This
was a solid issue all around.

I’m not very knowledgeable about John Stewart, but this
issue went a fair ways in explaining and endearing the character to me. At
first the “I am a soldier” stuff seemed a little boring and routine to me, but the story took it in an interesting direction via extensive flashback. The main feature was several pages shorter than your usual 22-page comic story, and in my opinion that helped: the story did what it needed to do, didn’t overstay its welcome or decompress things just to fill pages.

The second feature, though much shorter, was more interesting to me. I’ve always enjoyed Ordway’s art, maybe because I grew up on his ’80s
stuff. I mean, some of the comics I happened to ask my parents for in
the supermarket when I was five, they had Ordway art. I like the guy and genuinely appreciate his talent (I don’t just like him in a “retro is cool” sorta way).

I know that around the internet some people are voicing their slight displeasure about Johns still ragging on the Guardians. “We get it–the Guardians aren’t perfect. But who is? Move on.” I can see these critics’ point, but from my perspective Johns continues to use the scenario of the Black Lanterns ragging on the Guardians to good effect. Johns still pulls out fairly great lines of dialogue by making his characters talk about that subject. The ghostly trip through time and reality in the back-up story, the skeletal landscape, complete with a Deadman cameo at the end–this is up my alley.

(Sidenote: This issue opens with a quote from Plato; and in Plato’s most noteworthy work, The Republic, he talks about what “The Guardians” of humanity must do to hold onto power and turn society to their advantage for “the greater good”. Johns must know this, right? Everyone who reads Plato with any sort of critical eye should definitely have some reservations about how Plato’s “Guardians” (i.e. powerful little bureaucrats, philosophers and politicians) must tell “noble lies” to the public in order to fool and coerce the masses. This questioning of Guardians is a theme that has been going on in Johns’ Green Lantern run for a long time now.)

Though it doesn’t have as good art or a story that is as exciting as the core Blackest Night mini-series, this issue is very representative of the event as a whole. It’s not mindblowing, genre-breaking or medium-expanding stuff–not by a longshot–but the whole production is very well-crafted, neat, enjoyable and of course entertaining.