Review by Ian Keogh

The mysterious small blue-skinned Guardians of the Universe maintain a massive power battery on the planet of Oa. This transfers power to lanterns located all over the universe, from which those possessing a power ring can charge it. The Guardians divide the universe into thousands of sectors, and races from all over are represented in the Corps, first undertaking a training programme.

When Geoff Johns so successfully rebooted the tired Green Lantern franchise it wasn’t only Hal Jordan given a new lease of life. Jordan’s ultimately connected to a bigger picture, and in Recharge Johns and Dave Gibbons created new characters as a means of showing the sheer wonder of the Green Lantern universe. However, it’s Patrick Gleason’s art that leaves the lasting impression, not the plot, which is linear and features few surprises. Surprisingly, without Johns the feature improves, Gleason’s art developing and Gibbons (and Keith Champagne) supplying very readable stories, some even drawn by Gibbons.

Although other artists are credited, well over three quarters of the book is drawn by Gleason, who begins as an incredibly talented newcomer pouring his heart into the detail. He develops an efficient storytelling style enabling such an extended run, but at the cost of the detail diminishing. He’s sometimes uncomfortable drawing people, so as the book progresses he’ll more frequently close in on faces, and even in the final work he can still produce odd looking expressions. However, right from the start the good outweighs the bad and he can be spectacular.

Although Peter J. Tomasi’s name appears under the title, it’s almost halfway through before he becomes the regular writer. He won’t look great at first as his earliest material is chapters of the crossover The Sinsetro Corps War, which doesn’t slot together as well as might be hoped, with much repetition and some lazy storytelling. On Tomasi’s part, though there’s a hint of what’s to come as Sodam Yat recals his youth while he fights an opponent even a Daxamite may not be able to beat.

Tomasi’s first full solo outing, supplied in paperback as Ring Quest, is also a matter of feeling his way into the cast. They’re well handled in facing the viable threat of Mongul, but the story continues too long before a supernaturally rapid ending. Also included is Tomasi’s Mongol solo story from ten years previously, drawn by Scott Eaton and an exercise in sadistic brutality.

With Mongol out of his system Tomasi hits form. It’s apparent he’s given considerable thought to the assorted Green Lanterns and their backgrounds and springs story ideas from them. The final third of the Omnibus is consistently good, and leads into Blackest Night.

Most of this collection still reads well and looks good. Paperbacks featuring sequences not already linked to are To Be a Lantern, Dark Side of Green, Sins of the Star Sapphires, Emerald Eclipse, and Blackest Night: Green Lantern Corps. Follow the links for greater assessment of the individual story arcs.