Adam Graham's Blog: Christians and Superheroes - Posts Tagged "anxiety"

Green Lanterns, Volume 1: Rage Planet by Sam Humphries

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


This is a very different sort of Superhero book. Ostensibly it's about a Red Lantern invasion of Earth with Earth's Fifth and Sixth Green Lanterns Simon Baz and Jessica Cruz having to defend Earth. Yet, our heroes have a problem.

Simon has a chip on his shoulder from being sent to Guantanamo though he was innocent. Even though he's relatively new to being a Green Lantern, he's really sure that he doesn't need Jessica. Jessica suffers from anxiety and has spent the past three years living in her own apartment, can't use her ring to make a construct, and isn't sure she's up to the job.

Admittedly, this book isn't for everyone. It's about the heroes fighting their own demons as much as it is fighting the Red Lantern core. Yet, I think writer Sam Humphries manages to balance the personal journeys of the characters with the action plot most of the time and the pay off in the final chapter of the story was worth the read to me. I liked how he worked in several nice little sub-plots that are resolved in this volume while leaving some larger questions for later exploration.

The emotional stuff can get a bit heavy, but I found myself liking and cheering for these characters, so even though it's not a typical comic book story, I really enjoyed it.



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