Green Lantern Corps: Recharge
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| Green Lantern Corps: Recharge | |
 Cover image to Green Lantern Corps: Recharge #1. Art by Patrick Gleason. |
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| Publisher | DC Comics |
|---|---|
| Schedule | Monthly |
| Format | Limited series |
| Publication date | November 2005 - March 2006 |
| Number of issues | 5 |
| Main character(s) | Guy Gardner Kyle Rayner Kilowog John Stewart Hal Jordan Green Lantern Corps Guardians of the Universe |
| Creative team | |
| Writer(s) | Geoff Johns Dave Gibbons |
| Penciller(s) | Patrick Gleason |
| Inker(s) | Christian Alamy Prentis Rollins |
Green Lantern Corps: Recharge is a five-issue, monthly comic book limited series that was published by DC Comics from November 2005 to March 2006. The series was written by Geoff Johns and Dave Gibbons and illustrated by Patrick Gleason. The series starred several members of the Green Lantern Corps, a fictional intergalactic police force in the DC Universe, and was one of two follow-ups (the other being a fourth volume of Green Lantern, with Hal Jordan as the main character) to the mini-series Green Lantern: Rebirth, which had been published earlier in 2005.
A monthly ongoing Green Lantern Corps debuted in June 2006, the first such monthly series since 1988.[1]
[edit] Backstory
In 1994, DC Comics published the controversial story Emerald Twilight which established Hal Jordan as the supervillain Parallax and introducing a single Green Lantern for our universe, Kyle Rayner. This provoked outrage among fans, and in 2005, Jordan was redeemed and resurrected in the miniseries Green Lantern: Rebirth. Rebirth, along with the subsequent new volume of the Green Lantern monthly series, returned Jordan to the status of “star” Green Lantern of Earth. It also returned former Lantern officer Guy Gardner to the ranks of the Corps.
[edit] Synopsis
The story begins with Tarkus Whin, on his first day as a Green Lantern, investigating Star 196. As he does so, the star collapses into a black hole, pulling him in. He is killed, but his ring escapes to seek a replacement.
Meanwhile, the Guardians of the Universe have summoned Guy Gardner and Kyle Rayner to Oa, amidst a massive recruitment drive of 3,600 new Green Lanterns. Among the new recruits are Korugarian neurosurgeon Soranik Natu, who receives Tarkus Whin’s ring. Because of Korugar’s unfortunate history with the Corps, which includes enslavement by the evil Green Lantern Sinestro, and the death of fellow Korugarian Katma Tui, Natu initially refuses the ring, but reluctantly takes it to save the life of her patient. Two other recruits are plucked from opposite sides of the Rann/Thanagarian War, the Rannian soldier Vath Sarn, and the condemned Thanagarian saurian Isamot Kol.
Ganthet, the leader of the Guardians, announces that several Green Lanterns have been killed recently by the sudden manifestation of black holes. Ganthet also warns that the Rann/Thanagar War has spread beyond those two empires, and may eventually affect Oa and the Corps. Another Guardian reports that Natu has gone missing. Natu finds herself in an unidentified location devoid of light and filled with web-like objects, and a dead Green Lantern hanging from one of them.
Gardner, who is dismayed to learn that he is to help train the new recruits, which he sees as little more than babysitting, decides to leave Oa. Head trainer Kilowog begs him to stay, telling him they have over 300 recruits to train, and are looking for nearly 6,900 more. He tells Gardner that the Guardians are warning that the whole universe is about to change.
Green Lantern Mogo, a sentient planet, reports that a Thanagarian fleet has appeared in his orbit to replenish their resources, with a Rannian fleet expected to follow, and requests assistance. Rayner and Gardner are sent to Mogo, along with Green Man and the robot Stel, where they repel the combined fleets. Their rings then receive a signal from the missing Natu somewhere in the Vega star system. The pact between the Psions of Vega and the Guardians restricts Green Lanterns from entering that system, but Rayner and Gardner head for Vega. Green Man and Stel refuse to violate the pact, and remain behind.
Meanwhile, new recruits Vath Sarn and Isamot Kol are assigned to divert ships away from Star 38, which has shown signs of instability. Kol is slow to adapt to Corps protocols, instigates conflict with Sarn, and threatens an Okaaran hospital ship that fires upon him after refusing to change course from the star. The star goes nova, and the two Lanterns attempt to pull the ship from the ensuing black hole, but are sucked in. Kilowog arrives and pulls the hospital ship to safety before diving into the black hole after Sarn and Kol. The three find themselves in a nest of some sort, with a horde of spiders approaching, and the skeletons of the creatures’ previous victims beneath their feet. Kilowog, Sarn and Kol fight off the creatures, and escape from the planet into outer space, where they encounter a mechanical planet resembling a Dyson Sphere.
On a space station, a group of Vegan bounty hunters are being rebuked by their leader, who is upset at the apparent deaths of Whin and Natu. A staff-wielding female named Fatality wants the Lanterns for herself because their kind destroyed her homeworld. The leader points out that she shared his Darkstar bounty, and that this claim is his.
Rayner and Gardner arrive at in the Vega system, where they find a ringless Natu being held prisoner by a group of unidentified aliens. Natu at first shows no signs of life, but with a burst of green light from her eyes and mouth, she revives, and regurgitates her ring. She had flown to the black hole that had been star 1417.196, which sucked her in. She found herself at an unknown location devoid of light, and found Tarkus’ corpse. Sensing that his killers were coming, and realizing that Tarkus’ ring was not able to protect him, she swallowed her ring and ordered it to slow her vital processes, so that she would appear to be a lump of organic waste to the spider-like creatures. She told the ring to send rescue signals when it was safe, and to respond to nearby power rings. She vaguely remembered floating in space before being manhandled by the bounty hunters.
After she uses her ring to create a funeral pyre for Tarkus, Rayner and Gardner convince her to honor his memory by keeping his power ring. Creating a Green Lantern uniform for herself without the Corps' Lantern emblem, she departs with Rayner and Gardner for Oa. The three are ambushed by the bounty hunters Bolphunga the Unrelenting, Fatality, and Dag. They flee, and after hearing a signal from Kilowog, find the mechanical planet.
It turns out that the mechanical planet is the nest for the Spider Guild. The Lanterns find Kilowog, who tells them that Sarn and Kol went off to get information on the inhabitants. The Lanterns find the command center, where a group of cloaked humanoid arachnids are assembled around a holographic map of the galaxy. Sarn realizes that the lines connecting the black holes to the Nest are subspace conduits, and that the network of black holes is a subspace web through which the Spider Guild is collapsing stars in order to store their energy, with the webs acting as filters for the excreted waste, which serve as nutrients for the young spiders.
Kilowog, Rayner, Gardner and Natu reunite with Kol and Sarn, and the six battle both a horde of mechanical spiders, as well as the bounty hunters, who arrive to attack them. Natu falters during the fight, her fear making it difficult for her to overcome the Parallax Fear Anamoly that prevents Lanterns from affecting anything yellow in color. When the other five Lanterns’ rings are nearly depleted, she manages to encase the six of them in an energy sphere in order to retreat and return to Oa. They realize that Oa’s sun is the Guild’s next target, but are attacked again by the bounty hunters. They are saved by Green Man and Stel, who arrive on the scene, as the six are no longer in Vegan territory.
The group receives a Code Zero alert, which means Oa itself is under attack. An immense Spider fleet emerges from Oa's sun, which is showing the same signs of instability that preceded the other stars collapsing into black holes. Most of the new GL recruits have yet to overcome the Parallax Fear Anomaly, and are ineffectual against the Guild’s Golden Spider Machines.
In the midst of the battle, Hal Jordan and John Stewart arrive; soon after, so do Rayner, Gardner, Kilowog, Sarn, Kol, Natu, Green Man and Stel. Kilowog summons all GLs to Oa’s Central Power Battery. Gardner directs them to recharge their power rings simultaneously, in the hopes that their solidarity will help the new recruits overcome the Parallax Fear Anomaly. Gardner then tells the entire Corps to fire on Oa’s sun in order to first stabilize it, and then to feed energy back to Vega in order to destroy the Guild’s nest. While the spiders continue to attack, killing some Green Lanterns, the sun is slowly stabilized, overloading the Guild’s subspace web. Both Oa's sun and the Guild Nest are destroyed.
In the aftermath of the Corps’ victory, the Guardians’ fear retribution from the Psions for intruding into the Vega system. Ganthet adds that they must fortify their damaged citadel, and suggests it may be time to make the universe afraid of them. Salaak tells Gardner the Guardians are pleased with the exceptional qualities he has displayed, and are promoting him to Lantern #1 of the Corps Honor Guard, but due to his incursion into Vega, usurping of command, and disrespect of his superiors, his home leave is cancelled for one year. Rayner defends Gardner, saying he was in full agreement with Gardner, and goads Salaak into punishing Rayner in kind.
Natu helps mend some injuries, and when the question is asked of what they will do now that Oa’s sun is gone, Sarn answers that they will follow orders, trust and believe. Natu adds that the Corps’ wounds will be healed, and eventually, the Corps will be stronger than ever.
[edit] References
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