When we first saw the preview images for Absolute Green Lantern #1 featuring Jo Mullien (Green Lantern: Far Sector) we collectively experienced joy as well as trepidation.  We knew this book was about to get the full comics gate treatment.  The kind that always implies a hero of color isn’t “worthy.” Therefore the author will over compensate for perceived shortcomings thereby making a mess of things.   Even though each of these issues is a land mine, author Al Ewing manages to avoid most of them with compelling storytelling. 

Al Ewing provides Absolute Green Lantern with the grandeur and gravitas his name and reputation demands. He also injects the edgy tension the Absolute brand has come to represent. 

We open with an “elseworld” Hal Jordan, baked in desert heat, clearly in some kind of trouble.  Whatever it is it puts him in a precarious predicament with the law. 

As soon as the cop yelled “What’s in your pocket, sir” I heard a ref blow his whistle and throw a flag on the play. “Unwanted wokeness! Presumed police brutality.”

However, under further review we remember its Hal Jordan not John Stewart or some other Lantern of Color.  Carry on.

The story continues with foreboding dread as Hal Jordan terrorizes a small town in the middle of nowhere.  Which leads to another loaded exchange:  “What’s in your pocket, son?!  A knife, a gun?”

“No it’s the Black Hand!”  I swear there’s a Jordan Peele joke brewing.  Is Ewing trolling me?  

Anyway, Jahnoy Lindsay does a good job illustrating the most violent and dramatic scenes.  In some ways his manga style heightens the sense of panic and subtle comedic undertones with his wide eyed panicked expressions.  Other times, the character designs seem two-dimensional.  I’m looking forward to more dynamic action sequences as this series progresses.

It’s at this point I realize I haven’t seen hide nor hair of our hero Jo Mullein.  Aside from an impromptu crime scene breakdown, we do not see her in action in this book at all.

I assume this whole story will set up a more appropriate introduction of our hero.  Great villains make for great heroes as they say.  What’s disappointing is I don’t get to enjoy seeing our Green Lantern in action like previous Absolute heroes.

Although the Absolute series is a reboot of classic DC origin stories, each retelling features a hero well versed in their abilities and overall mission.  Al Ewing, on the other hand, submits a story that does not showcase our hero at all.  A decision that deftly avoids any critique of her abilities.

Is this a ploy to diffuse DEI rhetoric? Possibly.  I’m willing to give Ewing the benefit of the doubt. However, he has a lot to prove with issue 2.

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