Review – Green Lanterns #52: Assault on Mogo

Green Lanterns #52 – Dan Jurgens, Writer; Marco Santucci, Artist; Hi-Fi, Colorist

Ray – 8/10

Ray: Since Dan Jurgens took over on Green Lanterns, it’s been clear that he’s been writing a very different book than Humphries and Seeley did. I just haven’t been clear exactly what kind of book that was now. More than a standard action book, Jurgens seems to be getting into areas of cosmic horror, exploring just how the Green Lanterns’ rings and powers can be turned against them by the malevolent force targeting Mogo. As the issue opens, this mysterious entity is settling into the rings and corrupting them, as Simon, Jessica, and the rest of the Lanterns battle against a massive fleet of attacking spaceships. Complicating things, communications are getting worse and worse, as crossed wires lead to the Lanterns getting orders wrong and going rogue. This leads to Simon becoming the subject of growing mistrust. The issue seems to reveal the Ravagers, a primitivist gang of space thugs that Hal and co. went up against years ago, as the mastermind, but almost everyone seems to suspect that this is far too big an attack for these b-list villains to pull off.

Speaking of Hal, he’s been missing in action since the end (released next week) of the Darkstars arc in Hal Jordan and the Green Lantern Corps. This issue reveals that he’s alive and well (although we largely knew that) and is taking a sabbatical on an isolated nature planet. The Lanterns finally manage to get ahold of him and pull him back into the fight, where he discovers just how bad things have gotten. A lot of the plots are ongoing, as Salaak battles to save John Stewart’s life on Mogo, and the mysterious Eon continues to pop in and out of the story to display his power and viciousness (although nothing comes close to last issue’s brutal massacre of an entire planet of intelligent cephalopods). However, over the course of the issue we start to figure out that something is lurking in the Lanterns’ rings, actively manipulating them and lying to them – and doing a far more effective job of destroying them than any villain has in a while. At points, it’s downright creepy. This definitely isn’t the same book (and we now know that this book is ending in a few months), but it’s become a pretty effective tale of the Green Lantern Corps.

To find reviews of all the DC issues, visit DC This Week.

GeekDad received this comic for review purposes.

Liked it? Take a second to support GeekDad and GeekMom on Patreon!