Green Lanterns #52 Review

Story: Dan Jurgens
Art: Marco Santucci
Colors: Hi-Fi

The Cavalry has arrived and it is all out war! The Lanterns face off against an old foe to protect what’s left of Penelops’s home world. While that war rages, a quiet, more destructive war carries on unhindered. Back on Mogo, the Guardians are quickly finding out that the situation is much worse than they thought (which is saying something considering one of their own is dead, Penelops is dead, and John Stewart is barely hanging on).

I love getting into an issue and quickly realizing that I want to turn the page to see what happens next, but I also want to stop and soak in every panel, take in every inch of the artwork, and read every bubble again and again. The issues you pick up again and again, even if you’ve already read it several times that day. These are the issues that make me very thankful to be able to nerd out on a platform like CBC or on the podcast.

The story telling in this issue is really amazing. The story isn’t even about a character that we’ve seen or met. Let me reiterate that, the main character of this story isn’t even a character we know yet! We get no clues as to who this being is, or what their goal is, but we learn a lot about them. We’ll get back to the story, but first, let’s look at that art (again, and again, and again, an- you get it).

In comics (and any medium that has comic book stories), the super hero team is always an interesting story that excites readers/viewers. The Justice League, The Avengers, The Titans (both Teen, and not so Teen), The X-Men. They draw out nerds and non-nerds alike (I mean, so does Batman, but that’s… Batman). People love the team dynamics and seeing how they can pull together to defeat insurmountable odds. Ultimately, every team faces its moments when their team work isn’t what it should be (see: most of the episodes of Justice League: The Animated Series. Also, I’m totally going to watch that after I’m done writing this). In this issue, The Green Lantern Corps shows us what happens when you have insane teamwork. Granted, a lot of them are military even without the ring, but it’s still really incredible to the Corps’ teamwork in a full on fight.

The space battle is beautiful and also fills you (by you, I mean me) with insane amounts of anxiety. The opening splash page drops you right in the middle of the fight, and it is chaotic. The sheer number of ships sending down their mining beam to the planet below is a bit overwhelming. Mix that with a bunch of Cruisers blasting at the Lanterns, and boom, anxiety. Good anxiety though. Art is supposed to evoke emotions. I stayed on that page for a while. Just soaked it all in. It gave me the same feeling of joy I get in a good Star Wars battle. Then I turned the page. The chaos gets heightened with each panel, and the use of color just sucks you right in. Even when we go back to Mogo and see the Guardians, it is chaos. The dome is broken and the storm is raging. Even the Power Battery feeds back on them. We do get a little break of serenity when we see Hal, but it’s short lived and back to chaos. It makes for a very exciting issue.

Now back to the story. The Green Lantern Corps is one of the best trained superhero teams in comics. They push each other to be better, and when they are on the field (or sky) they are almost symbiotic. How do you defeat a well tuned legion wielding power rings? Make them defeat themselves. That’s what makes this story so interesting to me. A being, that we know nothing about, is picking apart the Corps like this is a warm up for them. We also see that this being has a lot of followers. Devout followers. This being has gone to the broken, and built them back up to be more powerful and dangerous then they thought possible. But why? What is the end game? Who/what is this thing? We learn a lot about this being, but still know nothing, and that is incredibly exciting to me.

The most interesting thing to me is how this being is turning Jess and Simon against each other. Simon just faced down the entire Green Lantern Corps to help clear Jessica’s name. Jessica and Simon get closer and closer with every issue, and yet, this being is finding a way to chip away at that trust. The being uses their faith in their own power rings against them. I assume when you have the most powerful weapon in the universe on your ring finger, it’s easy to lose sight of what earned you the ring in the first place; your incredible will. Nothing can touch you, so nothing can corrupt you, right? Not so much.

Green Lanterns #52 is a fun and exciting issue from beginning to end. The artwork sucks you in, and the story telling traps you in the world this creative team has built. There is a lot of information about our big bad, if you pay attention, but there are still so many unanswered questions, like WHO IS IT?! This whole arc has been suspenseful, exciting, and visually captivating, but this issue is by far the best yet. I cannot wait until we nerd out again when #53 comes out on the 15th.

