Accomplishing our dreams is something that seems impossible. The road is to daunting, support waivers after a while you yourself might stop believing in dreams and settle into complacency. Sadly this is what happens to millions of people because the reality is that we all can’t achieve our dreams at the same time, however that doesn’t mean one should give up on their goals. It only means that it wasn’t the right time. It’s about having that willpower to finish what you started, and if you’re reading this or are a frequent visitor to this website you are familiar with the concept. Warning there will be spoilers, you have been warned.
As much as I wanted to like this issue, after I finished reading it I couldn’t help but feel that this issue felt truncated. Given how the last issue was an homage to Full Metal Jacket, I was expecting a bit more character development, but the moments of Jessica and Simon overcoming Guy and Kyle should have had more impact. It seems to me that after the harsh tone from the previous issue, Humphries wanted to deliver more levity, which is completely fine. However once Simon hit Kyle with a pie, and Jessica nearly cleaving Gardner’s head off (which was borderline comical) lessen the impact of both Cruz and Baz earning their Lanterns. It doesn’t help that the inner monologues feel repetitive (even though they may not be). I honestly would have taken another issue of training for both our main heroes, but I guess Humphries wanted to get our lanterns of Oa.
The other half of this book continues to run backstory on the first ever Green Lantern rings, and I have gone on record that I don’t really care about the revisionist history and I stopped to myself and wondered why that was. It’s not like I have a deep personal connection with the Green Lantern mythos (I started reading Green Lantern in 2008), but I honestly think it’s because of how disconnected it feels from the main story, plus the vignettes themselves are feel compacted. We are briefly shown a white martian as a young child only to see that same white martian murder the white martians that nearly murdered him. Since Rami is so focused about the original seven rings, then why are the bearers given page time? Chances are all the original ring bearers are all dead, and the rings are what’s important why waste readers times with pages that won’t really matter in the long run? Chances are I’m wrong and Humphries has a plan, but as of now I don’t see it.
Unlike the previous issues Pansica does not return but instead fans are treated to Carlo Barberi who is not a bad artists, but I just wasn’t enjoying his style. He does have really good storytelling skills, especially when you factor the double page spreads that read from right to left it’s important to show readers which direction they should be going. Honestly the biggest nitpick that I had with the art was Jessica’s hair length. For some reason her hair is her normal usual length but the end of the comic she has it at shoulder length. I’m guessing Cruz got a haircut in between training and graduating. Other than that, the art was serviceable.
Green Lanterns #24 earns a 3/5