Green Lantern: New Guardians, Volume 4: Gods and Monsters

Green Lantern: New Guardians (Collected Editions)

by Justin Jordan (Writer), Brad Walker (Illustrator), Andrew Hennessy

The Templar Guardians have been locked away for millennia, but they have a very clear idea of what they need to do next--and of all the Lanterns in the universe, they need a reluctant Kyle Rayner's help. But once he sees the strange anomaly lurking at the edge of the universe, he may have no choice but to get on board with their mission.

Collecting: Green Lantern: New Guardians 21-24; Green Lantern 23, Annual 2; Green Lantern Corps 24; & Red Lantern 24

Genres: Comics, Graphic Novels, Dc Comics, Graphic Novels Comics, Comic Book, Superheroes, Fiction

200 pages, Paperback

First published September 2, 2014

About the author

Justin Jordan is an American comic book writer. He is known for writing and co-creating The Strange Talent of Luther Strode, Spread, Dead Body Road, Deep State, Dark Gods and Savage Things. He has also written Green Lantern: New Guardians, Superboy, Deathstroke and Team 7 for DC Comics and the relaunch of Shadowman for Valiant Entertainment.

In 2012, he was nominated for the Harvey Award for Most Promising New Talent.

Reviews

[James DeSantis · Rating 1 out of 5]

This was awful.

All the characters making rash and dumb choices. Art is a step down somehow from the past. The storyline itself into lights out is SO boring.

I REALLY disliked this one enough to give up and sell my collection of this series.

A 1.5 out of 5.

[Gavin · Rating 2 out of 5]

Lame.

Change this title to Kyle the Vanilla Lantern.

He's boring, ie. Vanilla. It makes sense for him to be in white, because he can't commit to one colour. They more or less say he's just a bit of everything...yet he couldn't wear a rainbow?

If he were sex, he'd be shower first, lights off, missionary with no talking and finishing in a Kleenex.

There is some relic. An old entity that no one can defeat...of course not....but...skittle power!

This series only catches attention when the other Green Lantern humans show up. Hal, John, Guy, even Simon I think was here?

Anyhow, they provide more interest than vanilla unicorn Kyle.

How often does Guy flip between green and red like a traffic light? I swear he was green last time, now red again!

Also, how much trouble did the old guardians give until Sinestro took them out? Too much....so Templar Guardians are welcomed right in, and get Kyle to babysit? Hal pretty much tells him he's only good for babysitting...Hal is rebuilding the whole corps, John is rebuilding a new Oa, and Guy is nearly running Red lanterns, and he's Guy Gardner for fucks sake!

I really don't get to learn anything about Kyle at all, and I've read all 4 volumes of this.....all we get is a bit at the end of his dad reuniting, but even that is boring.

Also, Carol Ferris? You were so happy to have Hal back from the dead last volume, and the future tells us that they live happily ever after...then next issue, you're not with him? Telling Kyle you only Love Hal as a buddy now? Oh, and the best part of the book is when Kyle is missing, and she uses her star sapphire powers to find him....via LOVE and Hal's all...WTF bitch? Are you umm...telling me you love this 90s DC creation for when I was dead and they needed to sell GL books???? In front of the rest of the GL corps...

That shit was awesome and hilarious,,,but seriously? Carol? You run a major company, and you think an emo rainbow artist with daddy issues and confused wardrobe choices is a better choice than Hal f'n Jordan??? He who purged Parallax, the Spectre, and death itself? He literally beat death, and survived Ryan Reynolds portrayal, and then on top of it all is a FIGHTER PILOT. You think Hal's too busy being awesome saving the Galaxy and rebuilding the GLCorps to have a relationship, but Kyle, who is doing the same thing but in a far lamer manner and is NOT A FIGHTER PILOT is a good choice? FUCK.



Talk about poor life choices...
Who is Kyle's best friend? And no, the gf in the fridge doesn't count....answer? None.
Hal? Why it would be Barry Allen, the Flash, who ALSO CAME BACK FROM THE DEAD. Cool? Yes.
Hell, even Sinestro, one of the biggest baddies in the DCU calls Hal Jordan friend.
Guy Gardner even has John Stewart...hell even Batman is willing to be seen with Guy, even if only to talk shit to him or punch him.
Kyle, who stands up for him on wedding day? Probably Hal Jordan, because he feels sorry for the loser. (And when the preacher asks who has anything to say against the marriage, he can speak up, deck Kyle, and marry Carol)


Say, that sounds like a pretty awesome Y&R style story arc....Papa Johns? Make this happen.

[Kyle · Rating 3 out of 5]

Mostly supplemental issues to the Lights Out storyline. In fact, the more interesting parts of Lights Out happen in this volume: the discovery of Relic; learning more about the Templar Guardians, Carol Ferris falling out of love.

But the crux is Kyle. He's not a very interesting character. If he is so important to the balance of the universe, would it not make sense to give him a tiny ounce of personality? He's unlikable!!! Simon Baz would have made a better white lantern, in my opinion.

3/5

[Dan · Rating 3 out of 5]

The beginning of this is slow to start, but once the plot is revealed it picks up pace...at this point it is seemingly so fast paced that it seems to rush through a story that should have been told throughout a couple of volumes instead of being compressed into half of one. I enjoyed the story of the Relic, but felt that it could have been a bit more developed, such as where did this guy come from? Why was he trapped? What did he know? Who trapped him, etc. The end or last part of this volume was very mediocre, and that was why I rated this only 3 stars.

[Shannon Appelcline · Rating 2 out of 5]

Relic (21-24 + Annual.) So, we have a new author. What does he bring? On the good side, he immediately hits us with a heavier science-fiction focus than we usually see in Green Lantern: a relic from the previous universe! How cool is that? On the bad side, said Relic is said to be so powerful that the Green Lantern Corps can't defeat it! How dull is that? Way too many of super hero comics focus on super-powerful villains that can't be defeated until the MacGuffin is found, and so the plot hasn't gotten very old and stale.

Unfortunately, as is so often the case in the Nu52, the Relic story quickly descends into semi-comprehensibility, because DC seems to think that people prefer to read all of a title's issues, not full crossovers, and so once more we get a horribly incomplete story. It's actually better than most, as one can sort of make out what's going on, but it's still bad.

I also have some severe qualms with what I think is the central concept of the crossover — that the energy wielders are destroying the universe. It's like that horrible Star Trek: The Next Generation episode that revealed that the universe was being destroyed by ships going warp 9. Like that episode, this idea will soon be forgotten (or else "fixed"). In any case, I think turning the heroes of these comics into villains who are destroying the universe by wielding their rings is a pretty bad choice, even if it creates some short-term possibility for good stories. (But maybe I misunderstood the whole idea, since I just got a fragmentary story.)

The Rest (25-27). The later stories again have a nice science-fiction vibe to them, but I didn't find either particularly enthralling. They were both wordy and prone to dissolve into fights, which wasn't that interesting. I also have a hard time believing the Kyle/Carol romance that's being played up in these issues.

Overall, I have to say "meh" for this new direction, and that's even without considering how problematic this volume is because of the fact that it doesn't bother to tell a coherent story. (3-stars for the writing herein, but only 2-stars for how the volume is put together, to give you a very incomplete reading experience.)

[Michael Church · Rating 2 out of 5]

Another New 52 title off my list. There's nothing truly awful about this title, but there's nothing really compelling about it either. All of the characters are awkward and not very likable (a trend I'm noticing in the DC books). The author is messing with things that are supposed to be Green Lantern standards. While some shakeup is welcome now and then, it's like the whole mythos is being turned upside down. The art isn't anything special either. I think Kyle's mask grows frame by frame and everyone is uncomfortably shiny looking.

The bottom line is that there was no part of this book that made me really care what happened and at that point, a book has become a waste of time.

[Adam Fisher · Rating 4 out of 5]

Almost 4 stars, but not quite.
I had read some of this as part of the "Lights Out" event in the main GL title. The issues exclusive to this volume were pretty good overall, setting up Kyle as a touring protector of all of sorts. What is missing from this title now is what I originally loved about it: 1 member of each Corps all having to work together to solve issues. Will it go back to that? Not sure.
I'll keep reading though... the story is still very compelling right now.
Recommend.

[Milo · Rating 4 out of 5]

One of my favourite New 52 titles when it isn't bogged down by crossovers. Love Jordan's take on the series.

[Krzysztof Grabowski · Rating 2 out of 5]

O ile Biała Latarnia była najmocniejszym punktem Light Out tak w swoim czwartym tomie jest… Ciapcią. Taką prawdziwą. Jestem i masz mnie Panie Boże takim jak mnie stworzyłeś. Jest bardzo reaktywny, wydaje się kimś kto nie lubi podejmować decyzji. Skupić się na tworzeniu, co widzimy zwłaszcza w momencie, gdy znajduje się w kleszczach Relica. Gość reprezentuje siły Życia, a za bardzo "żywotny" to nie jest, ale...

Cały tom podzieliłbym ogólnie na cztery części. Pierwszy, najlepszy jest takim swoistym „fillerem”, bowiem uzupełnia to co działo się na obrzeżach całego wyżej wspomnianego crossoveru. Co było przyczyną wybudzenia się istoty o nazwie Relic? Skąd Relic miał taką wiedzę na temat funkcjonowania Korpusów Latarni? Bum. Kyle. Fajnie, że autorom chciało się logicznie odpowiedzieć na pytanie jakie padły podczas Light Out, a na próżno było tam szukać odpowiedzi, przez co fabuła momentami wydawała się dziurawa. Tu mamy jakieś uzupełnienie. Wstęp wprowadził też postać niejakiego Exeter, strażnika, który czuwał nad powstałą anomalią, ale oczywiście nie wyszło… Relic porywa Białą Latarnię, aby ją zbadać, bo w świecie jaki pamięta, czegoś takiego nie było.

Drugi segment to oczywiście dwa bodajże zeszyty wchodzące w skład wymienianego już eventu, które już mi się nieco przejadły. Dodatkowo są też chyba najsłabsze fabularnie z części czterech tomów jakie wchodzą w skład wydarzenia. Wiemy, że zasoby Światła zostały odnowione, nie wiemy tylko w jakim stopniu. Niebieskie Latarnie upadły. Stwory, które odzwierciedlały poszczególne moce już nie żyją, choć był moment w którym chciały zdominować Kyle, poprzez swoistego rodzaju opętanie, ale…

Miałem zgryz co do jednej postaci. Kobiecej, która towarzyszy Kyle’owi podczas dalszej podróży. Carol Ferris. Różowa albo fioletowa Latarnia zależnie jak się patrzy. Poprzednio tak blisko Hala, teraz magicznie lata i zawraca głowę Kyle’owi. Taki troszkę gold digger nastawiony na to kto silniejszy chyba, a przynajmniej takie odniosłem wrażenie, bo w poprzednim tomie zakończenie wskazywało na to, że związek Carol-Hal będzie szedł w dobrą stronę. A tutaj taka zmiana. Bo tak.

Pozostałe dwie części opowiadają o odrębnych od siebie przygodach. Przyjaciele myślą, że Kyle nie żyje, a on postanawia utrzymać ich w tym przekonaniu(zwłaszcza Jordana), choć robi jeden wyjątek. Nieszczęsna Carol. Mam nadzieję, że wreszcie się określą co do statusu związku na Latarnianym FB, bo już to granie takiego "niby/nie do końca" friendzone mnie irytowało.

Pierwsza przygoda po Lights Out miała naprawdę interesujący koncept. Poznajemy niejakiego Nias Den Throden i zaznajamiamy się z dniem codziennym tych wielkookich kosmitów, ale oczywiście musi się coś kryć za tą ogólną idyllą. I rzeczywiście się kryje. Czyste s-f wraz z manipulacją czasem i wymiarami, co oczywiście musiało się skończyć wraz z przybyciem bohaterów i ingerencją w pewien rytuał „przejścia”. Historia ta była zwyczajnie nieciekawa, choć początek potrafił zaciekawić.

Końcówkę poświęcono Exeterowi i jest to chyba najgorszy wątek w całym cyklu jak do tej pory. To zwyczajnie mordobicie, skryte pod płaszczykiem szlachetności i zasad. Mimo, że samo zakończenie wskazuje, że kiedyś ponownie zobaczymy kosmitę z rogatym zarostem, to wolałbym tego już nie czytać.

Graficznie wszystko ze sobą w miarę współgra i wygląda całkiem nieźle, zważywszy na całą gamę rysowników. Czwarty tom w mojej opinii jest najsłabszą składową Lights Out. Fajnie, że uzupełnia treścią całe zamieszanie, ale jednocześnie cała reszta jest nużąca. Oby Kyle rozwinął się w kolejnych tomach.

[Tom · Rating 3 out of 5]

This volume is mostly concerned with the Relic crossover event. I think I like this half of the story slightly better than the half of the story that shows up in the Red Lanterns volume, but that's the collection that actually features the end of the story, so if I were to have read this book before that one, I probably would have been more off-put by the lack of resolution here. The last couple of issues in this book are then occupied by a side quest that felt kind of like a classic Star Trek premise where the Lanterns are intervening in a dispute on a distant planet. Decent stuff all around. I wouldn't say this approaches the first couple of volumes of the series, but it's a fine time.

[Sean · Rating 2 out of 5]

I'm not sure this wasn't worse than I rated it. Editorially, there are parts of a crossover that wasn't very good. Then, the first chapters not part of the crossover are terrible. I still don't see the point of this book. Kyle is over-powered now and a possible new romance makes me shake my fist. The art was just okay. Overall, a literal mess.

[Dean · Rating 2 out of 5]

I liked the set up to Lights Out.
After Lights Out the stories felt weak. They weren't for me. Strange that Carol is being written to fall for Kyle. Prior to this they haven't had much one on one time. It is an interesting dynamic, but in my mind, one shouldn't date their friend's ex. Maybe that's outdated.

Art is okay.

[Paweł · Rating 2 out of 5]

Słabe zestawienie z punktu widzenia wydawniczego. Mamy historię Lights Out ale z szerszym prologiem, za to bez zakończenia.

[Jade · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 Stars

[Lillian Francis]

#21 - 22 Bloody Hell. It's just one epic disaster after another in the GL titles atm.

[Nick · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5

looking at these reviews i seem to be the only one who Gets It, this is so peak

[Lincoln · Rating 2 out of 5]

Enjoyed the art, but the story failed to interest me.

[Wing Kee · Rating 1 out of 5]

Absolutely terrible.

I will say this, the stuff with Relic is fine, for the first arc from the new creative teams building that world and doing that level of world building was great, but man this series just does not work and it is destroying a beloved comic book character.

World: The art is fine, it's colorful and it pops, the Lantern books have always been solid. Let's talk the positives first, all the stuff with 'Lights Out' I enjoyed, the world building aspect of that I really enjoyed caused it built upon the lore of the GLU and it spun it around in a fun new way to change the status quo. I like it when that happens. However the bad is really bad here. The world building for Kyle's piece of the GLU is absolutely horrible. The paradise world was stupid and so far the new Guardians have not been utilized well, but I will talk about them in the character section. As I said the paradise world and the last issue of the book were pathetic in it's stupidity, the worlds made no sense stupid.

Story: The good stuff was with 'Lights Out' but that's it. Oh man, where do I start. Okay, I'll only try to keep this as story based criticism. The story has no point. It does not know what it is and does not know what it wants to do. There is no identity and point to the tales. I would have expected with New Guardians we would maybe have a fun fish out of water look at the GLU with these Guardians that have been locked away so long (I'll talk about them below), but no we get wishy washy story telling and a pointless story because the character is pointless also. The last 3 issues were one of the worst GL books I've read in a while and that includes the Red Lantern book. I don't want to go into it except to say that the writers don't know what to do with Kyle and this book, it needs to have a point and there is none and that's why this book is terrible.

Characters: This is simply the worst part of the entire book. This slow destruction of Kyle Rayner is a travesty and it needs to end. This is not the Kyle I grew up with and he actions are so all over the place it is annoying. Do the writers even know what to do with him? Do they even understand Kyle as a character? Cause he wields all the lights does not mean he is emotionless it means he should feel more and be able to emote more not the opposite. This is just terrible, please please please find out what you want to do with Kyle and let him be a character again. Carol Ferris is the next character to get character assassinated. What the hell? With the wonderful ending that Johns wrote for Hal and Carol we then get tugged towards this. Yes I did not expected a Lois and Clark thing going on here but her actions make no sense and her feelings towards Kyle are not earned and are simply wrong. I don't know about the bro code in comic books but seriously? Kyle had such an interesting thing going on with Natu and now it's this pathetic thing. It's not about Kyle and I'm getting side tracked it's about Carol and what she is. This is not Carol Ferris. Where is the tough as nails strong female character that runs a company? Has she forgotten Ferris? What the hell? That thing with Hal really? This is just STUPID and to be honest kind of offensive for me because this is just wrong. Add to that the New Guardians. What the hell??!! You have a great opportunity to tell a fish out of water tale with them and instead you have these dumb characters which is moving towards evil Guardians once again. Have them emote! Have them be flawed and have them be interesting and give them personalities other than goggled and long hair Guardian and helmet guardian and shakespeare guardian. Pathetic.

This book needs to end and Kyle needs to get away from this creative team and this series. You can have him retire, put him back on earth and happy and not touch him for all I can. Just don't do what you are doing with him now.

Onward to the next book!

[Travis · Rating 2 out of 5]

Well, that was a wasted couple bucks.

Really looking forward to this series. The idea of White Lantern Kyle Rainer taking the Guardians on a 'Hitchhikers guide to the galaxy' tour to hopefully get them to see what's out there and that they need to take a different tack to dealing with the universe. Cool idea.

They then immediately encounter a vast cosmic being from the dawn of the universe.
Okay so far...

and then we rush into a big game changing crossover...!
Really? Five minutes into the post-Johns era the brilliant plan is another freaking Green Lantern crossover that will shake up the status quo?!
The GL titles don't really have a status quo! All they do is shake it up.

So much potential in these titles, but we never seem get the cool, cosmic stories we deserve because every story leads back to dealing with some mistake the Guardians made, game changing, earth-shaking game changers and trying to copy Geoff Johns.

So all we get is the Green Lanterns coming across as competent as the Jedi in the prequel trilogy.

[Will Robinson Jr. · Rating 3 out of 5]

I enjoyed this volume of the New Guardians Green Lantern series. I have constantly said I am happy with the way DC Comics is making each Lantern title have its own earth hero in the lead. I admit I love the Guy Gardner book more this go around. This book is Kyle Rayner's book and it has that sort of Star Trek kind of feel. So Kyle is the explorer lantern, and the book greatly lends itself for explorative story telling. It is great that we are able to take a trip and explore DC comics space with Kyle and the new Guardians. I am not however a fan of the Kyle and Carol relationship. I mean the love triangle between Carol, Hal, and Kyle is so teen high school stuff. Kyle deserves a extraterrestrial relationship and hopefully a complicated one. I didn't like the Relic story crossover that much here either. But I really enjoyed the other stories in this volume.

[Stephen Kacir · Rating 3 out of 5]

Suffers from being a complete mess due to a crossover event - and a silly rather pointless one at that.

This series NEEDS to actually focus on Kyle more and stop being a vehicle for stupid crossover events. I would have rated it lower except the final story with Exeter, Kyle, Carol and the new Guardians actually had some heart, plot and characterization. This title could be so much better but its characters are too often pushed to the side in favor of spectacle - the last time that actually worked to advantage was The Sinestro Corps War. Everything since has failed to live up to the hype. With each crossover the Green Lantern mythos gets goofier and more futile.

Disappointing.

[Cale · Rating 3 out of 5]

This volume focuses on Kyle, the conflict with Relic, and a one-off story that just goes to weird, if not creative, places with portals into multiple alternate dimensions. The main story is interesting, and has a different perspective than the other Green Lantern titles have, which is nice. Kyle has definitely matured as a character, although he still does some rash stuff. The one-off story is very different in tone, and seems out of place in the New 52 continuity, but at least it tells an interesting story. This book feels less fundamental to the main Green Lantern arcs, to its advantage and disadvantage both.

[Daniel Butcher · Rating 3 out of 5]

Includes two segments from Lights Out, but not full story.

There is material here that I believe should have been included in the Lights Out collection. Kyle is such a big part of that story that adding at least one issue from this collection to that story would make Lights Out more complete. For example, this is the volume you see the Carol/Kyle friendship in play and would have made the other collection richer.

[Trent · Rating 5 out of 5]

My favorite of the New Guardian series of trade paperbacks so far. Not that any of them have been bad or even just okay. I've liked them all so far. I like how this one was basically 3 stories. The first one was the least best, the second the best, and the last one (just one issue long) was in the middle and pretty much just an epilogue to the first story.

[Andy · Rating 3 out of 5]

I did enjoy this, but am mostly weirded out by the fact that two very significant events seem almost glossed over. I guess it's probably because this is the Kyle Rayner show and they're covered in more detail in the Green Lantern Corps books, but still. I feel knocked sideways.

[Joshua · Rating 4 out of 5]

It was great read this series again. The artwork is still impeccable. However there a few instances where there was a word or two missing from the dialogue that would've made it read so much cleaner &/or correctly.

[Tomas · Rating 1 out of 5]

I'm officially giving up on this series. It is completely unnecessary to follow up here. I find this series as the stories which did not make it into proper Green lantern books.

[David · Rating 3 out of 5]

Decent outing.

[Brian · Rating 2 out of 5]

New direction...but I think I need a break from all the Lanterns for awhile.

[Chet Witucki · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was nowhere near as epic as the first twenty issues, but how could it be? Still, this was pretty good, although I miss a lot of Kyle's old crew, like Larfleeze and Walker.