Broken Frontier

The emerald ringslinger teams up with the Batman despite their differences to take down an old villain with a new spin.

After the stinging fisticuffs between Bruce and Hal in issue six of Rebirth, you just knew writer Geoff Johns had to finally pair these bombastic heroes up in a single adventure. It’s been a number of years since Green Lantern and the Batman stood beside each other to fight crime, but will they be able to finally put aside their differences?

That’s the burning question begging to be answered here, as Hal is summoned to Gotham to share a tête-à-tête with the Dark Knight. Bruce is his usual non-committal self as he explains to Hal the certain M.O. of an old GL villain better known as the Tattooed Man. It turns out though that this is not the familiar TM known to both heroes as Abel Tarrant, but instead is a former U.S. Marine named Mark Richards.

Hal doesn’t understand the Batman’s motives for calling to him to Gotham and when he attempts to question Bruce about it, he gets socked right in the mouth for it. Bruce then proclaims to Hal that they are now even (alluding to the punch he took in Rebirth #6), and not long after that both heroes go off to the hunt. But while looking for the new TM it doesn’t long for the camaraderie to return between these heroes, and both share some terse conversation while riding together in the Batmobile.

The action is indeed heating up between them and within a few short hours they find the TM at a motel. GL baits him out into the open so that he can draw the Tattooed Man’s power source directly to him to allow the Batman to tackle the defenseless Mark Richards. This plan of attack seems to work brilliantly and both heroes manage to take down their foe without much trouble.

Now’s there’s still plenty more going on here in this story, but you’ll have to buy this issue to see if these two ever patch things up between them. I’m not giving this one away, but I think it’s safe to say that there will always be conflict whenever these two hook up no matter the outcome here. I think we should thank writer Geoff Johns for this one, and he managed to make the story a rousing and provoking event. He did a great job handling the terse moments between the two, and his dialogue was first rate.

I should point out though that this will be the last issue from artist Ethan Van Sciver. He’s leaving GL for greener pastures (pardon the pun) on Batman/Superman, so this issue is kind of a primer for him since Batman guest starred in the issue. His work is always a treat to look at, and again it’s first rate here. I am really looking forward to his work on the aforementioned Batman/Superman title, so don’t miss that when it hits the stands in a few months.

So we’re coming close to ending the first year of Green Lantern’s new monthly, and so far I am pleased with the results. Hal’s in good hands with Geoff Johns at the helm, and it will be interesting to see how the OYL scenario is handled in this title. I guess we’ll have to tune in next month to see what happens. I know I’ll be there!