[Editor’s note: This review may contain spoilers.]
Writer: Sam Humphries
Artist: Robson Rocha
Inker: Daniel Henriques
Summary
While Seth’s life hangs in the balance, the Green Lanterns battle Polaris as he threatens all of Gateway City, in the 3rd chapter of Polarity titled “Flatline.”
Positives
After going through an entire story arc of very little action, this issues delivers it in spades. You might even say the action comes crashing down on us (read the story, you’ll get it). This was a welcome surprise, and to be honest, it was needed. It’s one thing to build characters using flashbacks and emotional heartfelt moments, which is what we got throughout most of this arc, but that will only get you so far with readers. You need to test your heroes against all odds in dramatic “do or die” action moments to truly build character, which is what we get in this issue. The Lanterns trying to save all of Gateway City was amazing. It’s in these moments that heroes are truly defined.
Speaking of flashbacks and emotional heart felt moments, we do get some more of those in this issue. Simon Baz, desperately using the ring to save Seth’s life, was especially emotional. We really got to see quite a bit of Simon’s emotional side in this arc, especially seeing how Emerson’s and Simon’s situations were very similar.
Artwork in this issue was very good. In an issue that had emotional panels and action scenes, Rocha’s art gave us amazing facial expressions and spectacular full page action shots.
Negatives
As hard as Humphries tries to make us care about Emerson, I found a lot of the flashbacks and “dream sequences” were rehashed over and over in this arc, with the same dialogue in a continuous loop. Emerson’s constantly fighting his alter ego for control, he must save Seth because he was the only one that ever believed in him when no one else did, etc. By this issue, after hearing it over and over in the arc, it was a tad stale.
I found it very hard to believe that no other Justice Leaguer was available to help during the threat that was about to strike Gateway City. I understand they each have their own thing, but given what was actually happening and what was being used, I would have thought Superman or Flash would have raced to the scene to assist.
Verdict
This was a great ending to an emotional story arc. Whether you like or disliked Doctor Polaris’s origin story, you can’t dispute with his reasoning. He’s simply trying to save his brother. That being said, however, it’s interesting to note that Doctor Polaris might not even exist if Emerson just took his medication. Looking ahead, the next story arc promises to be very interesting, and I, for one, can’t wait!
