Green Lantern #1 – Geoffrey Thorne, Writer; Dexter Soy, Marco Santucci, Artists; Alex Sinclair, Colorist
Ray – 9/10
Ray: Geoffrey Thorne gets his Green Lantern run off to a very ambitious start, coming off a Future State miniseries that gave just about every Lantern a spotlight. And there’s a reason for that—the gang’s all here as Oa prepares to host one of the biggest days in their history. It’s the first United Planets summit on Oa, and allies, enemies, and new neighbors have all converged on the world to debate Oa’s admission. But what was expected to be a testimonial turns into a trial when several prominent planets decide to make the case that the Guardians of the Universe have actually caused more damage to the universe than they’ve protected it—and given the history, it’s a plausible case, even if not very convincing from Sinestro’s mouth.
But the Lanterns don’t have much time to focus on this, as they’re occupied with other affairs. While Hal, Kyle, and Jessica are off on other missions and Guy is working with the Guardians, John and Simon take the lead here as their mission to shepherd Keli Quintana to Oa so the Guardians can study her gauntlet hits some complications. Keli had relatively little spotlight in Young Justice, but here we get a better look at her personality. She’s a snarky, prickly girl who has obviously been through some rough stuff that’s made her guarded, and watching her and Simon banter as he tries to get her to open up is a lot of fun. I was skeptical about how she would fit into this book, but she worked well here.
Things reach a head as the United Planets are debating Oa’s fate, and a mysterious group of rogues set out to unleash an ancient secret from Oa’s core. This leads to an epic battle, as John rallies the troops and comes up with an unexpected solution to the crisis. John seems to be Thorne’s POV character for the run, and he leans into writing him as a compelling and ethical leader of an unconventional army. This is probably the largest-scale Green Lantern issue since the Johns days, bringing in the whole gamut of Lantern-aligned characters (including an oddly anthropomorphic Dex-Starr). Even though it packs a lot into this first issue, it feels like the start to something great.
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GeekDad received this comic for review purposes.
