By Cat Wyatt

It may have only been two weeks since the last issue of Green Lanterns released, but with what has been going on lately it feels like longer. Last we saw of our Green Lantern corps was not good. The Elops were being eradicated, a Guardian had been murdered, Hal was missing, and John had been seriously wounded. On the bright side, things couldn’t possibly get any worse, right?

Yeah, even in reviews that probably isn’t a good thing to say. Things can always get worse, especially in the world of superheroes. The mysterious force that’s been affecting the Green Lantern rings? It’s actually inside the rings. Yes, it really is that bad. It seems to like Simon’s ring at the moment, but odds are good that it was once in John’s ring as well.

Back to the present though; most of the Green Lantern forces have arrived in an attempt to help save Penelops. It’s too late for most of the people – they’re down to ten percent of the population, if not less. Many would give up with those odds, but naturally not the Green Lanterns.

And like they don’t have enough going on – the corruption in the rings is making everything so so much harder on them. Simon isn’t getting the reports and orders of everyone else. Meanwhile Jess’ ring is warning her to be careful of Simon. It’s hard to tell if her ring is corrupted as well, or legitimately trying to take care of her here. Unfortunately without knowing more information it’s hard to guess.

Things aren’t going much better on Mogo. John is still in critical condition – a heartbreaking sight to see. More than that though, the Guardians can’t connect or interact with the lantern. That means that they can’t give orders, summon help, or anything else. Things have officially gotten worse than expected.

On the bright side, it turns out that Hal wasn’t missing, per se, more like on a sabbatical. To be fair, he went through a lot with the Darkstars, so he totally earned the break. Also, while he is vacationing he isn’t totally unaware of the world around him. For example, he takes note of the final garbled message Guy sent out.

Obviously you can see what Hal did next. It probably goes without saying that Hal’s timing was impeccable, as always. He arrived just as the fight was truly getting bad for the Green Lantern Corps. It helps that he has a history with the Ravegers, the ones attacking. He can tell that something more is going on here, but at least his support and knowledge is a huge boost to the corps.

His reaction to learning about Pnelops loss though…that was a rough one to see. Hal isn’t the type that handles the loss of any corps member well, but it’s clear that he felt extra fond of poor Penelops – the rage on his face makes that pretty obvious.

The corruption in Simon’s ring is really making things worse, at least for Simon. It has him convinced that the entire corps can’t be trusted, and that he must go off on a secret mission. Him ignoring orders and rushing off…looks really bad in the eyes of the corps, especially with Killowog and Guy. Hopefully Jess can help bridge the gap here.

We still don’t know much about the corruption happening in the rings. All we know is that it can cut off the Guardians from the force, change/block communications between rings, and that it wants to get to earth. Why is it always earth they want to get to? Anyway, that isn’t much to go off of, but it still clearly isn’t good. Hopefully we learn more about it and its motives next issue, as implied.

This has been an intriguing plot so far. There are only so many forces and entities that can affect the Green Lantern force like this, so it’s been interesting to see this one, even if it has been kicking ass and taking names at the same time.

Score: 4/5

Green Lanterns #52
DC Comics