Absolute Green Lantern #12: Fight at the Speed of Love

Jo and the others continue their desperate battle against Hector Hammond and his Obsidian creature. As they make their way through the rubble of the building: old promises come to the light, Hal unlocks a new power, the Green Lantern returns to Earth, and a visitor from beyond the stars offers Jo a mission that could have consequences for the entire Absolute universe.

After a few issues of character work and universe expansion, Absolute Green Lantern brings back the action as the group are chased down by the Obsidian creature. The issue begins with the black void that has been speaking with us since the beginning of the story being angrily silenced by Hector Hammond. Hammond himself is allowed a little more depth in this issue, showing anger and even fear at points instead of his usual snark and arrogance.The fear comes when Chase points a gun at the face on Obsidian. Hammond, controlling the creature with the Mento helmet he took a few issues prior, sees this and freezes even though he is in no danger. It will be interesting to see how Ewing explores this trauma.The biggest event this issue however is Hal’s manifestation of the Violet Light. On Earth-Prime this is known as the light of love used by the Star Sapphires, but in the Absolute Universe the only known lights are Green, Red, Gold/Yellow, and Black. This becomes even more intriguing when you remember that in this universe Carol Ferris is Hammond’s assistant which carries its own weight as Hammond relentlessly pursued Carol to no avail on Earth-Prime. Seeing as how Carol and Hal have yet to meet in this universe, it begs the question as to if Hal’s new powers will have any affect on her. 

Al Ewing continues to excel at world building while also expanding on the depths of his characters. Outside of Hal and Hammond, our heroine Jo also gets some more worthwhile development instead of being mostly background like she was in the last issue; and while it’s Hal that ultimately frees Todd Rice from the clutches of Hammond, Jo still gets a couple of “Big Damn Hero” moments of her own. 

Sid Koitan joins Jahnoy Lindsay on art duties on this issue, and the two make a pretty good pair. The manifestation of the violet light is highlighted beautifully by Lindsay’s colors, and the flashback between Jo and Hal also looks good thanks to Koitan’s pencils. Lindsay has a tendency to make Hal’s hair a bit too “anime protagonist” spiky at times, but overall everyone is still recognizable, especially when the coolest character in the series, Tomar Re arrives to recruit Jo.