Absolute Green Lantern #2 is written by Al Ewing and published by DC. Artwork, colours and main cover art is by Joahnoy Lindsay and letters by Lucas Gattoni.
Absolute Green Lantern #2 is available from today, in print and on digital platforms where all good comic books are sold. Grab your digital copy from Amazon Comixology UK right here.
Synopsis
Abin Sur has arrived, and he is here to judge all of the people of Evergreen,including Jo Mullein and Hal Jordan. But is this alien being friend or foe,and just what will his judgement bring?
Review
Al Ewing established with the previous issue that Absolute Green Lantern was going to showcase the horrific side of the Absolute universe. Showcasing the Green Lantern from a different lens. While this series continues to feel grounded with how it handles its characters, fitting the overall writing style of the Absolute universe, Absolute Green Lantern is very much a cosmic horror with a presence whose motive is currently unclear.
We pick up from the last issue as Jo runs into Hal Jordan after he has slaughtered the diner with the Black Hand. A force that he doesn’t understand nor can he control. This episode opens similarly to the previous one, but this time around, we get the mysterious (presumed) Abin Sur talking to Jo telepathically, like their minds are now one and the same. What Sur says to Jo has some differences from what he tells Hal. The main difference is that Jo exists at the green level of light while Hal is in the absence of light.
Al Ewing paints a clearer picture of what Abin Sur is capable of, but he still keeps his readers in the dark with what his real intention on Earth actually is. Sur has come to Earth and is bringing judgment on its people, a process that shockingly seems rather fatal. It all seems hopeless as they’re trapped by an extraterrestrial being that has the capability to wipe them out with just the palm of their hand. While characters such as Guy Gardner were mentioned last issue, we get an official look at him and some other side characters as they face off against Abin Sur. If it weren’t for Gardner’s name being mentioned, there would be no identifiable way to have picked him out of a group of what looks like regular police.
“Be without fear” is what Abin Sur says as it lays down this judgement and although Al Ewing is taking a slower approach to unravelling the mysteries surrounding the Green Lantern in the sky, Abin Sur himself and Joe and Hal. With Ewing keeping the intentions of Abin Sur and the Green Lantern in the dark, he’s able to instill fear into the readers as a slaughter begins in the street with our characters in scenarios that not even they themselves understand.
Verdict
Absolute Green Lantern #2 shows us more of the events that took place with Abin Sur, but the end of the issue only leaves us with more questions than we had when first reading this issue. Al Ewing manages to still create interest with this storyline, but at the same time, it almost feels like no progress has been made and that we are at the same place where the issue started. Depending on how #3 plays out, this will either be a well-executed buildup that will lead into something truly unexpected, or it will be a slow convoluted drag that is better read as a TPB.
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