Review: Green Lantern Corps Vol. 3- Willpower

Quick Summary

Pros: The action is intense and the drama is highly enjoyable. The high-stakes nature of the events makes everything more exciting. The focus on the main’s characters’ emotions and character development is handled well. The artwork looks good and improves the comic overall.

Cons: Nothing significant.

Overall: This is an excellent volume and a memorable chapter in this Green Lantern Corps series. It depicts several high-stakes battles that deal with intense bursts of action and thrilling brushes with defeat. Alongside this, it also dives into the characters’ personalities and histories to give them a chance to grow as individuals. The entire volume is a worthwhile adventure and an excellent way to continue the narrative of this comic series.

Story

Green Lantern Corps Vol. 3: Willpower, by Peter J. Tomasi, continues and even enhances the quality writing that has been present in this series since it began. This volume combines the actions of two separate Green Lantern events. This leads to high-stakes action where the events of the past two volumes pay off through awesome battles and a few epic moments. It also leads to some intense and some just plain wholesome emotions bursting through, as the comic’s main characters are put through the emotional ringer. The entire collection is a fun ride that feels rewarding all the way through.

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Willpower primarily focuses on the progression of the Rise of the Third Army and Wrath of the First Lantern events. This means that all the set-up from previous volumes, Guy’s promotion and demotion, the Guardians’ deception, and the vague threat of an evil plan, comes to fruition. Seeing this happen is immediately satisfying and leads to a ton of great action scenes. Then, things get even more intense as the First Lantern is introduced. His presence leads to even more action and drama.

Throughout all of this, there are several places where large chunks of this action and drama comes to a head. John’s work reassembling Mogo leads to Mogo protecting John and then going on to directly assault the volume’s big bad. Guy’s work alongside Simon, a new Green Lantern, directly leads to a crazy attack on the Guardians themselves. Finally, more minor plotlines involving more minor characters come to play at the end, when the entire universe seems to be fighting the First Lantern. These moments turn an already exciting narrative into the event this was meant to be.

Alongside all of the action-packed payoff in Willpower‘s narrative, there is also plenty of emotional payoff. Guy is forced to confront his family issues as he is reunited with them at his lowest moment. Then, he is forced to face a reality where his life played out differently, which causes him to consider how much his family really means to him. Finally, at the volume’s conclusion, he takes a well-deserved break from the Green Lantern Corps to spend some time with his family.

Meanwhile, John is forced to confront his past too, which has always threatened to sink him into depression. Within this volume, he is able to rise above his actions and even undo something that has been constantly on his mind, through the reassembly of Mogo. His new relationship with Yrra also indicates he has moved past his role in the destruction of her home world as well. In general, both of this volume’s main characters show a lot of development here, in a way that suits the high-stakes nature of this volume.

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Art

The art in Willpower continues the high-quality work of its predecessors. Fernando Pasarin crafts plenty of good-looking and well-structured pages that assist in telling this story. They make the characters look nice, allow the backgrounds to stand out as something creative, and ensure that emotions can come through at any moment.

However, where Willpower sets itself apart from its predecessors is through the use of several choice two-page spreads. These spreads pop up in key places, where a specific point needs to be made or where the emphasis of the moment needs to be more profound. It helps demonstrate a cornucopia of emotions at one point in time or just helps show how absolutely massive Mogo truly is. Though the two previous volumes utilized some great splash pages as well, in my opinion, this volume takes it to a new level.

Continuity

Green Lantern Corps Vol. 3: Willpower continues the story from Green Lantern Corps Vol. 2: Alpha War (Review). This volume also contains issues that form parts of the Green Lantern: Rise of the Third Army and Green Lantern: Wrath of the First Lantern crossover events and, thus, references the events of the issues it crosses over with. Our upcoming reading orders for these events will explain exactly how they cross over.

The story here continues in Green Lantern Corps Vol. 4: Rebuild. 

This volume also references other comic books, detailed below:

• Mogo was killed back in Green Lantern Corps #60, collected in War of the Green Lanterns. 
• Many references are made to the battle against Krona and the last climatic meeting of the separate Corps. This all took place in Green Lantern: War of the Green Lanterns.
• Guy Gardner’s time as a Red Lantern is a part of the Blackest Night event.
• Many pieces of Hal Jordan’s life are shown. These include:
  • His separation from Paralax in Green Lantern: Rebirth, part of Green Lantern by Geoff Johns Book One.
  • His battle against the Manhunters in Green Lantern Vol. 4 #12-13, collected in Green Lantern by Geoff Johns Book Two.
  • His fight against Sinestro and the Yellow Lanterns in Green Lantern: Sinestro Corps War.
  • His encounter with the Red Lanterns in Green Lantern: Rage of the Red Lanterns.
  • His encounter with Larfleeze in Green Lantern: Agent Orange.
  • The war against the dead in Blackest Night.