Review: Green Lantern Vol. 2: Horatius trade paperback (DC Comics)

Geoffrey Thorne’s Green Lantern Vol. 2: Horatius lacks a bit of the previous book’s shock and awe, and in that way doesn’t quite rise to its predecessor’s level. I also felt things wrapped up a little too neatly, conspiracies within conspiracies, which perhaps (I’m only guessing) betrays a too-sudden wrap-up.

But mostly I’ll say Thorne’s Green Lantern tenure was impressive and just too short. For a writer certainly not new to the industry but new to DC to write so well John Stewart — a character with many portrayals and a lot to sift through — and Jo Mullein — a character appearing in only one series and so with a very distinct and specific voice — is an admirable feat. As well, though one might expect a Green Lantern writer to know their stuff, the breadth of Green Lantern and other DC property mythos that Thorne weaves in here is also well done.

Really a lot of Thorne’s two Green Lantern books have been prologue (or ended up having to be prologue) for a new status quo. I’d have been interested to see what Thorne’s workaday, less targeted Green Lantern stories might be, and too bad the ride (mostly) stops here.

[Review contains spoilers]

Toward the end of Horatius (eight issues and an annual!), we get answers expected and not so expected. Expected, that there was a culprit behind the murder of a Guardian and the subsequent destruction of the Oan power battery. Not so expected, that John Stewart and the other Lanterns being stranded in the Dark Sectors was not just a result of the explosion but a purposeful action by a good Guardian to get them out of the bad Guardian’s way.

[See the latest DC trade solicitations.]

Also, that Thorne even reaches over (and across imprints) to the superb Young Animal miniseries Far Sector to explain how and why Jo got a unique Lantern ring over there. Who knows how long those connections have been in the planning, whether N.K. Jemisin’s book was always supposed to tie into the main Green Lantern title or if it was just happy opportunity. I do appreciate continuity, but in Thorne tying together threads that weren’t perhaps even in question and leaving nothing to coincidence, the resolution goes from feeling solved to feeling slightly artificial.

Teen Lantern Keli Quintela played a big role in Thorne’s Green Lantern Vol. 1: Invictus (and that he gives her Young Justice-themed constructs here is fantastic), so it’s surprising she’s unconscious and all but sidelined through most of Horatius. It’s here I wondered if Thorne didn’t ultimately have as many pages as he expected or if the plot was simply lopsided; John Stewart’s cosmic struggles at some point became a mite repetitive, meanwhile Keli’s in a coma and Jessica Cruz is still part of the Sinestro Corps.

The New Gods and the Green Lanterns seems a sensible pairing that doesn’t happen so often, and I was pleased to see Thorne use them here, particularly lesser-seen New Gods like Lonar and Esak. Their presence is ultimately too tertiary to the plot, but it was still fun to see Thorne delve into New Gods history, Izaya and Uxas and such.

It was maybe a step too far, however, that when John Stewart actually communes with the New Gods' Source, the Source appears to him in the form of Jack Kirby. Certainly I admire Thorne’s ambition, and John Stewart meeting Jack Kirby wasn’t what I expected to find in Horatius. But at the same time, unlike say Tim Sheridan depicting George Perez in Teen Titans Academy — where Perez is associated with the characters in the title — there’s not as much resonance with Jack Kirby and John Stewart as there might be Kirby talking to Highfather or Darkseid. To that end, this felt a bit self-serving — something Thorne wanted, rather than something that truly served the characters — though again, I do admire the gumption.

As mentioned, I don’t envy a writer penning John Stewart nor Jo Mullein, great characters each with pressures inherent. Here, again either due to lack of space or what have you, I’m not sure Thorne delivered on the implicit promises of examining John Stewart’s time as a Guardian (I’m still fuzzy on all this “Ascended” business, except it seems like it’s solely due to time travel), though I happily take whatever John Stewart material I can get. But Thorne gets Jo Mullein just right, perpetually cool, calm, and unruffled, whether in the face of Sinestro or mutinous Lanterns. Though the number of creators I trust to write Jo well is still small, I’d be glad to see her continue with her brand of transparent, no-nonsense leadership as head of the Corps.

Invictus started with the Lanterns in a new status quo — secondary to the United Planets, serving as diplomats, questing to regions unknown — and Horatius ends with another new status quo — the Lantern forces severely depleted and newly operating without the Guardians (plus Simon Baz and his cadre of ghost Lanterns!). Again, in this way it feels like Thorne’s run never got started, that what we have is a 12-issue miniseries to set up what’s to come, not the thing itself. That may be in service of setting up the next-next Green Lantern chapter, but I can’t help wondering what Thorne would have done if he’d continued.

2.25

Rating

There is actually one Geoffrey Thorne-written Green Lantern piece after Green Lantern Vol. 2: Horatius, and that’s the John Stewart: Emerald Knight one-shot. Given that none of the Green Lantern material upcoming is written by Thorne, I’m surprised (and a little concerned) that DC didn’t include that one-shot here; I can see a place where DC could collect the one-shot in the future, story-wise, but given that none of the rest of that book would be written by Thorne, that’s not what DC tends to like to do. Hopefully we won’t find one small remaining piece of Thorne’s Green Lantern run goes uncollected.

A nicely ambitious run with a focus on Lanterns who don’t as often get the spotlight.

[Includes original and variant covers, character designs, process pages]