“New World Rising”
Creative Staff:
Story: Morgan Hampton, Jeremy Adams
Art: Fernando Pasarin, Oclair Albert
Colors: Arif Prianto
Letterer: Dave Sharpe
What They Say:
The corps is back! And just in time. Join the newly formed Green Lantern Corps as they head out into the galaxy in order to stop the Sorrow and his master from creating a power battery. Joined by new heroes, the Green Lantern Corps promises to explore the diverse and exciting world of the DC cosmos!
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers):
With a lot of Green Lantern reading over the years, one book I’ve always enjoyed is when we get a Green Lantern Corps series since it allows the exploration of an interesting cast of characters that are generally more space-based than Earth-focused. This series has regular Green Lantern writer Jeremy Adams working with Morgan Hampton on it which should ease some continuity issues as well. The artwork has some familiar names with Fernando Pasarin and Oclair Albert working on it while the ever-talented Arif Prianto brings it to life with the color design. A little more continuity mixes in as well with Dave Sharpe on the lettering so it has a good cohesive feeling with the ongoing main book as well.
The thrust of this book is to introduce the range of characters we have, at least in brief, and one of the central problems that the Corps faces at this point. With Sector 2814 now open again after recent events, a lot of things are going on in the spacelanes and the already reduced Corps is struggling to keep up with it. We see some of the trafficking going on at the start that John Stewart and others take care of and just how busy things are on Oa with sentients being put in the sicencells for eventual trials. Most of those captured go to local districts to deal with but the leaders and powered folks get to go to Oa for safekeeping. Which is amusing considering some of the things we see playing out in the background here, notably with Guy and a sentient he’s trying to detain. It’s a lot of noise and fury as they deal with Kanjar Ro and put him in holding but it hits that kind of classic busy police station vibe well.
The main threat that’s being faced, and overwhelming Jess as she takes on the leadership role, is that with The Sorrow out there attempting to build his own power battery, there’s a lot of fracturing going on with sentients that are turning into ticking time bombs of emotion. While there’s a plan to go after the things he needs to create such a thing, John is intent on joining that but gets sent to Tamaron instead to deal with a fear outburst there – with Sinestro assigned with him. There’s some good dialogue and narration reminding us of how Sinestro was once the greatest of them all and has been all over the map for decades, so watching John’s wariness and respect for him here is certainly fun as they deal with the outbreak – and find a new recruit. Similar to the opening, there’s a lot of noise here with fear constructs and all, but the winning material is seeing how Sinestro handles the person creating it and how he gets her to understand some level of control over it in a way that could only come from him and his experience.
In Summary:
While the book sets up things for John to deal with next on Thanagar, this is a somewhat complete story issue in that the initial case is dealt with quickly and easily overall. There are a lot of things that are setting the stage for the series, such as Jess being overwhelmed, Simon trying to help, some interesting stuff with Ellie and her Keli construct, but mostly it’s to show how John is handling things and how Sinestro is going to figure into it all. It’s got room to move to be sure as we’ve seen with many Corps books before but right now it’s just throwing so much out there and so far that it’s kind of overwhelming in that it doesn’t take any time to breathe or just exist. Once we get some of that we’ll start to see what kind of handle the writers have on it. It’s definitely pretty to look out with some great layouts and a very easy-to-read flow to it all.
Grade: B
Age Rating: 13+
Released By: DC Comics
Release Date: February 12th, 2025
MSRP: $3.99
