By Cat Wyatt

We’re nearing the conclusion to the Ghosts of the Past plot, and man have things gotten pretty intense. Jess is trapped inside her own memories, courtesy of Singularity Jain; Simon is trying to get inside to rescue her; and the rest of the Justice League are waiting outside and probably wishing they could do more to help.

This issue starts out with a brief flashback. It’s really more of a friendly reminder that Jess and Simon are still being forced to power up together, as they’ve had to do ever since Hal merged their two lanterns. I had actually forgotten this bit (in my defense it’s been a long time since that happened!) so I’m grateful for the reminder. It also made me realize how major this is; if Simon can’t get Jess out of this he theoretically can’t recharge his ring. At least not until he contacted Hal and got him to come home and help out. I mean, I know that’s not even the worst of what could happen here (the whole Jess getting trapped bit is pretty awful) but it just made me realize there’s more than I thought on the line here. I’m sure they were also showing us how these two work as a team, mainly because they were forced to do so. Likely they were hinting at the relationship subtext again, which I’m fine with just ignoring for the moment. Either it’ll happen or it won’t.

Back to Jess’ memory; aka the Green Realm, Jess has gotten her power back and is hunting the killers, rather than letting them hunt her. Remember, once she sees their faces she’s meant to accept the consequences of whatever happens next. Originally I had feared that it meant that Jess knew the men, but now, the more I think about it? I think Jain meant that Jess would have to accept herself after all of this – accept any willingness she had to hunt these men down and kill them.

I believe Simon had the same fear, which is why he busted his butt to get there in time. Something he successfully did…but it was a very near thing (there was a construct over where the men should have been – it was a giant pair of pliers…I’m sure you can imagine what the intention had been here).

Meanwhile things are going a bit crazy outside of the not-black hole mess. The black hole disappeared, which actually seemed like a good thing at first. You know, until Singularity Jain broke loose and sort of…ate…the entire Justice League. I wish I was kidding. Apparently whatever boost/meal she got from Jess was enough to allow her to do this.

It should be noted that Constantine and Jess’ sister (Sara) managed to escape becoming a feast. I originally thought this was because of blind luck (where they were versus where everyone else was or something) but Constantine seems to think different. Sara is very content with who she is, while Constantine probably wouldn’t be terribly appetizing to somebody like Jain, so I guess that all makes sense.

Meanwhile Simon is still trying to talk Jess out of looking at the men’s faces. He’s convinced that seeing them would break her somehow; that if she had seen/remembered them the first time around she’d never have become a Green Lantern or his partner. I’m not entirely sure this is fair; he’s basically saying her faith in humanity would be so broken by this that she’d never get over it. I don’t know how seeing the killers would be any worse for her than never knowing who did it…but then again I’m never been in that situation, so I’m not exactly an expert.

While hiding out (in Jess’ room, I’d like to point out) Constantine spots her Green Lantern ring (I guess she wasn’t wearing it when her deal with Jain took effect). Something in that ring made him realize something… The fact that Constantine saw something he could identify gives us a pretty good idea of what we’re dealing with; Constantine does have a certain specialty after all.

Jess does end up seeing the men…but she doesn’t kill them. To Simon’s credit I’m pretty sure she would have if he hadn’t been talking her out of it that whole time. He helped her remember to hang onto the good parts of her past, instead of the bad. And that is why they make a good team.

Meanwhile the Justice League are all living their own worst nightmares. You could probably guess all these points, if you really felt inclined to do so. A hand (I’m betting Constantine) reaches in to free everyone, which isn’t good news to Jain.

Jess is the last one to free herself from Jain, and I think that’s because she wanted to give Jain…well let’s call it a parting gift. There is one thing I’d really like to point out about this moment – the second Jess is back on earth her ring literally yells her name (I can only assume out of excitement) and rushes to her. This is kind of cute, but I’m sure others would find it worrying. Certainly the Guardians wouldn’t like it…

Another interesting issue. I’m glad we finally know what happened to Jess, and that she was even able to get some sort of resolution out of it. I like that the hero of the day (Simon, in this case) was able to save the day by talking instead of fighting. It’s an interesting twist on things. I’m both worried and anxious to see what happens next with this plot; it’s not fully wrapped up yet and there’s one issue to go, so I guess we’ll see.   

Score: 4/5

Green Lanterns #47
DC Comics