Tony Black reviews Green Lanterns #1…
“RED PLANET” Chapter One
New Lanterns Jessica Cruz and Simon Baz promised to protect others in brightest day or blackest night, but as “Red Planet” begins to rise, the partners find themselves confronted with an unimaginable threat from Bleez and the Red Lanterns!
After skipping off to the end of the universe, soon to start in his own comic, legendary Lantern Hal Jordan left the stewardship of Earth to two untested (it’s tempting to say ‘green’) corps agents in Simon Baz & Jessica Cruz, and in the first Green Lanterns issue writer Sam Humphries puts them to the test. It’s a story about them not only battling the external threat of the disturbing ‘Hell Tower’ which has raised itself out of the ground, but the battle with each of their own inner demons, hinted at in the previous Rebirth issue but which are clearly going to play a much deeper part in not just their psychology but this comic run as a whole.
Simon remains haunted and angry by the accusations he was a terrorist, how much of a pariah he was, and how A.R.G.U.S. & the Federal government still retain a control over his actions, with the spectre of returning to incarceration hanging over him (and it remains a neat real life point about US treatment of minority groups). Jessica is haunted in a different way, by the world beyond; she is still trying to break free of her intense agoraphobic and the conflicting emotions within her, as they are in Simon, both force them to clash and bring them to the attention of Atrocitus and his evil Red Lanterns. Seems they’re on the back foot as it goes, needing balance (in the Force – sorry) between peace and rage to truly function, and it’s an interesting dichotomy it looks like they’re nicely going to exploit in our two Lanterns going forward.
If not perhaps as vibrant, story wise, as the Rebirth issue, Green Lanterns #1 is nonetheless a fine outing that forwards Simon & Jessica as characters, truly establishes their situation as Lanterns, and twists the threat into something even more personally dangerous. The artwork by Ethan van Sciver is also gorgeous, especially in depicting the blood red darkness of Atrocitus and his realm. Good work.
Tony Black is a freelance film/TV writer & podcaster & would love you to follow him on Twitter.
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Originally published June 20, 2016. Updated April 15, 2018.
