Absolute Green Lantern Vol. 1 Review: Green Lantern as Cosmic Horror

With Absolute Green Lantern, Al Ewing has deconstructed the Green Lantern story and mythology so completely that I'm still working out how he pulled it off. There's no galactic police force here. Instead, the book follows a town under siege by something it can't comprehend, and it works as sci-fi horror about the scale of the universe and how little it cares about us.

Spoiler note: this review covers the setup of issues #1 to #6, including Hal Jordan's new status quo, but doesn't give away the big reveals.

Jo Mullein is our way in

Jo is a former cop trying to apply logic to an alien monolith that ignores it, and her arc reminded me of the leads in Arrival and Annihilation. The way she's judged (no spoilers) is eerie and it changes her, and it never plays like a hero moment.

A Hal Jordan with no ring

Hal Jordan is the biggest departure for me. He has no ring. He's been cursed, possessed by a power that damages everything he touches. For longtime fans, it's a smart play on his history: Ewing takes the dark side of the Parallax era and makes it a literal infection. Hal's internal conflict adds a layer of psychological horror we almost never get in a Lantern book.

Art from somewhere else entirely

Jahnoy Lindsay's art has a clear anime and manga influence. I see it most in the kinetic constructs and in how Jo and the others move through the environment. I'm not deeply into manga and the style still worked for me. That fluidity makes the alien technology feel like it comes from somewhere else entirely.

The way Hal's energy is drawn, with ink bleeding across the page, is haunting. The coloring makes the Lanterns' light stand out against the normal setting, and the characters are expressive. Abin Sur in particular stands out, with an aura that's both beautiful and ominous.

Four Lanterns, rebuilt

Jo, Hal, John Stewart and Guy Gardner are the main characters. Some get more room than others, but each is put in a situation that builds out their lore and separates them from their main-universe counterparts.

Too much, too fast

The first arc is great, especially the setup of Abin Sur and the Lantern mythos. The Abin Sur mystery was one of my favorite parts of the book. We still don't know the full picture, but it feels like we learned too much too fast. Maybe that's just me. I think what we find out in issue #6 could have been dripped out over a longer stretch, especially with the human conflict and the Black Star plot happening at the same time.

The verdict

This probably won't get the attention the other Absolute "Trinity" books do, but it's a great read and I highly recommend it.

Absolute Green Lantern Vol. 1: Without Fear collects issues #1 to #6. For where it fits and what's come since, see our Absolute Green Lantern guide.