Green Lanterns #15 Review and *SPOILERS*

Anxiety Lantern

Written By: Sam Humphries

Art By: Tom Derenick, Miguel Mendonca, Scott Hanna, Blond, Dave Sharpe

Cover Price: $2.99

Release Date: January 18, 2017

*Non Spoilers and Score At The Bottom*

Even though I wasn't a fan at how the Phantom Lantern story arc ended.......... or how most of the issues to that arc seemed to just be padded out fight scenes that went nowhere.  I have to say that I'm still interested in this book because while I'm afraid that it will let me down in the end, I still always want to give it that chance to impress me as well.  I'm a fickle mush head, I know but I really care about Jessica Cruz and Simon Baz (probably care more about them than any rational person should) and I want to see them do great things and as I see it, each issue is a chance for them to do just that.  Hopefully, that's this issue.  Let's jump into this and see where our cliffhanger with Rami being taken over by Volthoom takes us here and let's see if Jessica has made any headway with her anxiety since she put on the Phantom Ring and found out definitively that she's supposed to be a Green Lantern.  Let's check it out.

Explain It!:

Our issue begins with me losing my goddamn mind because even though we've seen Jessica time and again now overcoming her anxiety, we now have an issue dedicated to seeing it through a day in the life of Jessica Cruz........ The thing is, even though I've complained over and over again about how this is the least interesting part of the character and how it's been done to death already, this issue actually made me feel like a bit of a dick and at times....... felt like Sam Humphries himself was calling me a bit of a dick because anxiety just doesn't go away and as we've seen with Jessica.  It's a constant struggle that can overwhelm her at any given moment, through the most innocuous things.  The reason I think I have such a problem with it is....... Well, I have a bit of an anxiety issue myself and don't really want to see my heroes be just like me and have fear of leaving the house, but it sure as hell comes off like I'm some kind of monster that I expect a hero like Jessica Cruz just to get over something simply because I want to see a new tale.  

Throughout this day in the life of Jessica Cruz, we see her struggle to get out of bed, meet Simon for breakfast before being called away by the Justice League to fight a big ass monster.  The day continues like this with Simon and Jessica going from place to place saving the day and for the most part........ Jessica's fine.  It takes a two-bit wanna-be villain like the Golden Age Green Lantern character "The Gambler" to get Jessica to lose her cool.  While I dig this call out to the Gambler, it really acts to show us how the simplest things can make everything go sideways in Jessica's mind and make the anxiety kick into high gear.  

In the end, after Simon says the wrong thing about how he thought she was over this (making me think of my own words), we see our hero struggle the next day to get out of bed, but it seems that even with all the bone head things that Simon says, he really does care about Jessica and even shows up at her home to make them both pancakes since they missed them the day before.  It's a really touching moment that sadly doesn't get to last because as our issue closes we see that Batman has called our heroes because he needs them in Gotham for something, leading us to get all excited for our Batman/Green Lanterns team-up that we'll have next issue.

That's it for this issue of Green Lanterns and even though we're right back into anxiety territory with Jessica Cruz, I have to appreciate this issue because it kind of puts all the naysayers of her affliction (like me) on blast.  I like the fact that Sam Humphries is kind of talking to the fans that have complained about Jessica's anxiety problems taking up too much story and telling them that this is an actual problem and if you want Jessica to be a actual character with actual feelings and motivations.... Well, this is something that you're going to have to deal with because she'll have to deal with them.  My biggest problem with this is, I have anxiety and want to be able to see my heroes be better than myself or at least overcome.  With that though, this issue gave me a better perspective on the hero and actually made me feel like a bit of a dick, but I had a good time with it nonetheless and can't wait to see where it's cliffhanger takes us....... Especially if the art remains this good because I loved the look of this issue.

Bits and Pieces:

We take a pause here and instead of jumping right into our Volthoom story, we take a look at a day in the life of Jessica Cruz and how she deals with her anxiety problems........... and while that might sound like a been there done that situation...... this issue actually tackles that familiar area very well and makes you look at Jessica in a new light, while all the time giving us great art and an awesome cliffhanger.

7.8/10