Art By: Brad Walker, Rodney Buchemi
Cover Price: $2.99
Release Date: August 20, 2014
Playing God
Last issue of New Guardians we saw the return of the presumed dead Kyle Rayner and it was just in time too. For this story arc, we're exploring the re-imagining of the Psions, the lizard like creatures that the Guardians created eons ago and who have since their creators left been trying to perfect their genetics to embody the perfection of their creators. So you know how the Guardians are tiny blue humanoids, well the Psions are nothing like that. To try and create perfection in themselves they've altered their bodies with other species genetics and cybernetic enhancements. So yeah gigantic cyber-reptile monsters with daddy issues. Now it's up to Carol Ferris and Kyle Rayner to get through the Psion's maze like ship and find the Guardians of the Universe before the Psion's can do to them, what they did to the kidnapped Guardian Quaros. Last issue we saw Quaros all kinds of hooked up to machines and he's looked better honestly. So let's check out the conclusion to this story and see if the Guardians of the Universe and our heroes make it out of the clutches of the Psions.
Explain It!:
Our story begins with Quaros tired of waiting for Kyle Rayner and Carol Ferris to save his brothers and sisters, so he takes it upon himself to use (his now connected to the ship) mind to begin to free his siblings. So not only does he use his telepathy to get in touch with his siblings to tell them to get ready to move, but he uses his cyber-kinesis that he's obtained from being one with the ship to weaken it's restraints and defenses. Now that's multitasking. Meanwhile Kyle and Carol continue to fight with the Psion leader and really aren't getting anywhere.
All this fight seems to do is show us that this Psion leader has added something special to his body in his pursuit for perfection. I really don't think that it will be in vogue for next year's styles but we see that the leader has a mother box on him, pinging away. With that tidbit of information conveyed, Carol flies off to rescue the Guardians and doesn't get real far when Quaros telepathically tells her that she's in danger and she need not worry about our little blue eggheads, because he's already freed them. Quaros continues to be the sole hero of this book because he then opens up all the cells to the creatures that the Psions have altered, changed and just made monsters out of and these creatures turn on their captors giving Carol Ferris time enough to get away.
Okay so the Guardians are safe and Carol is safe, so it's time for all to get back to Kyle, who's still fending off the Psion leader.
Even with the Guardian's god like powers, it seems that Quaros believes the only way to stop the Psions is if he uses his machine stuck mind to overload the ship and destroy their creations and their creation's creations. Yeah there's a big argument about how they can't go around just killing innocent species that have been experimented on, but eventually they decide that these things are so far off, what they originally were, that killing them would be a mercy. Instead of arguing with what Quaros knows he must do, he simply wraps our heroes up in a willpower bubble and forces them out of the ship as he destroys the ship, the experiments, the Psions, and himself to save the universe from the terror of the Psions.
In the end our heroes go on to their next adventure with deep despair in their hearts and floating in the distance we see a lone survivor of the Psion ship. No, not a cyber-reptile, but the mother box placed on the Psion leader and it pings away letting us know that the New Gods are on their way.
That's it for this weird dark story. Yeah we were reintroduced to the Psions for the New 52, but really the story felt more as a way to introduce us to complete despair and the absence of hope to get us ready for what we may be dealing with in the upcoming GodHead Lantern crossover event. In three issues the only thing that really happened was that Kyle couldn't fight off these monsters and the only way to make things right was to murder everyone. It's a possibility that this idea of killing being the only way to win could reflect on Kyle later on and even change his demeanor in the long run. Next issue we see what happens to our favorite White Lantern in the strange world of Five Years From Now, so make sure you're here next month so we can take the journey together. See you then.
Bits and Pieces:
With the conclusion to this dark twisted story, I find myself wishing more from it other than the gloom and doom ending we received. I know that everything can't be sunshine and rainbows all the time, but in a book that deals with the power of using your emotions, there didn't seem to be much exuding from our character's other than complete despair. Depression aside, the book looked great as usual and even though I wasn't a fan of the core concept of the story, it was a interesting way to get us to GodHead and preparing us for what kind of loss and horrors we might expect from the future.
7/10
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