Green Lantern #12

Green Lantern #12
There's really a heck of a lot going on in this issue - it's amazing they could fit it all in. Hal Jordan does a riff on Yoda, saying "Pain leads to Fear. Fear leads to Hate." How can you not hear Yoda going "Hate leads to Suffering"?
The Global Guardians get a better introduction than they did in the previous issue. Apparently, they are:
1. Tasmanian Devil - Australia.
2. Freedom Beast - South Africa: Freedom beast is Dominic Mndawe, created in Animal Man #13 by Grant Morrison and Chas Truog. He is the successor to Bwana Beast.
3. Sandstorm - Syria. I've never seen him before.
4. Manticore (IV) - Greece: If this is the same guy, then he first appeared in Outsiders v2 #5. The IV is from Wikipedia. Personally I couldn't possibly tell you who the other three were.
5. Gloss (Xiang Po) - China: First appeared (as a superhero) in Millenium #7, as one of the New Guardians. The Guardians gave her the power to draw energy from the Earth's Dragon Lines (mystical energy fields that run throughout the planet, aka Ley Lines). She can command the Dragon Lines, manipulating the Earth's energy to create earthquakes and affect local ecosystems.
6. Jet (Celia Windward) - Jamaica: First appeared in Millenium #7, as one of the New Guardians.
Jet has the ability to generate various forms of electromagnetic waves, such as microwaves, to use for a variety of uses. She can fire blasts of heat and force, generate electromagnetic pulses, move and manipulate metal with magnetic fields, fire blasts of electricity, and see in other spectrums of the spectrum besides visible light (such as ultraviolet and infrared). She can fly by "riding" the natural electromagnetic field of the Earth (via magnetic levitation). When she uses her powers, her hair turns to green flames, but ironically, she doesn't have any fire-related abilities.
She should be dead, the "AIDS Vampire" killed her.
7. Crimson Fox III - who has apparently been brainwashed since last issue, because she appears on international TV spouting the party line that the Global Guardians are good, and the Green Lanterns are bad.
For some reason, Alan Scott places a call to Oliver Queen upon hearing the Fox on TV.

Next there is a bar scene with many old Green Lantern villains. Someone named Loragg is hiring someone to take out Hal Jordan. He hires a guy named Hunger Dog, who kills the old villain Flicker when challenged for the contract. Also present are Black Mass and a Dominator. Can you identify anybody else?

Whereas earlier Hal's thoughts were that he ws unable to make a fist because several of his muscles were severed, now he apparently has no difficulty.
Hank Henshaw wants to recruit Hal for his new Manhunter corps, but Hal says he already belongs to a few groups. These would be the JLA, GLC, and USAF.
While fighting the Cyborg Superman, Hal frees several of the GL prisoners there, including Ke'Haan and Laira, my man Jack T Chance, Hannu (whose name is misspelled Honnu) - who has apparently never once fired his ring, Graf Toren from Karaxia (although he had been discovered floating dead in space by Guy Gardner and the JLTF in Warrior #20), General Kreon - (described as "the construct is just on or off." What?), and Boodikka from Bellatrix who is missing her right hand since Hal cut it off.
They have apprently been outfitted with new rings, since Hal had stripped them all of theirs after defeating them.
Once freed they attack Hal, because to them, no time has passed since his attack on Oa.

While fighting, they discover that Arisia is apparently alive, not murdered by Major Force in GG:Warrior #43. They also discover Lashorr of sector 3453 and Relok Hag who apparently disappeared battling dominators in Invasion.

There's too much going on in this issue, and too many surprises, to really give it a bad rating. It's not as solid an issue as the last one, but is much better than, say, the first four issues of this series. And like I said last time, I'm a sucker for the Cyborg Superman and my man Jack T. Chance, the baddest GL ever. There are a few logical issues with this issue, and it has awful dialogue at times, but it's really not that bad. And I'm interested in finding out the backstory regarding all the GLs here, many of whom were deceased. So I'll rate this GOOD, but if you disagree with me, at least you'll know why.