Red Lanterns #40
DC Comics
Written by: Landry Walker
Art by: J. Calafiore & Gabe Eltaeb
Cover by: Scott Hepburn & Gabe Eltaeb
I admit that I haven’t really been following the whole Lantern Universe in the new 52, but one lantern I have been interested in ever since Red Lanterns: Futures End #1 has been Guy Gardner. Around issue #20 or so of the Red Lanterns series, Hal Jordan recruited Guy to be his eyes and ears inside the Red Lantern Corps. Guy agreed and ended up taking down Atrocitus and leading the Red Lantern Corps himself. Well in this last issue before Convergence, Guy is at the edge of what he can handle in his situation. He’s been using his red ring to absorb the rage of everyone he can in an attempt to eradicate anger from his sector, especially Earth. With each person’s rage he absorbs into his ring, Guy’s rage increases and he really starts to lose it. He realizes that there is an entity inside the Earth that feeds off the rage and is calling to him for his. So Guy quickly activates a plan that secures the safety of his sister and her baby and decides to release his rage. This issue ends in a somewhat ambiguous way that left me with questions and a dire need to know for sure what color ring our hero will wield during Convergence.
Landry Walker did a great job with this finale. Some of the panels showed us a very human and drained Guy that just looks tired, while others are somewhat poetic as we see and read Guy’s thoughts. The nebulous ending was a great way to finish this series. In the end we’re left feeling relieved for Guy after all that he’s been through in this chapter of his life. The art in this book was really nice. J. Calafiore was a keen eye for detail that is lacking in a lot of other mainstream comics. The inking was really great in this dark tale, and the coloring really brought everything else together. I loved how Guy’s thoughts were all just red. Compared to the colorfulness in the scene with his sister, the red pages really show us how consumed Guy is by the red light.
If you would have asked me a few months ago who my favorite human lantern was, I would have answered differently than today, because now I’m a massive Guy Gardner fan. This series as a whole has given him more character than he’s had in years, and this issue really just puts a nice little bow around the full package that is the Red Lanterns. This book is a great way to end the series and I would suggest that anyone who is a Lantern fan to check this book out. Guy really is the superhero he so desperately wants to be, he just didn’t realize it until the end.