Originally published on Patreon
I think that this might be the weakest entry in the Dark Crisis titled books so far, and I feel bad in saying that as I absolutely love Green Lantern and wanted this to be something really good. Sadly, compared to the previous issue, it feels kind of flat and strange.
So, the first story here deals with John Stewart, and the ideal world that he finds himself in thanks to Pariah's machinations. We meet a John who is the leader of the Corps, who has taken on the role of the Guardians and has remade the Corps in a new image, giving a bunch of other heroes GL powers. Over the course of the story we learn that a great darkness swept through the universe, did some terrible things, killed a lot of people, and that in order to hide the Central Power Battery from it John made it a living, sentient being that believes it's John's dead sister.
Now, these evil forces have come to Earth looking for the battery, and John has to come out of retirement in order to stop it; which he does with relative ease. Although he does this after more than a thousand GL's die fighting it. With the evil defeated John heads back into his retirement.
Yeah, this felt like it made little sense to me. We know that these worlds are supposed to be the heroes ideals, their perfect existences. And John has made a world where thousands have died, where his friends and allies die by the hundreds until he comes along and fixes things without breaking a sweat, and where he's made a fake sister and is living a lie. This feels less like a perfect word and more like a twisted nightmare.
Why is this not a world where he lives in peace without being dragged back out to fight again? Why isn't his wife alive again with him? Why did his sister still die and have be come back as a fake magical copy rather than just never having died? Why does John seem depressed and hard put upon even in his dream world? It just made no sense to me. It doesn't feel like this is the dream that the John Stewart I've seen over the decades would want.
Maybe I'm wrong, and I'm holding on to a version of the character that is gone now and this permanently depressed and constantly tormented John is what we get now. I hope not though, as I found this kind of depressing, and was really let down by it.
The second story, thankfully, was much more interesting. We follow Kendra as she searches for a lost temple deep in the jungle where she hopes to find a magical artefact that's said to rob those who drink it of immortality. Having lived through countless lifetimes, she's had enough of being reincarnated again and again, and wants this life to be her final life.
Drinking from the artefact, she feels the magic leave her, and knows that this is now her final life. But she's quickly attacked by skeletons and has to fight for that life. All this whilst Pariah watches from the shadows whilst cackling like a villain.
So, not much really happens in this story, it's pretty quick; but it does at least give us an insight into Hawkgirl that was definitely lacking in the first story. We see a bit of what makes her tick, we get to understand the kind of things she desires, and get to understand what would drive her to find a way to stop coming back to life. So whilst not much happens here from a narrative point it does develop the character a lot. The costume that she wears in this story is also really cool, and makes for an interesting new look for her.
Overall, this issue felt kind of weak, with one story that I think I kind of hated, and another that was interesting, but where not much actually happened. Hopefully the other entries in this series will provide us better stories and better looks into the League's new worlds.
This article, and many others, can be read a month early on my Patreon for as little as $3 a month!
No comments:
Post a Comment