Green Lantern #196 – “3” – Steve Englehart/Joe Staton/Bruce Patterson
This one starts with Guy Gardner enjoying his new status as a Green Lantern (after receiving a ring last issue from some renegade Guardians). Guy is in his old neighbourhood in Baltimore, using the ring to demolish the tenement where he used to live. He heads out to sea to look for the Shark, who the Guardians have told him to find. Meanwhile, Hal Jordan (the former Green Lantern) is returned to Earth by the Guardians after failing to convince them to let him back into the Corps. Hal isn’t happy, but vows to do what he can as a civilian to fight against
whatever’s responsible for the Crisis that’s threatening to destroy the universe. John Stewart (the official Green Lantern of record) returns to Earth and finds his girlfriend (and fellow Lantern) Katma Tui. John tells her how he and a bunch of other heroes beat the Anti-Monitor and forced him back into the darkness that spawned him, as well as dismantling the weapons he was going to use to destroy the multiverse. Katma tries to check in with the Guardians, but finds an impenetrable barrier around Oa. That worries her, making her think maybe the Anti-Monitor is still a threat, but John insists he saw the Anti-Monitor defeated. In the ocean depths, Guy 
manages to reconstitute the Shark (who was disintegrated in issue 176), but Shark immediately attacks him. Guy gets more than he bargained for and is beaten, but when Shark realizes this isn’t the “real” GL, he tosses Guy aside and goes looking for Hal. Hal is at John’s place, finally telling John that he was his predecessor as Green Lantern. John is surprised, though it all fits in hindsight. Hal says he’ll help John any way he can as a mentor and also tells him about Guy getting a ring from the renegade Guardians. Hal explains how most Guardians are willing to accept the end of the multiverse as penance, since they’re responsible for creating the anti-matter universe eons ago. But some Guardians prefer to fight and they’re the ones who gave Guy the ring. John tells Hal about the Anti-Monitor’s defeat and asks about
the barrier around Oa. Hal doesn’t know why the Guardians would remain isolated if the Anti-Monitor’s threat is really over. John tries to communicate with Oa again, but the barrier is still up. When his consciousness returns, he finds Shark trying to rip Hal to pieces. John saves Hal and manages to resist the Shark’s mental attacks, trapping him in a green energy bubble by removing all the air. Before John can figure out what to do, Guy shows up wanting to take the Shark. He tells John the renegade Guardian tasked him with gathering a bunch of bad-asses to destroy the Anti-Monitor’s base, the moon of Qward. John thinks Guy is crazy and the two of them square off, ready to fight.
Firestorm #43 – “Night of Tears, Sky of Sorrow” – Gerry Conway/Rafael Kayanan/Mike Machlan
This one starts in Pittsburgh, with Firestorm saving some steel mill workers from a spill of boiling slag on his way to Vandemeer University (where Professor Stein is teaching and Ronnie is a new student). Back in New York, a doctor named Ellis arrives at the hospital to check on a patient who’s reviving after being comatose for a long time. But this isn’t any ordinary patient; when he wakes up he goes nuts, blasting through the hospital roof and flying away naked through a raging storm. At Vandemeer, Ronnie tries out for the football team (since all the basketball
players are way taller than him) and makes it thanks to his fancy footwork. Professor Stein is proud of him, but is feeling kinda old surrounded by all the young students. In New York, Dr. Ellis tells the cops about her patient flying away and they think she’s nuts, especially since she doesn’t even know the guy’s name. She tells them how the patient was found in the East River barely a day after Firestorm beat Typhoon (which we saw in issue 9), so she figured this patient was probably Typhoon … but she never had any proof. She’s right, it is Typhoon, and he heads out to suburban Long Island. Some cops 
see him wandering around (still naked) and take him to his ex-wife’s place when he claims she’ll vouch for him. She’s surprised to see him, but allows him in to see their kids, telling the cops everything is fine. Meanwhile in Washington, D.C., Multiplex is breaking into FBI headquarters to search their database for criminals he can recruit to help him get revenge on Firestorm. In Pittsburgh, Ronnie’s girlfriend Doreen gets serious, wanting to know where their relationship is going. Ronnie seems ready to commit to her, so I guess he’s forgotten about Firehawk. Cliff Carmichael is watching them, seething with jealousy and sounding slightly psychotic. On Long Island, Typhoon’s wife Sarah tells
him she’s got a new boyfriend and that he can’t stay, reminding him they’ve been divorced for over a year because of his long absences on research trips. He tells her what happened on the last trip and how he became Typhoon. He sees a news report about Felicity Smoak trying to sue Firestorm and the rumours that Firestorm has relocated to Pittsburgh. He turns into Typhoon, grabs the kids, and flies off toward Pittsburgh.
Vigilante #25 – “Cruel and Unusual Punishment” – Paul Kupperberg/Tod Smith/Rick Magyar
This one starts with a couple of cops trying to torture a confession out of a black guy named Daryl Perkins, who was waiting at a bus stop (in known drug dealer territory) and happened to have a pocket full of cash. Daryl has a good explanation, but the cops won’t listen. Elsewhere, some more cops have cornered the new murderous Vigilante at the scene of his latest kill. Lieutenant Stein shows up to take and command and they chase Vigilante to a rooftop, but he eludes them again by disguising himself as a cop and slipping away. The original (and now ex-) Vigilante, Adrian Chase,
has been searching for his deadly double without success. Adrian is at home trying to unwind when he sees the story about Daryl on TV and feels bad that the cops would torture an innocent kid like that. (Actually, Adrian figures torturing a suspect would be wrong even if he was guilty.) His killer counterpart is also watching the news report, but he has a different opinion, thinking the cops did the right thing trying to get a dope dealer off the streets. At a private estate in upstate New York, Trinidad Santiago is getting cabin fever; he’s tired out hiding out from the new Vigilante (who already killed his lawyer a 
couple issues ago). But Vigilante’s not the only one looking for Santiago; Electrocutioner wants him too and tortures some info out of a goon back in New York, getting a general idea of where Santiago is hiding. Meanwhile, the two cops who tortured Daryl (Ramez and Hallahan) are arrested by Internal Affairs. It turns out Daryl’s not the first guy to be tortured in their precinct and others have come forward. When Vigilante sees that, he changes his mind and decides Ramez and Hallahan are the bad guys and it’s his job to waste them. Ramez and Hallahan are released on bail and go to a strip club to get hammered. Vigilante trails them and sneaks backstage to shoot them, but his shot is
spoiled by the stripper’s metal brassiere (!) and the club empties out. Ramez and Hallahan try to find Vigilante backstage and he starts toying with them, leading them around and up into the rafters as they each try to kill each other. We get a quick interlude with Marcia King’s psychiatrist, who’s pretty close to guessing that Adrian Chase was the original Vigilante, thanks to his sessions with Marcia. At the strip club, Vigilante takes a couple of bullets, but Hallahan ends up clinging to a catwalk for dear life. When Ramez comes to help, Vigilante blows him away, then leaves Hallahan dangling there. It isn’t long before he falls to his death. There’s a back-up story about Adrian Chase’s bailiff (Dave Winston) 
following a guy who he figures is a killer-for-hire to get evidence against him. We find out Dave comes from a family of cops and his dad and brother both died in the line of duty. He wanted to be a cop too, but medical issues kept him out, so now he’s a bailiff and takes it on himself to gather evidence against criminals that the system can’t catch. Dave stops the killer and figures anything he can do to help justice is good. I think these back-ups (like the Lieutenant Stein one last issue) are supposed to make us think that one of these guys could be the new rogue Vigilante. But they could all be red herrings too …
Warlord #101 – “Temple of the Demigod” – Michael Fleisher/Andy Kubert/Pablo Marcos
This one starts with Travis Morgan heading to see a warlock to get information on how to cure his daughter Jennifer of the aging curse that’s affecting her (after she helped Morgan defeat Cykroth last issue). Morgan has to waste some Vashek assassins, but eventually makes it to the warlock’s castle. The warlock’s name is Muldahara (who looks kinda like a drag version of John Belushi’s samurai tailor) and he tells Morgan he might be able to help with Jennifer’s problem … for a price. Muldahara wants the Eyes of Ankanar, two gems that adorn the eye sockets
of a bird statue in the Temple of Ankanar. Morgan’s not happy about desecrating a temple, but Muldahara tells him the Cult of Akanar is just a way for the priests to get rich through theft and intimidation. Morgan sneaks into the temple, but before he can grab the gems from the statue, he’s attacked by a blonde woman. Turns out she’s a thief too and mistook him for a guard. Once she realizes Morgan is there to rob the temple, she suggests they cooperate. But the real guards discover them and attack, forcing Morgan and the woman to fight them. (If you’re getting a Tower of the Elephant vibe 
from this, you’re not the only one; it almost seems like they were setting something up with this nameless thief, but I don’t think she ever appears again.) A priest animates the statue into some kind of griffon and it attacks. The blonde knows it can’t be turned back to a statue until it devours a soul, so she tosses one of the guards to the monster and it turns to stone again. Morgan grabs the gems and follows the blonde out of the temple. She tells him he might make a good thief some day and takes off, leaving him (and us) wondering who the hell she is. Morgan takes the gems to Muldahara, who admits he can’t actually cure Jennifer, but he might be able to point Morgan in the right direction. Muldahara tells Morgan the only one who may be able to help him is the ancient wizard, Hagar-Zinn, who lives in the House of the Celestials on the shore of the Greenfire Sea. (Naturally,
Muldhara has some secret agenda that’s only hinted at here … this is a fantasy story, after all.) When Morgan tells Tara about where he has to go, she points out that the destination is said to be mythical and even if Morgan gets there and finds something to help Jennifer, she might be dead before he gets back. Tara accuses him of wanting to go on the quest to satisfy his lust for adventure and avoid his mundane responsibilities, but he says he has to take the chance for Jennifer’s sake. Jennifer hears the argument and feels guilty for being the reason Morgan is leaving his wife again.