Being a Green Lantern is Dangerous

 

cover art by Brian Bolland

Green Lantern #127 (April 1980) amps up the epic feel of this already epic story arc. The Weaponers have taken over Oa and imprisoned the Guardians on the Power Battery. Hal, attempting to teleport from Earth to help the Guardians, ends up trapped inside the Battery. The Weaponers are getting ready to use the Battery's to conquer the universe. This issue continues from there, with Denny O'Neil still writing the script and Joe Staton still doing the pencils.

The Guardians are still able to communicate telepathically, telling Hal to break the link in the circle they form. Hal smacks the hands of two of them apart, which in turn frees them to send a general RED ALERT to the entire Green Lantern Corp.

This doesn't guarentee victory. The first GL who arrives is killed. In the meantime, Sinestro shows up to take command, only to be summarily informed by the Weaponers that he was merely a tool they were using and not to let the door hit him on the way out.

More Green Lanterns arrive. Most are trapped in a yellow vortex which slowly eats away at their force fields and leaves them apparently doomed. A few escape this, but are killed trying to reach Oa's surface. Only one makes it that far, but he dies just as he reaches the Battery.

This is close enough to Hal to link rings with him and use the extra power to escape from the Battery. 

Now wielding two rings, Hal starts to go to town on the Weaponers. But they outnumber him and it looks like Hal is going down for the long count when Sinestro, his pride earlier hurt by the Weaponers, joins in on Hal's side.

The two destroy the vortex-creating machine, which allows the trapped GLs in space to join the fight. More GLs die, but in the end the Weaponers are defeated.

During all this, there's another clue that the mysterious General Fabrikant--the Weaponers never-seen commander--is indeed the Earth boy Fabian. In the past few issues, this has been hinted at. This time, it's pretty much given away.

So the Weaponers invasion is stopped, but Sinestro has flown away and this Fabrikant guy still needs to be tracked down. 

I'm really enjoying this story arc. O'Neil effectively built the threat level over several issues and brought the Weaponers storyline to a satisfying end. A scene in which Hal recites the GL oath while fighting the Weaponers single-handedly is awesome. The last panel, acknowledging the dead GLs that need to be mourned, hits just the right emotional note. And the mystery of General Fabrikant has been built up effectively, leaving a tangling plot thread to be tied up even after the main battle is over.

We'll return to GL in 2 weeks. Next week, we'll visit the mid-18th Century to visit with Ben Bowie and his mountain men.