Green Lantern (vol.2) #122 (1979)
Green Lantern (vol.2) #122 (November, 1979)
“With These Rings…”
Writer – Denny O’Neil
Penciller – Don Heck
Inker – Vince Colletta
Colorist – Adrienne Roy
Letterer – Ben Oda
Editor – Jack C. Harris
Cover Price: $0.40
After reading about how Guy “fell to pieces” yesterday, I figured maybe we’d see how that might’ve effected his friends and loved ones… by jumping ahead six issues and checking out the wedding between his girlfriend and Green Lantern associate Hal Jordan?!
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We open up with Hal Jordan flying his betrothed Kari Limbo to the chapel. She’s wearing her wedding gown… and Hal is in his Green Lantern duds, that’ll make for some interesting photos! The wedding invitations actually announce the marriage between Kari Limbo and… Mr. Green Lantern, which is pretty great. Upon arrival, Kari gets woozy… because she does that. While knelt down, she draws something in the dirt. Superman recognizes it as a Phantom Zone Projector, and runs off to the Fortress to check it out.
Kari turns to Hal and says that she had a vision about someone dear to her being in agony… hmm. Hal brushes his concern aside and suggests they head inside. Ollie pulls him aside for some real-talk… and Hal admits that he’s pretty antsy.
We join Superman who has arrived at the Fortress of Solitude. Upon flipping on the Phantom Zone Projector, he sees the silhouette of someone familiar… and suddenly finds himself wrapped in a green beam and pulled inside!
Back at the chapel, Hal and Ollie talk about whether or not he will remain Green Lantern following his nuptials. Then, Hal’s old friend (don’t call him) Pie Face arrives! It’s actually pretty funny… Hal calls him Pie Face, and Tom corrects him stating that at this point he’s wildly successful and owns a whole bunch of filling stations!
Their chat is interrupted by the playing of the Wedding March… and so, we join the (sorta) happy couple at the altar. The Preacher does that thing where he asks if anyone “knows a reason why… yadda yadda yadda”, and… nobody speaks up! Whew. Next he asks Kari if she takes this Lantern as her lawfully wedded so-and-so… annnnnd, she trances… again. She mutters a few words about a “Power Ring” before fainting. Barry suggests he run to the Fortress of Solitude to check on Superman… but Hal tells him this is Ring-Slinger business. After Hal’s long gone, Kari begins to mutter once more… this time about her “beloved Guy”. Uh-oh!
Hal arrives at the Fortress of Solitude, and wouldn’tcha know it, there’s a Kryptonian force field around it! He fishes the Phantom Zone Projector out with his beam, and flips it on. He sees the same silhouette Superman saw… and so, he rushes into the Phantom Zone to check it out. Worth mentioning that he did recite the Green Lantern Oath into his Power Battery before hopping in. Once inside, he finds himself instantly attacked by a green power beam!
Hal fears that he’s going to be squaring off with Sinestro, but… he’s not in the Phantom Zone, right? He dodges the emerald onslaught and retaliates by covering his attacker with a net… and, uh-oh–it’s Guy Gardner… and he wants Hal dead!
An off-panel voice informs him that Guy’s not kidding… he really wants to see him dead! Hal turns around to see… oh boy, General Zod and the boyz… and they’ve got a down and out Superman to boot! Zod tells Hal that the Phantom Zone Criminals have all focused their own wills into Guy’s ring making it far too powerful for him to overcome.
A fight breaks out, with the souped-up Guy having an early advantage. Lucky for Hal, Superman was playing possum the whole time… which, doesn’t quite even the odds… but offers enough of a distraction for Hal to get in a few good shots. Meanwhile, back at the chapel trancin’ Kari mutters for Hal to be careful.
Hal snares Superman with an energy beam and flies away… through an opening back from the Phantom Zone he created with his power battery. That’s pretty handy… good thing the crooks didn’t realize it!
Now back in the “real” world, Hal returns to his (now awake) betrothed to let her know that Guy still lives… he’s just stuck in the Phantom Zone. This changes everything about their own relationship, and Kari tells Hal that they won’t be getting married. He tells her he’ll check in with her in a few months to see if she’s changed her mind before flying off.
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Wow, Hal doesn’t mess around does he? For all he (or Kari) knows, Guy’s only been “dead” for a little while at this point. Dude… isn’t there some sort of “unwritten code” about waiting before moving in on the grieving girlfriend? Well, Hal’s gonna Hal I suppose.
It’s always neat seeing a bunch of heroes together back in the day when that didn’t happen every month. Also, really like how this doesn’t seem to have been a big hyped-up over-sized event. It’s just another issue of Green Lantern (co-starring Green Arrow). I always appreciate that.
The issue itself, Kari Limbo… ay yai yai… I don’t know her all that well, but what I do… she’s really irritating. She kinda reminds me of Raven from the New Teen Titans… trancing out at what is somehow both the most opportune and least opportune time. I’m glad she doesn’t linger for all that long.
It was nice seeing Tom show up for the wedding. I’m glad that he told Hal to ixnay the iefacepay, without turning it into a lecture. I’d like to think that Hal never used it as a racial slight, and Tom doesn’t really suggest that it was ever meant that way (at least from Hal) either.
The Phantom Zone bit was okay… I think I’ve made my feelings on Zod pretty clear here… he’s almost always bores me to tears. Glad this happened before it was “lol” to throw in a “Kneel before…” reference.
The Kari/Hal breakup at the end really speaks to how strong their relationship was in the first place. I gotta say, Kari never looked all that happy to be marrying him to begin with… though, that might’ve been due to Don Heck’s art… for some reason almost all of the women in this issue looked rather annoyed to be there, Dinah especially! What a scowl!
Overall… perhaps not the strongest issue, but I cannot deny that it’s one that adds to the mythos and facilitates a decent amount of forward progression. The issue that follows is the first in quite awhile that didn’t have “co-starring Green Arrow” on the cover, signalling that it was a new day in Hal-town. We actually already discussed it here on the blog. Since this issue was from less-famous GL/GA run, it hasn’t yet been collected or made available digitally… I’d say snag it if you come across it on the cheap, but I wouldn’t break the bank for it.
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