Convergence: Green Lantern Corps #1 (2015) Review

Working Through Some Issues

Written By: David Gallaher
Art By: Steve Ellis, Andre Parks, Hi-Fi
Cover Price: $3.99
Release Date: April 22, 2015

*Non Spoilers and Score At The Bottom*

It's time to get into a Pre-Crisis On Infinite Earths story featuring our favorite Green Lanterns....... favorite because Kyle Rayner hadn't been created yet....... but still, Hal Jordan, Guy Gardner, and John Stewart are pretty okay.  While all three of these Lanterns are present here, this is a Guy Gardner story through and through and I love seeing our rage-filled ginger getting the limelight here and exploring this timeline is just a bonus.  So much of Guy's past has been forgotten and or retconned that this serves as a really fun stroll down memory lane for fans of DC Comics in the '80s.  Let's get into this and check out what Convergence: Green Lantern Corps has in store for us.

Explain It!:

Our story begins like all the rest, where our heroes have spent a year under the dome and we see that Guy Gardner has been spending his time as a gym teacher.......... Which I can totally get behind because who doesn't want to take their frustrations about life out on snot-nosed kids?  What's that?  Oh, it's only me....... Well, fair enough.  We get a little insight on Guy though when he comes across a couple of kids playing Justice League and two kids are arguing about who gets to be Green Lantern.  Guy tries to calm the situation by suggesting other heroes the kid could be, but it all goes to hell for Guy when the kid decides that he wants to be Sinestro and our former GL goes and has himself a panic attack at the thought of the Korugarian.

We get a little catch up about what Guy went through before the dome when he goes to see his psychiatrist Dr. Leslie Thompkins and he goes on about how he was trapped in the Phantom Zone from a trap that was meant for Hal and during his time there, he was tortured by General Zod and Sinestro.  If that wasn't enough, Guy's girlfriend Kari Limbo became engaged to Hal Jordan because the two believed Guy was dead and when Gardner finally got out, he fell into a coma.  Still not enough for ya?  When Guy finally arose from the coma, he found himself trapped under a dome and his power ring useless.  So yeah, Guy's had a bad stretch lately and he intends on tracking down Hal Jordan to have a little man to man talk about everything that's happened to him........ Which leads him to Carol Ferris who was engaged to Hal before the dome trapped everyone and after that Hal changed........ We get a little more story about Hal becoming a recluse from John Stewart who spends his time............ you know, building things......... because that's what John does.  Finally, Guy tracks Hal down to an abandoned garage where he finds that Hal might just have more problems than he does.

In the end, we find out that since the dome went up, Hal has been trying to tap into the dome's energy to send a message to Oa but has yet to make contact with anyone............ Besides for this being futile no matter what, I really don't see Hal being smart enough to do this and I figure that he's just gone a little crazy and painted himself some cardboard boxes and pretends that he's doing scientific work.  Guy makes sure that Hal understands the futility of his actions by taking a baseball bat to his equipment and it looks like we're going to have ourselves a good old fashioned throw down when the dome disappears and we see Telos' mission statement.  As our issue closes Hal knocks Guy out so that he can't recharge his ring........... because it seems like Hal really feels bad for all the shit that Guy's gone through and actually feels responsible for it.  Well, Hal charges up and flies away and when Guy comes to he goes all leather jacket-clad vigilante like he did when he first lost his power ring after Crisis and gets on his motorcycle to go find some trouble.

That's it for this issue of Convergence: Green Lantern Corps chock full of story.  While most of Convergence has been throwing a ton of battles at you right out of the gate, this story takes it's time to get you to understand the mindset of Guy Gardner and all the things that he's endured pre-dome and I really appreciated that.  We've got the classic, arrogant, everyone's against me Guy Gardner here and he's presented with some excellent art by Steve Ellis........ Well, actually the entire art team from Steve to the Inker: Andre Parks, to Hi-Fi on colors did an excellent job that really makes me think that this is one of the best-looking books to come out of Convergence so far.  Some might not agree with me but this art really grabbed me and I enjoyed the hell out of it.  I can't wait to see what Gallaher has for us in the next issue because he really piqued my interest here.

Bits and Pieces:

I really enjoyed this issue reacquainting me with the Guy Gardner of old because for the most part, the tragedies that have befallen this character Pre-Crisis have been mostly forgotten.......... or retconned, so it was cool exploring Guy's past and seeing how our resident hot head is dealing with his new domed life........... Not only that but seeing how the dome affects Hal and John was an added bonus.  A great issue for any Green Lantern fan and for anyone who was ever interested in seeing characters in an older, different light.

8/10