Alan Scott: The Green Lantern #2: The Horrors of Humanity

Alan Scott: The Green Lantern #2 picks up with the mystery surrounding the dead body with connections to Alan’s past. Much of the issue takes place throughout Alan’s history, with an emphasis on his brief stint in Arkham Asylum, leading up to his origin story as The Green Lantern. While Alan Scott: The Green Lantern #1 focused a lot on society’s misconceptions and perceptions of the LGBTQ+ community, as well as Alan’s fear of public persecution, this issue sees those fears come to light. 

Tim Sheridan’s script hauntingly brings to light a lot of realism with the pseudoscience and bigotry involved in Alan’s attempts to reconcile with the loss of his partner. These horrific scenes are as heartbreaking as they are eye opening, revealing the kinds of treatments and procedures that came with the bigoted mindset. While the first issue was heartbreaking in its tale of love and loss, Alan Scott: The Green Lantern #2 sees the consequences that came from such a hard moment in Alan’s life. In many ways, this is perfectly symbolic of how a second issue should progress the story, with the build up allowing readers to empathize with the growth of the characters.

Along with Sheridan’s haunting script, artist Cian Tormey paints a fully rounded picture of these horrifying actions personified. Tormey excellently pairs imagery of Alan’s classic origin story with the newly revealed details of his life. This creates a familiarity with this new story, highlighting the authenticity that this creative team is striving towards. In an excellent effect of mirroring the ending of the last issue, Tormey ends Alan Scott: The Green Lantern #2 with Alan bursting with green light. The way this mirrors, yet contrasts the last issue is absolutely profound, creating a sense of poetry for the narrative.

Building upon that scale is Matt Herms on colors, who fills this book with that sense of realism that helps sell the beautiful images that Tormey is putting on each page. Herms also does a great job in establishing the impact of big moments, giving off a vibrancy whenever explosions occur and when moments require a softer touch. This is also heavily impacted by Lucas Gottami’s letters, which allow the art and narrative to breathe in a way that helps bring this vision into reality.