Review of Green Lantern #15

“I have been sent here on the gravest of missions.”

***Contains Spoilers***

Simon Baz does not seem to be able to catch a break. It reminds me off the battle of Minas Tirith in Lord of the Rings. You know, how the humans are outnumbered by the orcs, but the the riders of Rohan arrive. But then Theoden is killed. Then the Witch King is killed and the humans are on the upswing again, then the black fleet arrives and they think all is lost, but it turns out that it was Aragorn. It is just the constant good news/bad news thing. He is arrested for being a terrorist, then he gets a Green Lantern Ring. Now he discovers who was really behind the bomb and even proves it to a federal agent, but then his ring runs out of power and the Third Army shows up.

The Third Army is in full swing. Entire planets have fallen to them. However for some reason not Earth. Every issue someone mentions that they are spreading fast. So far the only people able to hold their own against them are the Red Lanterns. The Guardians mention that “great spans of peace are spreading across the universe.” The Third Army started on Earth back in Green Lantern Annual #1. The Guardians sent the original guy out to spread across the universe(he has been busy spreading the Third Army across the universe(which is a pretty big place, the biggest actual place) and they told the first convert to spread the Army on Earth. I would have expected the exponential conversion rate to take the Earth(or at least cause world wide panic) by now. One guy converts another, those two convert two more, those four convert four more and so on. A few of them could hit a NFL game and have an instant army.

So, now Hal and Sinestro know they are in the Dead Zone(what ever that is). They do not know the raggedy man that wants them to follow him. Saying he is a friend of Hal and an enemy of Sinestro doesn’t really narrow it down too much. He is someone dead, but who knows who is alive or dead in the New 52?

We finally get an idea of who the First Lantern is. His name is Volthoom. Sound familiar? Yes? No? Well, if you ever read much anything with Power Ring it might. Power Ring was an Earth-2 or 3(depending on the continuity) villain. He was basically a Green Lantern from the alternate reality where all the heroes were bad guys. Volthoom was the name of a mad monk that Power Ring got his ring from. It was also hinted that Volthoom was like the anti Starheart(where Old DCU Alan Scott got his powers). Basically, this does’t tell us much since, so far, Power Ring doesn’t exist in the New 52. Regardless the First Lantern is extremely powerful and now his cell is cracked. Aside from the lack of Third Army progress on Earth I thought this was a great issue.