“The Life and Death of Erastus the Blacksmith”
Creative Staff:
Story: Jeremy Adams
Art: Jack Herbert
Colors: Romulo Fajardo Jr.
Letterer: Dave Sharpe
What They Say:
In an attempt to stop the Sorrow from creating a Central Power Battery, Hal runs across an alien infected with red energy which threatens his life, all while Kyle and his team must retrieve a piece of SOURCE energy from one of the most dangerous and mysterious places in the universe – THE SOURCE WALL!
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers):
Green Lantern continues to be a favorite of mine going back decades but I haven’t read much since the Flashpoint reboot over a decade ago. I’ve enjoyed the character in a bunch of the non-continuity books over the years and have decades of prior reading of Hal and most of the gang. This series has Jeremy Adams stepping in to guide Hal to a new place in the DCU and it’s my first time reading their work, which they handle well here. With a pretty solid run of artists across the series so far, this installment brings us someone new to handle this particular tale with Jack Herbert. There’s a good dynamic look to the action here, the designs are great, and with the color work from Fajardo Jr, it delivers a solid experience without overdoing the green.
The main plot with Hal is a decent one even if it’s going to feel more like a side story as it focuses on him handling someone else that has spiked on the emotional spectrum. The blacksmith Erastus is the focus as we see from before the event where he is basically having the worst of times in his life in so many ways and that made his rage come out in a huge way, giving him the Red Lantern abilities. That led to a lot of chaos that brought Hal here to bring it down to reality but Erastus doesn’t have the tools to manage his willpower and get it under control. I can appreciate the way Hal creatively uses his powers as we’ve always seen, but considering the number of bodies around him and the way that it seems more and more like it’s going to have a bad end, him doing himself up in Roman warrior outfits and the like just had a bad tone about it, making it seem like he’s not taking it seriously even as the red rage is pounding him pretty hard. It’s a kind of bleak story.
A bit more interesting but still kind of, well, not problematic but just weirdly goofy in a way that I don’t think worked, we get Kyle, Conner, and Odyssey at the Source Wall initially waiting for Hal before going into the structure itself to secure the item they’re after. There’s some mildly amusing at best material with Kyle playing an Indiana Jones vibe to it that I don’t think really works, but the dynamic between the trio os certainly fun, especially with Conner just setting off all the traps since none of them can hurt him. The dialogue and interactions are where the fun is and I definitely want to know more about ODyssey than I do right now since there’s a fun vibe about them. Plus, time at the Source Wall which is always weird and kind of surreal. But once again, it feels like the Corps just does the work of the bad guys since they secure the item just as Sorry and Starbreaker show up to take it.
In Summary:
There’s enough entertaining and interesting material here to make it worthwhile but some of the vibes are just off for me in the nature of the stories and the cavalier use of power through goofy manifestations. I know it’s always a part of things but it’s a matter of the right time and right place in some ways and this just felt like it missed the mark. I’m definitely more interested in Kyle and his group with what they’re doing and we get a lot more of Erastus’ story than I think we needed to since it’s a one-and-done kind of thing with a bleak ending no matter how much you know about him. I’d be more curious to see other forms of the spectrum being spiked at the moment but it’s no surprised that the rage of red is what’s dominating. It’s got a good look and is a solid read overall but just let me feeling like it missed the mark a bit.
Grade: B
Age Rating: 13+
Released By: DC Comics
Release Date: February 26th, 2025
MSRP: $4.99
