First off before I get this underway, I want to apologize for the lack of a review last week. Comics didn’t come out and life got in the way. So it appears that this week you wonderful readers will receive not one but two reviews! The current theme that appears to be running across Green Lantern and Green Lantern Corps is “the enemy of my enemy is my friend.” We know that the Durlans and the Khund have formed an alliance and severed communications for the Corps causing all amounts of chaos, and things possibly couldn’t get any worse for the Corps right? Well we’re wrong because of three word, Red Lantern Supergirl.
The story opens up with Lanterns Bareer and Lok heading towards a disturbance, before they are encounter Red Lantern Supergirl who simply shows up without rhyme or reason. After a bit of a struggle Supergirl becomes exhausted allowing for her capture. What stuck out immediately is Supergirl’s face when she first burst onto the scene and sequential scene after is she looks lost and terrified, instead of the normal expression of anger for a typical Red Lantern. It’s also a cool choice by Venditti to just drop Supergirl as a Red Lantern with zero explanation, adding a cool mystery to start off of this crossover with Red Lanterns.
Venditti transitions back to Mogo where Lantern Corps leader, Hal Jordan (in hilarious fashion) swears in the enemies of the Green Lantern Corps against the might of the Khund and Durlan alliance. What’s nice about this small scene is that Hal isn’t sure that this is right course and it’s cool to seem actually think about what he’s doing instead the gungho decision making recently. Venditti does dedicate two pages to the idea that the Durlans could be anyone without a ring, layering the seed of mistrust among some Lanterns and non-lanterns on Mogo.
Before any of that can progress, Bareer and Lok arrive and Supergirl is on a tear. It’s not everyday the reader see’s the corps try to handle a Kryptonian. What’s interesting about this is that Hal is shocked that there is another Kryptonian other than Superman and he doesn’t know who Kara Zor-El is but establishes the danger of her running loose.
With Hal not wanting to remove Supergirl’s ring, therefore killing her he goes to look for Saint Walker who is wandering on Mogo. The scene to follow basically sets up Saint Walker for his quest to find hope again after he saw it crushed before his eyes. It’s depressing to see Saint Walker wallow in self pity and simple strong words by Hal can’t fix it.
This half of the issue wraps up with Hal and some other Lanterns escorting Supergirl back to Ysmault, where the Red Lanterns are nowhere to be found. Guy Gardner shows up and tells Hal that space sector 2814 is their turf, and Billy Tan’s facial expression for Hal as he’s told the news is simply priceless. While it isn’t the most expressionistic face, it does capture that perfect “what have done” as Hal’s decisions continue to bite him in the ass.
While the issue doesn’t progress the Durlan plot further but throws the emotional spectrum right back into the mix is a bit of a let down. It’s a solid issue with solid art from returning artist Billy Tan and a nice starting point for new Green Lantern readers.
Green Lantern #28 receives a 3/5
Check out the review of Red Lanterns #28 here!
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