So here we are with Green Lantern Corps 23.  Mongul is reaping a spring harvest.  The Honor Guard are hunting down the rings of the Sinestro Corps.  I can easily confuse Vath Sarn with John Stewart.  Much happens here, as it seems EVERY GL story these days does, and we draw closer to the Blackest Night next year.

We open up as Mongul is frolicking through a field picking up green and pick flowers.  Yeah, you read that right.  He's waltzing in a field of flowers, commenting on how it does his heart good to be around him.  Of course, the flowers are the dreaded breed "the Black Mercy", the same breed Mongul Sr used to capture Superman in Alan Moore's famous "For the Man Who Has Everything" tale.  It's becoming readily clear one or more of the bigwigs in the Green Lantern camp is a big Alan Moore fan because this is the second in as many months comic books' version of Rasputin was been referenced in a GL book.  The scene is drawn and staged beautifully by Pat Gleason that reminded me of Sinestro's opening scene in the Sinestro Corps War Special for some reason.  Mongul's really being set as an interesting wild card in the year before the great war of the Corps comes over the horizon. His writing so far has been truly great and creepy.  Where he'll fall in the grand scheme of things when everything goes down is anyone's guess, but it'll sure be fun to watch.  This was probably the best handled scene of the book.

The next few scenes demonstrate the Honor Guard on Shore Leave when the Bat-phon-- er, I mean Lantern Alert goes off.  Iolande is addressing her planet's UN.  Vath is helping Adam Strange and being drawn as to confuse me into thinking he's John Stewart.  Soranik is being eaten by a space fish.  Stel is looking like half of Big Guy and Rusty (well... a quarter in any respect)  Sodom is sunbathing... literally.  And Guy?  Well, Guy's passed out in front of a blueprint in a bar.  What's the point of these despite showing power rings have no concept of doors?  I'm not sure, but it was intriguing (and amusing) to see how these guys max and relax.

And next we get a guy that looks like a two-faced Bizarro in his tighty whiteys.  No foolin'.  Well, 2-faced naked Bizarro becomes a new Sinestro Corpsman only to be immediately intercepted by Mongul and his pet Black Mercy who demands he follow him or die.  It's a weird character design, this "Duel Eknham" but it works.  He looks  like he's going to be Mongul's sycophant well.

Next, the Honor Guard are commissioned to grab the Sinestro rings that have been fluttering about with Kyle leading the way.  It's good to see Kyle, my favorite Lantern, in a leadership role.  I was worried when Hal returned that Kyle was going to get scrubbed out so it's good to see he's still getting his due.  We also see the Guardians' continuing detrioation with the rest of the Corps as they're really starting to get snippy at Lanterns who question orders as Sodom does here.  The only issue I have here (which is my biggest gripe... though still a small one) is that the Guardian who shuts him up looks more constipated than stern.  Still, it's only a minor gripe that only momentarily took me out of the book.

So, the Honor Guard sets off to round up the rings.  The pacing is nice as we go from Kyle and Guy to Arisia and Sodom to Soranik and Iolande.  Granted, not much action is showed, but I think the editing with the green bubble cages flying about worked here.  When Sodom and Arisia are Black Mercy'd, Kyle gathers the team and decides he and the rest are going to forgo their intial mission and save their buds, setting up the possible Mongul/Corps fight next issue. 

All in all, this was a pretty solid issue.  Mongul's becoming a great rising threat for the Corps.  The protagonist team is continuing to be a good group of interesting characters you can really root for. Gleason shows again why he's the guy to be drawing this book, constipated Guardians and Stewart lookalikes aside (the latter's more my fault than anythin).  Tomasi delivers an effective set-up for the action that's bound to commence.  I have to say this might be the B-List Green Lantern book right now, but it's proven after a disappointing last issue, that it's back to swing in full force.  With any luck, the next issue is going to knock things out of the park.