Green Lantern Corps: Edge of Oblivion #4 Review and *SPOILERS*

Bound and Gagged

Written By: Tom Taylor
Art By: Aaron Kuder, Ardian Syaf, Jonathan Glapion, Jaime Mendoza, Jason Wright, Dave Sharpe
Cover Price: $2.99
Release Date: April 13, 2016

*Non Spoilers and Score At The Bottom*

Let's get back to that crazy Universe that existed before our heroes' own and find out what our Lanterns are going to do now that Marniel, the evil that exists beneath the last city in the Universe has been able to take Kilowog, Guy Gardner, Simon Baz, Two-Six and Xrill-Vrek's rings and turned them to the dark side........... well, the old crusty side because man does this villain look like the Crypt Keeper's grandmother.  So yeah, the Universe is going to be destroyed in four days, a bunch of our Lanterns have been supposedly killed already and now the great evil of this book has a handful of our Lantern heroes as hostages.  What else could go wrong?  Well, we're about to find out as we jump back into this story to see if our Corps can find their way home before this Universe implodes on itself........... or whatever Universes happen to do when they die.  Let's check it out.

Explain It!:

Our issue begins with Kilowog telling Guy that he was right to have his apprehensions when it came to protecting a bunch of strangers in a even stranger Universe and as we find out, this is the best conversation/apology that Kilowog has ever had with his fellow Lantern because Marniel is apparently a quick study since she bound and gagged Guy right away.  There really isn't much to the opening of this issue though what with our heroes being pretty much powerless and Marniel now shooting ghosts of her people through the Green Lantern rings instead of her titties.  It's just a bunch of our heroes getting their asses kicked and John calling in through the rings to find out where his fellow Corpsmen are.  

The worst part about our heroes fighting against Marniel and then yelling during the ring communication with John Stewart that he should come down rings a blazing is that after all the huffing and puffing of our heroes trying to escape is over, we find out through the empath Xrill-Vrek that Marniel isn't the bad guy after all.  That's right, we're four issues in of a six issue mini and everything we've been dealing with up to this point was a big misunderstanding.  It's weird, when I first read this issue I was a bit angry that with Marniel not being the bad guy that it was kind of like the first three issues didn't matter and that we were now finally going to get to the meat of the book, but I have to admit, when I took my head out of my ass and thought about it for a second, that's some pretty decent setup to get me the way that this series has.  Here I was complaining for issue after issue about why doesn't the Green Lantern Corps just take everyone who's all about living and leave on Mogo and leave Marniel and her death obsessed followers behind, but the real reason that Marniel is all death obsessed is that she's the last of beings who created this city and the two giant Guardians are more like Cthulhu-s and eat Universes until they're gone and then move on to the next one and Marniel will do whatever she has to to stop them.  If destroying everything isn't enough to make these characters big bads, it turns out that Ausras and Dismas also have the ability to influence people's minds........ hence most of the people on this last city being on Team Giant Universe Destroyers.  

In the end, after our Lantern heroes find out the truth about what's going on and that Marniel isn't their enemy, our once villain gives them back their rings and as soon as Guy Gardner gets his back........... well, it's kind of funny because he doesn't remove his gag right away, but he does fly off because it turns out that he's been brainwashed by the giant guardians and wants to do everything that he can to make sure that Ausras and Dismas are protected by the rest of the Lanterns.  Really though, whether John comes down with a shit ton of backup to take on Marniel or goes to protect the two giants, it doesn't seem like our group of Lanterns here will have a good time in the next issue.

That's it for this issue of Green Lantern Corps: Edge of Oblivion and while I haven't been the biggest fan of this series, I do hope now that the cat is out of the bag with who and what are villains are in this series that it will be able to pick up completely for its final two issues.  It's funny because with the reveal this issue about Marniel not being the big bad that we all thought she was, I have to say that I have mixed feeling about it because on one hand I feel like it's a little too late in the game to start changing up the dynamic of the story.......... since it's been a little rough since the beginning, but on the other hand it does kind of tie a lot of things together to make this more cohesive........ again though, it still feels a little too late in the game because we need to get our Lantern's home after defeating the bad guys in only two more issues.  Yeah, there isn't much to this issue except for the big reveal, but even with that I guess I'll be positive about it because really, it's the most development we've had in this series.  The art while not bad is not what we've come to love from this series since Ethan Van Sciver is off the book, but even with that it doesn't hurt the story and it's clear about what's going on............ I hope that makes sense to people because one of my biggest pet peeves is seeing a book and not having any idea what it's trying to say through the art.  

Bits and Pieces:

Edge of Oblivion takes a turn in this book with revealing what's actually going on with this last city of the Universe and while it works to tie the rest of the issues together, it does come off too little too late at this point since we're halfway through this series.  Hopefully now though it will be able to get right to the story without filler and end on a strong note because while I love the Green Lantern Corps, I can't say that this is one of its strongest stories.  

6.3/10