everything else. He let the Darkstars recruit him so he’d get a better idea of how they thought and what they could do. Unfortunately they were slightly stronger than he expected, ramping up his own conflicted emotions and using them against him. Thankfully he has friends like Arkillo to help pull him back from the brink.
Meanwhile Kyle is still stuck on New Genesis. Granted, it doesn’t look like it’ll be for much longer, since Prince Orion appears to finally growing a pair and helping him out. Well, sort of. He’s going to help them get out of there, but that doesn’t mean he’ll be following and helping them out. Or at least that’s the assumption – maybe something will happen to change their minds on this. Perhaps once the Darkstars start coming for them…
Back to Hal and his lack of memories. He’s still fighting, and slowly but surely gaining ground too. There’s something about this place that’s familiar, even though he can’t find the memories to explain it to him. That alone is enough to create enough suspicion to help him keep fighting Hammond.
Apparently there was a reason that Hal picked this particular planet to bring Hammond to, and it was actually pretty brilliant. This is the planet Hal was on when he created his Green Lantern ring. The planet remembers him, and vice versa. If there was ever a place that would help him fight Hammond’s mind control, it was here. That’s why he went here – to test Hammond.
You’d think that would mean Hammond failed the test…but shockingly Hammond did have altruistic motives here, and Hal chose to believe them and everything. So we’ll have to see how that one goes. It’ll be interesting to see what Hammond can do against the Darkstars with that ability set.
Speaking of, the Green Lantern Corps is not holding up well against the Darkstars. Their med unit is full and it’s all that Kilowog can do to follow orders and keep everyone stable and together. Especially with the Guardians breathing down his neck. They don’t seem to understand that John is one of the best tacticians out there, so following his orders is the best possible thing that Kilowog could be doing right now, and there’s no point in second guessing that.
Unfortunately it looks like the Darkstars have decided to up their timeframe for the attack on Mogo. Or more accurately, they’ve come for the prisoners being held here. That or they decided the Green Lantern presence was seen as a threat and therefore a challenge/act of war. Their motivation really doesn’t matter, only the end results. One can only hope that our four Green Lanterns will make it back in time to help out.
This Darkstar plot has been absolutely fascinating. They’ve done a good job of creating an enemy that both threatens and reflects the Lanterns. They’re what the Lanterns could have become, if they chose to let go of their ideals and sense of justice. That’s what makes them so terrifying, in their own way. The conclusion to this plot should be interesting, though it’d be nice of the Darkstars become a lingering and repeating threat to the corps.
Score: 4/5
Hal Jordan and the Green Lantern Corps #47
DC Comics