Absolute Green Lantern #11 – Al Ewing, Writer; Jahnoy Lindsay, Artist
Ray – 10/10
Ray: At its core, space is terrifying. The Green Lantern franchise has always played it for more cosmic adventure, but with lashings of horror. This series takes it in the opposite direction and gives us a glimpse of just how scary a world ruled by these cosmic energies would be. We’ve seen only a few glimpses of the other emotional spectrums so far, but our first non-Earth-based Red Lantern, Tomar-Re, makes his debut this issue. A survivor of a planetary disaster, he’s raging against the universe itself and fully embracing what the Red Lantern is doing to him. This is in contrast to Guy Gardner, who has harnessed the red and is controlling it with John Stewart’s help. The two are forming a sort of commune for people to master their emotional spectrum energy, but that can only last as long as it’s left in peace – and the rest of the spectrum is out there and wants its say.
On Earth, though, there are far more grounded threats to be concerned about. Cameron Chase and Simon Baz, along with their ally Kari Limbo, have realized they’re being played. The DEO has been compromised, and the intelligence they gather is being funnelled to Hector Hammond, and he’s trying to hunt Jo Mullein. Hal Jordan has finally woken from his coma, but there’s no time to rest because Obsidian is on their trail. Hammond has successfully transformed Todd Rice into a horrific rock monster, and is puppeting him across the landscape and tearing people apart with the help of the Mento helmet. This is all perfectly in-character for Hammond – using alien powers he doesn’t understand with likely dire consequences for him – but this time it’s played far darker and fits a pattern of this series being about humans grasping at their first glimpse of a world full of horror and powers far beyond their own.
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GeekDad received this comic for review purposes
