The fallout from “Lights Out” continues this month as the Green Lanterns deal with the Braidmen on Mogo and a mysterious foe pits the entire universe against the Emerald Warriors.
** SPOILERS **
POSITIVES
One of the best aspects of “Lights Out” is the fact that the effects are still being felt months later. Geoff Johns had a lot of ideas for the Green Lantern franchise, but more often than not, he’d simply write a big story, only to completely shift the focus onto something else with the next arc. Robert Venditti understands that the war with Relic was something that can’t simply be forgotten or brushed aside.
Johns dealt primarily with the evils of the Guardians of the Universe, and though the little blue guys did a lot of heinous things, they mostly affected the various colored Lanterns and not much else. Venditti not only introduced a Lantern-centric problem that also affects the entire universe, but he also addresses the fact that the Green Lanterns spent so much of their time cleaning up their own messes that the universe learned to get along without them.
Saint Walker’s loss of hope is an astonishingly emotional scene and one of the best in recent months for Green Lantern. Walker is one of the best characters in the Green Lantern mythos, and that fact that he actually loses all hope for the future is sure to make any GL fan lose hope with him.
Dale Eaglesham is one of the best artists currently working in the comic book industry, and his work here proves that. Though Billy Tan has been doing a fantastic job over the past six months, Eaglesham’s art truly inspires, especially during Saint Walker’s sequence and the final pages where a shape-shifting Durlan takes the form of Hal Jordan to broadcast the reality of the emotional spectrum to the entire universe. Though the Durlan Hal looks the same as real Hal, Eaglesham gives the Durlan a menacing aura that fits the story perfectly.
NEGATIVES
“Relic came for all of us. He said our rings drain the emotional energy that fuels the universe. Or something.” Hal Jordan is just as dense as ever and it’s starting to become a serious problem. Making the Green Lantern Corps a universal pariah is all well and good in the context of the story, but Venditti hasn’t allowed Hal to grow as a character at all and it’s frustrating to read. How can Hal not understand that using the emotional spectrum is simply wrong?
VERDICT: 
4/5
The final sequence of Green Lantern #27 is the catalyst to a much larger story in Robert Venditti’s run. The Green Lanterns are now at the mercy of every being in the universe with the ability to confront them. The GLC was already on thin ice from basically ignoring the chaos of the universe to deal with their own problems for so long, and now that everyone knows that using an energy ring causes the universe to deteriorate, there’s no turning back. Venditti has changed the game for the Green Lanterns, turning them form universal protectors to the source of it’s chaos, and it’s astounding to read.
