Review: Green Lantern #8

Review: Green Lantern #8
[Editor’s Note: This review may contain spoilers]

Writer: Geoffrey Thorne
Art: Chrisscross with Juan Castro (inks pgs. 9-15) and Marco Santucci
Colors: Michael Atiyeh
Letters: Rob Leigh

Reviewed by: Matthew B. Lloyd

Summary

John receives a revelation about himself from Lonar and Jo must bring the depowered Lanterns on Oa together quickly as she and Peya Fel have a solid lead on the destruction of the Central Power Battery.

Positives

Green Lantern #8 moves the storylines forward significantly as both John Stewart and Jo Mullein have to come to grips with new challenges. While Jo addresses hers relatively easily in order to turn her attention to a real lead on the destruction of the Central Power Battery that occurred back in issue #1, John has to take a little time to see things from a different perspective which seems to be a theme throughout the issue.

Lonar tells John straight up that he’s “ascended.”  While John is in the same boat as the readers as to how this happened,  this nomenclature indicates something similar as to what happened to Wonder Woman at the end of Death Metal.  It didn’t quite stick as the Amazing Amazon has returned to Earth with issue #780 of her own title, but clearly for John as we see in this issue he’s supposed to look at the world differently.  As John is trying to save his friends including Kilowog and Saalak, Lonar tells him he’s not seeing the real fight.  John is still thinking about the world from the perspective of a Green Lantern and not…what he’s become.  Lonar tells him he “ascended” a while ago.

It’s a challenge for John to turn away from his friends who are being herded up, but Lonar is able to point him in the direction of the “real battle.”  We can all probably recall a situation in our life in which we were unable to “see the forest for the trees.”  It’s not always easy to change our perspective, especially when it seems to endanger those we care about.

Positives Cont’d

Jo has to adjust her perspective as well as Peya Fel shares some documentation with her that provides them with a solid lead on the destruction of the Central Power Battery.  Interestingly, Thorne incorporates the storyline of the Young Guardians from Grant Morrison’s The Green Lantern: Season Two.  It’s nice to see how these two series fit together.  What Peya Fel has uncovered is a bit disturbing. 

Guardians of the Universe haven’t always been portrayed with a distinct personality or appearance.  As the old Guardians are shown merging with the Young Guardians, there are two dissenters- Koyos and Nemosyni.  We’ve already seen Nemosyni as the Oan representative to the United Planets, but Peya has found out even more about what’s going on.  She and Jo decide to follow up on both Koyos and Menosyni to discover the truth.

One of Marco Santucci’s strengths is making his characters look like portraits of real people.  It works particularly well here as the Guardians remain less individualized while the two dissenters are clearly not part of the group anymore either in thought or visually.  Menosyni finds that Peya Fel is getting a little bit too close and the issue ends poorly for Peya Fel.  However, the layout and execution of the last page by Santucci is great.  It’s a brilliant shot with great emphasis on Menoysni.

While we’ve seen Peya and Jo talk in previous issues and start to come together, this issue feels like “the beginning of a beautiful friendship.”  It’s some subtle stuff, but it leads one to get to know Peya a bit more and see the potential for her character.  As a Coluan, it’s a quick jump to imagine here as a Brainiac on the side of the angels like Brainiac 5 from the Legion of Super-Heroes.  Or, perhaps even Vril Dox from L.E.G.I.O.N./R.E.B.E.L.S.  Hopefully, there will be more to her story.

Negatives

I’m a little unclear of John’s “ascension.”  It certainly provides him with a lesson, but are we ready to lose John from the Corps to a role as a “god” of some kind.

Verdict

Green Lantern #8 is a balanced issue between plot and character.  John faces perhaps his greatest challenge as he must view things differently.  This theme underlies the entire issue creating a cohesive theme.  The surprises are here as well with both storylines suggesting that we must change our perspective to see the truth.