It’s always the end of the universe at stake with the Green Lantern Corps these days. The new creative regime on the GL books has crafted a new twist – the threat to the universe this time is the GLC itself, and that warning comes from a giant old guy who saw them destroy the prior one.
“Lights Out” is the name of the outer space event that’s unfolding while Earthfolk deal with the Crime Syndicate in Forever Evil. As we’ve established in Relic #1, there is a finite amount of power in the emotional spectrum – the bedrock that grants the various Lanterns their powers – and once that well runs dry, the universe explodes and reforms itself to replenish it. That exploding part is bad, and thus, the aforementioned giant old guy named Relic is out to put a stop to all the “lightsmithing” before it happens all over again. He survived the end of the last universe, and thus, his mission is to save existence by destroying all the ringslingers.
This is an interesting development, because it’s rare that a “bad guy” is fueled by this much righteousness, and the good guys we’ve come to know are actually the jackholes who are ruining everything by clinging to their fantasy power – and it’s even easier to turn on our heroes when their leader is a dingus like Hal Jordan. Green Lantern #24 is the first chapter in “Lights Out,” and it brings Relic to Oa to destroy the Central Power Battery that’s long fueled the GLC, just as he destroyed the Blue Lanterns previously. Kyle Rayner, Carol Ferris and the New Guardians pop back to Oa in time to warn them, and inform them of Relic’s claims, but Jordan chooses not to believe and fights back. To no avail.
Sure, writer Robert Venditti is crafting a very obvious allegory for humanity’s own tendency to abuse its environment to the point of nearing self-extinction, but it’s compelling nonetheless because it’s going to force a sea change in the nuts and bolts of Magic Wish Ring Adventures. Will they find some renewable version of spectrum energy in order to continue doing fancy space light shows for us in the future? Probably. The thrill is in the journey. How exactly will they do it? Will Larfleeze’s apparent ability to become an Orange Power Battery himself over in his book factor into things, or is that book just the one corner of the DC New 52niverse that’s allowed to be its own thing as a goof around fun zone that doesn’t connect to the larger happenings? Will the other Lantern Corps have much more energy in reserve since they haven’t been slinging as long as the GLC has, and thus make for a stronger fight against Relic? Probably not, as all the ‘entities’ that embody the powers are sick and dying together.
Hopefully, it won’t turn out that Relic is lying and he’s some bargain-basement evil light-stealer, because that would immediately render Venditti’s story useless. He’s doing some interesting things right now by knocking the self-appointed police force of the universe down a few pegs, and showing us what unbridled, misguided self-confidence like Jordan’s actually looks like in the face of a tidal wave of sheer wrong. Hal Jordan is the House Republicans. They don’t know the meaning of the word ‘surrender’ (and many other easily-defined words, for that matter), so they’ll destroy themselves rather than admit mistakes. If Venditti makes them right after all, all impact is lost.
Billy Tan continues to do a great job of making Relic seem incredibly imposing and impressive – not an easy feat for a brand new character with a three-pronged head. He’s cool and collected, and Venditti has him visiting each of the groups of little people who are killing the universe and calmly asking them to give up their precious little power games. It makes them all look kind of silly and sad, and you start wondering whether or not it would really be so bad if they all just stopped and went back to their home planets and sold real estate. Rare is the superhero comic that makes us actually kind of want our superheroes to quit.
“Lights Out” is off to an interesting start with plenty of potential. Let’s see where it goes.
