New Guardians #9

Blue Lanterns versus Blue Beetles!

Planet Odym, home of the Blue Lanterns, most boring world in existence, is about to become slightly less boring. A huge battle between Blue Beetles and Hope Loving Monastic Lanterns doesn't sound like the fight of the century.

Blue Lantern #4: I hope those aren't actually war ships coming out of that portal.
Blue Lantern #2: I hope the cloak on our planet didn't fail us as it appears to have done.
Blue Lantern #1: I hope I'm Saint Walker.
Blue Lantern #3: I hope I'm hoping hard enough that our hope is strong enough to allow me to hope we can defend the planet of hope.
Blue Beetle #1: Bwa ha ha ha ha!

Unless it ends up happening differently. I think Blue Beetles are actually really, really powerful and bloodthirsty and don't laugh and crack jokes as much as the 1980s Justice League would have you believe. And Lead Blue Beetle Lucrezia Mott is probably less of a pacifist than you'd think. Probably because he was meant to be named after Lucrezia Borgia.

I think I'll write about bugs!

The Blue Beetles descend upon Odym and beginning crushing hope.

Meanwhile, Fatality the Star Sapphire is busy investigating the White Hole from which Invictus entered our universe. The Zamarons declare that Invictus could not have come through to our universe without help from someone in our universe. The only person they feel they can really rule out is Larfleeze since Invictus plans on destroying Larfleeze and destroying the Orange Lanterns. And that's when Fatality has an a-ha moment ala Dr. House.

Don't her boobs get cold in space?

And now the Blue Lanterns are being attacked by the Reach. And the Indigo Lanterns battery has just been shut down in Green Lantern #9. So the Star Sapphires are the only ones not currently going through a crisis. And who would want all of the Corps shut down? Why, the Guardians of Oa to make way for their new Universal Police Force they're working on! What a bunch of bastards. And maybe that's why the Star Sapphires are being left alone. They know better than to fuck with their ex-wives, the Zamarrons.

Once Fatality hears about the Reach's attack on Odym, she rushes off to help. Green Lantern and Bleez are also headed to help after hearing about the attack in Blue Beetle #9. I don't know if Arkillo or Munk will be able to help out though since they're busy doing other things. And Larfleeze is a selfish jerk, so count him out. Probably.

Back on Odym, Khaji-Kai finally reappears after leaving off his hunt of Jaime on Earth a half-dozen issues ago. He decides to go head to head with Saint Walker.

What kind of shitty pacifist fighting tactic is this?

Saint Walker doesn't fight fair! He nearly forces the parasitic scarab from its host but is stopped by a couple of other Blue Beetles who manage to break Walker's contact with Khaji-Kai. If all of the Blue Lanterns can manage this trick, hope may yet live! And not just hope for the Blue Lanterns but hope for all of the soldiers of The Reach who are merely victims of The Reach themselves.

Meanwhile, Green Lantern puts out the call to the other New Guardians to follow his signal and meet him at Odym to help the Blue Lanterns. So I guess Munk and Arkillo will make the party after all!
Saint Walker sends Brother Shon away from the battle to bring back a Green Lantern because the Blue Lantern rings only have the ability to attack when brought into close proximity to a Green Lantern ring. That's something I didn't know. I probably would have known it if I'd read Blackest Night!

I also learn that Blue Lanterns can lose their ring when they lose all hope!

Ha ha! Loser!

Apparently hope is a pretty fragile thing and these Blue Lantern rings need to be redesigned! As soon as Shon loses hope, the ring abandons him and heads back to the other Blue Lanterns where it tells everyone Shon needs to be replaced. Then all the other novices begin to panic and believe Shon is dead. Luckily they don't all go totally hopeless or else half of the corps would have been lost right there! Stupid ring should be a little more discrete about needing a replacement.

Even though a bunch of the new recruits are scared, Saint Walker rallies them to fight back against the Blue Beetles any way they can because help may not arrive in time. So they follow Saint Walker's charge against the Beetles which will probably take place next issue.

New Guardians #9 Rating: +1 Ranking. Good comic but I really liked the reveal that all the disasters befalling all of the different Corps are likely being caused by one source. And if it wasn't clear, I was just guessing it's the Guardians. But that guess is so likely that even Vegas wouldn't take a bet against it.