Art By: Martin Coccolo, Aaron Lopresti
Cover Price: $3.99
Release Date: September 3, 2014
Taking Out The Dead
It's recap time and since it's event month, that means I have nothing to put here......... I could tell you about the time I saw a midget try to beat the hell out of a hand dryer that he felt was too high in a men's bathroom, but that doesn't really seem like it's too relevant to Green Lantern, at least at this point in it's series. Okay so it's five years in the future and Hal Jordan hasn't been seen yet in the Futures End weekly title, so let's find out what's keeping him out, or if we'll see him in it at all. Join me as we take a look at Green Lantern: Futures End #1 and see what Five Years From Now holds for the ring slinger.
Explain It!:
Our story begins at the Source Wall where apparently between now and Five Years From Now, Relic was released and Hal Jordan and him stand against an army of Black Lanterns now led by Krona. How did this begin you ask? Well let me tell you about it.
We jump back to Hal hanging out in his apartment, listening to the radio broadcast about Green Arrow Day in Seattle to remember the fallen hero, when out of nowhere his dead father stops by for a visit. Now this part is pretty funny and I found myself talking to the comic because Hal has himself a pretty lengthy conversation with his father before he thinks to ask, "What are you doing here dad? You're dead." Now being someone with a father that's passed on, I know that would be one of my first questions, possibly after screaming. A Green Lantern, I am not. So it turns out that dear old dad is stopping by because Krona is the new head Black Lantern and is resurrecting an army. Hal's dad and a couple of resurrected Green Lanterns are able to keep their zombie from coming full out due to their enhanced willpower and they want to see if Hal can stop Krona so they can be put to rest. Well of course Hal wants to stop some Black Lanterns and suits up, but before he flies off to space, we find out that since the Earth 2 war which led to the death of his mother, Hal hasn't left Earth and vowed not to again. So I guess leader of the Green Lantern Corps isn't on his resume as current employment.
Hal goes off to the Source Wall to recruit Relic, since he's the gigantic know it all when it comes to the emotional spectrum and when the two are confronted by the Black Lanterns, he does prove to be quite valuable. With just a push of a button on his holographic display, Relic can call forth any color of the emotional spectrum and if you remember, to take down a Black Lantern you need green and another color and Relic has that in spades. So the two battle the Black Lanterns until Krona blasts a containment field behind Relic's back and we find out that Relic was keeping the Black Lanterns that kept their composure out of Krona's reach, but now they are susceptible to big head's command. Hal getting swarmed by zombies goes for one last ditch effort attack and encircles himself and the swarming Black Lanterns in a bubble and has Relic fire a bunch of different colors into it, destroying the undead menaces. Relic locks up Krona's ring that tries to search out Black Hand and we see that the only survivors are the the good Black Lanterns and Hal, but Hal's seen better days.
In the end we find out that Hal is dying from his injuries and to make sure to preserve his son until something can save him, he places Hal into the Source Wall, freezing him in stone and time. That's the fate of Hal Jordan Five Years From Now and man is it a downer.
That's it for Green Lantern: Futures End and while it was a really good story dealing with all the fun enemies of the New 52, I am seriously depressed about the fate of Hal Jordan. Like most are speculating, I really hope that this is in fact a future that will be erased by the end. Now I know that sounds like a cop out story, but I always thought it was fun to see an alternate future to get some perspective on how good we have it now. See you next week for John Stewart's future and hopefully it's a better one than poor Hal got.
Bits and Pieces:
Like most titles so far during this Futures End event, this really has no bearing on the Futures End weekly at all, but with that out of the way I do have to say that I loved this issue. It gave me everything that I didn't know I wanted from a Five Years From Now Green Lantern title. The Black Lanterns are back, Relic is back and solo Hal kicking ass and taking names is back. Just a fun one shot that breaks up the usual crossovers that the Lantern titles have been plagued with. Definitely get your courage up and get this issue.
9/10
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