ACW #629 – Green Lantern
Action Comics Weekly #629 (Green Lantern)
“So Long Ago the Garden”
Plot/Script- James Owsley
Plot/Pencils – M.D. Bright
Inks – Romeo Tanghal
Letters – Albert DeGuzman
Colors – Anthony Tollin
Assistant Editor – Dan Raspler
Editor – Denny O’Neil
It’s always fun to start a new week here at #ActionComicsDaily… it’s like putting a fresh coat of paint on the ol’ blog. We get a new cover… and, uh, well… that’s kind of it, innit?
And, as far as covers go… well, we’ll talk about that later in the week. All I will say is, if you were following this series, you’d probably be pretty nonplussed by all of these Mockingbird unmaskings we’ve had over the past several weeks!
Anyhoo… it’s time for more lessons in diplomacy by James Owsley, Nathaniel Adam, and Harold Jordan.
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We open with Captain Atom, who had just left Green Lantern to hold up the teetering office building, confronting the Bethel Traveler what looks like Sylvester… err, Randy Violent/Violence. The alien is in the basement hard at work rebuilding its wooden shrine. Nate meatheadedly monologues in “Randy’s” direction, to which… the visitor actually replies! This takes Atom aback, and so, he approaches in order to perhaps attempt a more diplomatic approach. This gets him socked in the face. Outside, Hal continues holding up the joint… but he is getting mighty tired. Also, his ring is very nearly out of juice. The First Responders (or maybe we’re up to the second or third fleet of responders) promises they’ll let him know just as soon as it’s safe to let the walls come tumblin’ down.
Back inside, Captain Atom and the Bethel Traveler exchange blows. Nate ultimately bears down and unleashes his “strongest quantum bolts” and appears to blow a hole right through the alien’s back. This causes a tremendous earthquake… which really hampers Hal’s ability to keep the place standing. Worth noting, as the ground shakes, there are like dozens of people running in fear from the building. Why in all hells were they still lingering in the first place?
Inside, Nate is gobsmacked that “Randy” survived the blast, and concludes that it’s too dangerous for this character to be allowed to live. The Bethel Traveler nonchalantly just asks Atom to leave him/her/it alone. The Traveler is just so tired, and having to fight with a shiny idiot isn’t their idea of a good time. The Captain responds by… hitting “Randy” with “everything he’s got”.
This results in several nearby buildings losing power… and the sidewalk buckling under the pressure of this melee. Finally, the Emergency Services folks give Hal the a-okay to let them walls fall… and so, he does.
We wrap up back inside, where Captain Atom looks to be about to land the killing blow on the Bethel Traveler. He is suddenly blasted in the back, and when the dust settles he sees that he was just attacked by… Green Lantern. We get a “over my dead body” line, and we’re out.
—
It never fails… this arc just feels endless.
… and I hate to spoil things, but… we’ve still got two more weeks of this… and it ain’t gonna wind up going anywhere. If we were to compare it to an earlier “nothin’ happenin'” ACW feature, I’d probably say that this is Priest’s “Freak Show”. Woof, y’all remember the Freak Show?!
So, whatta we got here anyway? Outside of a bunch of meatheaded posturing from Nate… and Hal draining every last ounce out of both his body and battery… not a heckuva lot.
It’s building to an overlong… er fight scene between the heroes, which… I mean, it’s going to play out exactly the same way as every hero-on-hero skirmish plays out. Not much more to see here. An ultimately skippable arc… another roadblock on our path to meeting THE MAN.
Speaking of which, we are now just three weeks away from Malvolio!
Tomorrow: Faith, Trust, and… Pixie Dust?
