A Dark Night, Between Bright Days.
I’ve been enjoying the last few Dark Nights villain showcases; the stories are usually well thought out and I’ve been speculating every week with friends about what universes they mirror and what’s going to happen next. I guess the key word in that previous sentence would be “usually”.
One of my favourite comic/heroes is the Green Lantern, and this includes pretty much any of the humans that have wielded the ring. Recently, around the events of the New 52 ending, the main writer and in many peoples (including mine) favourite writer for Green Lantern (Geoff Johns) left to be less of a writer and more Chief Creative Officer at DC entertainment. Which, don’t get me wrong is probably a fantastic promotion and I couldn’t think of anyone better that understands DC as well as him, but I just loved his Green Lantern run so much that I feel like he’s marred the title as no one will ever be as good as him (his last issue brought me to tears as it was full of “Dad Stuff” as well as an amazing send-off of 6 years of writing said comic). That being said, I haven’t read Green Lanterns as its now known, as it consists of new lanterns and I didn’t enjoy what they did to the canon.
I say all of this because it seems DC are going with a clever motif, wherein the current artists and writers for the comic that mirrors the evil Batman (Dawnbreaker/ Green Lantern) are used to present the dark counterpart. So, I was hesitant as I opened this book, would it be like the Green Lantern of old? Or would I be underwhelmed with the current state of the comic? Unfortunately, it seems it’s more like the latter. The art seemed interesting and engaging as constructs created by lanterns are important and if you can draw them, you can’t draw Green Lantern. Even though everything was drawn/inked/coloured great, the story seemed rushed and would’ve been better served with another issue or at least a few more panels to give more context and add extra weight to the drastic events that were occurring.
One spin-off out of three that comes across as lacking isn’t a terrible thing, I still enjoy alternate universe stories, I’m just a stickler for emotional/practical context for actions that will just come across as evil for evils-sake without reason. The lantern ring is complicated power, so I understand this misstep, fingers crossed the next few issues can nail the tone and keep this event on track.