Green Lantern New Guardians Annual #2 Review

Playtime isn’t fun anymore.

This annual explores what happened when Kyle went beyond the Source Wall and its repercussions.

It’s an enjoyable ride with some great revelations for the both pre and post New 52 readers. And while it does fall victim to some predictable twists and turns, it keeps one entertained.

Justin’s got a good grasp of Kyle but by focusing on everything happening around the White Lantern, he didn’t get to work the main character over. That all changes in this issue as Kyle must answer for what he’s done.

The art department is haphazard and thus, does not present an entirely cohesive structure.

SPOILERS FOLLOW……………

We see Kyle in his room in New York hard at work at his drawing board. Frustrated that he can’t get the drawing right, he looks up at…………a disfigured Alex?

For those new, Alex was Kyle’s girlfriend when he first became a Lantern and was killed in retaliation for Kyle’s heroic actions.

The disfigured Alex vanishes as Kyle erases her drawing.

Elsewhere in Coast City, Carol has returned to Ferris Aircraft amid mounting problems. But when she hears someone broke into Kyle’s storage locker, she’s back out.

Arriving at Kyle’s apartment, she is suspicious after seeing a blackened human sized portion of the wall (left by Kyle dissolving the disfigured Alex from reality) and attacks the artist.

Kyle wears a black variant of the White Lantern costume and repeatedly states that he's going to fix everything. Carol is able to blast a hole through him but he reforms.

But we are brought back to space where we see a White Lantern Kyle facing Space Squids and Space Sharks. One of the Guardians remark that they are altered though, and the organic structure of the universe may have been tampered with.

Kyle uses his Sapphire connection and knows something is wrong, taking leave of the Guardians.

The signal leads him to Arizona, and his estranged dad’s garage. It is covered by a dome and when he attacks it, the feedback dissolves the structure and Kyle himself begins to disappear. Carol arrives their and only by kissing him, can she stop the process.

He meets up with his father and the dark Kyle, who’s surrounded by local people transformed into disfigured allies of Kyle. In the backdrop, the buildings are also distorted.

The dark Kyle claims he’s trying to find the connections that make him feel alive, and this leads to a fight.

We get some hints as to Kyle’s crime through the dark counterpart’s words before Kyle is able to put him down.

The people are returned to normal but the dark Kyle returns, more monstrous than ever (and resembling Marvel's Venom). As Carol evacuates them, he reaches a wall barricading the whole town – the Source Wall!

But it’s different – every face on the structure is Kyle’s. And this brings out Kyle’s deep secret – that when he went beyond the Source Wall with the entities, he accidentally rewrote the universal laws layered with every thing that felt wrong to him. This created the dark Kyle, which he calls Oblivion, the embodiment of all the negative feelings Kyle has kept hidden inside.

Understanding this, he gives himself up to the creature and rewrites the laws there and then. Seemingly, he is himself written out of existence alongside his dark self.

It’s an interesting perspective Justin takes here. Subverting Kyle’s artistic background, he makes him an imperfect artist of the universe itself. And for taking on such an enormous and disruptive role, the costs must be borne.

SPOILERS END…………..

It’s an interesting perspective that Jordan takes and it can have great repercussions on the DC universe. He also focuses more Kyle and while it takes some familiar beats, the focus is very expertly done.

The artwork has some high points with the displays of the Source Wall and the Dark Kyle, but mostly is erratic and unflattering.

So, I give it 8.5 out of 10.

+Some good focus on Kyle

+Excellent imagery

+Enormous stakes fights

-Average artwork