Robert Venditti is ending his epic run on Hal Jordan and the Green Lantern Corps with one last arc that starts in issue #48, and it’s going to be packed with action and emotion.
Long runs with one character and one title are the exception rather than the rule these days with comic book creators. That’s why it’s a little strange to think that Robert Venditti soon won’t be writing Hal Jordan and the Green Lantern Corps any more, since he’s been with the book since it’s beginning — quite literally, since he’s been at the helm since issue #1 went on sale in July of 2016.
Venditti is moving on to other projects, including fixing Hawkman, and the series itself is coming to an end with issue 50. But he and his art team of Jordi Tarragona and Rafa Sandoval aren’t leaving quietly, as issue #48 begins the final showdown between the seemingly unstoppable Darkstars and the Green Lantern Corps.
It’s a war not only with massive GLC-style space battles, but also for the hearts and minds of the universe when it comes to interstellar law enforcement. The Darkstars believe in their roles as self-appointed judges, juries and executioners, and they aren’t shy about using all of their power to convince everyone else that criminals should be put out of commission permanently.
Naturally, Green Lanterns Hal Jordan, John Stewart, Guy Gardner and Kyle Rayner are at the forefront of the Corps’ battle to prove otherwise, and despite the fact that Green Lanterns have been authorized to use lethal force for some time, they’re going to have to win this fight without resorting to the ultimate sanction. The no-kill order comes from a somewhat surprising source in Stewart, the Marine sharpshooter, but Venditti told FanSided that the decision felt right to him.
“I really just felt like that’s the decision that he would make in this moment,” Venditti said. “I felt like it was true to the character that as leader of the Corps, he would sort of draw that line as a way to offer a stark contrast between who the Green Lantern Corps is and how they enforce the law versus what the Darkstars represent.
“For John, it isn’t just about winning a battle, it’s about winning that battle of philosophies as well.”
That’s not to say that the physical confrontation won’t be a struggle in and of itself. With the Darkstars attacking the main Green Lantern Corps base on Mogo, Stewart has assembled an oddball team that includes not only his three closest colleagues but also General Zod, Orion, Arkillo of the Sinestro Corps and Hector Hammond. Ever the strategist, Stewart has specific roles in mind for each of them that only begin to come into focus in the first part of this final arc.
“We’re starting to see the pieces of this plan John Stewart has that’s going to continue to be revealed,” Venditti said. “It’s not just that they went out and got a bunch of guys to help them out. There’s a reason why they got the guys that they got. There’s a reason why it’s Zod, there’s a reason why it’s Hector Hammond. As we continue to read the story, we’re going to see more information there, and you’ll see exactly the kind of role that Hector Hammond has to play.”
Hammond gets paired off in amusing fashion in issue 48, continuing his storyline of idol worship when it comes to Jordan. One gets the sense that he’s genuinely trying to help, but his immense powers — which have only increased during Venditti’s Green Lantern Corps run — mean he can’t simply be trusted to play his part.
Yet there’s an important dynamic at play when it comes to Hammond, who is something of a symbol for what the Corps is trying to accomplish by standing firm against the Darkstars.
“In a lot of ways, Hector Hammond sort of proves the Green Lantern Corps’ point,” Venditti said. ” He was this villain, but now he wants to be a hero, and he’s seen, particularly in this case, Hal, and has come to sort of idolize him in a sense. He wants to be the hero that Hal Jordan is. The problem with Hector Hammond is he’s so immensely powerful, he has these telepathic abilities and this ability to do just about anything that he wants to, that its almost made him sort of detached. So he doesn’t really have that governor that Hal would have.”
If that wasn’t enough, Hal also has unresolved feelings about Tomar-Tu, the former Green Lantern turned Darkstar. In issue 48, Tomar-Tu is matched up against Kilowog in a fun scene that clearly outlines the stakes of the overall conflict for anyone who is just jumping onto the book to see how it all ends.
Still, Tomar-Tu’s current outlook resonates most strongly with Jordan, who Venditti says feels some guilt over what the son of Tomar-Re has become. His motivation is easy to understand since his own father was killed by a criminal who wasn’t rehabilitated, but one gets the feeling that he still will have a final showdown with Hal before all’s said and done.
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When the end arrives in just a few short issues, it’s bound to be quite the spectacle. Venditti has spoken before about not wanting to tread the same ground that Geoff Johns and others did before him when it comes to mythology and universe-building. As he tells it, his goal was always to connect Hal Jordan and the Green Lantern Corps to the wider DCU, and it’s hard to argue the series hasn’t been successful in that effort.
More than that, though, Venditti hopes that his lengthy, unusual-by-current-standards run is remembered for telling the story of four heroes from different backgrounds who truly are stronger together than they are as individuals.
“I think that’s a good story to tell with these characters,” he said. “Everybody has their favorite. You’ve got your Hal fans, you’ve got your John fans, you’ve got your Guy fans, you’ve got your Kyle fans. My hope would be that people who read this series and went into it as a fan of one ended up becoming a fan of all of them. In the same way that all of the characters have an admiration for each other, the fans would leave this series all having an admiration for all four of these Lanterns.”
Hal Jordan and the Green Lantern Corps #48 is on sale now wherever you get your new comics, and the current arc and series wrap up in #50, which will hit stores and digital on Aug. 8.