Green Lantern Corps: Recharge mini-review

As concerned as I've been about the recent 1980s rebirth among the DC Universe (Hawkman, Oliver Queen, and then Hal Jordan), nothing's filled me with more dread than the resurrection of the Green Lantern Corps title. While in theory, the return of the Corps has always been an important benchmark — namely, a signal that Kyle Rayner, having recreated the Corps, would have come into his own — the idea of a new Corps title never seemed the logical next step. To me, the Corps represented everything that was wrong with late '80s comics — an esoteric title steeped in long, drawn-out cosmic mythology, with a cast of thousands that was hard for a casual reader to pick up and get in to, or even care about. So I picked up Green Lantern Corps: Recharge, the lead-in to the new Green Lantern Corps series with some trepidation, even though it starred two of my personal favorites, Kyle Rayner and Guy Gardner. Well, time will tell if it's the writing of Geoff Johns or Dave Gibbons that makes Green Lantern Corps: Recharge shine, but shine indeed it does. This is a great, fast-paced story, with spot-on dialogue for all the characters, and plenty of interesting intrigue. It's hard to tell the new Lanterns apart in the beginning, but by the end, the Rannian, the Thanagarian, and the reluctant doctor Lantern all have memorable personalities (if not names), and I'm looking forward to learning more about them. Any title that's smart enough to make the distinction between Guy Gardner's rough persona and his actual heroics is good enough for me — Recharge is an excellent space epic that hits all the right notes that Rann-Thanagar War missed.