War has been declared on the Green Lanterns as of last weeks Green Lantern, thanks to the manipulation of the Khund empires and the shape shifting Durlans. So it appears that even after trying to rebuild everything from the ground up, the Green Lantern Corps can’t shake the eye of disaster. So it begs the question, what will John Stewarts response be to what looks like Hal Jordan laying out the secrets to rest of the universe therefore jeopardizing any lantern not on Mogo. While that is all well and dandy the true strength to this issue will that if it can stand by itself, and be accessible to readers who only read Green Lantern Corps and not the main Green Lantern book. Well let’s open page one and find out shall we?

The issue opens up with John Stewart leading several veteran Lanterns on a mission where a sector house has been attacked with two lanterns who have been kidnapped. The running theme of space cop returns here a bit as Jensen has Stewarts patrol team examine the crime scene in detail, and there is even a nice exchange between Vath and John over tampering with evidence. While this is a minor aspect to the issue as a whole the consistency is appreciated.

So after a brief page turn away, Jensen switches us to this coalition of space villains who are plotting the demise of the Green Lantern Corps and in cliche fans they eventually started fighting until the one of unknown aliens turns into a copy of Kanjar-Ro. This was a needed scene for this as it shows that to new readers that the corps has a list of enemies wanting to destroy them, and even a new version of Evil Star is here so that’s also cool. This particular section was done by Sean Chen and honestly at a first glance the art blends in with the previous pages done by Chang but after you look with greater detail you will recognize his style. That’s how a book with two artist should work, the reader should not be taken out of the story due to inconsistent art styles.

The next several pages focuses on the Durlan Hal Jordan making his proclamation, only this time we get to see John’s perspective of the corps being under siege. While at first this seems like simple set up and it can be taken for that but it appears that Van Jensen is continuing to sow the seeds of division between Hal and John over leadership. Hopefully this will eventually pay off, but that’s neither here nor there.

With Stewart and company speeding towards the sector 0424 where they discover that the Khund were the ones who attacked the lantern safe house at the beginning of the issue. It is a bit a coincidence that the first ship that John finds is where the missing lanterns are, but you have to progress the plot somehow. The action panels by Chang were well done as they feel kinect and fast while also keeping everything clear so the reader isn’t lost on what is going in each panel.

Jensen has us briefly rejoin the horde of space villains where the Durlans reveal their true identity and in short they don’t give the other coalitions a choice when it comes to joining them. So this adds a bit of intrigue heading towards the annual in two weeks.

The issue wraps up with our new resident snake lantern gives a Khund warrior a bit of a truth venom and John learns that the Durlans are the ones behind this incursion, which has John feel that the Durlans could be anyone. This was a fantastic way to end the issue, even though the Khund have the superior firepower the fact that the corps can’t tell who is a Durlan and isn’t adds great tension to a already tense situation.

This issue was another solid issue from this creative team and it looks like it’s all finally coming to ahead with the Green Lantern Corps annual later this month. The art by both Chen and Chang were well done and blended together for those few pages so it wasn’t jarring, solid work from both artist.

Green Lantern Corps #27 receives a 4/5

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