The ’90s Revisited: Green Lantern #68 – Underworld Unleashed!

Hellfire & Ice

Writer: Ron Marz
Pencils: Paul Pelletier
Inks: Romeo Tanghal
Colors: Linda Medley
Letters: Albert De Guzman
Associate Editor: Eddie Berganza
Editor: Kevin Dooley
Cover Date: November 1995
Cover Price: $1.75

This month, a number of blogs and podcasts have joined together to present #BestEventEver 2018, covering the 1995 event Underworld Unleashed! Beyond my own posts, please check out these other blogs and podcasts for in-depth coverage of the various issues that were part of the event…and join in on further peeks at and discussions of the event on Twitter by joining at hashtags #BestEventEver and #UnderworldReUnleashed!

ITG  |  Resurrections: An Adam Warlock/Thanos Podcast  |  Relatively Geeky Podcast Network  |  The Retroist  |  Chris is on Infinite Earths  |  Cosmic Treadmill  |  The Pop Culture Palace  |  Rolled Spine’s Diana Prince: Wonder Woman Podcast  |  The Idol-Head of Diabolu  |  Justice’s First Dawn  |  Justice Trek: The Podcast

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I vaguely remember Underworld Unleashed at the time. I’d been around for Eclipso: The Darkness Within, Bloodlines, and Zero Hour…but I don’t remember getting into this event…I didn’t go out of my way to get the main series or any tie-ins, and at least as of this writing, only recall knowing whatever was in Wizard Magazine or other such promotional stuff about the event, outside of where it touched on stuff I was already buying, such as Luthor’s “return” to full health. This was going on at the same time as The Trial of Superman, which I WAS following in the Superman titles, but was at a time where I was headed toward getting out of comics for the most part for a year or so.

Green Lantern #68 opens on a woman out for a jog being surprised at snow…before being turned into her ice, and her body shattered. We then move to find Green Lantern Kyle Rayner in action fighting rioters in the village. He’s joined by Darkstar, and everyone seems to be wondering at all hell breaking loose. We also find that Kyle and Donna were on a date, which Kyle convinces her they can resume with the rioters dealt with. Elsewhere, Neron meets with Paul Christian–a man who apparently had his ability to walk restored by Kyle’s GL powers. Neron offers Paul a chance to have more power than ever and not have to worry about willpower or accidents, all for just a small price. Meanwhile, Kyle and Donna find Central Park in a very unseasonable state of snow cover…which turns out to be the doing of Freeze (better known as Mister Freeze)…except that he’s brought about the cold and displaying powers far beyond some lame Batman villain in a cold-suit. He reveals that he’s been granted his heart’s desire, become cold itself, and exacts vengeance as his dark lord’s bidding. Our heroic couple can’t catch a break, as they’re still trying to deal with Freeze when Purgatory shows up, bringing some fire to an icy situation. Creative use of his ring grants Kyle a breather–and though Purgatory gets away, Freeze is stopped and seems to revert to “normal.” Despite this, Kyle’s pretty sure things are not actually over.

Other than knowing THAT this is a tie-in to the Underworld Unleashed event, I don’t think I really felt like it felt like a tie-in so much as an incidental thing. Neron could be just some villain powering up other villains; I don’t get a sense here of any particulars to a plan or agenda on his part other than “stirring the pot” a bit. We see him interacting with Paul which gives us the fact of and an example of him powering folks up in exchange for serving him; though I don’t know Paul Christian or Purgatory from anyone else…I do know Mr. Freeze from Batman stuff, but seeing him acting without some sort of cold-suit, being a literal Mr. Freeze, shows off the sort of “upgrades” villains are getting.

I like the art in this issue quite a bit. It’s both good in and of itself and familiar to me. I like the character designs, and followed things quite well without hassle or confusion from visuals.

I read this issue with no context of the main event series, and it’s a solid piece without any of that context. Neron works as “just some villain” and we get to see “things going to hell” as a “red skies” sort of crossover bit presumably reflecting a general theme coming from the event series. Otherwise, we have Green Lantern dealing with unexpected threats while trying to have a simple date. I can’t help but think of the phrasing “villain of the week” such as for a tv show…but in some ways, to me, that’s my thought going into the tie-ins; that the event series Underworld Unleashed has the main story, and then tie-ins simply get to show us various heroes facing powered-up villain(s)-of-the-issue, even “swapping villains” and facing ones outside their usual rogues galleries.

I did expect–I think–to see Mr. Freeze making his deal with Neron within this issue and for the issue to solely focus on him…so I was a bit disappointed that we didn’t see his deal and “lost” pages to Neron dealing with Paul, and then Paul as Purgatory taking up some on-panel time.

All in all, though…this was a nice, full issue still pretty “early” in the “Kyle Era”–this is essentially “only” #18 of Kyle’s time as Green Lantern, and his 19th issue as such (out of some 130ish if I recall correctly). As a reader, one is pretty much thrown into things…there’s context to pick up on the interrupted date, and Paul having interacted with Kyle before…but there’s no concrete “previously page” and one kinda sinks-or-swims in following the story. It seems like a very workable “next issue” of the series, the next chapter of the ongoing, unfolding story of Kyle as Green Lantern. But unless you’re looking for it specifically as part of Underworld Unleashed, it does not seem like any particularly great jumping-in point nor something to seek out singularly in complete isolation if you don’t already know Kyle and stuff with Donna and whatnot from this period. 25 cents, 50 cents…it’s worth it; and seems worth it to me as part of the larger event.

I enjoyed this quick foray into “early Kyle” and am interested to read the main event series myself for more context, as well as to get into the next issue for further stuff with Kyle tying into the event.

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Again, please check out these other sites for additional, more in-depth coverage of the various other issues–including the main event mini itself–for Underworld Unleashed!

• ITG
• Resurrections: An Adam Warlock/Thanos Podcast
• Relatively Geeky Podcast Network
• Resurrections: An Adam Warlock/Thanos Podcast
• The Retroist
• Chris is on Infinite Earths
• Cosmic Treadmill
• The Pop Culture Palace
• Rolled Spine’s Diana Prince: Wonder Woman Podcast
• The Idol-Head of Diabolu
• Justice’s First Dawn
• Justice Trek: The Podcast