“Ruff Ryders”
Creative Staff:
Story: Morgan Hampton, Jeremy Adams
Art: Fernando Pasarin, Oclair Albert
Colors: Arif Prianto
Letterer: Dave Sharpe
What They Say:
The Sorrow Lantern and his fractal soldiers are on the march—and Razerand Kilowog will need to use all their willpower to escape alive! Meanwhile, the fate of Thanagar is revealed after being cracked in two during the Civil Corps storyline…but what mystery lies at the center? All this, plus John and Hawkwoman fight for their lives aboard Atrocitus’s ship—It’s a Red Lantern pirate adventure across the galaxy!
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.
With this issue, it feels like a lot of big things happen quickly, and they do, and it’s so close to capturing the right level of importance of it. The face-off with Atrocitus brings out how things went bad for him and the Red Lanterns by discovering that it was the UP Lanterns that destroyed their power source, leading to most of the Red Lanterns dying because of how they’re connected to it. Atrocitus naturally holds a grudge against every Green Lantern for it even though it wasn’t them that did this. So John is trying to mitigate this and slow down what Atrocitus is doing, but calming a Red LAntern who has lost almost all of his people just isn’t going to happen. What helps is pivoting to a new problem because while his main focus was getting Nth metal in order manage their powers, it’s becoming something else now. That massive core of metal from within the remains of Thanagar actually turns out to be the god Horus within and he’s just hatched.
That’s its own action sequence, but I really liked that it’s provided an obvious new way to bring back Thanagar in some form as Horus, having talked with Shayera after things settle down, is intent on doing right by his people and will find a new world. It’s a huge thing that feels like it’s a small part of this seemingly small book. The other key important moment is Shayera working with Atrocitus to save Zilius after the ship is attacked by Horus as it proves to remind her of the importance of being a hero. She’s been on a streak of violence since her world was ripped apart and struggling to work alongside John and his optimism. But he’s stayed true to who he is and that has finally brought back who Shayera usually is and allows her to work to help and be better. Not that Atrocitus really cares as the Reds will always been consumed by fear and rage, but it’s something that unfolds well to set something new for the future and basically put a few other storylines into a safe spot for a while.
In Summary:
While I would have expected this storyline to run for another couple of issues, a lot of things are wrapped up quickly here and I appreciate that. It comes at a cost of it not seeming like the importance of the moment is really felt, but the epilogue with Shayera and John together does help with it to some degree. The action is solid throughout, the artwork is fantastic, and exploring how the Red Lanterns coped with things when their power source was attacked and destroyed makes for a really good subplot. Seeing everything about the Red Lanterns here, and how Atrocitus does step up to save Zilius, is pretty engaging as I’ve long enjoyed this weird little branch of the Lantern tree. It’s a strong issue overall that moves at a brisk pace and has a good epilogue to it.
Grade: B+
Age Rating: 13+
Released By: DC Comics
Release Date: April 9th, 2025
MSRP: $3.99
