Here we are ladies and gentlemen, it was six months ago that DC “restarted” almost every comic, for the Rebirth initiative. It feels like a lifetime ago, especially when you factor in double shipping so it pretty much is condensing a years worth of comics into six months. I’ve written my negative thoughts on the problems that Green Lanterns has had since it launched back in June, but I can’t deny that underneath it all is a good comic for readers who are new to the world of Green Lantern. Let’s see how the final issue of Green Lanterns for 2016 is! There will be spoilers, read further on at your risk.
Frank Laminski has been the main focus since the Phantom Lantern arc began, but as of this issue Humphries begins to draw parallels between Volthoom’s past and Franks potential future. Now I’m not sure how of this backstory for Volthoom was previously established before. Which in all honestly doesn’t really matter when your reading this issue, since the Wrath of The First Lantern crossover is only briefly mentioned here, but I can say that I like the idea of Volthoom serving as a warning for Frank and it makes Volthoom more evil since he knows what the Phantom Ring will do to Frank but pushes him towards it anyways. I would compare it to a drug dealer pushing an addict onto some new product to satisfy their high.
It makes me a bit sad as I write this, but the inner monologues for Simon and Jessica are the worst aspect of the issue. If this happens to be your first issue of Green Lanterns then none of this will be noticeable at all. When Simon and Jessica exchange banter back and forth, I love their dynamic and how their unique perspectives bring new life to being a Green Lantern. However if you’ve been reading since issue one or even started two issues ago the inner dialog is constantly the same lines repeated over and over and over again. I love the idea that a person who is chosen to wield the most powerful weapon in the universe doesn’t feel they are worthy. Humphries however wants to drill this idea into readers heads and continue to drill until you get the point then proceed to drill even further. After thirteen issues, we have to see some more leaps of character progression. It really slows the book down to a boring crawl which is a shame because a lot of other aspects of this issue are good. Heading into 2017, Humphries needs to try something different with Simon and Jessica otherwise we’ll be in this same rut we’ve bee in since June.
Sadly once again we have a different artist for this issue as Ronan Cliquet was the penciler and inker for this comic and I’m not criticizing the art in this issue as it was very good. I actually enjoyed Cliquet’s art as it had a very good looking superhero feel to it, the storytelling was very solid and facial expressions were on point. My problem is that for three straight issues we’ve had three different artists who have various styles and it pulls me out of the comic. In 2017, Green Lanterns needs a consistent art team, the constant switching out artists is a problem.
Green Lanterns #13 earns a 2/5