In this review of Green Lantern Corps #20, as the Corps look to have some much needed downtime in separate locations, they find danger waiting on them.
GREEN LANTERN CORPS #20
Writer: MORGAN HAMPTON
Artists: FERNANDO PASARÍN, JUAN JOSÉ RYP
Main Cover: TRAVIS MERCER
Variant Covers: JORGE FORNÉS, RIAN GONZALES, JAHNOY LINDSAY
Page Count: 32 pages
Release Date: 9/9/2026
This review contains spoilers
I have been following Green Lantern Corps in earnest since Morgan Hampton took over the solo writing duties from the team-up he had with Jeremy Adams. Since then, he’s presented a story the has taken the respective Corps of the emotional spectrum backwards and forwards on new OA and beyond. Travis Mercer’s cover for Green Lantern Corps #20 would make one think that the team was due for some time off. Of course, this would be wrong.
Green Lantern Corps #20 begins on Zillaboq, a city floating on the back of a giant tardigrade. Jo Mullein is trying to get a drink, but has no luck as she is refused service. She quickly is accosted by the Darkstars (under the name Spacecorps) who declare that they have jurisdiction on Zillaboq. Before Jo can power up, she’s taken out and carried away.
The second part of Green Lantern Corps #20 takes us to Earth, where John and Katma are seeking their own form of much-needed downtime. Their date moves from Ma Stewart’s grave to taking a walk down the Riverwalk for Coney Island hot dogs. But Katma isn’t all there emotionally, stating she sometimes feels like a dead weight. She asks to try on John’s Green Lantern ring. But the moment the Oan ring touches her finger, a dormant Darkstar suppression program embedded within her cybernetic leg violently triggers, encasing her in living armor and forcibly launching her into space while a panicked John gives chase!
In yet a third subplot, on Oa, Kilowog and Sinestro are sparring with each other to test the limits of their new Chrome Lantern powers, which seems unlimited. As they watch, Jessica and Guy searches the Book of Oa Predator, the emotional entity for the Star Sapphires. The Book directs Guy to the Phamosa Jungle in Zarin, another region of Oa. Once there, he falls through quicksand into the subterranean Cave of the Deceased.
To cap things off with another subplot story (or is it a part of the first), Simon Baz, Teen Lantern, and Ellie track Jo’s offline ring signal to Zillaboq, where they encounter the same Darkstars who clashed with Jo earlier in the issue. While they are fighting, the Darkstar Exo-Mantle containing Katma zips past them, followed by a pursuing John Stewart.
Green Lantern Corps #20 ends back on Oa. As Guy searches the Cave of the Deceased, he discovers rows of pods containing mutilated beings. But that’s not all he finds. He also finds an oversized, almost mutated Predator. Predator claims that no one, including Guy, can get in the way on the “The Arrival”.
One of the things that I have given Morgan Hampton credit for in his entire run on Green Lantern Corps has been his ability to tell so many stories within an issue. So might complain about this, and in titles like Batman or Superman that argument might be justified. But for a story such as this, where there are so many important characters in one book, it would be a crime to not mention them at some point. Add to the fact that the entirety of the Emotional Spectrum (sans the Star Sapphires) all reside on the same planet, along with refugees from Thanagar, and it would be a crime not to.
Hampton, on the other hand, has done a masterful job in finding balance to give multiple characters and multiple storylines a small piece of the Oan sunlight in each issue. And while doing so he has kept this Guy Gardner fan happy by keeping focus on the Allsight. One issue after the Chrome Lanterns came into being, I thought Guy’s role might begin to diminish. Yet, this doesn’t seem to be the case as he finds himself face to face with the missing entity of the Star Sapphires.
Art for Green Lantern Corps #20 was covered by two artists in series regular Fernando Pasarín, who appears to cover the stories on Oa and Earth, and Juan José Ryp, who tackled the space stories around and on Zillaboq. It’s not difficult for me to prefer Pasarin’s work here as he’s been doing a masterful job on the series. However, Ryp does a decent job of his own. At times, the styles can be truly similar between the art styles. However that’s not necessarily true here. Not saying this is a competition, but for Green Lantern Corps #20, Parasín gets the win.
Final Thoughts
What’s next for John, Katma, and the rest of the Green Lantern Corps remains to be seen as they battle Spacecorp across Zillaboq and beyond. Hampton and the artistic team continue to tell a great story while weaving through the different stories and personalities of the entirety of the new Chrome Lantern Corps. How will John save Katma from the Darkstars? How can the Green Lanterns save Jo? Will Predator eats Guy to prevent him for warning of “The Arrival”? Wherever the answers lay, Green Lantern Corps #20 continues to proves that it is a title that deserves to be on your reading list.
