Green Lantern: War Journal #7 – Phillip Kennedy Johnson, Writer; Montos, Artist; Adriano Lucas, Colorist
Ray – 9/10
Ray: While Jeremy Adams has been doing a very personal story for Hal Jordan over in his title, Phillip Kennedy Johnson is placing John Stewart front and center in a cosmic battle that still never manages to lose a human touch. John left Earth in search of the Revenant Queen—but has gone further than he ever expected, winding up in a sky he doesn’t recognize and a planet filled with strange mutated creatures and countless refugees from other worlds just like him—as well as a mysterious old man who seems to know him. This is a fascinating set piece, a place where time-and-space-lost beings from across space have congregated in an endless, hopeless battle to escape—with something mysterious and horrible lurking behind every corner, and an even bigger threat than the Revenant Queen seemingly coming. The suspense builds through the issue, but I found the subplot this issue even stronger.
That would be the story focusing on Ellie, John’s sister—who has gone from being a simple construct designed to bring his mother comfort to a thinking, independent construct that is watching over her in his absence. But it’s clear that “Ellie” is displaying some disturbing behavior—altering time to keep her mother occupied and playing with her, and isolating her dementia-afflicted mother from their allies like John Henry Irons. There are some fascinating shades here of how people exploit the vulnerable, but it’s hard to say whether Ellie is in any way malevolent or simply acting like a child with more power than she knows how to handle. What Johnson does here is expand on elements from past runs that hinted that John’s powers were growing beyond what we’ve seen from any other Lantern. This wouldn’t work nearly as well as if he hadn’t done the work to get us invested in John’s family.
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GeekDad received this comic for review purposes.
