Green Lantern #37: Don’t Feed the Trolls

Green Lantern is not the most serious title on the shelves at the moment. Ever since Kyle Rayner became the series’ main character in Green Lantern #33, Adam has leaned into a more lighthearted tone, even when the story is trying to make a larger point. That’s very much the case with Green Lantern #37.

The Odyssey movie star storyline continues in Green Lantern #37, this time with Odyssey reading comments about herself on social media. Kyle comes to her defense only to get pulled into more and more conversations with online trolls. Adams plays this story for laughs while reminding readers (via Jade and a clueless Kyle) that social media interaction relies more on what someone dislikes than likes and thus the algorithm pushes that content. This certainly isn’t shocking news to anyone, but it does create an amusing fish out of water scenario for Kyle.

Adams ties this very light commentary into Green Lantern #37’s villain in much the same way he did with AI in Green Lantern #33. While this issue’s antagonist isn’t the most intense Kyle has faced, he works well enough for the issue’s tone and provides a nice bit of humor in the process.

Kyle and Jade’s romantic reconnection continues here. These are welcome scenes because they add a measure of earnestness to what are otherwise slightly slightly comedic issues.

Xermánico’s attention to detail results in emotive characters which plays nicely into the issue’s overall tone. Smaller lines result in subtler changes to facial expressions. This works especially well in the sequence where Kyle is interacting with social media on his phone. The subtle changes emphasize the low level humor Adams is going for with Kyle’s unfamiliarity with the situation.

This level of detail is further beneficial during Kyle’s fight with the Green Lantern #37’s antagonist. Xermánico’s art matches a general tone of disrespect from Kyle toward a somewhat ridiculous enemy–perfectly matching the tone in Adam’s story.

Fajardo Jr. uses a richer color palette here. This is a good match for Xermánico’s thicker outlines and in combination create a nice amount of contrast between different elements on the page, especially in the case of characters who stand out on the page in most instances.

Sharpe’s choice of font for the issue’s antagonist is a perfect match. It very effectively conveys the kind of sound one would expect from this particular enemy. Sharpe also chooses a nice variety of fonts and colors for sound effects.