Written by: Tim Sheridan
Art by: Cian Tormey, Jordi Tarragona, Raúl Fernandez, John Livesay
Colors by: Matt Herms
Letters by: Lucas Gattoni
Cover art by: David Talaski
Cover price: $3.99
Release date: January 30, 2024
Alan Scott: The Green Lantern #4 unveils the truth behind the Red Lantern's origins, his connection to Johnny Ladd, and the tragedy of Ladd's relationship with Alan Scott.
Is Alan Scott: The Green Lantern #4 Good?
Alan Scott: The Green Lantern #4 has some good points, some bad points, and a whole lot to think about in between. This issue is the strongest yet in terms of Sheridan's character work by fleshing out the Red Lantern (whose twist reveal could be spotted from orbit), but the Red Lantern's gain is Green Lantern's loss.
When last we left Alan Scott, aka Green Lantern, Scott embarked on an investigation to find out who was killing Scott's lovers. The investigation turned contentious when the JSA joined the hunt because Scott feared his secret life as a gay man would be exposed. Ultimately, a wildly out-of-character Spectre helped give Scott some perspective that led to the first confrontation between the Green and Red Lanterns.
Now, the Red Lantern traps the Green Lantern and uses the opportunity to give an issue-long exposition about his origin.
Colors by: Matt Herms
Letters by: Lucas Gattoni
Cover art by: David Talaski
Cover price: $3.99
Release date: January 30, 2024
Alan Scott: The Green Lantern #4 unveils the truth behind the Red Lantern's origins, his connection to Johnny Ladd, and the tragedy of Ladd's relationship with Alan Scott.
Is Alan Scott: The Green Lantern #4 Good?
Alan Scott: The Green Lantern #4 has some good points, some bad points, and a whole lot to think about in between. This issue is the strongest yet in terms of Sheridan's character work by fleshing out the Red Lantern (whose twist reveal could be spotted from orbit), but the Red Lantern's gain is Green Lantern's loss.
When last we left Alan Scott, aka Green Lantern, Scott embarked on an investigation to find out who was killing Scott's lovers. The investigation turned contentious when the JSA joined the hunt because Scott feared his secret life as a gay man would be exposed. Ultimately, a wildly out-of-character Spectre helped give Scott some perspective that led to the first confrontation between the Green and Red Lanterns.
Now, the Red Lantern traps the Green Lantern and uses the opportunity to give an issue-long exposition about his origin.
[SPOILERS AHEAD]
Yes, the Red Lantern is Johnny Ladd, but Johnny Ladd is a Soviet spy who infiltrated the American military to steal the secret of the Crimson Flame for Mother Russia. Initially, Ladd used Scott's chronic horniness to gain access to Top Secret military materials, however, the issue suggests some part of their relationship was real.
[END SPOILERS}
What's great about Alan Scott: The Green Lantern #4? Sheridan develops a believable, diabolical, surprisingly complex backstory for Red Lantern. A good chunk of this series fishtails into Geoff Johns's current JSA run, so I suspect Johns had a hand in Red Lantern's construction, but regardless of who deserves credit, Red Lantern is shaping up to be a villain worth watching.
What's not so great about Alan Scott: The Green Lantern #4? The worst thing a writer can do is elevate a supporting character or villain at the expense of the hero. For whatever reason, Sheridan took the assignment of retconning Alan Scott's history as a closeted gay man and decided the best way to do that was to make Alan Scott an insatiably horny gay man who ignores one red flag after another, leading to multiple deaths.
Two-thirds of the way through this mini-series, Sheridan has only succeeded in making Alan Scott a more flawed, damaged character who only thinks with his crotch.
How's the art? As you can see from the credits above, there's a small squad working on this title. Surprisingly, you can't tell. The Red Lantern action looks fantastic, and whatever artist handoffs are happening are not immediately obvious. Kudos to the art team.
About The Reviewer: Gabriel Hernandez is the Publisher & EIC of ComicalOpinions.com, a comics review site dedicated to indie, small, and mid-sized publishers.
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Bits and Pieces:
Alan Scott: The Green Lantern #4 gets to the heart of the issue by giving readers the full scoop on the Red Lantern's origins. While the reveal isn't the least bit surprising, it's well done. That said, Sheridan succeeds in building Red Lantern up by tearing Alan Scott down into a confused, chronically horny man whose libido clouds his judgment at every turn.
7/10
to be fair, the guy kept banging villains in his straight version too.
ReplyDeleteScott should have seen the red flag (or the red lanterns in this case). The "open eyes open minds" line is dumb.
ReplyDeleteOf course Sheridan would suggest Ladd slept his way to the top rungs of the army. I'm not saying some guys didn't indulge in some foolery (months abroad, no women and left hands get tired) but I very much doubt that something that verboten in the military would raise him through the ranks, especially now that he would have blackmail over the higher officer. Sheridan saying that gay men are so horny all the time (which if you know that stats of relatioships of gay men actually holds water) but in a bookthat's supposed to be so progressive, we have a gay men led around by their own dick into bad decision making, to the point were they could possibly be forfeiting their jobs and their lives.
The power of the d is just that strong.
so many people died because Alan had to have the cutest guy who showed up
Delete