Lights Out: Part Five
The Source
“It is time his journey truly began.”
W: Robert Venditti A: Sean Chen C: Andrew Dalhouse/Wil Quintana
The final battle with Relic is here! Hal and Guy reluctantly decided to join forces, John is seeking help from the Indigo Tribe, and Kyle powered up by all the battery entities is going directly to Relic in order to help him find the solution. With all Lantern leaders charging in with their own plans to fight, will Relic succeed in “saving” the universe and killing off all the Lantern Corps or will Relic be stopped once and for all!?
The Ups: The end to Venditti’s first major Lantern story arc has come and he did not disappoint. This story had it all: massive space battles, Hal and Carol fighting, Guy getting punched in the face, and best of all, Kyle Rayner being a badass, I couldn’t have asked for more. What I truly appreciated is that Venditti made sure to sort out all of the loose plot ties as well and create new interesting seeds for the future of the series itself. Best of all Venditti made sure to have a great starting point for all the major earth lanterns bringing them all back to doing their own thing but also making sure you know what is potentially coming for each of them in the future. The art was top notch as well, Chen makes every lantern look extremely detailed and also very powerful, especially Guy and Kyle. I definitely enjoyed how he brought out the rage and aggression out in Guy and how you can see the power just radiating off of Kyle. Dalhouse and Quintana brought out a great rainbow of colors as you come to expect these days from massive lantern space fights.
The Downs: The one thing that bothered me is the character of Relic. For someone that wiped out the Blue Lanterns and destroyed Oa he just ended up coming off as the misunderstood and scarred villain. I feel with all the ruthless acts he committed he came off weak in the end especially since all of a sudden Hal, John, Guy, and Kyle could hurt Relic when before none of them could lay a finger on him and their rings had more energy, it just really made me scratch my head.
Overall: Venditti proved that the Green Lantern series is in good hands after the departure of Geoff Johns. With great artwork, a lot of good twists, ending plot lines and opening interesting new ones, and making all the major Lantern shine this issue was a great end to a solid story arc. I see great things in the future for all four lantern books and if you’re not venturing into space with the lanterns make sure you do so.
Grade 4 of 5
ComicsRefueled 