Review by Frank Plowright

The problem with all the New 52 Green Lantern titles is that they’re intertwined and progress from one crossover to another. There may be sound marketing reasons for this, or perhaps it’s not been considered that people only interested in one element of the Green Lantern mythos, say John Stewart, who’s the focus here, may just give up on the title rather than be tempted into purchasing several others.

Events begin with the fallout from the previous crossover, which saw the Green Lanterns betrayed with devastating consequences. It’s left an atmosphere of mistrust within the corps, malfunctioning power rings, and a threat to Oa, the planet that’s always housed them. This is all conveyed by the writing team of Van Jensen and Robert Venditti as new Green Lanterns are selected to replace some fallen in action. They’re a bunch with potential, but no sooner have they undertaken their first test mission than we’re thrown into another crossover, this time ‘Lights Out’.

That resolves some of the previous problems, but anyone just picking up this collection is dropped into the middle of affairs without a map and before they know it they’re lurching into yet another crossover as this volume concludes with a cliffhanger.

Towards the end of the book there is a change of pace with a self-contained chapter looking back at an incident prior to Stewart’s Green Lantern career when he was a marine. The downside is that it’s a heavy-handed allegory reflecting elements of trust, power and responsibility that Stewart’s now facing as a member of the Green Lantern Corps.

Unfortunately the art only further reduces the lacklustre material. An enticing J.G. Jones cover conceals primary pencil artist Bernard Chang. He’s competent, but his layouts are bland or dull, and it’s a relief to see Sean Chen, and even the army of pencillers responsible for the interlude story.

It’s difficult to give any recommendation to a book that only provides 75% of the story.