Book Review: reen Lanterns Vol. 3: Polarity

Green Lanterns Vol. 3: Polarity by Sam Humphries

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


This book completes Issues 15-21 of Green Lanterns featuring Jessica Cruz and Simon Baz,

It kicks off with Issue 15, a one-shot story, "A Day in the Life," focusing on Jessica's struggle with anxiety. After the previous story arc, it'd be tempting to imagine that struggle was over and won, as was the case with the "Demon in the Bottle" storyline from Iron Man where Iron Man acknowledges and deals with his alcoholism in a single issue in a way that's supposed to be done.

Here, we get far more realism as she fights her anxiety every step of the day, and manages to save the day a couple of times while losing it at a surprising time. The way Simon deals with it is touching. It's one of the best one-shot comics I've read in a long time.

Issues 16 and 17 is a team up with Batman as they deal with people encountering a strange fear of Batman. The story spends an uncommon amount of time on Simon's gun and Batman's efforts to get him to give up the gun. There are mixed feelings on this. On one hand, there's something that shows insecurity when you have a Power Ring and feel you also need a gun (which he hasn't really had to use in the series,) even though Batman's phobias about guns is also not healthy although understandable. The story is mostly good though, with us even more sense that the Lanterns are growing in renown.

Issue 18 is another one-shot, this time focusing on Volthoom, the First Lantern and in which our heroes don't appear. I love Simon and Jessica, so any break from them isn't something I welcome. Still this isn't a bad issue about a villain who will no doubt make a return to the series.

Issues 19-21 have the Lanterns facing off against Doctor Polaris whose villainy is trying to cure his comatose brother. The situation brings back emotional memories for Simon and Jessica has to be the strong one. It shows us not just that Jessica needs Simon, but their partnership has mutual support. The story also sets the stage for the next big storyline as the Lanterns are propelled back into Space to finally deal with all of the craziness that's been going on in the Hal Jordan and Green Lanterns Corps book.

Overall, this is another great volume featuring one of the best duos to come out of DC Rebirth. Highly recommended.



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