InsaneJournal

Tweak says, "Bust out the white dragon!"

kagome654 (kagome654) wrote in scans_daily,
@ 2009-07-18 08:31:00

Current music:	'They Don't Care About Us'- Michael Jackson
Entry tags:	char: green lantern/hal jordan, char: green lantern/john stewart, creator: christopher priest/james owsley, creator: tod smith

Green Lantern Special 01
I've made two Green Lantern entries that follow a larger story arc about Hal questioning himself and John constantly getting the short end of the stick. The first part is here, and the second ('The List') was posted prior to that (for reasons known only to me) and can be found here. When we last left John he had been arrested for 'killing' Carol Ferris, as part of Star Sapphire's elaborate plot to make Hal miserable.

Unfortunately for John, that's not the end of his troubles...

Way to go, Hal (though to be fair, stealing the diamond WAS John's idea). John is extradited to South Nambia, an African country still suffering under Apartheid. Before we see how John is faring in such a place we are treated to a domestic scene featuring the guard captain of the prison, Gordon Holmes. He seems to be a dedicated family man who dotes on his daughter and is constantly bringing pictures of her to work to show his coworkers. Maybe he's not such a bad guy, right? Maybe he's a good man, stuck working in an unjust system...

Or maybe he's just a dick.

In any case, Hal knows he has to help John, but he's not sure how. Breaking a man with a known identity out of a foreign prison won't exactly make things peachy keen and trouble free. He goes to ~~Ganthet~~ Appa Ali Apsa for advice, who, since the destruction of the Corps, has become a sort of nomadic biker. ~~Ganthet~~ Appa Ali Apsa isn't really eager to help, but he does give Hal John's ring, telling him that he (Hal) will have to power it with his own ring, putting the blame for any outcome squarely on Hal's shoulders.

Hal takes the newly powered ring to John...

For a while John does nothing with the ring. It's a particularly vicious flogging that causes the dam to break.

Unfortunately John doesn't realize that he's not only allied himself with someone a lot more...'extreme' than he originally thought, but he's also released a vicious murderer named Wills, who murders an affluent white couple in their bed (Instead Dorian includes John in acts like stealing the luxury cars of high ranking white officials, stacking them on top of one another, and writing 'End Apartheid!' on the ground beneath the 'tower.')

Opps. This leads to a very frustrated Hal Jordan, who, after being chastised severely by Superman for not taking care of the John problem (it's...a very unpleasant scene), realizes he NEEDS to talk to John.

Dorian has convinced John that they need to make a spectacle out of the Nambian Harbor Festival, as the the world will be watching the celebration. The ships that are being celebrated were constructed by black unions, but black people have been barred from the party (with the exception of a few carefully selected 'tokens'). Unfortunately John isn't aware that Dorian is planning to blow the ships up, which would lead to the countless deaths.

John 'attacks' the Harbor Festival, only to be confronted by Hal, who has finally gotten off his ass and decided to do something.

They fight (rather viciously), until people start dying (Wills takes out Holmes, and Dorian himself is killed) and the bombs threaten the assembled masses. The pair have to work together to control the explosion, and Johns sees something that causes him to question what he's been doing...

And so it ends. The question of a 'greater morality' is thrown around a lot in this storyline. Both Hal and John are in search of it, and Dorian and guard captain Holmes think they've found it (and they both ultimately die for it).

Green Lantern Special #1
Written by: James Owsley (Christopher Priest)
Pencils: Tod Smith
Pages: 40

(Post a new comment)

	endis_ni 2009-07-18 01:46 pm UTC (link)
	"The Guardians deemed us worthy, who are we to debate that?" It just seems so odd for someone to have such reverence for the Guardians of Oa, since everything I've ever read with them in makes them look in equal parts arrogant and short-sighted. (Reply to this) (Thread)

	kagome654 2009-07-18 01:53 pm UTC (link)
	Well, they had their moments of insight and wisdom (Ganthet in particular), older writers used to take a much more balanced approach to them. Though its been a while since Hal (or anyone else) has had reason to refer to them as 'Exalted Ones'...oy. (Reply to this) (Parent)

	kingrockwell 2009-07-18 04:28 pm UTC (link)
	Are you sure it was Ganthet and not Appa Ali Apsa? Ganthet didn't debut until '92, and, as far as I know, always had a ponytail. Appa, however, was the only one who stayed behind when the battery was destroyed, and went mad from loneliness for it. (Reply to this) (Thread)

	kagome654 2009-07-18 05:10 pm UTC (link)
	No, I'm not sure. Correction made. (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

kingrockwell
2009-07-18 07:02 pm UTC (link)

The problem with Appa is he appeared in the Bronze Age a lot, but given the Pre-Crisis Guardians' thing about not having names, he prolly just went by Old-Timer for so long. I've gotta guess they named him somewhere around the time the Corps broke up, but can't say for sure.
Given Ganthet's prominence in the GL mythos following his introduction, it's not uncommon for readers to assume he was Old-Timer.

(Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

	shanejayell 2009-07-19 01:26 am UTC (link)
	Besides, didn't 'Old Timer' DIE? Back at the start of Vol 2? (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

	kingrockwell 2009-07-19 02:53 am UTC (link)
	Green Lantern vol. 2 or volume 2 in the Green Lantern/Green Arrow collections? I think he died in GL vol 3 #8. (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

	shanejayell 2009-07-19 03:03 am UTC (link)
	Ah, Vol 3. Thanks, I lost track of how many volumes there have been... (Reply to this) (Parent)

	psychop_rex 2009-07-19 07:18 am UTC (link)
	And this is why superheroes should not get involved in politics. (Reply to this)