Green Lanterns 5: Out of Time

Comic Info

Green Lanterns #28 Variant

Reprints Green Lanterns #27-32 (September 2017-December 2017).  Volthoom has attacked Jessica and Simon, and Simon and Jessica find themselves thrust into the past.  Trapped and unaware of where they are, Jessica and Simon are about to meet the first seven Lanterns, and in a fight for their lives, they must stop Volthoom…but even if they do can they ever return home again?

Written by Sam Humphries, Green Lanterns Volume 5:  Out of Time is part of DC Comics Rebirth line of comics.  Following Green Lanterns 4:  The First Ring, the collection features art by Carlo Barberi, Ronan Cliquet, Julio Ferreira, Scott Godlewski, Eduardo Pansica, and Matt Santorelli.

Green Lanterns is a fun title.  It is a series that doesn’t take itself too seriously, it keeps moving, and it has likable characters.  This collection continues that trend, but also sets up future adventures of Lanterns by kind of wrapping up some major storylines.

In the last collection, the series introduced the first seven Lanterns and here we get to see the Lanterns in action.  It also is one of those wrap-around time stories where Simon and Jessica help “create” the Lanterns while in the past…and later in the future become Lanterns themselves as a result.  This is a common time travelling them, but it generally works.

Green Lanterns #30

The first seven Lanterns are interesting, but they are wasted (intentionally) here.  All of the Lanterns are slaughtered or die except Tyran’r who is set-up as an ally of the Lanterns in the future.  The Volthoom storyline which carried on too long also kind of wraps up for now and this allows Jessica and Simon to have more adventures not involving the character (at least for a while if the writers choose).  It is kind of necessary to progress the series.

The final issue of the collection attempts to deal with the personal lives of the characters.  Though I like that they are treating Jessica’s agoraphobia as a disease, it is also written incredibly uneven with the character forgetting her fears and sometimes just being wrapped up in them.  I realize this happens, but it is seeming more like a plot device for conflict instead of a real look a mental disease.  I also don’t really care about Simon’s disagreements with his friend Nazir…but hopeful that won’t continue after the issue.

Green Lanterns is often an uneven comic and this volume is uneven.  A comic can be uneven and still fun and it is demonstrated in this collection.  I do hope however that there is some more consistency brought to the characters and the story as the series progresses and that the Green Lanterns will continue to have adventures both on Earth and in space.  Green Lanterns 5:  Out of Time is followed by Green Lanterns 6:  A World of Our Own.

Related Links:

Green Lanterns 1:  Rage Planet

Green Lanterns 2:  The Phantom Lantern

Green Lanterns 3:  Polarity

Green Lanterns 4:  The First Ring

Green Lanterns 6:  A World of Our Own