It is finally time to find out the origin of the Teen Lantern!

We waited eight long months to get to this point. Who is this lantern girl and where did she come from? Well, now we know. Kinda. Sorta. Well, at least Brian Michael Bendis has given us something. Unfortunately, its mostly everything we were teased about from interviews prior to the series release. Girl finds Green Lantern gauntlet, shenanigans ensue. And for a while I was absolutely okay with that. Until I realized that most of my enjoyment of this series comes from the interaction of these kids that mesh so well together. Amythest, Jinny Hex and Teen Lantern are the exceptions. But we got to know Amythest well through the first arc. And Jinny’s personality shines through every line and action. The same couldn’t be said for Keli, the Teen Lantern.

This was way more important to get to than I thought previously. So…how it did it hold up? I thought it was the best part of the issue. It was a bit jarring switching from the flashback origin pages of Andre Lima Arujo and the current multiverse hopping fight scenes of John Timms. Arujo’s art fits well with the last few issues of the series. Its just cute. The first page shows us Keli just looking adorable. Her back and forth with Marcos is fun and feels natural. Their chemistry is just as natural and fun as Bart and Tim or Cassie and Connor.

But that’s kind of problem here too. While we finally get to see how she gets this power and more of her personality. John Timms is left to pick up where we left off and its not all that interesting. Teen Lantern saves Jinny from our cliffhanger last issue, but that happens halfway through the issue and almost a forgotten moment entirely. The series doesn’t seem to be treading water but the team sure does. And I’m not sure sticking around on this Earth for more fighting is going to do anything to change that. Pretty sure, it won’t actually.

Look. The art from both Arujo and Timms is freaking fantastic. The colors are eye popping(Gabe is top 5 in comics right now, fight me). The book is good. But we’re closing in on a year’s worth of storytelling and I’m not sure it stands out as a great book anymore. There’s still a lot of blanks for Bendis to fill in, and he definitely has the talent and the talent around him to make it worth sticking around for. So, here’s to hoping.

Young Justice #9 gets a 3.5/5