Hey everybody, we’re here discussing Green Lantern #2, written by Geoffrey Thorne, with art by Dexter Soy and Marco Santucci, colors by Alex Sinclair, and letters by Rob Leigh. And it’s official, the planet Oa has been accepted into the United Planets, but that means big changes for how the Green Lantern Corps operates. Some of the member worlds don’t like the idea of Oa holding a monopoly on so much power, so the Guardians agree to fundamentally restructure the Corps.
So let’s talk about what that means. Guardian space has always been comprised of 3600 sectors, and ever since the Corps returned during Green Lantern Rebirth and Green Lantern Corps Recharge, there have been two Green Lanterns assigned to each sector, totaling 7200 Green Lanterns, give or take. The Guardians decide to give up one third of their territory to the United Planets, meaning that 1200 sectors won’t be protected by Green Lanterns anymore…and since each sector has two Lanterns, that means 2400 Green Lanterns no longer have sectors to protect.
Just to put that number into perspective: each sector used to only have one Green Lantern assigned to it, so for the longest time there was only 3600 Green Lanterns in the Corps until the events of Rebirth and Recharge doubled that number. That means the number of Green Lanterns who just lost their sectors is almost as large as what used to be the entire Green Lantern Corps.
So what are they going to do with 2400 extra Green Lanterns? Well the Guardians aren’t done yet, they’re also changing the way the Corps works. Everything about the existing hierarchy is gone…no more Honor Guard, no more Torch Bearer, no more Administrative Lanterns, nothing. Now all Green Lanterns are divided into four groups: Ourtiders, Quest, Crux, and Sector. The Sector Lanterns are pretty self-explanatory, if you’re not from one of the 1200 sectors that just got dumped, then you get to keep patrolling your same territory. This applies the the majority of the Corps, all of the new designations seem to be for the Lanterns who just lost their sectors.
Quest refers to a group of 1000 Green Lanterns lead by John Stewart on a mission to investigate a region called the Dark Sectors, which is the space between galaxies. The reason it has the Guardians concerned is because a whole bunch of elaborate barriers just recently sprung up around the Dark Sectors that the Guardians can’t see through…and we’re not talking about physical walls, here, these barriers are made out of Hypertime fluctuations and energy erupting from the Bleed, all very complicated, cosmic DC concepts that not just anybody could manipulate to cover their tracks. In fact the reason they’re sending John in with 1000 Lanterns is because it’s going to take the combined power of 1000 Lanterns just to break through that barrier.
That leaves us with 1400 Green Lanterns who’ll be Outriders, essentially meaning they’re on loan to the United Planets whenever they need help with security. This particular group of Lanterns is going to have a fluid job description, because it depends on what the United Planets needs at the time.
Then there’s the Crux Worlds, which are in the care of the Humans. The Crux Worlds are Earth, Oa, Mogo, Oishiha, and Raggashoon. There used to be two more, Krypton and Xanshi were also Crux Worlds, but in both cases the Guardians failed to stop their destruction. Basically the idea is that every universe has seven planets that’re super important because of what they can provide for the rest of the universe. Earth, for example, produces most of the universe’s super beings…and according to the Guardians, when the day eventually comes that the New Gods like Darkseid and Orion fade away, the super beings of Earth will rise up and become the next universal Pantheon. This is also being used as an explanation for why Earth is the only planet in the universe to produce so many Green Lanterns in such a short time. We saw last issue that Jessica, Hal, and Kyle have already been assigned to each protect one of the Crux Worlds, and here we see Simon get assigned to Oa, and John is obviously busy with his own mission. The only one left out is Guy, who’s been made an Outrider…though it’s strongly implied that the Guardians have been planning ten moves ahead this whole time, so I wouldn’t be surprised if they put him there for a specific reason we can’t see yet.
None of this is going over well, by the way. 2400 Green Lanterns just got permanent assignments half a universe away from their home worlds. I’m sure when Kyle and Jessica went to protect their Crux Worlds, they thought they’d be able to leave and go home after they were done…but no, this is just where they live now. And the Guardians only reaction to the complaints is to basically say “hey man, the Corps is made up of volunteers, if they don’t like it they can quit, it’s not our problem, their rings will just find replacements”. The Guardians in this book give off such an uneasy vibe…they seem to be doing what’s best for everyone on a macro scale, but the big picture plans of immortals don’t leave much room to be concerned for the lives of individuals. There’s a fundamental disconnect between the way the Guardians think and the way their Lanterns do, and that makes it difficult to tell if they actually have malicious intentions, or if everyone else just can’t see the big picture like they can.
…oh and hey, by the way, the Central Battery EXPLODES. I really like how this was handled, it came out of nowhere with no buildup at all. Keli asks why the Battery looks funny and then you turn the page and it just gone. Now if you pay attention to the title logo on the covers of the first four issues, you can track the progress of what’s going on with the Central Battery, but I still didn’t expect it to be dropped on us like this….and I kinda like it. I like that there was no warning.
And you might be thinking “now wait a second, if the Battery exploded, then does any of that restructuring of the Corps even matter?”…and the answer is yes, it very much does, because it puts all the pieces in place for the rest of the story. All of those new assignments were given 13 hours before the Central Battery exploded, which means the entire Green Lantern Corps had already reshuffled into their new positions before their rings died. John and 1000 other depowered Lanterns should now be trapped behind a barrier so strong that it’d take 1000 fully powered Lanterns to escape. The rest of the Corps is scattered, stranded, or dead. We did see Kyle suffocating in space when his ring went out, but there were some alien astronauts next to him, and they looked concerned, so he’ll be fine. I have to imagine this will also be hell for the United Planets…not only does it make their organization look really bad for something like this to happen to a world immediately after joining, but all of a sudden they have to do all of their own law enforcement themselves, instead of building up to that over time while slowly weaning off of reliance on the Corps. The United Planets is still a new organization, and may not be ready for this level of responsibility or authority yet, especially when other factions decide to take advantage of the absence of the Corps.
So the big question is, why did the Central Battery explode? Based on just these two issues, plus a little bit of Future State, we already have a pretty good list of people who might want to see the Green Lantern Corps get blown up. It could’ve been more sorcerers, like the ones who attacked Oa last issue. Maybe it’s the New Gods, who don’t like the idea of being replaced. It could always be someone within the United Planets, I know Ameyra Khalan was pretty eager to get the Green Lanterns out of the way so her Brigade could take over. There’s also the possibility that we’ve got another renegade Guardian, in the form of Nemosyni, the main Guardian we hear from in these two issues. She officiated the burial rights for her Guardian brother who was killed by a magic arrow 10 hours earlier, arranging for his coffin to be deposited into the core of the Central Battery, so it seems to me that either something funny was in that coffin, or the magic that killed him also did something to his body that would make the Battery explode. It could also be someone entirely new, as we do see a mysterious hooded figure sitting in some kind of funky space chair, talk knowingly about what just happen…you could tell me this guy is a New God or a wizard and I’d believe you. And he could be anywhere from the Dark Sectors to the Sorcerer’s World, we just don’t know yet. Hell, I’m not willing to rule out him being a time traveler, since the United Planets has me constantly thinking about the Legion and this guy reminds me of the Legion villain the Time Trapper, and he appears on the same page as a cameo by some known DC time travelers, plus we met another brand new character last issue that gave me similar time traveler vibes…I don’t know, I’m probably way off base here, but that’s what makes this stage of the story so much fun, exploring all the possibilities even if they do end up being completely wrong.
I could understand someone coming away from the previous issue with the criticism that it was too much setup…I enjoyed that issue a lot, but I could see how it wouldn’t be for everyone. This issue, however, dramatically picked up the pace…it fundamentally changed the status quo of the Green Lantern Corps TWICE! There are so many moving pieces in play right now, so much cosmic mythology being explored, like the nature of what the Guardians even are. Since the Guardians are some of the oldest life forms in the universe, their existence is different from ours. Apparently they don’t need to hold a physical form, and only do it for the benefit of everyone else they have to interact with. I also really love Nemosyni pointing out that every single member of the Green Lantern Corps is in equal standing with each other, none of them are any greater or lesser than the rest. That part seems tailored just for me, because that’s how I’ve always looked at this franchise…they’re all Green Lantern, the title of this book refers to all of them. Including Sojourner Mullein, fresh off of her solo series Far Sector, ready to start picking up the pieces and figure out what the hell is going on.
Also in the middle of everything, the Green Lantern Honor Guard fights a big magic dragon, so this really does have something for everybody. And Keli does protect two members of the Red Lantern Corps, specifically Skallox and Zilius Zox…they were both part of Guy Gardner’s team when he was a Red Lantern, so I wonder if they’ll return the favor eventually and help her out of some trouble.
I kind of hate that there’s a month before the next issue, because all of this is so much fun to think about. But now I want to hear your thoughts, what did you think of issue two? Were you surprised the Battery blew up so soon? Who do you think did it? What do you think of Sojourner and Keli being the only two fully powered Green Lanterns left in the universe? Tell me about it in the comments below. Be sure to subscribe and hit the bell so you’ll be notified when my video about issue three comes out, and remember that you can follow Mosaic Comics on Twitter, and the script for this video is available at MosaicComics.blogspot.com, links in the description below.
Thank you for taking the time to watch. My name is Dan, we’ll talk again soon.
Comments
Post a Comment