Contrived Danger
The Star Sapphires just don't have a lot of strong scenes in this issue, a lot of weak writing in their segments drag this issue down. We begin with the entire Central Violet Battery weakening, like the Green Central Battery in the foreshadowing scene from GL #21. And what's their first thought? "We need the Predator back in the Lantern!" Haven't we been down this road before? Carol proved to them that that's not what truly powers the Lantern. Why are they back to the same logic? And then there's a bit with Fatality, the scene foreshadowed by the cover, but it's so obvious. They try to make a temporary cliffhanger by switching to a different scene right after she stabs 'John,' BUT THAT OTHER SCENE IS ABOUT JOHN DOING STUFF ELSEWHERE. So it's painfully obvious she stabbed one of the SHAPESHIFTING ENEMY ALIENS. It was a weak and utterly pathetic attempt at forced tension that failed all around.
Despite me wanting to see more independence in the Lantern books after years at Geoff Johns' beck and call, this crossover is shaping up very nicely. Events are recapped without being excessive on exposition, and the flow of side stories from one title to another flows very smoothly. This issue jumps right onto the end of GL #22 as a connection point, and there's a bit with The Entities towards the end that I think is meant to pick up in New Guardians. I feel like it's ok to read each individually, but the experience of reading them all is excellent right now.
We continue to get to see a bit more than just John, mostly it's his set of new recruits. It's mostly Jruk that shines this time, but the rest get their own little moments to shine. Having them tagalong with out main protagonist lends credence to the Corps in the title.
As much as I like the general flow of events in the connected story, I feel that Van Jensen relies too much on the random Ring Shortages compared to Venditti. Venditti does it just enough to remind you that it's a thing, but Van Jensen whips it out every time he needs a fight to have more tension, and it's pretty obvious. It's like, "Hey, a something! BETTER MAKE THEIR RINGS SHORT OUT." It feels a bit lazy.
In Conclusion: 3.5/5
This issue had a lot of weak attempts to force tension without real effort or creativity. But it had a lot of nice character work and overall story and world building. The art's really nice, it's fairly simple, but it works incredibly well.
