Green Lantern #20 Review

Green Lantern #20

Written by: Geoff Johns

Art by: Doug Mahnke

With Green Lantern #20, Geoff Johns delivered the final installment in the great Hal Jordan Epic. His contribution to the Green Lantern mythos is unmatched, and this issue was an incredible achievement in comics as it drew upon years of writing, and encapsulated the thematic importance and spectacle of Green Lantern. The callbacks to Nekron and Parallax didn’t feel forced, but rather, felt absolutely necessary in this grand conclusion.

The choice to bookend the story with a futuristic perspective was bold, but perfectly captured the historical significance of this run. Besides Emerald Twilight, nothing else conspired prior to Geoff Johns, matches the scope of what Hal Jordan has endured since 2005. Having said that, the choice to include the futures of the Green Lanterns of Earth is one that I am not sure about, as I don’t like to see characters like Hal, Kyle, John, Guy and Simon restricted to the future Johns has contrived. Regardless, it was still heartfelt.

The threat of Volthoom was not one that I was as intrigued by, compared to the events of Blackest Night, but it was the sacrifices made by Hal and Sinestro in this issue that captured the scope of the threat. Hal and Sinestro’s relationship is one of the most complex relationships in comics, and Johns gave us the closest amount of closure on their dynamic, without jeopardizing the loveable ambiguity of their friendship. This story gave us the answer to what two men do when they have nothing to live for – forge their own destiny by persevering with will power or manipulating their fears.

The art team, led by Doug Mahnke, produced career-defining work, and will be greatly missed as the architects of the Green Lantern Corps. From the colours to the mood to the sheer design, the art managed to shape Wrath of The First Lantern into a space opera of epic proportions.

Green Lantern #20 is a remarkable conclusion to the Brightest Days the Corps has ever seen. Over the course of a decade, Geoff Johns managed to strip the Green Lantern Mythos to its roots, and built upon it one of the strongest franchises DC holds. Without throwing away characters like Kyle Rayner, Johns created a place for each aspect of the Corps, without convoluting the franchise.

And in his greatest accomplishment, Johns told the definitive Sinestro story – a man driven by loss, who has such a devotion to the Corps, that he is willing to oppose it, to keep it alive. Thanks Geoff, for 9 incredible years of storytelling.

Score: 9.8/10