GREEN LANTERN #44

Green Lantern #44 (August 1993)

Urban Renewal

script: Gerard Jones

pencils: Gene Ha

inks: Romeo Tanghal

colors: Anthony Tollin

letters: Albert DeGuzman

editing: Kevin Dooley

Recap: Green Lantern Hal Jordan is called to an emergency on the planet Scylla, where he finds a giant being terrorizing the population. She calls herself Quarra, Goddess of Creation, and departs once she thinks she has buried Hal alive. When he later reports to his masters, the Guardians of Oa, they recognize the name, and reveal that she is one of three dieties from Maltus, their planet of origin. Eons ago, she and her bothers, Archor the Sustainer and Tzodar the Destroyer, killed their father and fled the planet, promising to one day return and lay waste. 

On the planet Elyrion, the Darkstars found themselves battling Archor the Destroyer, who killed several of their members before disappearing. On the planet Maltus, the L.E.G.I.O.N. were in the process of establishing a new base when it came under attack by Tzodar the Destroyer. The battle went poorly for the L.E.G.I.O.N., but Dox hoped to turn the tide once reinforcements arrived. Unfortunately, Tzodar was soon joined by his powerful siblings.

Tzodar and his siblings revel at being together again after so many eons, while the population of Maltus looks on in horror.

The people notice Green Lantern arrive and place their hope in him. He remembers that the Guardians instructed him just to observe but he decides that avoiding a fight does not preclude questioning. But when he asks the deities what they want, they dismiss him and brush him aside. When Hal crashes to the surface, one of the population steps forth and warns him against challenging the Gods. The man insists to Hal that the Gods are here to save them, but everyone gets distracted when they notice the "Gods" come under attack.

Hal does not hold either the L.E.G.I.O.N. or the Darkstars in high regard, believing them both to be poor imitations of the Green Lantern Corps. His first instinct is to seek guidance from the Guardians but changes his mind when he sees the destruction that the Gods are causing. He tries to at least keep them under control until he can contact the Guardians. Meanwhile, Dox is seeking a translation of the medallion one of his troops found in the ruins of Maltus.

The Maltusian who stood up on behalf of the Gods against Hal Jordan is able to read the medallion but he says its full of lies and refuses to talk further.  Hal tries another course and turns his attention back to the Gods. Archor temporarily transforms him into one of the original inhabitants of Maltus, a Guardian, until Hal is weakened and collapses. 

Tzodar blasts Hal in a final attempt to destroy him, but Lobo arrives in time to swoop in for a rescue. At first Hal is hoping for some help, but instead, Lobo takes him out of the battle to visit an angry Vril Dox.

So I skipped a few pages of this story that were part of the ongoing storyline and not relevant to the Trinity crossover and my commentary is similarly going to focus on just those parts of the story that pertain to the L.E.G.I.O.N.'s involvement.

This was certainly an action packed issue and to that extent it was well done, but it did not really move the story along that much. At the beginning of this issue, the three deities were attacking Maltus and both the Green Lantern and the L.E.G.I.O.N. were all that was there to defend it. The story focused on Green Lantern's perspective, but at the end of the issue, the three deiteis were attacking Maltus and both the Green Lantern and the L.E.G.I.O.N. were all that was there to defend it. Hmmm...not much progression. 

We learned nothing further about the deities motivation and the Darkstars were entirely absent except for a brief flashback to Trinity #1. This was a filler issue in every sense of the word. I will say the art was nice. There were some good moments and I guess we were teased a bit in the medallion scene, but with so little context, the tease was meaningless. The moments we glimpsed the L.E.G.I.O.N. were fine, but amounted to little more than cameos.

Now, the writer of this issue, who also contributed to Trinity #1, is probably known to most of the people reading this. And many probably know of a certain...lets just say, unsavory development in his personal life. I do not want to mention it here, because its frankly very disturbing to me and I just do not want to go down that road. You can feel free to google. But despite my...discomfort with him now, he did right some good comics. And this is not a badly written comic. Unfortunately, it did not really progress the story. And probably confused some readers who picked this up without reading Trinity #1. 

As I said last week, I have never read this crossover despite being a loyal L.E.G.I.O.N. reader at the time. And I had a favorable impression of the first installment of the crossover. But this one just left me feeling disappointed. Hopefully, the momentum will pick back up next issue and then this one will not feel like it was spinning its wheels so much. So please check back with me next week for L.E.G.I.O.N. '93 #57!