• Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
FanFiAddict

FanFiAddict

A gaggle of nerds talking about Fantasy, Science Fiction, and everything in-between. They also occasionally write reviews about said books. 2x Stabby Award-Nominated and home to the Stabby Award-Winning TBRCon.

  • Home
  • About
    • Reviewers
    • Review Policy
    • Stance on AI
    • Contact
    • Friends of FFA
  • Blog
    • Reviews
      • Children’s / Middle Grade Books
      • Comics / Graphic Novels
      • Fantasy
        • Alt History
        • Epic Fantasy
        • Fairy Tales
        • Grimdark
        • Heroic Fantasy
        • LitRPG
        • Paranormal Fantasy
        • Romantic Fantasy
        • Steampunk
        • Superheroes
        • Sword and Sorcery
        • Urban Fantasy
      • Fear For All
        • Demons
        • Ghosts
        • Gothic
        • Lovecraftian
        • Monsters
        • Occult
        • Psychological
        • Slasher
        • Vampires
        • Werewolves
        • Witches
        • Zombies
      • Fiction
      • Science Fiction
        • Aliens
        • Artificial Intelligence
        • Alt History
        • Cyberpunk
        • Dystopian
        • Hard SciFi
        • Mechs/Robots
        • Military SF
        • Space Opera
        • Steampunk
        • Time Travel
      • Thriller
    • Neurodivergence in Fiction
    • Interviews
      • Book Tube
      • Authorly Writing Advice
  • SFF Addicts
    • SFF Addicts Clips
    • SFF Addicts (Episode Archive)
  • TBRCon
    • TBRCon2025
    • TBRCon2024
    • TBRCon2023
    • TBRCon2022
  • FFA Book Club
  • FFA TBR Toppers
    • Advertise Your Book on FFA!
  • Writer Resources
    • Artists
    • Cartographers
    • Editing/Formatting/Proofing

Review: Absolute Green Lantern #1

April 9, 2025 by Darby Harn Leave a Comment

Synopsis:

Without the Corps… without the ring… without the willpower, what’s left is the Absolute Green Lantern!

Review:

Absolute Green Lantern #1 rounds out the second wave in DC’s grand new experiment and continues the winning streak. The ingredients of the classic Green Lantern story are there – Hal Jordan receives a cosmic boon from a strange alien – but the results this time are far less space opera and more cosmic horror.

Al Ewing’s story begins with a startling mystery, with an exhausted, haunted Jordan wandering through the desert. That mystery quickly escalates into outright horror when a police officer pulls up behind him.

Rating: /10

With six books on the shelves now, the Absolute DC playbook seems to be to turn the typical hero origin story inside out. Absolute Batman #1 gave us a working-class Dark Knight as opposed to a rich one; Absolute Wonder Woman #1 makes Diana a witch raised in Hell as opposed to a princess on Themiscyra. Ewing makes Jordan the villain as much as he is the victim here, though how and why is unclear.

The Green Lantern mythos may be fundamentally different in this new universe; it seems to be, given the few context clues. A ring may not be involved, and there may be an inherent duality to the power granted, if it was granted at all. A new hero, Jo, takes the Green Lantern role at the issue’s end, though we know little about her. Her power source appears to be a lantern-shaped necklace. The mystery works in favor of the story, as do the horror elements (a roadside diner becomes the scene of such incomprehensible terror it’s mostly implied).

Jordan is carrying around – well, it looks like Venom goo – in his jacket pocket. The issue leaves it a mystery, but he picked it up trying to help when an alien arrived in Evergreen and mysteriously caused the death of a biker. A dark symbol represents what he’s concealing – a black hole, possibly – and it creates an instant duality between light and darkness, good and evil, complicated by Jordan’s inability to control the power he’s stumbled upon.

Ewing has done terrific work the last few years, most notably the Eisner Award-nominated run on The Immortal Hulk. Horror played a key role there, too, and if that book is any indication, things are going to get rough for Jordan and company. Ewing added significantly to the Hulk mythos during that run, and it’s plain to see from this first issue that he’s going to do the same for Green Lantern as well.

Jahnoy Lindsay’s art is a little rough at first. The lines are so thin and pointed as to appear manga-inspired, but then, as you get into the book, his facility with different faces and bodies comes through. The color work might overwhelm the thinness of his line at times, but overall, the art style is unique.

Absolute Green Lantern #1 is a bold departure from typical Green Lantern lore, though one with tragic echoes. Hal Jordan infamously turned evil in the early 90s, killing all the Green Lanterns and paving the way for Kyle Rayner (and sadly, the Fridging Trope). So far, it’s uncertain if Ewing is playing off that story at all, but it certainly seems that Hal Jordan is in for another dark turn in this comic.

Filed Under: Reviews, Superheroes Tagged With: Comic Book Review, DC Comics, Science Fiction

About Darby Harn

Darby Harn is the author of Stargun Messenger, a Self Published Science Fiction Contest Quarterfinalist, and Ever The Hero, which Publisher’s Weekly called an “entertaining debut that uses superpowers as a metaphor to delve into class politics in an alternate America.” His fiction appears in Strange Horizons, Interzone, Shimmer, and other venues.

Other Reviews You Might Like

Review R.U.R (Graphic Novel) adapted by Kateřina Čupová

Review: After the Pink Moon by E. Reyes

Everybody Wants to Rule the World Except Me by Django Wexler

Review: Everybody Wants to Rule the World Except Me (Dark Lord Davi #2) by Django Wexler

Reader Interactions

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Primary Sidebar

Sponsored By

Use Discount Code FANFI For 5% Off!

FFA Newsletter!

Sign up for updates and get FREE stories from Michael R. Fletcher and Richard Ford!

What Would You Like To See?(Required)
Please select the type of content you want to receive from FanFi Addict. You can even mix and match if you want!

FFA Author Hub

Read A.J. Calvin
Read Andy Peloquin
Read C.J. Daily
Read C.M. Caplan
Read D.A. Smith
Read DB Rook
Read Francisca Liliana
Read Frasier Armitage
Read Josh Hanson
Read Krystle Matar
Read M.J. Kuhn

Recent Reviews

Everybody Wants to Rule the World Except Me by Django Wexler

Recent Comments

  1. Mark Matthews on COVER REVEAL: To Those Willing to Drown by Mark MatthewsJanuary 7, 2025
  2. Basra Myeba on Worth reading Jack Reacher books by Lee Child?January 5, 2025
  3. Ali on Review: Sleeping Worlds Have No Memory by Yaroslav BarsukovJanuary 5, 2025
  4. Carter on So you want to start reading Warhammer 40,000? Here’s where to start!January 4, 2025
  5. M. Zaugg on Bender’s Best LitRPG reads of 2024January 3, 2025

Archive

Copyright © 2025 · Powered by ModFarm Sites · Log In