Aside from a few Orion appearances, and the events of “Infinity Man and the Forever People,” the New Gods have been absent from the New 52 thus far. DC has decided that the best way to remedy that situation is to use the Lantern books as the entry point. In fact, it is surprising that the Lanterns and the New Gods haven’t had more interaction in the past. Here, the course is set for a three month event, where both franchises meet and, hopefully, find new ways to thrive.
Written by Van Jensen, Justin Jordan, Robert Venditti, Charles Soule, and Cullen Bunn
Illustrated by Ethan Van Sciver, Goran Sudzuka, Chriscross, and Pete Woods“GODHEAD” Act 1, Part 1: Highfather, leader of the New Gods, has long studied the infinite and infinitely mysterious Source Wall which surrounds the universe. Now, he has learned that during “Green Lantern: Lights Out,” the ring-wielders broke through the Wall and stole secrets of cosmic importance. Determined to breach the Source Wall himself, Highfather must gain one of each colored ring in the emotional spectrum. But even mighty Highfather doesn’t know all, and the forces he’s about to unleash will have transformative effects on the whole DC Universe! Cosmic mystery, overwhelming odds, familiar and brand-new New Gods – This one’s got it all! This issue also includes a special fold-out that will take you to the Source Wall like never before!
The book opens with an Ethan Van Sciver illustrated look at the history of the New Gods, Darkseid, and the Source Wall, and while there isn’t anything exactly new or terribly exciting in these first few pages, it sets the stage for the crossover nicely. Van Sciver’s work can feel a little static and cold, which actually works in its favor here, as it takes on the feel of a history book (or specifically an art history book, as there is at least one allusion to a very famous piece of artwork). The inclusion of the Source Wall, a Venditti creation for the Green Lantern mythos and the New Gods mythos is a really fun way to connect these two properties.
The story of this issue is simple – New Genesis, as always, is looking to defeat Darkseid once and for all, and the Highfather believes that by using the energy that breached the Source Wall – the spectrum of light – he could create the Life Equation, the antithesis to Darkseid’s Anti-Life Equation. So, he tasks many of the New Gods to travel across the universe and collect one of each color ring to create a weapon that would harness all of their energies into one powerful blast.
The scenes set on New Genesis are illustrated by Goran Sudzuka, who has worked with Orion before on “Wonder Woman,” and his pages are an absolute delight. His work is crisp and expressive, and adds a bit of levity to the New Gods. While I am a huge fan of the characters, they can appear stuffy and self-righteous at times, and Sudzuka’s art balances that out a bit. Throughout the entire issue, colorist Marcello Maiolo proves just how valuable he is to DC right now, as his work is so diverse and malleable. While most of the book is colored in a traditional sense, the sequences based on each ring’s acquisition – especially in the Sinestro sequence – really lifts the book into something special.
The art in these sequences is harder to ascribe to a particular artist, as the sequences are so short and full of action that you never get a great sense of who is drawing what sequence. However, because of the nature of these scenes, the lack of consistency works to the book’s advantage. It helps reinforce the idea that the universe is a huge, visually diverse place, which is exactly what DC should be attempting to show.
One particularly interesting angle here is that, even though the Guardians no longer have a major role in the Lantern books, the New Gods almost take their place here, boasting their intelligence, their supremacy and their power over the Lanterns, with whom they have never interacted before. On one hand this is a bit frustrating, as the books have been doing just fine without that domineering body of power hovering over the book. However, it is a bit of a fun scenario, and it feels fresher than my description perhaps gave it credit for.
Continued belowThere is also a large part of the book dedicated to the one-year anniversary of the “death” of Kyle Rayner, something that all the heroes of the New 52 believe actually happened. I don’t know if this is necessarily the time where that facade goes away, but it is nice to see Rayner still playing a pivotal role in the Lantern mythos, especially as his White Lantern status could easily make him distant or unlikable. But it has done the opposite; he is still the most human Lantern, despite being the most powerful. The script for this issue is by Jensen and Jordan, so seeing Kyle so featured isn’t too much of a shock, as Jordan writes him each month, but it is still a pleasant occurrence.
The book has a few truly great sequences, but there are also some odd choices. The Red Lantern section talks about Earth as the home of the “last of the Red Lanterns” – it is unclear if the woman wielding the ring is the last of the Red Lanterns (and if so, where are Bleez, Guy, and Rankorr?), or if they are just saying that Earth is where all Red Lanterns now reside. Similarly odd is how the New Gods get their Green Lantern ring – I won’t spoil the sequence, but if it was that easy to get the power ring off of this particular Lantern, I can’t imagine this is the first time they’ve lost it.
Overall though (and despite a really unusual printing error in the backmatter), this is a solid introduction to the crossover, and acts as a fitting start to the New Gods’ time in the New 52.
Final Verdict: 7.7 – A strong opening salvo for what is shaping up to be a really fun crossover
