By Cat Wyatt

Things have been pretty rough for our Green Lantern duo the past few hours. Jessica is reliving one of the worst memories of her life (and she’s doing so by choice, believe it or not), and Simon is trying to deal with the resulting black hole it created and his rescue mission (no way is he leaving his partner to go through this on her own).

Back in Jess’ memory, we see her, and her three friends are still on their hunting/camping trip. The scene starts moments before everything starts to go horribly wrong. While taking their kill back to camp (sorry to those of you that hate seeing/thinking about that sort of thing), they witness something that most of us hope to go our whole lives without ever seeing; criminals cleaning up their mess and getting rid of the evidence…in this case a body.

Meanwhile, the Justice League is still outside the black hole (we still haven’t been given a better name for what is actually going on there, so sorry about that). They seem to be getting pretty impatient, especially Superman. I actually appreciate this – not only is this thing a potential danger to everyone around (especially the civilians) but two of their own are inside that thing, and Simon has apparently stopped responding (probably because the last we saw of him he was getting attacked).

Cue the typical infighting that occurs whenever there’s a large gathering of superheroes. Superman wants to go inside the black hole thing, Constantine says he won’t be able to do so (at best, at worst it’ll somehow find a way to damage and/or kill him), and Batman thinks Constantine is pulling the wool over their eyes (because he’s not the paranoid sort at all…no…not at all).

Thankfully Simon responds before they actually resort to fighting, though if you ask me, that’s probably still on the horizon. All it will take is the smallest provocation at this point. So here’s hoping they can all focus on the job at hand…which is mostly providing moral support for Simon. Okay, yeah I can see why they’d have a tough time doing that.

Simon is facing a bunch of enemies inside the black hole. They appear to be opposite versions of many of the ring bearers we’ve seen in the series. There are a Jess, a cowardly Hal (though he uses a different last name), and tons of others. Most appear to be forming out of the trees and roots around, with some still showing the roots as body parts. This is super creepy, but also absolutely brilliant. The root theme ties in perfectly with the memory of witnessing a body being buried in the woods.

Meanwhile, back again in Jess’ memory; the four kids have made it back to their camp, but they’re not planning no staying long. Personally, I would have boogied right out of there and not stopped at camp. But Jess did a better job keeping it together than I feel like most people would have. She remembered something that I promise you I would not have (and it totally would have resulted in me getting tracked down by those killers); there’s plenty of stuff they brought with them that would allow the killers to identify them and find them later.

Granted, protecting themselves by grabbing those items won’t do them much good if the killers catch up with them...which obviously we know is exactly what happens (that’s the good part about this whole thing being set in the past, we have the advantage on our side).

Matteo was the first to go. He was just standing in their camp (listening and participating in the debate they were having; whether they should try and figure out who the killers are, allowing them to better report the crime), when he took a shot through the chest (though that may have been the exit wound – I’m not really sure).

Marc went next. He was running behind Jess and Jeannette. There’s a good chance he took a bullet intended for them. Jess wanted to stop and help him, but Jeannette kept dragging her forward, knowing any delay would cost them dearly.

Jeannette, who had been in front, pulled Jess along, was the last to get shot. Jess did linger with her. She couldn’t, wouldn’t, leave her best friend to die. But Jeannette didn’t want her best friend to die, she wanted her to run and get away from those monsters. So that’s what Jess did.

While Jess has been reliving this terror, Simon is slowly but surely getting closer and closer to her. Sure, it would be a lot easier for him to give up and wait for Jess to come back out; it seems like this setup wasn’t designed to take Jess’ life. In fact, if I’m correct in what is happening here the deal is that Jess will be fine, she just has to accept the truth of what happened (which makes me very scared that we’re going to know the killers…). But Simon would never do that.

Jess is counting on Simon to save her. Not from harm, because she’ll be fine. But to save her from becoming the monster she always had the potential to become. One so focused on revenge and payback that she loses sight of everything important to her. That is why Simon keeps pushing forward. He knows he has to reach Jess before that happens to her. That’s what partners are for.

This has been a really interesting plot so far. I’ll admit that while I was really (morbidly) curious about Jess’ past I didn’t expect it to be like that. For some reason I thought I had a good grasp on what happened, but her reliving the memory proved that there was still a way to surprise us readers, and man did they ever. If you think that you wouldn’t care seeing her friends (ones that were dead before the start of the series) die like that, then you’re in for a surprise. It turns out you don’t need to know them that well to fear for them, or to feel their pain. It was terrifyingly well done, especially considering the current social climate. I’m sure that was pointed.

Score: 4/5

Green Lanterns #46
DC Comics