The planet of Oa, and by extension the Green Lantern Corps, joining the United Planets was supposed to be a major celebratory moment in the history of the DC Universe. Unfortunately, Oa’s membership with the United Planets was met by much controversy amongst its current members. That led to an unexpected assassination of one of the current Guardians of the Universe, Koyos. That is certainly not the best next step for the Green Lantern Corps to take in their new direction. What will happen next for the Green Lantern Corps and United Planets? Let’s find out with Green Lantern #2.
Writer: Geoffrey Thorne
Artists: Dexter Soy and Marco Santucci
Colorist: Alex Sinclair
Story Rating: 9 Night Girls out of 10
Art Rating: 8 Night Girls out of 10
Overall Rating: 8.5 Night Girls out of 10
Synopsis: Green Lantern John Stewart informs all of the Green Lanterns on patrol about Guardian Koyos assassination after Oa was accepted into the United Planets. He goes on to mention that they captured Yridian and the others from Zerox who attacked Oa and locked them in the Sciencells.
John then retells how they captured the shooter and his accomplices. This included Guy Gardner, Kilowog, and Thanagarian Ameyra Khalan taking down a dragon.
John then reveals that Oa is officially part of the United Planets but is uncertain what that means for the Green Lantern Corps current position. He then orders Hal Jordan, Kyle Rayner, and Jessica Cruz to remain on their respective Crux worlds so they stay secure. He then ends by telling all Green Lantern Corps members to get dressed to bury Guardian Koyos.
Later, the Green Lantern Corps and Guardians of the Universe gather around the Power Battery on Oa to pay their respects to Koyos. Guardian Nemosyni gives a speech on who Koyos and what it means when a Guardian dies. As she does so John, Kilowog, Hal, Kyle, and Guy conduct the ceremony to place Koyos body inside the Power Battery.
Guardian Nemosyni concludes the funeral by speaking about Oa’s acceptance into the United Planets. She reveals that for Oa to stand as equals to others in the United Planets the Green Lantern Corps will have to give up some power by scaling back their scope. Nemosyni goes on to say that 1,200 Sectors will be vacated so they can be placed under the jurisdiction of United Planets Brigade. The Green Lanterns now without a sector will be reassigned as the hierarchy of the Corps will be completely redone.
Salaak speaks up by saying because he was not informed of this decision as Senior Administrator that he will need time to schedule the rollout of these changes. Nemosyni reveals that is not needed as the changes have already started.
All of the Green Lantern rings immediately start announcing their respective Corps members reassignment. As this happens Nemosyni reveals that there are now only 2,400 Sectors in their jurisdiction with the Honor Guard, Torchbearer, Clarissi, and Illustres titles being no more. Nemosyni and the Guardians then leave.
Left to talk with each other the Green Lanterns all are left confused and angered by this decision. Hal tells John if he needs his help to let him know. John says he will deal with this.
John then goes to meet the Guardians of the Universe. He immediately calls out the horrible way they handled announcing the changes to the Green Lantern Corps. The Guardians say they could not wait around to get everyone’s opinions. It is then revealed that Green Lanterns who protected sectors that now fall under the United Planets jurisdiction will serve as special attachments or outriders as needed to those sectors.
John asks about why Hal, Kyle, Jessica, and Simon where so spread out to the various Crux worlds. The Guardians said they did this because they were the best candidates to act as permanent protectors of those worlds. John still questions this decision. Its here where the Guardians reveal the reason there are there are seven Green Lanterns from Earth in a single human lifespan is because Earth is what is now known as “The Crux of Heroes,” a place that will become the Fifth World when the New Gods fade away. Because of this they needed seven Green Lanterns from Earth to protect the Crux worlds.
A projection of the Crux worlds are then shown. John comments how there are only five Crux worlds in the projection. The Guardians reveal that they failed to protect Krypton from its destruction and John failed to protect Xanshi leading to their currently only being five Crux worlds. They then request John to investigate the Dark Sectors as they have artificial barriers that they needed answers to why they showed up. John says that is a lot of space to cover.
Nemosyni then reveals John won’t be alone on his mission as an army of Green Lanterns have been assigned to work under John to investigate the Dark Sectors. These Green Lanterns are shown uniting their powers to create a giant spaceship energy construct. Seeing this John accepts the assignment.
As John prepares to leave he tells Teen Lantern (Keli Quintela) that while she may not be an official Green Lantern he wants her to keep an eye on Simon for him as he has been assigned to watch over Keli as well. Teen Lantern promises.
John then leaves on the giant energy construct space station with his team.
Teen Lantern then goes to talk to one of the members of the United Planet. Before the conversation can get anywhere the Power Battery suddenly explodes.
As the explosion of the Power Battery rocks Oa it is shown that Mongul, Rip Hunter, and others witness this event from their locations. It is also shown that at this moment Kyle Rayner loses his power and is left floating in space without protection.
Sometime later, Green Lantern Jo Mullein is told by her Power Ring that no Green Lantern is detected even when she gets to Oa.
When she lands Jo’s ring picks up a possible lifeform left. Jo finds a green energy bubble and tells whoever is inside she is an ally. Teen Lantern brings down the energy bubble and is crying as she holds a powerless and unconscious Simon while repeating “Lo intente…Trate de salvarlo” (translated to she tried to save Simon). End of issue.
The Good: The impact of Oa joining the United Planets and one of the members of the Guardian of the Universe being killed alone had a lot of content to mine. But that is not where the Green Lanterns are allowed to settle into as Geoffrey Thorne takes things to a whole new level by destroying Oa’s Power Battery. That event created even greater sense of wonder into what could possibly happen next for this series.
As this series continues on it is clear that John Stewart is going to be the main Green Lantern we follow in this series. While Thorne gives screen time to Hal Jordan, Guy Gardner, Kilowog, Keli Quintela, and other Green Lanterns it is John’s show. Thorne does this in a way that makes sense as John’s position as leader of the Green Lantern Corps that has been emphasized since DC Rebirth continues to evolve.
John being the one to give the entire Green Lantern Corps an update on Oa’s inclusion into the United Planets, Guardian Koyos death, and the terrorist attack by the people of Zerox got over his leadership role. Thorne chose John’s words carefully to make the four points of his speech build on one another naturally. It all flowed as the sense of importance to what John said about all the events that took place in Green Lantern #1 progressed to give everyone the full context of what happened.
This led in well into the funeral service for Guardian Koyos. The speech by Guardian Nemosyni showed how much respect there is between all of the Guardians of the Universe and how they view each other as powerful equals. Which is something that was needed for this set of Guardians of the Universe since they are all new and we no longer have Ganthet to serve as anchor. It specifically put Nemosyni into a strong position of authority to make her words matter more than any character.
That was what benefitted the announcement by Nemosyni that the changes to the Green Lantern Corps place in the universe now that Oa joined the United Planets has already taken into effect. Timing all of the changes from the elimination of over a thousand patrolling sectors to reorganizing everyone’s status with the end of Nemosyni was well executed. This made how Nemosyni completely shuts Saleek’s attempt to do so in an organized administrative fashion stand out even more. It showed both the Green Lantern Corps and readers that this isn’t something that is a temporary change. It is the new permanent status quo for the Green Lantern Corps and there will be no arguing.
This made having John be the one to speak with the Guardians of the Universe about the immediate changes to the Green Lantern Corps a scene to pay close attention to. The Guardians showed clear respect to John as they did answer his questions in as direct a manner as we’ve seen from the Guardians. That respect made the mission they gave to John to lead the investigation into the Dark Sectors come across a vital mission to the DCU as a whole.
Revealing the true purpose of why there are seven Green Lanterns from Earth in one lifespan during this discussion was an eyebrow raising moment. Thorne did a great job working in everything we are seeing with Infinite Frontier’s creation of the Omniverse and how that directly relates to the Earth Green Lanterns. This furthers the idea of why Earth is the center of the universe, as mentioned in Infinite Frontier #0. Working in the history of the universe with the destruction of Krypton being an even bigger deal because of what it meant as a major failure on the Guardians of the Universe part. It’ll be interesting if this whole deal with the Crux worlds will be continued to be developed in the future.
Though that likely will have to be sidelined for a bit as Thorne delivers a massive hook ending by the mysterious destruction of the Green Lantern Corps’ Power Battery. The visual of the explosion was impactful in itself. Thorne, Dexter Soy, and Marco Santucci made this into an even bigger deal by including the reaction of Mongul and others across the DC Universe. All of these cameos made this go from something that happens in a Green Lantern comic to a historic event in the DC Universe.
What exactly caused the explosion and how that impacts the Green Lantern Corps was already intriguing enough, as we saw how this already placed Kyle in a deadly spot floating in space. Adding in that Jo Mullein somehow still has her powers immediately adds the question of why she still has her powers. Jo looking like she may be the last Green Lantern and Keli Quintela still having her powers from the battery she is using positions both characters as key people moving forward.
With how many major events take place in Green Lantern #2 Dexter Soy and Marco Santucci step up big with their artwork. They work together get over how massive the scope of what happens is visually represented to the reader. The speeches by John Stewart and Nemosyni carry the weight you expect them to have by how they are drawn. The same goes for how the destruction of the Green Lantern Corps’ Power Battery looks like such a game changing event. You felt the destruction by just how massive the explosion was with buildings getting destroyed and people get hurt or killed.
The Bad: Nothing.
Overall: Green Lantern #2 is a game changing comic book for the entire franchise. Geoffrey Thorne, Dexter Soy, and Marco Santucci knocked it out of the park with the impact of the events that take place are felt by the end of this issue. The character work for John Stewart and the Guardians of the Universe further drove home how this is a can’t miss issue for Green Lantern fans.
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