"Green Lantern: New Guardians" #0 opens with a conversation between Tom Kalmaku and Carol Ferris centered on the whereabouts of Hal Jordan. The second page of the issue has an editor's box directing readers to the latest issues of "Green Lantern." That reference doesn't point to any one particular issue, but it is pretty clear that DC is trying to bring this title back inline with the other Lantern titles as "The Third Army" draws near.

What isn't clear to me is what purpose this title serves right now. Kyle Rayner is heavily featured as he pays a visit to Carol Ferris on his way to find Hal Jordan. Jordan is nowhere to be found, so Ferris puts on the Star Sapphire ring and flies into action against resurrected "Black Lanterns." Those "Black Lanterns" are resurrected dead from the Coast City cemetery and don't have the powers and abilities I remember being attributed to Black Lanterns. As a matter of fact, these shambling, decaying bodies are more like zombies than anything else. Ferris and Rayner immediately fall into sync and surprisingly have no problem vanquishing the horde.

The art is nice, for the figures, but the duo of artists don't seem overly devoted to filling pages or panels completely as the figures frequently have little background to contend with. Aaron Kuder's work is clean and detailed, again more for the figures, but with occasional setting or background depth. There are distinct influences from Frank Quitely and, perhaps, even Pat Broderick in Kuder's work, which works nicely for the gritty environs of the Ferris Aircraft hangar where this story opens. Andrei Bressan's work is not terribly divergent from Kuder's, but it is different enough to be noticeable.

"Green Lantern" New Guardians" #0 confirms that a great deal of the pre-"Flashpoint" Green Lantern continuity is on the record, like Kyle being the "torchbearer" and the Rainbow Corps fighting the Black Lanterns. After all, Carol (as Star Sapphire) and Kyle use the "Green Lantern ring plus one" method to combat and vanquish the risen dead. Otherwise, this is simply just another issue. There're no origins, no explanations of the New Guardians, who they are or why they are banded together. Really, this issue is simply an interlude for this series and a decent pause for Green Lantern readers without really giving new readers much to grab onto.