Green Lantern #40

Oh my god. It's full of Guy Gardners.

This issue begins with Hal Jordan stealing some glove and shield combo thing from the evidence room on Mogo. Kilowog stops him, calls him a traitor, and challenges him to a fight. I have a feeling I'm going to get a 24 hours earlier tag soon. Or else I'm just going to be confused for the rest of the book.

Well, I do get an "earlier" tag on the next page. I guess 24 hours doesn't really mean anything out here on Mogo. What the fuck is an hour except one arbitrary fraction of the length of time it takes for the Earth to complete one rotation. We could have ten hour days if civilized humans had been smart enough to go metric way back in the beginning! But if we tried that now, everybody (and by "everybody" I mean "Americans") would get confused trying to remember that one metric hour equals 2.4 old measurement hours. We'd be late for everything!

Anyway, "earlier" the Guardians were scheming yet again. They fear the universe isn't doing what they want the universe to do so now they've got to enact their "final gambit." Hopefully that means taking sleeping pills, slitting their wrists, and slipping into non-existence in one of Mogo's quiet streams. If the universe is going to face a threat to its existence, can it, just once, not be due to the Guardians or their Green Lantern Corps? Please?

Hal Jordan decides to become a scapegoat because goats are the best and also Hal is kind of dumb.

This sounds like just the kind of poorly thought out plan that Hal Jordan's known for. So his plan is to go rogue so that all the planets in the universe think, "Oh! I guess the Corps is okay now that that rotten Hal Jordan isn't leading them anymore!" And he figures that wasting the rest of the Corps' time hunting him will get them back on track? Is he going to become some bad ass anti-hero in June? I think he saw how Carol followed Kyle around when he felt ostracized from the rest of the Corps and now he thinks she'll come after him if she sees he's a lonely rebel too.

The weapon Hal is stealing is Krona's Gauntlet which means it must be powerful and it probably played a key role in some Rainbow War or Brightest Night or Bleakest Day or some other Preboot crap. Kilowog fights Hal because he wants to know Hal has what it takes to survive with the entire universe after him. I don't know why they're so confident that if he betrays the Corps, the universe will believe he's a criminal and back the Corps! It's more likely that they'll see him as a hero who abandoned a corrupt force of authoritarian dickbags! Everybody in the universe will want to help him survive. And most of the Lanterns probably wouldn't really give a shit. "Oh, Hal took off with Krona's Gauntlet? I'm sure he had a good reason."

Hal nearly kills Kilowog and then he hugs his unconscious body and cries like a little baby. That's when Salaak and the others walk in to find him groping his unconscious teammate.

See? Salaak already knows there must be an explanation other than "Hal Jordan is an evil bastard that must be stopped at all costs and there's no way he can have some other reason for doing what he's doing!"

Hal Jordan ditches the Corps to go have adventures all his own while the Bohemian Guardians prepare to fuck up the universe once again.

Green Lantern #40 Rating: No change. I really do hope Hal Jordan remains separate from the Corps for awhile. These things never seem to last for more than a few months before all of the Lanterns are sucked back into some new cosmic crisis. I don't really care for the way he left the Corps since it seems kind of irrational and impulsive but I won't mind reading a Green Lantern comic book with Hal Jordan having space adventures without the fucking Guardians breathing down his neck. Hopefully the Green Lantern Corps stories will take place in whatever the new Green Lantern books will be. Also, did anybody else think the art in this issue was horrible? I usually really like Billy Tan's stuff so I guess it's Mark Irwin's inking that sucked.

This issue was like a Sailor Moon valentine which points out that I'm smarter than the intended recipient which, according to the back, was the Non-Certified Spouse's sister.