The ’90s Revisited: Green Lantern #69 – Underworld Unleashed!

Bargains

Writer: Ron Marz
Pencils: Paul Pelletier
Inks: Romeo Tanghal
Colors: Linda Medley
Letters: Albert De Guzman
Associate Editor: Eddie Berganza
Editor: Kevin Dooley
Published by: DC Comics
Cover Date: December 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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Particularly coming off of Green Lantern #68, this issue definitely feels like I missed something!

…Which, of course…I did! But we’ll get back to that shortly!

The issue opens on Green Lantern–Kyle–returning home quite battered and beaten. He finds Donna Troy–Darkstar–waiting, and she quickly helps him to a couch and begins to tend to his wounds, as he recounts the story of how he wound up in this condition: namely, some big guy named Neron. When tempting Kyle didn’t work, Neron beat the hero within an inch of his life. After some friendly banter, the two prepare to head out to gather other heroes to face Neron. Meanwhile, a couple of police officers notice a light coming from an alley…upon investigation, they find Purgatory (the guy Neron bargained with in #68 and granted power beyond the human’s control, in exchange for destroying Green Lantern). As Purgatory has (thus far) failed to destroy Green Lantern, Neron shows up to threaten his pawn if he doesn’t get results soon. Before Kyle and Donna can leave, Purgatory bursts in, and Kyle engages him in fighting, saying he can hold him off while Donna gets the rest of the building’s residents out to safety. So while Kyle fights, Donna gets all of Kyle’s neighbors out safely. Kyle and Purgatory BOTH regret the attempted help that set things on this path, but Kyle realizes maybe he can win the fight by giving MORE of his GL energy…which first seems to overload Purgatory and revert him to normal…but then he disappears in a green flame, as Neron apparently has claimed him for again failing his end of their bargain. After confirming everyone’s safe and seeming to ignore Donna in the presence of his attractive, toweled neighbor, Kyle flies off to the Justice League satellite to let them know about Neron (though they already know).

As of this typing, I’ve not yet actually read the main Underworld Unleashed mini itself, as I wanted to approach the tie-in issues strictly as tie-ins, intentionally withOUT the context of the main series. How do they read if one is just reading the regular ongoing series without buying into some event mini-series?

From one issue to the next, this feels a bit choppy, and definitely that I missed something. And editor’s notes direct me as a reader to the Underworld Unleashed mini-series, which I feel I can "assume" picks Kyle up from #68 of his series, advances things, and then he stumbles off to come back into his own series here in #69. As a comics reader and understanding that sort of flow, it makes sense logically, though does leave me wondering at Donna not being part of things. The fact that Neron makes an appearance here, "re-igniting" Purgatory into action, combined with Kyle relating to Donna what he’d faced makes this feel much more like an actual TIE-IN to the event, worthy and justified in carrying the event logo on the cover…where the previous issue (especially by comparison) would seem to have been served better not as a tie-in itself but as a reflection of what actual continuity in a shared universe looks like, where events from something big going on in one part of the comics universe can ripple outward and impact other characters and their stories without having those stories themselves actually moving the event’s story forward.

The story for this issue works well for me, and really is another strong issue in and of itself. Though I feel I’ve missed stuff, I would consciously expect that of pretty much any single-issue comic I’d read in isolation, as it’s not the only comic to exist. We get to see forward development of Kyle here as he’s continued to learn about his powers, what he can and can’t do, the nature of willpower, and self-recognizes the impact things have had on him as he’s now TWICE had to resist the temptation to have Alex artificially brought back (and it feels odd that a simple image of a closed refrigerator conveys so much!). We have a quasi-complete "episode" in this issue, with Purgatory bursting onto the scene…that gets us to "the fight" or main conflict, while Donna "meets" the neighbors (which gives readers a bit of a sense of others immediately, directly impacted by threats on Kyle and his own apartment). Fight/defeat Purgatory, save all the neighbors: a two-pronged conflict/goal of the issue, with both technically accomplished in this issue. That those are contained within sequences showing this to be a chapter in something larger serves that side of things well, keeping the ongoing narrative of this title moving as well as keeping Kyle moving through the crossover and likely at least prodding readers to look to other issues for additional story on top of this title. I like it, myself…but the structure and approach won’t be for everyone.

Visually, I like the issue overall. It’s recognizably Green Lantern, specifically Kyle, and definitely "feels" like a ’90s comics, especially something to the character design for Purgatory…and even Neron himself. I do not particularly appreciate the cover, though, as it shows Kyle engulfed in green flame–presumably to suggest, in this case, Neron’s–cradling the battered, broken body of Donna–Darkstar. Yet, within the issue, it’s Kyle that’s been beaten badly, and Donna who faces HIS battered body. From the cover alone I’d expect this issue to contain a fight with Neron that leaves Donna in bad shape–not because she’s a woman, but because Neron would hurt Kyle. Of course, the misleading nature could be a play on the actuality–reversing the roles–or it might be something not specifically referenced here that I’d better understand after reading the main Underworld Unleashed event mini. Whatever the case, I’m good with the art in and of itself.

On the whole, as a more-than-20-years-old comic from the 1990s and not being anything particularly "key," I would consider this a bargain-bin sort of issue…not bad to get from a bargain bin, but certainly nothing to pay any premium price for. Based on what I know on a larger "meta" level for this title and the characters (more than two decades later) I think this issue probably works best as part of a run of these early/first couple years of Kyle as GL, making the best of the surfeit of ’90s crossovers and events. Given Kyle does not himself face Neron in this issue, and the Justice League already knows things are going on…this issue doesn’t seem essential to the event itself, though it expands on and shows what Kyle is up to in addition to his appearance in the event mini itself.

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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