Written by Priest, Josie Campbell,
Geoffrey Thorne, Robert Venditti
Art by Tom Raney, Dexter Soy, Andie Tong
Published by DC Comics
In this slice of the multiverse’s future, we’re engaged in a timeline where the Green Lantern Corp’s power battery on Oa has gone dead.
We don’t know why, but this second issue does a fine job further setting the table for these stories if they are ongoing.
“Last Lanterns,” with John Stewart at its center, continues as he leads a squad trying to help a race of aliens escape a death cult’s genocidal conquest of their home world.
The dreadful fight continues.
The depowered Lantern G’Nort is dead, and Salaak likely gone as well.
But Stewart is given the chance by these Khund warriors turned zealots of the God in Red to fight them head-on or flee and be hunted down. Well, we know what Stewart will choose.
At the same time, the story smartly goes to the other freedom fighters still going, still trying to get the Shaar on evacuation arks. We see the bravery of these freedom fighters and get some quick, yet effective, characterizations to follow.
All that, along with Stewart’s determined orders to stick with his plan, before the story drops the hammer on who the God in Red truly is.
Thorne and Raney keep the pressure on with this headbanging slice of extreme action, space war comics. The fights are bloody, the poses ripped and big, the faces operatic in emotional magnitude. The stakes run high, where the power of faith is rewarded with action.
And that final page makes me want to shout!
After all the blood and lasers, a palate cleanser is good, right? Thankfully, Campbell and Tong bring us Keli Quintela, Teen Lantern.
Sure, maybe Keli’s more of a Green Lantern fangirl who found a power gauntlet that somehow can hack into and store the Oa central battery’s green energy. And yes, the Guardians can’t quite make sense of this tiny, inquisitive dynamo.
But she’s off on a mission anyhow, with Mogo, the sentient planet who harnesses the Lantern’s light. Sounds great to me, until Mogo enters a pocket of dead space when the central battery goes out, leaving Quintela on a planet without a sun and growing colder day by day.
Oh, and some monsters crash land on Mogo and start hunting her.
This is a fun story, even though it’s scary.
My only criticism really is that in the first issue we had another story of a Latina Green Lantern trapped someplace with monsters hunting her. But what sets this story apart is that, through the eyes of an unsure teenager, we gain another insight on the source and power of will.
We also get to see what is happening with Hal Jordan.
Jordan’s ring has yet to go dark, thanks to some enhancement tech by Cyborg.
But he knows something is wrong with the corps, so Hal heads out in a spaceflight to Oa. As he comes across enemy Lanterns, Khund warriors and even a resurrected Warworld, he knows the Lantern’s hard-fought order is falling apart.
Soy’s art is reminiscent of Neal Adams, with perhaps a dash of Bart Sears. And modern coloring techniques allow for Alex Sinclair to imbue the pages with so many shades of luminescent green, and all the things that glow and shine in deep space.
The devastation grows as nearer Hal gets to Oa, and then he is accosted by … well, someone from the far sector.
I think it was smart to move Hal into one of the backmatter stories, as there’s more than enough focus on the Coast City champion. However, I know it’s also good business as the cliffhanger features a to-be-continued promotion for Green Lantern 2021.
These two issues have been fun, and may they whet your appetite for more GL goodies this year.
