Writer: Peter J. Tomasi Pencils: Fernando Pasarin Inker: Scott Hanna Colors: Gabe Eltaeb
If you have not been reading the Green Lantern titles, you may get lost in this review, but let’s see if I can catch you up to speed. In the past nine issues of the Green Lantern Corps, they have been in a fight for survival from the “original” keepers of the lanterns. It was during this mission, that some of the Corps members where caught and tortured. Two lanterns that were captured would change the course of this title to depths I never imagined. These lanterns are known as John Stewart and Kirrt Kallak.
During their captivity, Lantern Kirrt couldn’t take the pain from torture anymore and was about to let their kidnappers know how to break through the Guardians force field on OA (issue 6). Before Kirrt could explain, Lantern Stewart was forced to make a decision. He had to silence Kirrt to save the lives of millions. How did he do this you ask? He broke Kirrt’s neck and silenced him forever. I couldn’t believe what I had just read.
In issues 8 and 9, we see that John cannot handle this burden or secret if you will. He attends Kirrt’s funeral and lets his family know he died a hero. He wanted to tell them right then and there that he killed him, but he couldn’t bring himself to do it. Well, the guardians knew about this injustice and activated the Alpha Lanterns to bring justice back to the corps. When they arrived to arrest John, he went willingly and confessed to his deeds.
It is in issue 10 that he is sentenced to death. Of course lanterns that were close to John like Guy were furious with this decision. The Alpha Lanterns even tried to get others to do the execution but Guy wouldn’t have that. He told them they need to do their own dirty work and the Guardians agreed.
Towards the end, Guy and other lanterns help Stewart break out of the prison. Problem is John doesn’t want to go, so Guy had to knock him out and carry him. Well, a battle between the Corps and the Alphas was short lived because the Alphas cut the lanterns off their power supply and their rings started to drain. That is how this issue ended. I know I cannot wait until issue 11.
This issue left me wanting more. Not only that, I was finding myself getting angry at the decision to kill Stewart myself. I feel he did what he had to do to protect lives. Tomasi’s writing is brilliant. I was pulled in this story from page 1. If you are not reading any of the lantern titles, you need to. Just like with the Batman titles, DC has a hit with the lanterns.
