2013 has officially passed us by and 2014 is shaping up to be an interesting year for everyone’s favorite Lantern Corps. So now it’s time to dive head first into the new year as the rebuilding phase for the corps is officially underway. However it appears that the Durlans are prepared to make their move against an unsuspecting corps. So as we dive into the first issue of 2014, so the questions that should be asked are, will Hal continue to have growing pains as leader of this scale, and how long will other members of the corps continue to tolerate Hal as a leader? Either way it’s shaping up to be an interesting story. So let’s open page one and find out shall we?

The issue begins with the constructing of a buildings on Mogo under the survey of John Stewart, and instead of Billy Tan this month Dale Eaglesham takes over as lead pencils and the rich detail is what readers will notice immediately, plus the extra bonus of muscle definition is a nice addition. Venditti has the reader transition to the Citadel  were we meet Hal and Natu on a routine patient look in and to find that the lone Blue Lantern Saint Walker has a risen from his coma. Here Venditti takes the reader on a depressing scene with Saint Walker learning about recent events and seeing him lose hope is just heartbreaking, and Eaglesham’s art helps to bring this moment together with home with his excellent use of body language and facial expressions.

After Saint Walker curls back into his bed, Venditti has a scene between Hal and Kilowog that actually sets up the tone for the rest of the issue, as Kilowog tries to get Hal to remember the convicts they had to let go, but Hal is still focused on the Sinestro Corps and Sinestro himself, plus the panel where Eaglesham zooms in on Kilowogs face is just rich with detail and awesome to look at.

Venditti soon reminds us about the Braid Clan captives, have now arrived and within seconds a jail break on the Mogo is already underway, but in a well executed plan only some of them escape as they meet their contact, a cook on Oa. Since Venditti is bringing back the idea of the space cop it’s cool to the crooks act like crooks would (even though this isn’t earth but it’s a comic it works.) Eaglesham’s art makes Mogo feel even more atmospheric with the small details in the tree’s and different foliage. The only the thing that rings odd about  this escape sequence is Mogo not feeling them or the other lanterns not noticing that more of the Braid Clan are missing. It doesn’t hurt the story but it’s just something that sticks out.

Our escaped convicts run into Soranik Natu thus starting a small fire fight and instead of Natu ready to fight instead Venditti remembers that she’s in a place where there are wounded and she is Chief Medical Officer and she demands for a cease fire. While this scene is really just a detour to the final grand shebang. It nice to see a pending confrontation end in another way due to circumstances the hero find themselves in.

Finally it’s time for our menacing friends to comment their horrendous plan and what a horrendous plan it is. It turns out that the “cook” who was the Braid Clans contact was in fact a Durlan who has now assumed the face of Hal Jordan, and here as Martin Lawrence “shit gets real” as the Durlan throws out the recent dirty laundry of the corps and the revelation of the emotional spectrum reservoir, thus making various alien races attack in full force at various lantern safe houses. Eaglesham’s art adds to the growing tense situation from the faces of the imposter Hal Jordan to other lanterns being attacked, it’s feels oddly similar to Order 66 from Revenge of The Sith.

Overall this issue started out as another normal solid Green Lantern issue, but after the Braid Clan escapes and The Durlan’s declare has the Corps declare War on the universe, then it sky rockets the issue to dramatic issue that has Hal Jordan’s unfortunate mistakes come back to bite him in the behind. This issue should have readers salivating to read the next issue.

Green Lantern #27 receives a 4/5

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