Review: Green Lantern/New Gods- Godhead
Quick Summary
Pros: The main narrative is decently exciting and interesting. The conclusion is fun and has plenty of great moments.
Cons: Many narrative elements conflict with one another and weaken the deeper messaging the narrative attempts to create. Some pieces of the story seem illogical and go unexplained. The event fits poorly into the DC Universe and into Green Lantern lore.
Overall: This is an event that offers moments of fun and excitement but doesn’t offer much else. The main narrative depicts a war between powerful forces that leads to an engaging conclusion. However, problems with contradictory plot points, logical failings, and general inconsistencies with other comics severely damage the greater appeal of the comic. This is mostly a book for fans looking for an action-packed clash between powerful cosmic forces, not fans looking for a revolutionary or meaningful Green Lantern epic.
Story
Green Lantern/New Gods: Godhead (Reading Order), by Robert Venditti, Van Jensen, Justin Jordan, Charles Soule, and Cullen Bunn, is an unfortunately lackluster event. At its core, this comic has a compelling narrative with decent levels of excitement to go alongside it. The war stretching through the event is tense and the conclusion is well-written. However, there are problems with storytelling consistency and logic that undermine large pieces of the narrative. The event, as a whole, also feels too similar to the recent Rise of the Third Army (Review) (Reading Order) event and feels like an inauthentic presentation of concepts behind the New Gods. These problems seriously damage the overall appeal of this comic and make it hard to enjoy it on anything deeper than a surface level read.
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On the positive side of things, Godhead contains a decently captivating narrative that is fun to follow along with. It starts with some skirmishes between the Lanterns and New Gods that are neat to see play out. Then, it evolves as Highfather betrays Kyle and reveals the sinister purpose behind his plan. Finally, it erupts into an all-out war that requires creative thinking and dedication from the heroes in order to save the day. Watching the tides shift as the sides in this war get an edge on each other makes the narrative fun and is what kept me interested in reading as I progressed through the book.
In addition, Godhead‘s conclusion manages to be the most exciting portion of the read. I was genuinely thrilled when I realized what Black Hand’s tampering with the Source Wall would do and was equally thrilled when the captured beings were actually released. This leads to an awesome final showdown on New Genesis that has all the drama one would expect. Plus, Saint Walker’s return to the Blue Lantern Corps works as an excellent end to his story and the volume’s conclusion.
Unfortunately, this fun and exciting narrative is hampered by a number of problems the whole way through. Many events in the book are contradictory and weaken the impact of this crossover. In some chapters, Highfather seems logical and is only doing what is necessary to stop Darkseid; in other he seems like a megalomaniacal dictator. In some chapters, a single New God can overpower dozens of Green Lanterns; in others an unarmed Green Lantern is able to take down a New God. There is even a chapter where Highfather is told he is acting like Darkseid and remains unfazed but is shaken to his core when hearing this same statement later on. Each of the contradictions undermine the impact of a moment and make it harder to get on board with any deeper messaging the narrative attempts to come up with.
There are also places where the logic of the book falters. The New Gods are portrayed as all-knowing yet have little to no knowledge of the Green Lantern Corps, one of the largest single groups in this universe. It is also never explained why the Green Lanterns don’t simply give Mogo another Green Lantern Ring, since their rings are typically interchangeable. This introduces additional frustrations in an already troubled story.
Many pieces of Godhead‘s narrative also have an unfortunate problem in that they fit poorly into the greater DC Universe. For one, Highfather’s decision to maintain peace by turning his subjects into mindless zombies is far too similar to the premise behind the recent Rise of the Third Army (Review) (Reading Order) event, which saw the Guardians of the Universe doing the same thing. As these events are not far from each other in Green Lantern lore, so they make for a conflicting pair. In addition, the powers of the Life Equation end up being almost exactly the same as the powers of the Anti-Life Equation. This damages the balance between these two forces and robs the Life Equation of some of its earlier meaning. These problems may not impact newer readers but will likely bother readers who have more experience with the DC Universe.
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Art
The artwork in Godhead experiences several ups and downs that prevent it from standing out as anything significantly positive or negative. As a crossover, the artwork throughout this event comes from a variety of places and ends up containing a range of quality. Some chapters, like those from Ethan Van Sciver and Billy Tan, look great. They present detailed work that is structured in a way that assists the storytelling. However, the majority of the book’s chapters just end up looking more mediocre. Plus, jumping from visual style to visual style every chapter makes for a less pleasant reading experience. In the end, this mix of positives and negatives mostly evens out and leads to a book with visuals that are just alright.
Continuity
Green Lantern/New Gods: Godhead is a crossover event that combines storylines from the New 52 Green Lantern, Green Lantern Corps, Green Lantern: New Guardians, and Red Lanterns series. However, it mostly relies on plot points started in the Green Lantern: Lights Out (Reading Order) event.
For more information about how this event plays out see our “Green Lantern/New Gods: Godhead Reading Order“.
The story here continues on in each series participating in the crossover. This means it is continued in issues collected in Green Lantern Vol. 6: The Life Equation (Review), Green Lantern Corps Vol. 6: Reckoning (Review), Green Lantern: New Guardians Vol. 6: Storming the Gates (Review), Red Lanterns Vol. 6: Forged in Blood (Review), and Sinestro Vol. 2: Sacrifice (Review). In some ways, this event, as a whole, could also be teasing Justice League: Darkseid War (Review) (Reading Order).
This volume also references other comic books, detailed below:
- The Green Lantern: Lights Out (Reading Order) event is mentioned a number of times throughout this volume. This event depicted Relic’s mission, the Source Wall breach, Saint Walker’s loss of hope, Mogo taking over as the new Oa, and the “death” of Kyle Rayner.
- Earth’s victory over Darkseid’s invasion is mentioned a few times. This is a reference to the events of Justice League: Origin (Review) (From the Comics).
- Kyle Rayner became a White Lantern in Green Lantern: New Guardians #16, collected in Green Lantern: New Guardians Vol. 3: Love & Death (Review).
- Sinestro has been collecting refugees from Korugar over the course of the New 52 Sinestro series, starting with Sinestro Vol. 1: The Demon Within (Review).
- Sinestro’s comment about “always being friends” comes from the conclusion of the Green Lantern: Wrath of the First Lantern (Review) (Reading Order) event.
- The Green Lanterns’ recent war is mentioned. This war is detailed across the “Uprising” issues collected in Green Lantern Vol. 5: Test of Wills (Review) or Green Lantern Corps Vol. 5: Uprising (Review). The conclusion to this war also explains the recent problems John has been experiencing with Fatality.
- Guy Gardner was a part of the Justice League International (Reading Order) across Justice League International Vol. 1: The Signal Masters (Review) and Justice League International Vol. 2: Breakdowns (Review).
- Guy’s recent trials with the Red Lanterns are shown. These trials are detailed across Red Lanterns Vol. 4: Blood Brothers (Review) and Red Lanterns Vol. 5: Atrocities (Review).
- Simon Baz fought Cyborg in Kahndaq back at the beginning of the Trinity War (Review) (Reading Order) event.
- Simon was involved with the New 52 version of the JLA (Reading Order) throughout much of the Justice League of America Vol. 3 series, starting in Justice League of America Vol. 1: World’s Most Dangerous (Review).
- Kyle Rayner’s girlfriend died in Green Lantern Vol. 3 #54, collected in Green Lantern: Kyle Rayner Vol. 1.