Review by Ian Keogh
The Dark Side of Green is a smart title for the introduction of what’s in effect a black ops squad run by the Guardians of the Universe, and as presented by Keith Champagne and Patrick Gleason over three chapters it spurs a grim and violent tale. In fact it’s too explicitly violent on Gleason’s part for your traditional DC supehero comic.
Amorality has always been a trait of alien races the Dominators and the Khunds, and the mission concerns their messing with matters they don’t fully understand, although they, of course, would claim otherwise. Champagne presents a forceful reason for what’s left of the black ops squad to bear a grudge against the Guardians, and for them to complete another mission.
Qualms about Gleason crossing a line in depicting violence aside, his art is still developing. It’s notable here that he’s more likely to move the viewpoint of panels in close on faces far more often than he did during To Be A Lantern, whereas a delight of the previous volume was the vistas provided. Perhaps that’s the shortcut he needed to sustain monthly publication of the original material. Both Dave Gibbons and Tom Nguyen also draw some pages here, Gibbons again shining.
In To Be A Lantern with Gibbons writing, Guy Gardner was just one of an ensemble cast, but his role is far larger for this pair of stories. In the first he’s an essential part of a three person mission, and while Gibbons is back writing the second, he still has a large role, being accused of murder. Gibbons here juggles an even broader cast than before, with the trainee Green Lanterns all displaying strong personalities and two indications of something corrupting the Corps. One is solved before the end, and the other continues, but along the way Gibbons introduces another fascinating new Green Lantern.
This isn’t quite the thriller of To Be A Lantern, but Green Lantern fans, and especially Guy Gardner fans should find more than enough to captivate.
Gibbons takes the series into The Sinsetro Corps War, he and Gleason having produced enjoyable space opera, before turning the series over to Peter J. Tomasi, who writes the material still remembered starting with Ring Quest. Much more of his run is combined with Gibbons’ stories in the first volume of The Green Lantern Corps Omnibus by Peter J. Tomasi and Patrick Gleason.
