When last we left the Green Lantern Corps, they were coming off a rescue mission of the Guardians of the Universe from a resurgent contingent of Controllers (their ancient enemy). The Controllers escaped and resurrected one of the Lanterns’ strongest foes, The Darkstars. What ensues is an all-out fight between the heavily outnumbered Green Lanterns and The Darkstars. Ultimately at stake is who will prevail as the police force of the universe. Will the law and order methods of the Green Lanterns hold the line over the lethal, eye-for-an-eye methods of The Darkstars?

Volume 7 marks the end for Hal Jordan and the Green Lantern Corps. Consequently, this was an absolutely massive volume not just in page count. It served as a strong wrap-up for everything that Robert Venditti had been writing throughout his run. Every story angle came to a head in a satisfying way, showcasing that Venditti had some sort of plan set. If he didn’t, then he knows how to expertly take what he has written previously and weave it into a cohesive narrative.

On top of Venditti’s strong plotting and character development is a massive art team executing to make all of that come to life. The scale of the story demanded a lot more out of each artist, and we did not see the same team on subsequent issues. Luckily, all the teams were able to deliver on what was needed and had been established as known quantities on previous issues/trades. This helped keep reading flow smoothly through the trade. The one constant throughout this trade, and the last few trades, is letterer Dave Sharpe. Shape is balancing a lot of dialogue balloons to be placed within a ton of strong art. On top of that, some of the things he has to do include keeping track of the multiple speech balloon styles used between different factions of ring slingers, stylized transition location boxes, and formalized speech balloons for the rings talking to their ring bearers. It is a lot of work and critical to help build an atmosphere to the book that is absorbed subconsciously, even as you are reading it.

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