Hachi Machi. Jeremy Adams swings for the fences in an issue that feels as big and epic as any DC comic in years. No one issue in
any of
the multitude of failed DC events in the last few years reads as grand in scale and well put together. You get the feeling that something important is happening, which is how every DC comic should read.
When last we left Hal Jordan in the
Green Lantern: Civil Corps Special #1
, Hal, Carol, and Jon confronted the joint council of Thanagar and Rann to warn them about Thaaros, but their warning came much too late. Meanwhile, Guy and Shepherd infiltrated the Sciencecells on Oa, and Alan Scott created a healthy distraction for the Unseeing.
In Green Lantern #16, the desperate escape from genocide begins. Hal, Carol, and John get a thousand survivors or less aboard the Rannian Battle Cruiser as what’s left of Thanagar burns. Outside Mogo, forced into a Red Lantern state,
and
Thaaros’s spectrum-shifted Lanterns charge the Rannian ship to prevent witnesses from escaping the scene.
Jeremy Adams launches the issue into an all-out fight for survival against overwhelming odds. You won’t find any MCU-styled quippy humor or attempts from our heroes to be kinder and gentler. This story is fight-or-die time, and it’ll get your blood pumping.
Escape won’t be easy. The Rannian ship’s engine is damaged, and the forces are closing in. Hal sends Carol down to the engine room to use her ring’s power and expertise with engineering to fix the ship, despite her uncertainty as a new hero. Hal and John head out into open space to hold off the pursuing Lanterns. Their job starts simple enough, but the fight gets complicated when Varron, aka Star Shroud, joins the Durlan forces.
Aboard the nearby Durlan ship, the shapeshifters discuss how they intend to hold control of the spectrum-shifted Lantern force now that Thaaros is dead. The answer might come
by way of
Thaaros’s experiments on the young Earth girl back on Oa – Keli Quintela, aka Teen Lantern.
What the
Durlans don’t realize
is
that Keli’s unconscious mind has been contacted by John Stewart’s construct “sister,” Ellie, and the two begin planning an escape.
I’ll be the first to say I’d be happy if we never heard from Teen Lantern again, thanks to Brian Michael Bendis’s abysmal writing. However, Adams has my interest if he can find a way to make the character
more interesting
and less obnoxious.
The issue concludes with a dead enemy who isn’t so dead, Guy and Shepherd staging a prison break, and Carol’s efforts to help the Rannian ship escape
running
the
ship
into another problem
…
maybe.
What’s great about Green Lantern #16?
Jeremey Adams’s inaugural issue for what amounts to a Civil War
is steeped
in action, drama, twists, turns, surprises, and wow moments
aplenty
.
If every DC Comic started a new arc with this much
gusto
, the Publisher’s sales numbers would be
in a much better place
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