Green Lantern #59

Green Christmas

Ron Marz – Writer
Darryl Banks – Pencils
Romeo Tanghal – Inks
Steve Mattsson – Color
Albert DeGuzman – Letters
Eddie Berganza – Elf
Kevin Dooley – Santa

This issue has a cover date of February 1995, but as per comic book tradition, it actually came out two months before that, making it right in time for Christmas 1994. The cover by Banks and Tanghal shows Green Lantern battling Doctor Polaris, who is basically DC's less-significant version of Marvel's Magneto.

Our story opens on Christmas Eve with Green Lantern arriving at the Titans headquarters and being greeted most enthusiastically by Impulse.

Impulse taunts him and tells him he's in trouble for blowing off his training session with Arsenal. Green Lantern uses his power ring to lift Impulse off him and hold him in the air. Impulse calls him a big bully, and Lantern calls him a twerp.

Arsenal then arrives and puts an end to their fun. Arsenal chastises Lantern for being two hours late, and reminds him that if he wants to be a member of the team, then he has to start acting like it. And as part of his team duties, tonight Lantern is on monitor duty. He doesn't like the idea of wasting Christmas Eve in front of a computer screen, but Arsenal points out that Lantern's the newest member of the team, and the monitor duty shifts are assigned based on seniority. While this conversation is happening, Impulse is sneaking behind them, making faces at Green Lantern.

Bart then quickly changes into his civilian clothes — complete with a Santa hat — and introduces himself formally to Kyle along with Grant and Terra. Grant apologizes to Kyle for getting stuck with monitor duty, and Bart, still feeling a bit sore from earlier, says, "Better you than me." Terra calls out Bart for being rude, and the three teens take off to check out the Christmas decorations at Manhattan.

And that's all the Bart we have in this issue. The rest is pretty interesting, as Kyle struggles to overcome the loneliness of moving to a new city, as well as the depression of his girlfriend dying. As you could have guessed from the cover, he does fight Doctor Polaris, but he beats him pretty quickly. And the issue ends with Donna Troy visiting him and kissing him under the mistletoe.

So yeah, we didn't get much Impulse here, but I still really enjoyed this issue. Ron Marz is a great comic book writer, and I found myself relating to Kyle Rayner very well. I also have moved to a new city, and often find myself sitting at home being lonely. Like Kyle, I need to remind myself to get out and live my life. Luckily, I don't have a dead girlfriend to haunt me.

Sadly, this is the last we'll see Impulse in Green Lantern for a while. But happily, Impulse will be moving on to bigger and better things next time, with Flash #98.