Review: Green Lanterns Vol. 9- Evil’s Might

Quick Summary

Pros: The main narrative has plenty of action and tells an exciting story. The artwork looks nice and helps add to the excitement.

Cons: The characters are written worse than before. The narrative is sloppy and works against itself in a few places. The entire volume contains weird contradictions to earlier volumes and works as a poor conclusion to the series.

Overall: The final volume in this series ends up being the most disappointing. Though the volume is exciting and filled with action, the story playing out alongside this action is decidedly lackluster. It is specifically bad if readers come into the volume after reading the rest of the series, as it serves as a poor conclusion to the comic’s run. This volume might be worthwhile for readers looking for an action-packed Green Lantern story to jump into but will likely be disappointing to fans of this series or the characters in it.

Story

After eight volumes that were either good or very good, the Green Lanterns series stumbles just as it is crossing the finish line. Green Lanterns Vol. 9: Evil’s Might, by Dan Jurgens, is easily the most disappointing volume in the series thus far. The main storyline focuses on an action-packed battle between powerful heroes and villain. However, outside of the action, the volume does not offer a lot. The charm and meaningful development typically surrounding these characters is gone and, in some places, is actively undone, there are places where subplots are built up to be important yet end up having little impact, and the whole volume contrasts uncomfortably with the rest of the series. In general, the book is good for a few moments of excitement but the levels of disappointment that go along with this excitement make it hard to recommend.

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The main positives in Evil’s Might come from the volume’s penchant for high-stakes action and engaging battles. The volume starts with a straightforward clash between a space armada and the Green Lanterns, teases a larger enemy in the background, moves on to a fight over the fate of a planet, and, finally, concludes with a showdown against one of DC’s most powerful villains wielding one of DC’s most powerful weapons. This allows every chapter to contain some sort of climactic clash, typically with intense results.

The problem is that, outside of this flashy action, there isn’t much to this volume. The charm typically radiating from Jessica and Simon is completely absent from the volume. There are moments where it seems like Jessica and Simon’s friendship or where Jessica’s relationship with her ring will help them overcome Cyborg Superman’s deception, yet nothing ever comes of either of these points. Even Hal’s showdown with Cyborg Superman, two characters with an intense history, only ends up producing a few decent lines. In general, the volume feels like a lot of flash but not much substance.

In fact, there are plenty of points where it feels like the narrative is working against itself. Cyborg Superman’s attack on the Green Lantern Corps makes little sense, as his plan to escape his prison was actually put in jeopardy by his strange manipulation of Simon. Then, Simon’s decision to pick up a gun again, which was depicted as a meaningful moment, only plays out by having him use it on a handful of pages. It feels like this volume’s narrative is constantly developing subplots only to have them fizzle off in lackluster fashion.

Evil’s Might also fits poorly in with the rest of this series and does not work well as a conclusion to this saga. The collection starts with Jessica enjoying herself in a packed dance club, when the previous volume showed her nervous in a shopping center. Then, it moves on to a story arc about the Green Lantern Corps thinking one of Earth’s Green Lanterns is a traitor, which was the premise of the most recent story arc. Then, it has Simon go against the development he made in the past by going back to wielding a gun. Finally, the volume closes by having Jessica randomly decide to fly off into space, which was not developed at all at any point in this volume or the rest of the series. All of this makes it harder to enjoy this volume as a fan of what was otherwise an enjoyable series.

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Art

The artwork in Evil’s Might is probably one of the collection’s most consistent strengths. Visuals from Mike Perkins and Marco Santucci focus on gritty aesthetics, heavy lines, and pages filled with little details. There is also a satisfying interplay between flashes of light/energy and the darkness of space, which is great to see in a book like this. All of these features help play up the storyline’s biggest asset, its penchant for action, and allows it to come across even better. The downside is that there are places where characters’ faces end up looking strange and where facial expressions do not come through as clean as they should. However, since this is a book focused more on dynamic battles than emotional exchanges, the artwork really suits it and makes for a better read.

Continuity

Green Lanterns Vol. 9: Evil’s Might continues the story from Green Lanterns Vol. 8: Ghosts of the Past (Review).

The Green Lanterns series ends with this volume and the story does not directly continue in a specific volume. However, Jessica Cruz’s adventures continue in the Justice League Odyssey series, starting with Justice League Odyssey Vol. 1: The Ghost Sector.

This volume also references other comic books, detailed below:

• Notes indicate that this volume takes place after the events of Hal Jordan and the Green Lantern Corps Vol. 7: Darkstars Rising (Review) but before the events of The Man of Steel.
• L’Call was last seen at the conclusion of Action Comics Vol. 3: Men of Steel (Review).
• Hal Jordan fought the Ravagers back in the “Green Lantern” stories from The Flash Vol. 1 #237-243.
• The Source Wall breach, from Justice League: No Justice (Review), is briefly mentioned.
• Cyborg Superman was imprisoned in Action Comics Vol. 5: Booster Shot.
• Cyborg Superman destroyed Coast City during the Reign of the Supermen story arc, specifically Superman Vol. 2 #80, collected in Superman: Reign of the Supermen.