Posted in: Comics, Comics Publishers, DC Comics, Review | Tagged: comic book reviews, future state, green lantern, Hal Jordan, john stewart, mogo, teen lantern

Future State #2: Green Lantern Review: Hold The Line

Published Thu, 11 Feb 2021 07:30:51 -0600

by Hannibal Tabu

Comments

With an incredibly strong lead story, Future State #2: Green Lantern continues a look at what happens to Green Lanterns when the source of their powers, the very light they shine on the galaxy, goes dark. From a brutal war story to an intimate tale of people lost in the dark to "whatever happened to Hal Jordan?" you'll find people determined to bring justice to environments that more than likely might resist it, despite their intense need for it.

Future State #2: Green Lantern Review: Hold The Line — Future State #2: Green Lantern Cover. Credit: DC Comics

Starting off with the story of John Stewart, he starts out in a bad place. A horde of bloodthirsty Khunds, zealously worshiping The God In Red, have captured him after he sacrificed himself to make sure helpless refugees could escape. The leader of this Khundish cult wears the robotic body of a fallen Green Lantern as armor, exhorting his followers to greater atrocities and mayhem. With super hard skin, greater-than-standard strength, and relentless focus, they seem virtually unbeatable. This, however, is not their story.

Geoff Thorne's script is clever, drawing you in with the growing sense of doom until two things happen that are so well-thought-out and well established by material in the work that it's really rather remarkable. Tom Raney, Mike Atiyeh, and Andworld Design make every gut crushing tragedy and surprise leap off the panel.

The second story, written by Josie Campbell, shows the fate of eleven-year-old Keli Quintela, ironically called Teen Lantern, wielding a gauntlet connected to the central power battery. The Guardians dispatched Mogo to lead the tiny heroine to one of their best investigators, Far Sector's Jo Muellin, because it required a trip through "the Bootes Void, a sector devoid of stars and galaxies — lightless in most respects." Then, as noted, the lights go out, and anyone who has jumped at a bump in the night knows that, as George R.R. Martin wrote, "the night is dark and full of terrors." Mogo and Teen Lantern start to try and figure that out, but it's no easy win. This Josie Campbell script is a little inconclusive, but the artwork from Andie Tong, Wil Quintana, and Dave Sharpe well capture the oppressive environment of lightlessness and threat.

Finally, Hal Jordan gets a jump start on his ring and heads off to find out what happened … and it ain't good. As he journeys across the expanse of space to see how it has fallen into chaos without the Green Lanterns on hand to dispense at least their idea of justice, he faces an unpleasant confrontation when he finally reaches Oa. Robert Venditti showcases this laundry list of hot spots around the galaxy, and Dexter Soy, Alex Sinclair, and Steve Wands again make this "man against the odds" environment work fairly well.

All around, of all the Future State looks, this shows the Green Lanterns in — pardon the phrase — the best light, making the way in the darkness that they did not cause and trying to hold the line against (as perhaps Perpetua believed) worlds tilted towards doom. RATING: BUY.

Future State Green Lantern #2
By Various, Clayton Henry
Outnumbered but never outwitted or outfought, John Stewart leads the last of the Green Lanterns against insurmountable odds. Facing a bloodthirsty Khund cult dedicated to the "God in Red," the onetime Green Lantern shows that even without a ring or the Corps to back him up, heâs still a force to be reckoned with! Plus, from the pages of Young Justice, Teen Lantern teams up with Mogo, and Hal Jordan reconnects with Oliver Queen after the power battery goes down!

Future State Green Lantern #2