(COMIC) GREEN LANTERN - NEW GUARDIANS #7

Written by Tony Bedard
Artwork by Tyler Kirkham and Batt

Green Lantern stories have a way of sneaking up on you. With eons of history in which to place new ideas, GL titles tend to introduce a new, mysterious threat that eventually gets explained near the end of the arc. While this sounds like a general storytelling technique, it's used abundantly for GL tales with good reason. Green Lantern: New Guardians #7 starts the 'wrap-up' phase of it's first arc by giving the readers a little history on Invictus and how he fits into the Lantern mythology.

Quick history lesson: Millions of years ago, Larfleeze - the Orange Lantern - attacked the Vega system and it's protectors, the Angels of Vega. After discovering he couldn't steal the Angels' souls to use as orange constructs, Larfleeze slaughtered all the Angels, their souls merged into their lone surviving brother, Invictus. In their final battle, Larfleeze cast Invictus into another universe where he stayed trapped for eons.

Tony Bedard's history of Invictus finally gives some context for the galaxy-inspired orrery ship. In his grief, the lone Angel built a new Vega system for himself in the universe of exile, complete with genetic copies of the species that inhabited the various planets.

The story of the Angels of Vega points to Larfleeze as the culprit behind the creation of the New Guardians. In a somewhat annoying info dump, Kyle Rayner explains how Larfleeze was the one who stole the various-colored rings and sent the team on their mission to kill Invictus. The manic-depressive Invictus finally shows some restraint and decides to not replace the current Vega system with his copy. How nice! Instead, he wants Kyle to kill Larfleeze. Who's ready for next month's issue? This guy.

GRADE:

B-