“Green Lantern,” under the pen of Geoffrey Thorne, started off with one of the most promising issues of ‘Infinite Frontier.’ In its second issue, the title has somehow blown out the scope even further, and incorporated a, frankly, shocking amount of DC lore into the book. Be warned, spoilers follow.
Written by Geoffrey ThorneCover by Bernard Chang
Illustrated by Dexter Soy and Marco Santucci
Colored by Alex Sinclair
Lettered by Rob LeighA Guardian of the Universe lies dead, and the universe teeters on the brink of war. As the summit of the United Planets and the Green Lantern Corps falls into chaos, an even bigger threat looms. With John Stewart reassigned to the role of an ambassador, a surprise appearance by one of the newest Green Lanterns may be all that stands between the Corps and oblivion. (Spoiler: it’s Far Sector’s Jo Mullein.)
It is truly shocking that, after the, frankly, really poor “Future State: Green Lantern” title, that “Green Lantern” has been firing on all cylinders, but that’s exactly where we are. Two issues in, there are more new ideas in this title than have been introduced in easily a decade of Lantern stories. But not only that, Thorne has incorporated a large swath of DC lore into the title. In doing so, Thorne has connected the Lantern titles to the overall DC Universe in a more compelling way than his predecessors on the title have in quite some time.
Let’s dive into that first. In this issue, we get references to the Fifth World, Hypertime, “Cosmic Odyssey,” and “Action Comics” #1. The Guardians tell John Stewart about the ‘Crux Worlds’ of the Universe; there were 7, but with the destruction of Krypton and Xanshi, only five remain. We know about Earth, Oa, and Mogo, but there are two unknown planets there. Theoretically, those would be under the jurisdiction of Kyle Rayner and Jessica Cruz, the two human Lanterns that didn’t specifically get assigned a planet.
But the idea of the Crux worlds creates a sort of natural hierarchy to the DC Universe, which answers the age old “why does so much stuff happen on Earth?” question, as well as creates two important destinations for future stories, whatever those two unknown planets are. But by having Oa join the United Planets, it also connects the Green Lantern Corps, quite intimately, to the rest of the cosmic DC characters and worlds. And because of the constriction of 1/3 of the sectors, and the designation of Lanterns like Guy Garnder as outriders, there will likely be more interaction there as well.
This issue delivers so much information to the reader, that it would be easy to think it may have relatively flat, lifeless visuals to more easily convey the exposition. But Dexter Soy and Marco Santucci do a really nice job constructing an issue that doesn’t feel overly wordy or one that scrimped on the art. Although their styles aren’t as simpatico as you’d like two artists sharing an issue to be, they make it work. One of the places that both artists succeed is by conveying emotion through the faces of the characters. There’s no doubt for any of these characters how they are feeling at the moment, and yet neither artist doubles into ‘vein-popping raaaaaage’ for what should be terse, but manageable discussions.
Both artists approached the Guardians a little differently, and while I prefer Santucci’s Guardians, I think that the split somewhat reflects how the Corps sees them versus how John sees them. In the first issue of the series, the Guardians note how John is the bridge between the rank and file and the Guardians. That role continues here, and we see slightly different approaches to how John tackles a problem when he’s surrounded by his fellow Corpsmen and when he’s alone with the Guardians.
By putting John Stewart in the driver’s seat for this series, it seemingly confirms that, despite the title, this is really a Green Lantern Corps title. Of all the Earth-born lanterns, John is by far the one who is most at home as part of the Corps, something often chalked up to his time in another Corps, the Marines. While this can be an oversimplified and reductive part of his history, when used properly it works. Here, it works.
Continued belowThe ‘big tent’ of this book continues, as we get our first [non-“Future State”] appearance of G’Nort since “Formerly Known as the Justice League,” a book that is quasi in-continuity from 2004. We also see the introduction of Jo Mullein from “Far Sector,” in what will likely be a bigger role than G’Nort’s, sadly. (Not really sadly, though G’Nort can be fun).
The issue ends with a huge event – the destruction of the Oan power battery, which foretells what we saw in “Future State: Green Lantern” from a plot perspective, but let’s hope we don’t get gun toting John Stewart with a bad haircut anytime soon. Jo arrives on the scene not long after, and finds Teen Lantern cradling a bloody Simon Baz. We are supposed to think that Simon is dead, but that seems like a misdirect to me. Jo’s ring isn’t picking up any Lanterns in the area, but that could be because the battery is destroyed, that Simon and the rest aren’t registering as Lanterns. Because Keli’s powers don’t come from the battery, she is able to shield herself and Simon under a dome.
So as we leave the second issue, John has a thousand Lanterns under his charge, heading to uncharted territories, Kyle, Hal, Jessica, and Guy off in space, and a higher than normal percentage of Lanterns who were on Oa for the United Planets ceremonies either killed or incapacitated. It took just two issues for Thorne to establish a new status quo and blow it up. While I would’ve really liked to see a year or so of stories set between the first half of the issue and the final pages, this is a fun ride that keeps getting more interesting as it carries on.
Final Verdict: 8.1 – Aside from the incongruity of the art, “Green Lantern” #2 does just about everything you’d want to push the series into surprising places.
