GREEN LANTERN #156

By: Tony Whitt
Review Date: Tuesday, December 03, 2002

Readers of GREEN LANTERN since Judd Winick took over may note a curious thing: it's not just about Kyle Rayner anymore. If any title deserved to have the word "family" added to the title (as in BATMAN FAMILY, SUPERMAN FAMILY, or even GREEN ARROW FAMILY), it's definitely this one. Take, for instance, this month's issue, which focuses completely on new GL of Earth John Stewart and only briefly mentions Kyle.

Disenchanted with humanity after the gay bashing of his friend, Kyle leaves Earth with Jade in tow, putting the newly mobile John Stewart back in the green saddle again. Ironic, then, that his latest mission would have made Kyle lose all hope for our race and chuck the ring for good, and even more ironic that he discovers that Fatality's reasons for telling him there was nothing wrong with his spine weren't entirely altruistic.

It's tremendously rewarding to see John back in action again after all this time, even if it's yet again as a "replacement" for the "real" Green Lantern. Even worse that the rest of the DCU probably won't even reflect the change - there's some frankly intriguing talk about the possibility of John taking over Kyle's seat in the JLA (presumably a nod to the animated series, where John is indeed the Green Lantern), but you and I both know that the only place we'll see John taking on the GL role is here. More's the pity, since it's the sort of change that makes these characters and their lives fresh and interesting.


And am I the only one who'd love to see Alan Scott spotlighted in this same way at some point? If this issue's going to focus on John and the next one's to focus on Jade, then surely Winick's "Green Lantern Family" approach can extend to the man who started it all. His appearance here, playing a chess game with John while discussing the sheer horror of what John's just witnessed, is a great scene and a defining moment in the issue. The scene between John and Fatality, in which she tells him her reasons for telling him he can walk, is equally arresting - it'll be a great shame if Winick and Co. don't take that plot strand to its logical conclusion. There has to be a death, and hopefully it won't be John's.

As usual, Eaglesham and Ramos do a splendid job of keeping the action moving and making the horror of what John finds that much more horrific. But after the excitement and controversy of the previous two issues, you'd be forgiven for feeling like this issue is a bit of station keeping, especially since John presumably isn't featured next issue. That's more a function of the DCU's unwillingness to accept radical change than it is a flaw of this title, though. Enjoy John while we have him.

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