Green Lantern Corps #33

Overall- We open with Mongul and his detached arm wreaking havoc upon the planet of Daxam. I'm sorry, but the sight of Mongul's detached arm running amuck is just really funny to me... I can't explain why, but it just is. From Mongul's rampage, we head to Oa and find Guy and Kyle conversing about recent events. The two of them are talking about the Guardians new edict that forbids members of the GL Corps from getting romantically involved with each other. They both dislike the new law and Kyle says that it seems like the Guardians are getting desperate to keep emotions out of not only themselves, but apparently the GL Corps members as well.

While the two Honor Lantern's are talking, Natu walks over and asks to speak to Kyle privately. Kyle agrees and the two go to Kyle and Guy's bar, Warriors. They discuss the fact that they saw the other in the Star Sapphire's crystal last issue, which means they are each other's heart's desire. After some hedging about the law forbidding inter-GL Corps romance, they share a kiss anyway. From there, Natu talks to Kyle about his macabre drawings of the dead GL Corps members, and tells Kyle that instead of dwelling on the way they died, he should celebrate the way they lived. With that, Natu and Kyle walk up to the big bare wall outside the Warriors bar and Kyle decides to paint the fallen Corps members images on the wall in their honor.

We next find GL Corps member Saarek(the guy who can communicate with the dead)riding the detached hand of the Anti-Monitor. A few issues back, one of the Guardians, Scar, secretly told Saarek to locate where the Anti-Monitor wound up after the events of the Sinestro Corps War. Saarek runs into a Star Sapphire Corp member and they discuss the concept of love, amongst other things. We also learn that after Saarek looks into the crystal of the Star Sapphire, he sees absolutely nothing, signifying that he doesn't have any love within himself. Saarek then gets in contact with the ghost of the Sapphire's true love and he imparts some kind words on the ghost's behalf to the Sapphire. As thanks, she offers to burn away the darkness that fills Saarek and reignite his soul with love, but he refuses her offer, since he is still on a mission to find the remains of the Anti-Monitor. With that, the Sapphire departs, leaving Saarek to continue his grim task.

Back on Daxum, Mongul has called as many Sinestro Corps members as he could to the planet and declares himself the new leader of the Corps. One Sinestro Corps member steps forward, a guy named Arkillo, and challenges Mongrul to a hand to hand battle, with the winner gaining the leadership of the Corps. Mongul can't resist this offer and accepts, setting up their battle for leadership next issue.

The "Origins and Omens" portion of this book showed Kyle and Guy priming the wall of the bar where Kyle intends to begin painting his masterpiece. Before long, several GL Corps members walk over and offer to help with the priming, which is fine by Guy, since he hated the idea of painting anyway. From that happy scene, we head to Scar, who is showing visions from the Book of the Black, which includes some very vague images, including Kyle and Natu in a romantic embrace with Jade emerging behind them and what appears to be a bunch of children dressed in Sinestro Corps garb.

Overall, I've really enjoyed reading this series. The early issues were OK, but for me, this series really picked up after the events of the Sinestro Corps War, when Peter Tomasi took over the writing duties. Adding Kyle Rayner to the mix was also a good move IMO, since Kyle is a nice alternative to Guy Gardner's often impetuous behavior. Kyle and Guy play off of each other very nicely personality wise.

So, does anyone else think that Natu is actually the daughter of Sinestro we found out about in the "Rage of the Red Lanterns" storyline over in GL? That would sure put a huge strain on the burgeoning relationship between Kyle and Natu, no? Anyway, for this issue, I'll give it a solid score of 8 out of 10. GL Corps might not be as flat out awesome as GL is, but it is a consistently well written comic book, and that's really all I ask for as a comic book fan.