Time and time again, I’ve said that what I’d really like to see someone do is create a Green Lantern Corps series that takes the “cop show in space” concept and runs with it properly – setting up a bunch of lead characters that don’t always necessarily interact with one-another, and hopping between various storylines: some big, some small; some involving external investigations, others internal intrigue.

So with that in mind, I don’t know why I haven’t been paying closer attention to this book – because a recent trawl through its back issues has revealed that, while far from perfect, it’s actually quite close to that exact specification – and it has Guy Gardner as pretty much its lead character, to boot. While it’s benefitted from having Dave Gibbons as its guiding light (having launched the series, he pops up now and again to write and/or pencil), writers Keith Champagne and now Peter J. Tomasi have stepped up to do a solid job in keeping up the momentum. It’s an entertaining series, with a good roster of characters (both old and new) that also refers neatly back to old GL mythology on occasion (even though Mogo has, by now, been badly overused).

Tomasi here wraps up a two-part murder mystery/investigation storyline, as the recent brutal killings of families of Corps members are solved. A Lantern named Saarek becomes integral to the investigation, and it’s hard not to see his unique abilities being made use of in the future (indeed, the tease of the closing pages suggests exactly that). In and of himself he’s not a hugely interesting character so far, and I’ve often wondered just how wise it is to introduce GLs with powers beyond those the ring provides – but it’s nevertheless an intriguing concept (and basically gives Tomasi an excuse to have come up with the imagery of hundreds of disembodied eyes floating in a tank).

Longer-standing threads are dealt with courtesy of a surprise appearance by Ice, with the relationship between her and Guy being – so far – a slow-burning development in the background of the series. There are a few of these running through the book – although only this one shows up in this issue – and they certainly make the book more rewarding for regular readers, though such an X-Men-ish approach does tend to make it a little more difficult for the newcomer. These scene does provide guest artist Luke Ross with one of his more misjudged moments, though, oversexifying Ice a tad (it is Ice, after all) – while elsewhere, although his work is solid, there’s just a little too much of a sheen to it (hardly Greg Land territory, but all just a bit too pretty and obvious), and the more idiosyncratic Patrick Gleason will surely be welcomed back next month.

While it enjoys much less of a high profile than Geoff Johns’ sister Green Lantern title, GL Corps manages to be one of the best pure sci-fi books DC has put out in a while – again, this must partly be down to the influence of Gibbons, but there’s something of a 2000AD vibe to a lot of it, as well as calling back the classic Tales of the Green Lantern Corps – and indeed, with the relocation of Guy and Kyle to Oa, shifting the focus away from Earth, you’d barely call it a superhero book at all were it not for the costumes. The GL property as a whole is suffering a bit from having a lot of mythos piled onto it (there’s barely been a chance to catch breath from The Sinestro Corps War before The Blackest Night kicks off early next year) – but while that sort of thing might be better-suited to Hal Jordan’s title, the Corps book has shown in its short life so far that it’s at its best when it’s being more NYPD Blue than Justice League.