Hey everybody, it’s time to dive into Green Lantern #10, written by Geoffrey Thorne, art by Chriscross, Juan Castro, and Marco Santucci, colors by Mike Atiyeh, and letters by Rob Leigh.
The Lightbringer has been destroyed, and the power within the massive giant is erupting out into the universe, in the form of a massive Godstorm that threatens to destroy everything, and the only way to stop it is for John to absorb the Godstorm into his own body. Part of me wonders if this specific action is the reason Lonar guided John here in the first place…the Godstorm is a mass of cosmic power that New Gods like Lonar can’t absorb for some reason, but John is a mortal who ascended, meaning that he’s powered by cosmic energy without technically being a God, so he can absorb the Godstorm. Unless Lanar suddenly becomes willing to have a direct, detailed conversation once this is all over, I don’t know that we’ll actually ever get an answer, though maybe that’s fine for a story that focuses so much on the struggle between fate and free will.
…although maybe the reason that John could absorb the energy of the Godstorm while actual New Gods couldn’t is because of where the energy came from. The Godstorm is made of the life force Esak harvested from millions of people, it’s literally the power of mortals, so maybe you have to be a mortal yourself to be compatible with it. And where that power came from is probably going to be a key plot point in terms of what the future of the Green Lantern Corps looks like, but we’ll get there in a minute.
Ever since this started, Lonar has been telling John that in order to fulfill his destiny, he has to stop concerning himself with the day to day plight of mortals and instead look at the bigger picture, look at the impact that Gods and beings like them can have on the universe. As Lonar sees it, John was holding himself back by continuing to both think and act as a Green Lantern would. And now it’s the moment of truth when John has to accept Lonar’s words if the universe is going to survive.
John grows in power as he absorbs more and more of the Godstorm, and he begins seeing visions of different paths he could walk down. Different “Future States”, as they directly call it. And yeah, one of those visions is the future of what we saw in the John Stewart section of Future State Green Lantern #1 and 2, meaning that it was just a possible future all along. Looking back on those two issues, the only story that we’ve seen directly continue into the main continuity is Jessica’s experience with the Sinestro Corps, none of the other stories fit (except maybe Guy’s, we haven’t seen where he ended up yet). But John sees all these different possibilities, and Lonar is pushing him to pick one, to commit to a path, to embrace Godhood and thereby save the universe from the storm. And one of the possible futures John sees involves the return of every dead Green Lantern, whether we’re talking about the hundreds of Quest Lanterns who died in the Dark Sector, or John’s wife Katma who was killed so many years ago. And he even resurrects them through the method I detailed in a previous video, where he plucks them out of Hypertimelines in which they didn’t die. It all seems perfect, it would give everyone what they want. In the end, John embraces the full power of the Godstrom and makes his choice. And while they haven’t yet shown us what John chose, I can pretty much guarantee it won’t be the return of any of those dead characters.
First of all, it’s important to know that Geoffrey Thorne believes that actions should have consequences and death should matter. The reason he suddenly killed off so many named, fan-favorite characters in the first place was to drive that point home. And I don’t like it any more than you do, but he was right, in that I wouldn’t have really cared if the only casualties were nameless cannon fodder that I didn’t have an attachment to. Killing off hundreds of alien Lanterns we’ve never met is an impressive statistic and nothing more…mixing in some names and faces we’re familiar with, and suddenly it has weight. So I don’t think Thorne will go back on that. Other writers certainly will after his run is over, but I don’t think Thorne himself will.
The other reason I don’t see it happening is because of an exchange that happens between Esak and John in this issue. Esak insists that his actions are justified because it’ll allow him to bring back Lightray and the rest of the New Gods, that he can fix everything by putting it back the way it was before. And John tells him that it’s insane to murder millions of innocent people just to gain the power to bring back other dead people who you miss. They have this argument right after John snaps out of the vision of the possible future where he brings back all the dead Green Lanterns, so the parallel is pretty clear: just like Esak, John could use all of that power to bring his friends back to life, to put it all back the way it was before, but he’d be exploiting the power ripped from millions of innocent victims in order to do it. That’s why I think there’s really only one choice John can make…there will be a resurrection, but it won’t be Lightray, and it won’t be the Green Lanterns. I think John is going to bring back the millions of people who died to make Esak’s plan work. He’s going to take the power that was ripped out of them and give it back, restoring them to life, sending them home. And not only will this undo Esak’s plan, it’ll also be a big middle finger to Lonar, who’s spent this entire story insisting that John can’t do what needs to be done if he keeps thinking like a Green Lantern and concerning himself with saving people.
Once John finishes absorbing the Godstorm, he gains a level of cosmic awareness that lets him see what’s happening on Oa. Koyos is on a rampage, and is being supported by the sorcerers of the Bright Circle, who all could’ve walked out of their science cells any time they wanted. Koyos believes that the rise of the Guardians has caused the universe to stagnate, that all they do is suppress the natural evolution of the universe in favor of maintaining a status quo where they themselves hold power and influence. Koyos and the Bright Circle believe that Oa must be purged and everything the Guardians have built must be torn down. I’m wondering how much influence the Bright Circle actually has over Koyos…he has that living squid on his head, and we don’t know what it’s for yet, so it could easily be controlling his mind to some degree. And the things he’s saying seem to fall right in line with what Yridian, the leader of the Bright Circle, has been saying since issue one. I don’t necessarily think that Koyos doesn’t believe all of this, but I think there’s a chance his feelings might be artificially amplified right now.
But either way, it’s time for a final showdown against an impossibly powerful force. On one side you’ve got a gigantic Guardian infused with the Central Battery, backed by a group of wizards. On the other side is literally everyone else we could find. Simon has taken all of the depowered Green Lanterns to the armory, but the only weapons to survive Koyos’s rampage are mechsuits like the one Simon wore to New Korugar a few issues ago. Jo still has her ring, but it’s unclear how much power she’s got left, since she’s been running low for a while now and last issue showed her uniform fading away, which is usually visual shorthand for a ring running out of power at a bad time. We never get a percentage number for her charge, but it can’t be very much, since she had to energize all of the other Lanterns’ mechsuits before jumping into battle herself.
The rest of the Guardians are also here. They’re back from their weird death/coma/stasis and are being lead by Nemosyni, who apparently knew for a long time that Koyos was going to take things too far, so she pretended to be on his side while secretly setting her own plans into motion to stop him. We don’t yet know the full extent of her plans, but it seems to revolve around the idea of removing key players from Koyos’s reach before he could make his move, so that there would still be someone left to oppose him afterwards. That’s why Nemosyni sent John and the Quest Lanterns beyond the barrier into the Dark Sector. I also think she may have been responsible for putting the other Guardians in that contained state to shield them from the fallout of stealing the Central Battery, with the intention of reviving them once Koyos finally played his hand.
The revelation that really got my attention is that Nemosyni was the one who built Jo’s unique ring, and assigned her to the City Enduring in the series Far Sector. And I actually like this retcon a lot, because it’s purely additive without changing anything about the original work. We see Jo’s origin story play out in Far Sector, and the Guardian she talks to is shown to be able to change shape, beginning in a Human form before looking like a more traditional Guardian, so there’s really no reason it couldn’t be Nemosyni. On top of that, Jo’s ring doesn’t draw power from the Central Battery, and her first assignment was a year-long mission outside of Guardian Space, all of which would protect her from whatever Koyos intended to do, while allowing her to be a secret weapon against him. And the best part is that, if you want, you could totally ignore all of that and just enjoy Far Sector on its own.
So it’s all devolved into a massive battle. The depowered Lanterns in their mechsuits are trying their best, Jo’s running low on power, and even the Guardians don’t seem to be making much of a dent. The power they’re up against is staggering, and it probably doesn’t help that there’s magic at play. Fortunately, more reinforcements keep arriving…the United Planets sent in a strike team, and because Jo missed her scheduled check-in, Hal Jordan came to Oa and brought the Justice League with him. It’s Hal, Martian Manhunter, the Wally West Flash, Naomi, and Wonder Woman’s mom Hippolyta, all coming through one of Doctor Fate’s ankh-shaped portals. And that’s still not everybody, because Keli hasn’t woken up and joined the fight yet, not to mention the fact that John is now aware of what’s happening on Oa, and presumably has the power to open up that barrier and take the remaining Quest Lanterns home.
The title of this issue is “Apotheosis”, which is the highest point of development, a culmination, a climax…all of which is fitting for the state we leave John in by the end of the issue, and reflective of the fact that this arc is about to end…as exemplified by the title of next issue, “Finis Ludo”, which translates to Game Over.
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