What They Say:
Dark Matter – The entire Green Lantern Corps tries to defeat Aya before she erases all organic life.
The Review:
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers)
With an amusing twist wherein the Anti-Monitor returned to the scene, albeit just his head, we got to see a different take on him and how it ended up forcing Hal and the others to protect him from Aya since he was the tool she needed to go back in time and wipe out all existence. It goes big and grand here to be sure, but it’s also kept small and personal because of the characters and the struggle they have in wanting to make sure that Aya is saved. But as they see the scale of events unfolding before them, even Razer is now coming grips with the reality that she simply has to be taken out, even with all that they’ve learned about her and how alive she truly is. Which, of course, may be the saving grace.
The alive factor in her is something that Hal realizes may still be struggling to find a way within what Aya has become. His guilt has him checking her path of destruction and realizing that she’s destroyed dozens of star systems, but there’s been an immense amount of destruction within uninhabited systems where there’s no life. This gives him an angle to work with, but it’s a dangerous one as he brings the idea to Salaak in the midst of a massive war front that’s opened up as Aya is close to getting her machines working. It’s pretty big in scale and with dozens upon dozens of Lanterns fighting the numerous Manhunters and their ships, but there’s enough personalities involved on the Corps side that we get a good bit of character as well.
Aya’s plans are definitely ones that are familiar to comics fans, and getting a visualization here where she opens a door in time to the origin of the universe, bringing Hal with her to have him bear witness to the end of organic life before she snuffs him out. Visually, it’s pretty nicely done with some little tweaks that gives you a glimpse into an even larger universe of sorts that in itself could be fascinating to explore. But it does try to keep it at a certain level of understanding and it focuses on bringing Razer in to be the right kind of wedge to draw Aya bck from what she’s intent on doing. It comes down to pleading in different ways with her to try and get her to stop, which is a nice balance to all the carnage on the outside where the two sides fight it out.
Considering where everything can go here, it’s surprising but welcome that the true victory is not done through fighting, slugging it out, but rather though the inability to do what’s needed as that turns the tide. And even that moment is just part of a larger battle that must be fought when it comes to the Manhunters themselves, which Aya in her darkened form truly took advantage of for her goals. Sacrifice is made quickly, emotions run deep and there’s such a grand power to the words and the emotions of the moment to make it very, very engaging. The culmination of the series in this manner, bringing Razer to where he is and even pushing Hal to the background for some of the key parts of it speaks to a truly solid ensemble work that has hit fantastic notes over and over.
In Summary:
Green Lantern: The Animated Series ends on a note of hope, much in the way many fans hope that there is more of this out there in some way, much like what Razer is set to do. This episode is focused pretty evenly on action and character material as it brings to conclusion the story of the core three individuals, but it really does come down to story of Razer and Aya and that is probably one of the best twists that the series has done overall. I was leery of this series prior to its airing just a bit because of the animation style, but it’s suited it perfectly for what they wanted to do here. As I’ve said in earlier reviews and elsewhere, this series has been one of the best science fiction shows on TV in the last few years and the only one in far too many years that actually features people on a spaceship dealing with other worlds. I’m a huge fan of the Green Lantern mythos and this is the best representation of the intent and meaning of the characters, the rings and the property as a whole outside of those comics. The loss of this series is something that’s really unwelcome because it’s managed to do something very, very special here. All I hope for now is that Warner Bros. treats it right now and gives us a quality home video release.
Grade: A
