Wes Serafine
Equinox Staff
Kyle Rayner has but one emotion left to master, and one that may be his hardest challenge yet. Rayner must master the violet light of love, wielded by the powerful all-female group known as the Star Sapphires.
Mastering love shouldn’t be a problem for Rayner; he’s one of the good guys, right? Unfortunately, mastering this power is not that simple for anyone, especially Rayner. But regardless, he’d better hurry, because The Guardians of the Universe, the founders of the Green Lanterns Corps and their monstrous creations known as The Third Army are closing in—fast. We begin with the Star Sapphires looking into Rayner’s mind, trying to awaken the power of love, something that Rayner has unknowingly sealed himself off from for a great deal of his life. We see Rayner as a young child when his father leaves his mother.
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The Sapphires observe that this should have caused Rayner to react emotionally, and yet, the young child remains silent and stoic, never seeing and rarely speaking of his father ever again. The next memory shows Rayner with Alex, his now deceased girlfriend. His experience with his father seems to have caused him to close his heart to true love, as he cannot say the words “I love you too, Alex,” hiding behind his humor.
The grisly murder of Alex at the hands of a deranged super villain didn’t help Rayner to open his heart either. The next memory is even more painful.
Rayner and the other Lanterns are throwing a birthday party for Ganthet, one of the Guardians of The Universe who hand-picked Rayner to join the Corps. During his time with the Corps, Ganthet becomes the closest thing Rayner ever had to a father figure. Years later, Ganthet is brainwashed and stripped of emotions, perhaps even of his soul, by the other guardians. Every attempt to awaken the love within Rayner and complete his mastery of the spectrum has revealed heartbreak or betrayal.
Angry, Rayner leaves his training, only to find Ganthet himself waiting for him. Rayner tries everything to reach the man he once knew, but his attempts seem to prove futile. The two fight, Rayner demonstrating his mastery of the other emotions, but without the completed Spectrum, The Guardian is simply too powerful.
The Sapphires arrive to try and tip the scales, just as Ganthet summons the Third Army. The Sapphires believe that killing Ganthet is necessary but Rayner refuses to let them, believing that the Ganthet he knows is still in there somewhere. Ganthet nearly kills Rayner, but Rayner’s refusal to give up on him unlocks the power of the Violet light of love within him and transforms Rayner into a White Lantern, with power over all emotions and all lantern powers. Rayner obliterates the monsters of the Third Army attacking the Sapphires with a mere thought, but Ganthet escapes. Rayner promises to end this and save Ganthet. The new direction of this book that started early this year has been a hit and miss, but this one is definitely a hit. There’s a real sense of triumph when Rayner unlocks his full power as well as a great deal of satisfaction when Rayner finally confronts Ganthet, something we’ve been building towards since the second issue.
The artwork is hard to describe, and I have a hard time deciding whether or not it’s good or bad. On one hand, the fight scenes look beautiful, but on the other, the design of Rayner during some of the flashbacks looks horrendous. This is a decent outing and a real game changer for the world of Green Lantern.
Wes Serafine can be contacted at
wserafine@keene-equinox.com