Art By: Bernard Chang, Mirko Colak, Marcelo Maiolo, Tony Avina
Cover Price: $3.99
Release Date: March 11, 2015
The Will To Overcome
*Non Spoilers and Score At The Bottom*
This is it all you Lanternophiles, the final issue of Green Lantern Corps and............. I'm a bit bummed. The Green Lanterns are probably my favorite superheroes and seeing the amount of titles featuring ring slingers getting the axe is a dark time indeed....... and it all starts here. In the last issue of Green Lantern Corps, we had John Stewart and his handful of Lanterns try to root out a criminal organization that occupied Lantern Feska's planet but what they found instead was a shadow that had spread across the planet and it's people and as the last issue closed we saw that this Shadow Empire had created a bomb and apparently it's the same one that destroyed Xanshi years ago marking John's greatest failure. Let's see if our Lantern hero has to relive the past or if he can pave a new future. Let's check it out.
Explain It!:
The story begins with the revised history about the destruction of Xanshi when John Stewart and Katma Tui go to the planet on a good will mission to see if they can do anything about a sickness that has spread across the land. During their investigation they find a hidden structure that Katma believes is the cause of the planet's problems. Well, John being a younger Lantern goes and tries brute force like he's Superman or something and the object becomes armed, blowing up the planet and killing everyone but John and Katma which would forever haunt our Green Lantern.
With all that knowledge in our noggins we now jump to the present where John is faced with the same bomb and instead of trying to attack it like he did years ago, now he intends on getting it the hell off the planet but even with John's mighty will, the bomb has been safe guarded against Green Lanterns and before he can get it out of there the bomb fires back and our heroes are left exactly where we were at the end of last issue. Back on the moon of Ungara, Daggle and his undercover partner Asile are met by the leader of the Shadow Empire who claims that like the planet Zarox where our other Lantern heroes are currently fighting, this moon and planets all over the universe have the same bomb on them. So what do Daggle and Asile do? They blow the damn moon up. I'm talking demons, slaves, everything except for our heroes, who get the hell out of there. Not very Lantern like if you ask me.
Back on Zarox, our Lanterns are dealing with some serious shit. We've got the whole planet converted into chanting cultists, Maro (the little quiet Green Lantern) converted to the way of the Shadow and the leader of the Shadow Empire crawling out of some dudes face like the girl from The Ring.......... Shit is weird and it is serious. It's after a huge fight where John breaks out his Star Sapphire ring that we find out that the Shadow Empire brings the darkness and the darkness it instills in people is the thing that actually fuels the bombs but apparently the people of Zarox will only hate so much because when the leader of the Empire is about to kill Feska's child, well the hate dissipates and the rage of what she's doing breaks the shadow spell and brings order back to the planet.
In the end, John destroys the bomb with his Star Sapphire ring........... because that's the power of love....... Thank you Huey and the leader of the Shadow Empire recedes in the darkness after seeing the power that John possessed. All's well that ends well, the planet is safe and when Feska asks John if he'll stick around to rebuild............. Ha ha, he actually says no and tells Feska that this is her sector and her problem. He wasn't lying but it kind of came off dickly and I laughed my ass off as our hero flew off to find his next adventure. That's the end of Green Lantern Corps, I hope you had as much fun as I did................. Even though there are still a shit ton of bombs out there that we'll never explore and or defuse.
That's it for this final issue of Green Lantern Corps and while I love watching John Stewart doing his
thing, this Shadow Empire story line isn't what I wish we could have ended with. It was odd and for all the buildup we've had about them being the ones that put Uprising together just to have a three issue arc to tie it all together and to finish our Corps series just feels rushed and if push came to shove I don't think I'd be able to really tell you what the Shadow Empire or the Shadow Market as they've been going by here really are. It is what it is though and even though the story wasn't as strong as I would have liked it to be, it was fun seeing John overcoming his past and saving the day one more time. It's a good thing he kept a hold of that Star Sapphire ring, huh. Bernard Chang's artwork while at times is as strong as you've known it to be, at other times comes off muddled and I found myself going back because I didn't understand what was going on, which can be frustrating. Again like last issue the hero of the book to me was the coloring team of Marcelo Maiolo and Tony Avina. The colors were fantastic and I hope to see Marcelo on another book in June so I can get an eye full of everything he has to offer. Hopefully Green Lantern: Lost Army will fill some of the void we'll have in June after this, New Guardians and Red Lanterns are gone.
Bits and Pieces:
It may not be the best story line to end on but Van Jensen did his best to fill it with enough action and callbacks to satisfy every John Stewart fan out there. A bit rushed, a bit confusing but this over sized issue doesn't disappoint in the entertainment factor and it's bright awesome colors really save the day here and make it look bigger than it really is. Go get your last issue of Green Lantern Corps and rejoice over it because who knows when we'll get another.
7/10
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