This week, a new kind of Green Lantern is coming onto the scene with Green Lantern: Dark #1. The 48-page extra-sized issue features a desolate Earth ruled by monsters where almost every hero is gone or dead. Save for one, of course, our title character. It’s a first issue steeped in darkness, with very little hope left alive.
Green Lantern: Dark #1 opens before our main story begins with a backstory on how the world went dark. We see the heroes fall into some kind of darkness and do what they can to save as many as possible. The world is now run by Grundy, who has plant-like control over the dead, and everyone lives in fear.
Writer Tate Brombal reveals that the story is told by a young girl named Lunette, who keeps folks filled with hope. She tells why they light lanterns to aid Green Lantern, who fights for them to reverse the apocalypse. The people are alive and well enough, especially considering how dire things are. However, her brother doesn’t believe in Green Lantern and is much less focused on hope and more on selfish survival.
Enter a threat that could kill them all!
The use of green in the dark is quite cool.
Credit: DC Comics
The action and story open up when Green Lantern does make herself known to the people, taking out an enemy and saving folks in a diner. She’s not quite the hero you would expect; however, she’s firstly annoyed that the monster ruined her beer. She’s a reluctant hero, to say the least, and has even less hope than Lunette.
The overall premise of this book is immediately intriguing. Imagine a world that’s nearly always dark, and the Green Lantern’s light is faint, but it may be the only thing that works against the monsters. Pair that with the reluctant hero, the younger main characters who need a hero to follow, and a townspeople now a target, and you have strong bones to build on. However, I’d argue the book is extra-sized since it does take a while to knock down all the storytelling dominoes.
The art by Werther Dell’Edera and color artist Giovanna Niro is breathtaking, maximizing the darkness in several ways. That goes for the horrific monsters that show up and also the overall vibe, as it’s truly haunting how dark it is in the town and throughout the book. It also allows the Green Lantern’s light to shine through epically.
The design of the Green Lantern is quite good. The dark cloak is reminiscent of the Wicked Witch of the West or witches in general. The light that shines on the chest is also very cool, and you can’t deny that the lantern staff and light go well with the overall aesthetic.
Some panels were confusing to make out on the reverse side of the art. For instance, the fight scene in the diner was hard to track, with characters diving and attacking. The camera placement between panels wasn’t always logical in the right place, forcing the reader to figure out where they were looking.
At the price point and page count, this is an easy addition to your buy pile. Green Lantern: Dark presents a world of hopelessness that needs the light of Green Lantern to survive. It’s incredibly moody, piercing your heart with hope like only Green Lantern can.
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