Broken Frontier

Although Green Lantern Corps has shown considerable progress and growth during Tony Bedard's short, four issue tenure on the title, the release of issue #51 reflects what many, multi-issue arcs do as of late as the middle installment diminishes the flow and pacing of the larger story. 

It's almost painful to witness the first, few opening pages of Green Lantern Corps #51 as a retro-fitted Cyborg-Superman has himself become an Alpha-Lantern prime and subjects Ganthet to humiliation.  Ganthet, who has largely been infallible in combat and one of the Green Lantern Corps' staunchest defenders and allies, endures threats and taunts as he attempts to rebuild fallen Lanterns at Cyborg-Superman's behest.  Some audiences may wish that Bedard had cut back considerably on the action elements and battle sequences with John, Kyle, and Sora to explore Ganthet's personal discovery of grief in greater depth.  For a book that has lately been all about the emotional spectrum, some actual experimentation with character emotions would have been a welcome addition.

The majority of Green Lantern Corps #51 focuses on the efforts of the depowered Lanterns to rally Stel's robot people against Cyborg-Superman and the Alpha Lanterns.  This sequence is largely formulaic and full of rousing soldier speeches to convince a fearful group to rise up and join the good fight.  For robots, however, they are easily swayed into combat by the artificial creation of Stel Kyle constructs with the last bit of energy possessed by his ring.  Yet, the arrival of Boodika destroys this camaraderie until the Lantern cavalry shows up in the form of Hannu, who persists to dismantle the Alpha-Lantern and destroy her power battery.  The final page in this issue feels like it was tacked on at the end to rouse reader energy for a story that largely fails in the attempt.

By far the strangest inclusion in Green Lantern Corps #51 is the single page discovery by a Weaponer of Qward.  There is promise here for future exploration and most audiences will probably want to know how a construct of White energy is able to remain fully formed long after the Lantern wielding the power is absent. 

With only one more issue in the "Revolt of the Alpha-Lanterns" story arc, some readers may worry that Green Lantern Corps #51 points to an inevitable decline that may weaken what has been a very strong opening by Bedard.  Yet, as the previous three issues have illustrated, Bedard has established himself quite well at handling these characters within a short matter of time and it would be a little surprising if he didn't come back just as strong in #52.