Absolute Green Lantern vol. 1: Without Fear

I thought I knew what I was going to get with this series.  Al Ewing spent a good amount of time at Marvel tackling its cosmic side through series like “Guardians of the Galaxy,” “S.W.O.R.D.,” “X-Men:  Red,” and through events like “Empyre” and “The Last Annihilation.”  So when he was announced as taking on the “Green Lantern” title in the Absolute Universe, I thought we’d be getting something along the same lines, only now Ewing would be free to reimagine the status quo of DC’s cosmos from the ground up on his own terms.

That’s not what we got here.  “Without Fear” is entirely earthbound as its main cast find themselves dealing with an alien presence that has descended upon the small desert town of Evergreen, California.  Only the most minimal of cues are taken from the series it draws its name from, so don’t expect to see any Space Cop action here.  As for whether or not all of this makes for an exciting start to the latest “Absolute” series, well… if nothing else, I’m inclined to see where Ewing is going with this.

Vol. 1 spends its time jumping between two different timelines:  The present day, and what happened in Evergreen in the five days leading up to that.  While the former initially shows toy collector Hal Jordan in a very bad way, the latter introduces us to him, architect John Stewart, and former cop Sojourner “Jo” Mullien who has just moved back to Evergreen.  They’re enjoying some friendly afternoon conversation when a giant green dome drops over the town, preventing anyone from getting in or out.

The dome is generated by a (recognizable) floating object at its apex and it’s from there that an alien who identifies itself as Abin Sur emerges.  While Sheriff Guy Gardner is initially successful in de-escalating tensions during this First Contact scenario, things immediately flare up again after Abin disappears him in a green flash of light and tells the town that judgment has begun.  It’s from here that Hal, John, and Jo try to figure out how to deal with this alien threat and save everyone in their town.

As for what Abin is doing here, it’s kept intentionally vague for most of this volume before being explained at the end with the reveal of the real threat.  This winds up feeling more frustrating than suspenseful as while it’s meant to be a result of Abin’s alien-ness, that kind of obfuscation has been done before and it rarely comes off well from a storytelling perspective.  Coming in the same boat is Ewing’s reinterpretation of the spectrum of light from “Green Lantern.” While the writer is to be applauded for trying something new here, it lacks the beautiful simplicity of how Geoff Johns laid out that concept.

  

What we get here is something more akin to the spiritual aspects of the writer’s “Immortal Hulk” run, his two “Defenders” miniseries, and reinvention of Star-Lord in “Guardians.”  Compared to the way the writer has pulled off reintegrating old continuity and implements clever plot twists in his  other work, these aspects of his writing tend to come off as less focused and aren’t as engaging as a result of that.  As for his decision to base an entire series around it, I can at least say that I’m glad things come more into focus by the final issue so I’m able to give Ewing the benefit of the doubt and see where he’s going with all this.

Oddly, it’s the villain who makes the biggest impression out of the entire cast in this volume.  Hector Hammond strolls onto the scene at the end of issue #4 like he owns the place and never lets anyone forget it.  While the character’s original big-headed psychic version can be hard to take seriously, he wears his ruthless billionaire control-freak reinvention quite well here.  Hector is the kind of person who will fire one of his medical technicians for telling a wounded survivor not to speak and then tell said survivor to talk if he wants medical attention.  The character also slyly sets up ties to larger Absolute Universe, which is definitely a good thing.

Does that mean Hal, John, and Jo aren’t all that interesting?  Kinda, as it feels like they’re responding to the actions of the plot more than anything else in this volume.  Hal gets the most radical reinvention here through his interactions with the Black Hand that set him up against Jo, who winds up becoming an “anomaly” over the course of the volume.  While Ewing makes it clear what their perspectives are, they feel more beholden to the forces animating them than any actual personality they possess.  The same goes for John who goes from local know-it-all to cosmic know-it-all at the end.

It all looks well enough coming from new artist Jahnoy Lindsay.  Their work has an appreciable level of detail throughout while also being good with the alien aspects that the story calls upon them to deliver.  They also tell the story capably enough and don’t have any issue with conveying some of its weirder aspects that Ewing throws at them.  My only real issue with the art here is something that feels like it’s becoming more common in the superhero comics I read:  A lack of style.  It’s good that Lindsay is concerned with making sure the story is being told clearly, but there’s not a whole lot here to indicate that they’re capable of more than that.  Which may be a problem if the series becomes stranger and weirder as it indicates it will be in future volumes.

I wouldn’t say “Without Fear” is a genuine misfire.  It’s mainly a case of not being what I expected it to, while what I actually got didn’t exceed my expectations.  The story it’s telling does come together in the end, with the final issue providing some actual payoff while setting up a promising cliffhanger to deliver on in vol. 2.  I’ll be checking that out as I do expect things to improve now that Ewing has the general setup for everything out of the way.  I just wish that this improvement did hinge on disappointing me from the start.