Overcoming Fear
Van Jensen is definitely making the effort to take this series closer to where it was before the New 52, especially before Brightest Day, back when Tomasi was first writing it before he transitioned to Emerald Warriors. Not only have we had a focus on more of the corps with the new recruits, Salaak, Kilowog, and Soranik Natu; but now he's bringing regulars like Iolande, Isamot, and Vath back into the fold. And Jensen's balancing the focus of the narrative with them all very well.
Tomasi basically forced John and Yrra together as part of his epilogue, and I always thought it felt very sudden and forced. But thankfully I'm not the only one who thinks so, as John himself is hesitant to say this is a full blossomed romance. It's even in his own words that it just sort of 'happened,' and while Fatality sees it as simple, John's not so sure that something so sudden like that is strong enough to be called true love.
While Jruk stole the spotlight last issue, ALL of this series' new recruits get their moments to shine this issue. It's almost a little too soon for such a bombastic heroic ind of moment, but it works well enough that I couldn't really fault it. It was nice to see the specialized talents of each of them as they fought as Green Lanterns alongside Stewart.
This issue has the most focus on the connected mystery story of the Green Lantern titles, and what we get a glimpse of in this issue is quite a doozy indeed. Something is going wrong with The Entities themselves, and it appears there could be a huge connection between the idea of Relic from an old universe, and this sense of rebirth going on. The main series plot with the various new reactions to the Corps is still carried on enough, and overall I think the two main focuses of this series are very well balanced.
In Conclusion: 5/5
Van Jensen's doing a great job at returning this series to the quality it had back in the original Tomasi era. Balancing connections to the larger story with little unique space adventures that don't need to span the cosmos in scale. That, and a great balancing of a larger section of the Green Lantern cast makes this probably the most well put together of the Lantern books currently.
