DC Just Reintroduced a Fan-Favorite Green Lantern Alongside a Forgotten Icon in the Way Lanterns Couldn’t

Lanterns recently wrapped up its first season, and while it has garnered plenty of well-deserved praise for its story and acting, there’s no denying that there was a surprising lack of green in this Green Lantern show. The Power Ring hardly created any constructs, with the show often opting for more subtle uses and simple flashes of green when necessary. Fans have understandably called out this lack of affection for the more wacky and comic book-specific aspects of the Green Lantern Corps, but while we’ll have to wait and see what this means for any future projects with John Stewart, DC has already given us a new take on the ring-slinging heroes that cherishes and celebrates DC’s long comic history.

The Absolute Universe has reimagined all of DC’s classic heroes and villains, placing them in a world leaning towards tyranny and evil while stripping away something once thought essential to them. Absolute Green Lantern specifically has been on a tear, creating a mythos that draws on everything the main universe has established over decades while putting its own spin on all of it. Most recently, issue #19 has introduced an unprecedented amount of new lore, including but definitely not limited to Kyle Rayner, Amanda Waller, and, most surprisingly, Uncle Sam.

The Golden Age Reimagined

For the first year and a half of Absolute Green Lantern‘s run, the book has been bombarding the reader with information and lore. Instead of stopping to explain, it threw the reader into the deep end and expected them to keep up. Every issue had the audience learning something new, from the basics about the different levels of light to exactly what a Tomar is in the context of the Green Lantern. Still, every question was only answered by peeling back another layer, revealing that there was so much more to learn. One answered question left us with three more unanswered ones, and while the story was never swamped by this, as learning and understanding how much you don’t know are the crux of these arcs, there’s no denying that the vast number of proper nouns was getting overwhelming.

This new arc, meanwhile, has finally decided to start answering those questions. We learned the insanely storied history of the DEO, which evolved out of O.S.S. Section ARGENT, founded and run to control the unsavory, extra-normal elements of the United States. What really amplifies this history is the baffling number of established lesser-known characters it used and reimagined, such as taking Detective Comics‘ first protagonist, Slam Bradley, and transforming him into the head of the DEO. Unfortunately, Slam connected to the Manhunters, extra-dimensional beings who consume souls, and they transformed him into their agent, sent to guide the United States into becoming their factory farm.

Slam died in an experiment, but the Manhunters resurrected him in a powerful new form, rechristening him the embodiment of the USA’s spirit. They un-killed Samuel Bradly, turning him into Uncle Sam. At the same time, we learned ARGENT’s last-surviving, non-DEO affiliated member would rename herself Amanda Waller and bring Task Force X into the modern day. This new Suicide Squad featured Renee Montoya, but the important bit for this article is that the issue ended with Waller reaching out to the Green Lantern icon, Kyle Rayner.

Embracing the Weird and Making It Amazing

There’s no denying that DC has a practically endless number of characters to pull from, or that a lot of those characters are strange. The Green Lanterns themselves are a rather oddball concept. I mean, they’re space police officers who have rings that can create anything they can imagine out of light and are powered by will. Lanterns chose to tone down these elements because of a mix of budget restraints and a desire to be taken seriously, but that second point should not be a concern. As Absolute Green Lantern has proven, indulging in all of the strange and wild parts of DC’s world actually helps sell the seriousness instead of hurting it.

Before this issue, I couldn’t have imagined being intimidated by Uncle Sam, but the series found a way to make it happen, and a huge part of that was adding gravity and respect to all of DC’s characters. It pulled on so many characters, but instead of downplaying them, it used their uniqueness to build on each other. So far, the thesis of Absolute Green Lantern has seemed to be reimagining everything about DC and finding a place to fit it all into one unified cosmos without anything stepping on anyone’s toes. We’ve even got all of Earth’s human Green Lanterns now, as Kyle is sure to make his debut in a couple of issues at most.

This is not the DC Universe as we know it, but it is an adaptation that wants to include as much of DC in it as possible. This series is brimming with love for the source material and its deep history. Everything it’s done so far has been to point out how cool these characters or concepts are, taking them in new directions that capture the feeling of the original. Without a doubt, Absolute Green Lantern is giving us something truly special, and it’s not anywhere close to slowing down.

Absolute Green Lantern #19 is on sale now!

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