Guy Gardner: Warrior #29

“It’s My Party and I’ll Fight If I Want To” – March 1995

This may just be the perfect time capsule for the mid-1990s DCU. Thanks to the plot device of Guy throwing a party for the opening of Warriors restaurant, this issue is able to provide a snapshot of nearly every DCU character as they existed during comics’ most controversial era. Just paging through the issue, you get a splash page featuring Kyle Rayner, Steel, and that weird 90s version of Ice, a mulleted Superman complaining about “imposters,” a grumpy, longhaired Aquaman who is actually complaining that no one notices his missing hand, the Blood Pack, that knife carrying version of Doctor Fate called Fate, Atom Smasher in his old Nuklon get up, the extra-grim post Zero Hour Hawkman, the Psyba Rats, and, maybe best of all, Artemis in her Wonder Woman costume arguing with Donna Troy in her Darkstar outfit. And that’s not even mentioning the pure nineties glory that is Guy Gardner: Warrior himself. Plus, you get a gimmick cover (a sort of double gatefold job that serves as “doors” for Warriors and which opens to reveal a secondary cover jam packed with all of the heroes of the DCU), a gratuitous Lobo appearance and fight, gratuitous celebrity cameos by Bruce Willis, Arnold Schwarzenegger, and Sylvester Stallone, and a story that is “to be continued” in another title (Action #709). And if that’s not enough reason to check it out, it’s all beautifully penciled by the always terrific Phil Jiminez, who isn’t necessarily a nineties style artist, but who cares?

The Spectre #11

“The Mission”

Cover Price: $2.50
Bargain Price: $0.25
Cover Date: January, 2002

Hal Jordan’s a really bland character. He’s brave and confident and fearless and whatever and, while that’s great for the Silver Age, it doesn’t leave a whole lot of room for complexity today. Hal has been GL since the late fifties. It’s probably about time we told new and interesting stories about someone new and interesting. J.M. DeMatteis’ Spectre series, however, is a surprisingly refreshing take on Hal. Here, Hal is over his head as the new Spectre, unsure and downright distrustful of his powers. He’s dealing with the wrath of God, judgment, and his own guilt over his time as Parallax. He’s still the brave Hal Jordon, but here there’s a little more depth as we see Hal dealing with his recent troubled past in a heroic and human way, while dealing with situations that are completely new to the jaded space cop. DeMatteis adds a really nice sense of wonder to the proceedings of this particular issue, which deals with Jordon learning that there are different aspects of himself and his personality that even he wasn’t aware of, wandering the world to bring the wrath and redemption of God to people of different cultures and faiths, allowing the Spectre to be in multiple places at once and to cater to a variety of different faiths and expectations. It’s a pretty clever twist on the idea of the GL Corps that leads to some interesting ideas and a nice, refreshing take on a well-worn character.

Trinity #1

“Green Lantern” “Darkstars” “L.E.G.I.O.N. ‘93”

Cover Price: $2.95
Bargain Price: $0.50
Cover Date: August 1993

Not to be confused with DC’s recent weekly, 1993’s Trinity was the anchor book for a two month, eight issue long crossover for DC’s space fairing law enforcement agencies: the Green Lanterns, Vril Dox’s L.E.G.I.O.N. and the Darkstars, the extreme, take no prisoners nineties take on the Lantern Corps. Despite the flashy cover, this looked like a good chance to, if nothing else, learn more about the L.E.G.I.O.N., a concept I found intriguing, but which, so far, has failed to hook me (which is a shame because I really like Vril Dox). The Darkstars and Green Lantern stories are mediocre, despite art from Travis Charest and Gene Ha respectively. Ha and Charest may be superstars today, but, unfortunately, they’d yet to crystallize their distinctive styles in 1993. Fortunately, the L.E.G.I.O.N. story is pretty fun. Written by Mark Waid with pencils by Barry Kitson, the chapter sees both creators at the top of their game. The art is clean and distinctive and Kitson handles the large cast well, effortlessly distinguishing one character from another while handling the crowd scenes and alien city without ever skimping on detail. This issue really reminded me just how good Kitson is and it’s a shame he doesn’t get more recognition. Waid’s story is also a lot of fun and serves as an excellent showcase for the conflicting personality types of the characters, particularly the arrogant Dox. I’m looking forward to finding some issues of Waid and Kitson’s L.E.G.I.O.N. and seeing if it holds up.