ACW #603 – Green Lantern

Action Comics Weekly #603 (Green Lantern)
“Retribution!”
Writer – James Owsley
Art – Gil Kane
Letters – Albert DeGuzman
Colors – Anthony Tollin
Editor – Denny O’Neil

Welcome to Week Three of #ActionComicsDaily!  Who’s ready to have that Blackhawk cover clogging their social media feeds for the next seven days?!  Who’m I kidding, I’m sure in most places I’ve been long muted by now!


As per custom, we open with our Green Lantern feature… this time out, he’s just let his fingers do the walking… and he’s hot in pursuit of Carol Ferris.


If you’re just joining us, you can visit the dedicated Action Comics Daily page, where you can catch up on each of our features in order.

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We open with a page recapping much of what we learned last issue.  If you’re just joining us, Star Sapphire killed Katma Tui… then crashed her funeral.  Hal gave chase, however, was distracted by a jet plummeting into Coast City… also courtesy of Carol.  We pick up with Hal headed toward Ms. Ferris’ penthouse apartment… which is undoubtedly going to wind up being a trap.  And wouldja look at that, it totally is!  Sapphire lets loose with a blast, and it’s all Hal can do to will up a construct to catch the debris.

Carol then creates her own construct… in the form of the fallen Katma.  This gets into Hal’s head, and opens him up to get punched right through the building.

Inside, he is confronted by Carol… who reveals the reasons for her actions.  It’s all that stuff she was ranting about during our opening chapter… her “sisters” have abandoned her… she’s all alone, and for whatever reason, she blames Hal.  Hence, now it’s time for revenge.  Keep in mind, that Hal is struggling to maintain focus and hold up all the debris during this whole weird conversation.

Hal waits for a break in the conversation, and realizing he cannot split his focus and hope to keep the debris in the air, tries to deal with her the “old-fashioned way”… and by “old-fashioned way” I mean, with the back of his hand.

With his former lover splayed before him, Hal comes to the realization that Star Sapphire might be too dangerous to let live.  She’s too far gone for redemption (which, considering everything Hal will be going through during the next decade, is pretty interesting), and so… he decides Star Sapphire must die!  Only one problem, Hal’s ring works via will power… and so, he must “will it” to kill her, and he just can’t seem to do it!  At this point, the police show up… which, is pretty crazy considering the building is being held up by a wing and a prayer at this point.  Either way, Hal decides it might be best to bug out.

Only, Star Sapphire has different plans.  She takes Hal’s momentary distraction, blasts the police, and turns the tables on her emerald assailant!  We wrap up with her vowing to exact revenge!

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Well, it’s a fight scene!  A fight scene that ends with a pretty decent cliffhanger.  Sapphire’s got the upper hand, the apartment building might crumble at any moment, Hal is conflicted as to what he might be capable of… it’s a pretty good time!


I really dig Hal trying to convince himself that the best thing for him to do is kill Star Sapphire.  I mean, that’s one heckuva bridge to cross, innit?  I thought it was cool that no matter how he tried to justify it to himself, the ring just wouldn’t cooperate.  I guess you can lie to yourself… but not your willpower-fueled cosmic jewelry!


I feel like every third or so chapter, we might be able to take a look back at “the story so far”, since we’re now up to around 24-pages of story… or, as close to one full “normal” issue as we’re going to get.


So how do these three parts measure up as a “single issue”?  Pretty well, I’d say.  The pacing is dense, and we do get a whole lot of story!  I feel like this definitely could have been “massaged” (recaps removed and whatnot) into a darn good single issue.


Tomorrow: The All-New Secret Six receive their first mission!