The season draws to a close in a big, big way.
What They Say:
Homecoming – Atrocitus and the Red Lanterns breach Oa.
The Review:
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers)
Events have not played out well for Hal and the others have tried to stop Atrocitus from being able to break through to Oan space. With Aya lost to them at the moment, now a controlled member of Atrocitus as they made it through after the Lighthouse incident, the show is splitting itself in what it needs to do. With Oa threatened in immediate form and a massive Red Lantern fleet getting ready to break through and run rampant. In order to deal with this, Hal and Razer are on their own mission so they can get back to Oa as quickly as possible while Kilowog is set to try and hold things off. All while Atrocitus manages to wrangle his way sneakily onto Oa itself, much to the shock of the Guardians.
The story split does work well, very well, as we see how things unfold on several fronts. Kilowog’s outright fight against the armada gives him an immense challenge to face since the fleet is significant and full of rage. On Oa, we get a very fun look at Atrocitus and his small crew make their way into the Guardian world and cause a lot of problems while the few that are there, mostly just Salaak, attempt to hold them off since most of the corps is already deployed. They get to show that they do have some defense though at least. But the really fun piece, the humanizing piece is how Hal manages to get back to Earth so he can quickly get to Oa to help. Bringing in the Star Sapphires makes sense, even if the cost that’s applied is kind of minimal and quickly dealt with overall.
Each of these stories comes full circle in its own way as well. For Kilowog, even with the odds, he doesn’t lost hope, and that brings in Saint Walker as the first Blue Lantern that helps to give Kilowog something to back up his power. Namely his own ring but also that of Mogo as the planet sized Green Lantern provides something really large scale to help stave off the fleet. For Hal, we get to see a really good sequence involving Carol that helps to cement their relationship a lot in a quick way but also brings him back to Oa so he can be the key Green Lantern that he is in a time of need, which should help to fix how things went when he left there for the Forgotten Zone with Kilowog against orders. Even Razar and Aya get one of the great, sweet moments here with little is said but much is understood.
In Summary:
Green Lantern: The Animated Series ends its first half of the season in a good way here, even as it deals with things quickly and wraps it all up. There’s a lot going on here and events move fast, but it also deals with a lot of character material along the way as opposed to just all out action. What we get is at last the end of the war and a sense of closure to the arc here rather than a cliffhanger, which is definitely appreciated. This show has completely blown away my expectations and has drawn in so many neat and fun characters that every week has been a thrill to watch. I wasn’t leery of the animation style for it, but they needed to sell it as one that really worked for this particular show. I don’t think it would work for a Justice League kind of show, but for this space based show, it’s perfect and should only get better the more they get used to it and add more detail and nuance. This was a real treat of a season and I can’t wait for more.
Grade: A-
