Green Lantern #2 Review

   

 

   

Written by: Jeremy Adams
Art by: Xermánico
Colors by: Romulo Fajardo Jr.
Letters by: Dave Sharpe
Cover art by: Xermánico
Cover price: $4.99
Release date: June 13, 2023

Green Lantern #2 finds Hal Jordan getting used to having his powers back and finding his place on Earth when a private flight encounters a (k)nightmarish sight.
Is It Good?

Green Lantern #2 is a lot of fun... until you get to the last page. Jeremy Adams appears to be having fun with Hal Jordan by leaning into the joys of being a ring slinger - taking out low-level villains, flying, and playing a prank or two - and those shenanigans are worth the price of admission. But when you get to the last page, it's like smacking into a wall at 50 mph.

When last we left Hal Jordan, he dumped the United Planets and went back home to live out his days as an average citizen. Fate, however, had other ideas when a crook with a hotwired Manhunter suit rampaged through Central City. When Hal confronted the villain, Hal's sheer force of Will allowed him to absorb the armor's power and restore his ring... sorta.

   

Now, Hal puts the ring through its paces by taking out the Demolition Team with a hilarious use of construct imagination and soaring as high as he can go until the ring's powers sputter out. After last week's debacle at Ferris, Hal uses his smarts (with the help of a good swift kick in the Poozer Posterior from Kilowog) to work his way back up from the Ferris mailroom to becoming Ferris's latest private jet pilot, just in time to escort Ferris and her new boyfriend to their business meeting.

And then the wall... (more on that in a minute).

Watch our Green Lantern #2 Video Review 

Overall Jeremy Adams's story earns top marks for leaning into the fun of being a Green Lantern. There's a wonder in possessing a ring that can conjure anything you can imagine, so why not have fun with it? Hal has fun in this issue, and that fun, mixed with Hal's unique brand of charm, is infectious. You almost want to talk to Hal and say, "What other cool things can you do?"

Regarding the writing execution, it mostly ticks all the boxes. The pacing is smooth, Adams's talent for dialog is on-point, and the plot feels like it's taking shape by establishing a rock-solid baseline for Hal Jordan's new status quo.

What's not so great? During Hal's stress test, he takes a dangerous risk that should kill him if it goes wrong. It goes wrong, but you never see or hear how he survives it, and you feel like a page or two is missing. It's a minor point, but it sticks out like a sore thumb.

Second, the plot is starting to take form and shape, but it's not quite there, so if you asked me what this Green Lantern series is about, I couldn't honestly tell you. You get the impression Adams is working up to something, but then you run into the only major down point of the issue - the wall.

The wall is a bizarrely placed DC event called Knight Terrors. Hal and Carol run straight into it on the last page, and you can feel all the forward momentum for Adams's run come to a screeching stop. We're just now getting settled into Hal's new status quo, enjoying getting to know him on a simple level, and then, WHAMMO! The whole series gets sidelined for the next two months.

There are oodles of pundits (including yours truly) scratching their heads over the placement of Knight Terrors when Dawn of DC is just starting to find its footing, and I fear Green Lantern will suffer for it. C'est la vie.

How's the art? It's very good, with one exception. Xermánico's style is a perfect fit for this type of story, and he gets a rare opportunity to show off some comedic timing, so it's a great looking comic overall. The one exception is in the lettering. Emerald green backgrounds on the narration captions with white lettering are tough to read for folks who don't have perfect eyesight. Sure, it looks cool to have caption boxes in keeping with the Green theme, but clarity (read: readability) comes first.


About The Reviewer: Gabriel Hernandez is the Publisher & EIC of ComicalOpinions.com, a comics review site dedicated to indie, small, and mid-sized publishers.

Follow @ComicalOpinions on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter

Bits and Pieces:

Green Lantern #2 leans into the joy and fun of having the most powerful device in the universe at your disposal. Jeremy Adams leans into the whimsy with a bit of humor, and Xermánico's art is top-notch. Unfortunately, all the momentum this series started to generate runs smack dab into the Knight Terrors wall, so time will tell if it can recover.

8/10