Tales of the Green Lantern Corps Guy Gardner #1: Guy Versus Internal Affairs

Tales of the Green Lantern Corps: Guy Gardner #1 isn’t a comedy. It has a good character oriented storyline. But Duggan definitely leans into humor every chance he gets. Part of this is the result of Duggan leaning more into the stereotype of Guy Gardner rather than who he is at the moment. Even setting this issue before DC K.O. where there is a major change to Guy’s demeanor to soften him up, Guy’s recent appearances have seen him be less self-centered and somewhat less obnoxious than he is here.

That said, Duggan injects Tales of the Green Lantern Corps: Guy Gardner #1 with some compelling character development for Guy and John Stewart. The story gets there via Zardum, an internal affairs Green Lantern. His commentary comes by way of caption boxes throughout the issue. Duggan is economical with these, though, He stays with Guy (and later John) as the main vehicle for the story. For instance, when Guy frees a planet full of slaves primarily because one of those slaves owes him money, Duggan offers a little bit of wry commentary via Zardum, but the story advances entirely by way of Guy’s actions. Zardum isn’t pushing things forward with something along the lines of “And then this happened.”

The biggest surprise in Tales of the Green Lantern Corps: Guy Gardner #1 is how it handles John. John’s recent history in the Green Lantern titles is complicated to say the least. Via Zardum, Duggan digs into the potential inner turmoil of the current John returning to the Green Lantern Corps after a copy of John sacrificed himself. Thanks to a plot that puts John and Guy together, Duggan finds more emotional truth about John’s current situation than has been developed in his appearances in Green Lantern Corps.

Part of this character exploration results from a very extended fight sequence between Guy and John. The art team delivers a very fun melee with a very expressive Guy all throughout. The fight’s individual beats are amusing enough, but it’s the art that makes it worthy of a smile and chuckle or two. The art also establishes a nice contrast between the two characters–the expressive and somewhat over-the-top Guy versus the much more restrained John.

Looking beyond just the fight, Guy’s expressions in a general sense make a lot of the humor in Duggan’s story work. Certainly there are plenty of situationally funny story points. But without Guy visually punctuating the comedy with expressions and poses that sometimes border on too broad, a lot of it wouldn’t land as effectively as it does.

This is even more evident once Guy and John are paired up because of how differently they express themselves visually. The contrast works because of how successful the art team is in realizing the two of them.

Kalisz’s color palette is restrained just enough that he can create very bold contrasts at key moments. This might be an explosion or a surprise appearance by a Manhunter. Most often, though, it is one of Guy’s or John’s green constructs. The green always leaps off the page and the result is that these sequences have a heightened energy.

There is no shortage of emphatic dialogue in this issue, both before and certainly during the Guy/John fight. Sharpe brings some variety to how it’s handled. Sometimes the big text fits inside the bubble while at other times the bubble is stretched around the text. Sometimes the text is black and other times green. The bubbles themselves are sometimes outlined in very thick black and very thick green. There isn’t a specific rhyme or reason to the different forms of emphasis. Regardless, they are a good match for the issue’s high energy art.