Good and evil converge on OA for a chance at ultimate power! All ring-clad hands on deck for this review of Green Lantern #17.
Green Lantern #17
Written by: Jeremy Adams
Art and Main Cover by: Xermánico
Variant Covers: Chris Samnee, Simone Di Meo, Leslie “Leirix” Li
Page Count: 32 pages
Release Date: November 13, 2024
The explosive space opera returns in full force, with fresh helpings of alien politics, magic wielders, and world-ending stakes. The Green Lantern saga reaches critical mass right now!
For John Stewart and Hal Jordan, it’s a race to save their friends on OA before the council of Durlan totalitarians gets there first. Hot on their heels is the living planet Mogo–turned destructive Red Lantern. Meanwhile, Guy Gardner holds down the fort as Varron, a phantom imbued with the power of the Revenant Queen, seeks control of a new, more dangerous weapon: The Source Ring, capable of tapping into the spectrum that flows through all Lanterns. For the uninitiated, trust me, that’s bad news!
They say heroes are only as compelling as their villains. Well, the Green Lantern Corps is up against a boatload of baddies, each more powerful than the last! All of them–Varron, Thaaros, the Durlans, The All-Seeing, Mogo, and even Sinestro–work for their own agenda, some overlapping in selfish power grabs, which makes the nature of this story feel more akin to Game of Thrones than anything else.
If you’re wondering how six villains can share one issue, especially with twice as many titular Green Lanterns, you’ve landed on this reviewer’s Monopoly Boardwalk. After long imploring DC to move on from tangential tie-ins and get back to the action (ahem), I’ve been given just what I asked for. Yet, in making up for lost time, this single 32-page book feels majorly compressed; there’s so much delightful action and so many momentous reveals, that my only complaint becomes wishing there was more time to bask in it! What series writer Jeremy Adams has accomplished in one issue, impressively, could (and perhaps should) have been spread between two. Nonetheless, we’re back on the road and giving it full gas, and too much of a good thing ain’t a bad problem to have.
Lastly, as if it hasn’t been said enough, Xermánico’s artwork is increasingly top-notch–one of the absolute best artists on the roster. One panel after another, the issue is filled with stellar imagery, particularly highlighted by the glowing colors of Romulo Fajardo Jr. Every flip of the page boasts a new palette as the story jumps from battle to battle, unifying these fights in sequence but letting them stand on their own in gravity.
Final Thoughts
Gorgeous, exciting, effective–DC’s newest branding umbrella ALL IN is an apt descriptor for Green Lantern. The characters are all in, the creators are all in, and so am I.
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