You know what can suck? Having the role of leader given to you at the worst possible time. It’s a classic trope in team books that I will honestly never get tired of seeing. However I can tell you personally that in real life it absolutely sucks. In my other job, after several co-workers had either been fired, left for another job, or was moved to another position all together leaving me to pick the pieces and learn everything on the fly. So while normally I couldn’t relate to anything that Jessica goes through, over the last few months I can. Warning they’re will be spoilers going forward. You have been warned.
Personality is the name of the game, and Sam Humphries played that game very well with this issue. Last issue I praised how well Humphries made each “original” Green Lantern feel unique despite the fact that we only had short origin pages to base anything off their characterizations. This issue continues that trend, but with that added note of Jessica playing the mentor role, fleshes out their personalities a bit more. Honestly I was lukewarm about this idea, but after finishing this issue I wouldn’t mind seeing more or these Lanterns. It speaks volumes that while I may not enjoy certain characters (looking at the Colu Green Lantern specifically), that I can enjoy the overall theme of seeing new Lanterns get their rings and understand on a surface level who these characters are. Kinda hoping for a mini-series about the “original” Lanterns at this point.
Perhaps my eyes are deceiving me, but after flipping through the art between this issue and last issue something happened to Eduardo Pansica’s art between issues. This art in this issue is not terrible if that’s what you’re thinking based off the previous sentence that I think the art in this issue was terrible. However it’s not, but I can’t help but notice the emphasis of detailed textures and back rounds. I double checked to see if it was a case of different inkers, but that wasn’t the case either. The art remained stunning as usual so I can be thankfully in that sense. It just leaves me scratching my head how two different issues can look vastly different despite the fact it was the same art team. The balance between over the top anatomy with great facial work is a testament to the skills that Pansica puts into this series whenever he’s drawing the book.
Seeing Jessica step up and take the leadership role was a pleasant surprise for me, but I loved that in this issue she experienced the actual hardship of being a leader. You can tell Cruz is uncomfortable with trying to teach them the core basics of what being a Lantern is all about. Seeing her struggle yet not succumb to her anxiety makes me more invested into her character, proving that despite small setbacks she can overcome the overwhelming personalities of all these new characters. If you think about it, since these Green Lanterns are the original are the foundation of what the corps becomes, you could say that Jessica Cruz (through Guy’s training) laid the foundation of the corps itself. I’m sure that’s gonna piss off some Green Lantern purists but I honestly love the idea.
The only real problem I had with this issue, was that I felt that it really wasn’t needed. Yes I did enjoy the character work, but the plot needed to progress a bit more for my liking. Still a fun issue, but I kinda want the action against Volthoom to kick into high gear and if the ending of this issue is any indication then I’ll be extremely satisfied.
Green Lanterns #29 earns a 4/5