Green Lantern Dark #1 – Tate Brombal, Writer; Werther Dell’edera, Artist; Giovanna Niro, Colorist
Ray – 9.5/10
Ray: This Elseworlds supernatural thriller has been garnering a lot of buzz, with a unique high-fantasy take on Green Lantern. But there’s one secret about it that hasn’t really been hyped up – it takes place in the Tangent Universe, the first project in years to take place in this unique in-name-only world where the Cuban Missile Crisis devolved into World War 3. But that’s no longer a concern – because a zombie plague has rendered human divisions moot. The Green Lantern of this world, a woman with an enchanted lantern that can raise the dead for unfinished business, raised the wrong person – and they have now become the Grundy, an undead plague that has built himself an army.
And out of that army, the whole world now hides in darkness. In one small village, a family tries to survive. The mother leads the colony as mayor, her son is a cynic who has lost hope for anything better in life – but her daughter, Lunette, still believes in the legend of the Green Lantern and believes that she’ll come to save them one day. That turns out to be closer to reality than anyone thought, as the titular hero shows up to fight off a zombie and get a beer – but the current Lantern-bearer, Rina, is a cynical young woman whose predecessor accidentally unleashed the plague and has no more hope than the rest of the villagers. This leads Lunette to make a fateful decision that unleashes the floodgates.
From there, this issue devolves into a tense horror-action thriller as the nightmare comes home – until Lunette displays a surprising ability that throws Rina’s entire mission into flux. The idea of what it would take to be a superhero in a post-apocalyptic world is pretty fascinating, and Brombal’s scripting is very strong, but equal credit for how good this issue is goes to the legendary Werther Dell’edera. The artist of Something Is Killing the Children is known for his dark, haunting, subtle art, and that makes him a perfect fit for an issue where so much of the story takes place in shadows. So far, this is another big win for the Elseworlds line, which is taking some big chances as it kicks off.
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GeekDad received this comic for review purposes.
