Status
Available
Call number
Genres
Collection
Publication
DC Comics (2021), 312 pages
Description
"For the past six months, newly chosen Green Lantern Sojourner "Jo" Mullein has been protecting the City Enduring, a massive metropolis of 20 billion people. The city has maintained peace for over 500 years by stripping its citizens of their ability to feel. As a result, violent crime is virtually unheard of, and murder is nonexistent. But that's all about to change in this new graphic novel that gives a DC's Young Animal spin to the legacy of the Green Lanterns!"--
User reviews
LibraryThing member villemezbrown
I feel weird about this book because I like so many aspects of it and yet page by page I just found myself a bit too bored.
Sojourner Mullein is a cool Green Lantern: a Black American veteran of the conflict in Afghanistan, a Princeton graduate, a former police officer who broke the code of silence,
She has a unique Green Lantern ring that slowly recharges constantly instead of getting an instant power-up from a lantern. But its properties aren't really explored, just exploited for melodrama as it always seems on the verge of running out of power.
She has a fear of flying. But only because that slows her down for plot purposes so she can't get places too quickly when pursuing leads or bad guys.
The City Enduring seems like an interesting setting, reminding me a bit of the Green Lantern: Mosaic world John Stewart once watched over. But the three alien races here all look so human that telling them apart is rather difficult despite how different they are supposed to be: dragon-like, plant-based, and artificial intelligence. It's a bit hazy, but their raging rivalries have managed to destroy their homeworld, and they now live together in an artificial environment peacefully only thanks to a emotion-suppressing something or other. But that something can be overridden by the new street drug sweeping through the populace.
The story is ostensibly a murder mystery, but one dead body soon leads Mullein into a morass of political corruption, police brutality, drug abuse, black markets, slavery, voter suppression, and military coups. I would have loved to see the story dig into any or all of these topics, but the plot just breezes by them as it skitters from one to the next on the way to the next action scene.
I liked the funny little recaps at the start of chapters that paid homage to iconic sci-fi movies and shows like The Matrix, Star Trek, and Aliens. But they seemed a little out of place with the rest of the book and were only used sporadically.
The art by Jamal Campbell is incredibly gorgeous panel by panel. But I had trouble getting an idea for the layout of the setting. And the aliens all looked very similar within and between the species. In action scenes, I often had trouble making out what was happening or what Mullein's various ring constructs were actually supposed to be. I think a big part of the problem was the color scheme for the alien world which somehow managed to be simultaneously Day-Glo bright and murky dark. It was like I was under the blankets straining to read a book made from slowly fading glow-in-the-dark stickers.
Frankly, this is one of the best done books I haven't liked in quite a while.
Sojourner Mullein is a cool Green Lantern: a Black American veteran of the conflict in Afghanistan, a Princeton graduate, a former police officer who broke the code of silence,
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LGBTQIA+ and sex positive. But we are given the barest of information of her life in Brooklyn on Earth in the tiniest and sparsest of flashbacks, as we are dropped with her into a planetary-sized city in the farthest reaches of space. She has a unique Green Lantern ring that slowly recharges constantly instead of getting an instant power-up from a lantern. But its properties aren't really explored, just exploited for melodrama as it always seems on the verge of running out of power.
She has a fear of flying. But only because that slows her down for plot purposes so she can't get places too quickly when pursuing leads or bad guys.
The City Enduring seems like an interesting setting, reminding me a bit of the Green Lantern: Mosaic world John Stewart once watched over. But the three alien races here all look so human that telling them apart is rather difficult despite how different they are supposed to be: dragon-like, plant-based, and artificial intelligence. It's a bit hazy, but their raging rivalries have managed to destroy their homeworld, and they now live together in an artificial environment peacefully only thanks to a emotion-suppressing something or other. But that something can be overridden by the new street drug sweeping through the populace.
The story is ostensibly a murder mystery, but one dead body soon leads Mullein into a morass of political corruption, police brutality, drug abuse, black markets, slavery, voter suppression, and military coups. I would have loved to see the story dig into any or all of these topics, but the plot just breezes by them as it skitters from one to the next on the way to the next action scene.
I liked the funny little recaps at the start of chapters that paid homage to iconic sci-fi movies and shows like The Matrix, Star Trek, and Aliens. But they seemed a little out of place with the rest of the book and were only used sporadically.
The art by Jamal Campbell is incredibly gorgeous panel by panel. But I had trouble getting an idea for the layout of the setting. And the aliens all looked very similar within and between the species. In action scenes, I often had trouble making out what was happening or what Mullein's various ring constructs were actually supposed to be. I think a big part of the problem was the color scheme for the alien world which somehow managed to be simultaneously Day-Glo bright and murky dark. It was like I was under the blankets straining to read a book made from slowly fading glow-in-the-dark stickers.
Frankly, this is one of the best done books I haven't liked in quite a while.
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LibraryThing member Stevil2001
This Green Lantern spin-off comic focuses on Sojourner "Jo" Mullein, a new Green Lantern from Earth (how many are there now?) sent to the most distant sector in the universe, home to the City Enduring, a massive Dyson swarm for through species whose two home planets were destroyed. Aside from a
There's some neat worldbuilding and some good thematic and character elements, though I felt the latter weren't foregrounded quite as much as I'd like; this is very much an action/adventure/mystery/thriller comic first, and a political and philosophical one second, though it has elements of that. That said, it's very much a success as an action/adventure/mystery/thriller comic. Nice art, good design sense, neat covers, fun dialogue, decent twists, some nice narrative devices. I don't think you would guess that Jemisin was a first-time (I think?) comics writer. Not the kind of work that will stick with you forever, but solid-tier superhero comics that's worth spending time on.
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single Green Lantern and a single Guardian of the Universe, there's no preexisting DC elements here; the whole thing takes place in a new setting with new characters.There's some neat worldbuilding and some good thematic and character elements, though I felt the latter weren't foregrounded quite as much as I'd like; this is very much an action/adventure/mystery/thriller comic first, and a political and philosophical one second, though it has elements of that. That said, it's very much a success as an action/adventure/mystery/thriller comic. Nice art, good design sense, neat covers, fun dialogue, decent twists, some nice narrative devices. I don't think you would guess that Jemisin was a first-time (I think?) comics writer. Not the kind of work that will stick with you forever, but solid-tier superhero comics that's worth spending time on.
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LibraryThing member LibrarianRyan
Green Lantern goes someplace it’s never been before to the far sector. Our green lantern is new with a new type of experimental ring that she has been sent to the far sector of the universe is to help solve a murder and bring peace to 20 billion people. I went into this graphic novel with no
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realization it was going to be a Green Lantern story. Green Lantern was not a superhero. I grew up with and unfortunately only really have the Ryan Reynolds version to remind myself off and we all know how bad that sucked. But with MK Jennifer Hudson at the helm, this book is entertaining exciting and has a really quirky but thought-provoking concept and storyline. The story grabs your attention and keeps you flipping pages until the very end. No wonder it won a Hugo award. It deserved it. Show Less
LibraryThing member fionaanne
It took me a while to get into it; world building is great, characters are marvellous and the plot was interesting. The artwork was solid but I was puzzled occasionally by action sequences (that’s probably a me thing).
Awards
Hugo Award (Nominee — Graphic Story — 2022)
Ignyte Award (Shortlist — 2021)
Penn GSE's Best Books for Young Readers (Selection — Graphic Novels — 2021)
Language
Original language
English
Original publication date
2020-2021
Physical description
312 p.; 10.12 inches
ISBN
1779512058 / 9781779512055