Written by TONY BEDARD; Art and cover by TYLER KIRKHAM and BATT
The creative team from Green Lantern Corps make a small hop to jump ship to follow Kyle Rayner into his new book. The story starts with a slightly more indepth (and slightly tweaked) recap of the last few pages of 1994's Emerald Twilight (GL v3 #50 to be precise). This serves it's purpose by filling in newer readers on part of Kyle's history. This will work particularly well if the first couple of arcs take the time to flesh out Ion and the rebirth of the Corps as Kyle's place in the GL mythos is important, but complicated. The irony is that before the resurrection of Hal Jordan it was very easy to explain Kyle Rayner; he is the last of what used to be a vast cosmic police force and his power ring can do almost anything he can imagine. In the wake of the relaunch however, we must take the time to explain everything - and the book suffers for it. Seven of it's twenty pages are devoted to this retelling, which I think was necessary, but too much of the book is used to tell it.
Once we get to the modern day we have a quick run down of various non-Green Corps members losing their rings in a similar, yet unexplained way. Then halfway through the book we come back to New York to see Kyle Rayner showing off why his ring constructs are unique in the GLC; his imagination. It's good to see these elaborate constructs make a return to Kyle's repartee as they show off his personality to good effect and were a signiture of his run in GLv3.
It's not Kyle Rayner that shines in this issue though, it's Tyler Kirkham. The artist that joined Green Lantern Corps after Blackest Night has come on in leaps and bounds until, with this issue, he cements himself as one of the industry's top dogs. There isn't praise high enough. He has become one of my favourite artists along with Jim Lee, Pete Woods, Michael Turner and Marcus To.
New Guardians #1 sets up the series really well and leaves us with the promise of action and some questions that need answers. This is definitely a book that I'll spend each month looking forward to.
My rating: 
A solidly written issue that brings new readers up to date on Kyle Rayner and launches us into the confrontation that will forge a team. The art is absolutely stunning and would be worth the rating alone.
Read my interview with New Guardians writer, Tony Bedard: Starburst Magazine
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