Absolute Green Lantern #13 – Al Ewing, Writer; Eleonora Carlini, Artist; Ivan Plascencia, Colorist
Ray – 10/10
Ray: The thing that’s so impressive about this title is that we’ve been following its players for a year, with stories that take place across time and space – and we’ve still barely seen a corner of it. More than any other book in the line – or the entire DCU – you never know what the next issue will look like. This issue brings on another guest artist in the form of the talented Eleonora Carlini, and not a single page of it takes place on Earth. Instead, we head to Rann, an outpost of the Darkstars – a powerful, fascist space force overseen by Controller Sinestro, who is losing patience with the growing influences of the other corners of the spectrum. He’s demanding answers from the Overseer of Rann, who turns out to be a shocking name under the helmet – an iconic Vertigo character who is heavily associated with chaos and unpredictability – and in this comic, is transformed into their exact opposite.
The main plot this issue focuses on the scientist Sardath, who has committed the ultimate crime on a planet occupied by the Darkstars – using technology for non-military purposes. He was trying to create the Zeta Beam, the device that would bring Adam Strange to his world in all other versions. But no savior is coming here. Instead, he’s brought before the Overseer for a brief pro forma trial – that’s really little more than a show trial that also exposes what happened to his rebellious daughter Alanna. This is the kind of story that slowly builds the horror as it moves along, revealing just how dystopian this world is and how far their reach goes. It’s pretty clear that they’re not just ruling their own worlds with an iron fist, they’re looking to expand their reach to Earth. And in a world full of cosmic enemies and unpredictable deities, these totalitarians might be the scariest thing we’ve seen yet.
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GeekDad received this comic for review purposes
