LANTERN-TASTIC: RISE OF THE THIRD ARMY

Hang on to your power rings 2814ians... here comes the big one!! DC Comics announced on their blog, The Source, yesterday that the much anticipated Third Army saga begins in October, and it's going to be wild.


Ivan Reiss has pencilled an epic spread which will feature across all four of the Lantern universe titles in that month.  If there is one thing Reiss does well it is Green Lantern.  Check out the seething Guardians - something tells me they are not acting without emotion anymore.


As ever, these titbits from DC raise more questions than answers.  The solicits for Green Lantern #0 to be released in September ask "Where are Hal Jordan and Sinestro?"  Well, I'll tell you where they are not.  Neither star of the main Green Lantern title appear in Reis' cover piece.  Instead we are presented with the mysterious new GL first introduced on Free Comic Book Day.  This guy is apparently an Earthling with an Arabic tattoo that translates as 'Fearless', appropriately enough for Hal Jordan's replacement. He also seems to have added handguns to the standard Corps weaponry, and I know of one or two fanboys aren't a bit happy about that.  Me, I'm prepared to wait.  Guy Gardner and John Stewart recently went up against the will-powered Keepers with a standard lead-spitting armoury.

Speaking of will-powered... have another look at the hundreds of white figures in the background of the interconnecting covers.  For my money this has to be the Third Army created by the Guardians to replace the Green Lantern Corps.  What do they remind you of?  I'm seeing White Martians crossed with Zombies crossed with the afore mentioned Keepers.  I mean, really, what sort of evolutionary path puts your big green brain on the outside?!


Then there's the cover for the Green Lantern: New Guardians on the far left of 4 page spread.  It reminds us just how bad things are getting for Lanterns of all colours.  One by one the various Corps have been decimated over recent months.  Arkillo, the last Sinestro Corpsman standing.   Saint Walker, whose world and central power battery were overrun by the Reach.  Then there's poisoned Red Lantern battery.  Lets face it, the future doesn't look too bright out there for the warriors of the emotional spectrum.


(And to make matters worse red-blooded geeks the world over are sure to be disappointed by Carol Ferris' new neck-to-toe Star Sapphire costume... let the outcry begin).

Since he first came onto the Green Lantern title way back in 2004, Geoff Johns has been setting the bar high with the grand scale of his storytelling. And with this crossover event  the legend of the GL Corps will just keep getting bigger and bigger.  The Green Lantern universe promises never to be the same again.  In Johns' own words: "What is the Third Army? And, most importantly, who is the First Lantern?"  With all these questions there is one thing you CAN be sure of... we are all going to be right there along with our favourite ring-slingers as they face the 'Rise of the Third Army'.