DC teased big things with its Green Lantern Civil Corps Special, and it certainly delivered, bringing together the various threads of Green Lantern, Green Lantern: War Journal, and the Guy Gardner backup stories in Superman. There are some big fights throughout the issue, but one of the most surprising throwdowns actually happens right at the beginning, as John Stewart faces a Yellow Lantern. That Lantern turns out to be the thought-dead Lantern Kilowog, adding even more intrigue to the situation, and while we don’t find out how he was pulled back to the land of the living, we do find out why he has taken up a Yellow Ring.
Out of Nowhere
John Stewart and Ellie are thrown into survival mode when Stewart runs into a mysterious figure in the sky. He is shot down and falls quickly from the sky, with Ellie making the save, but she soon meets their attacker, who turns out to be a Yellow Power Ring-wielding Kilowog. Stewart attempts to reason with Kilowog but the powerhouse Lantern isn’t much for words, simply telling Stewart to give something to him.
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Stewart can’t figure out what he wants, and then Kilowog takes the Darkstar Ring off Stewart’s hand before unleashing a powerful blast that knocks Stewart out cold. The next time we see Stewart is 12 hours later when he reunites with Hal Jordan, Guy Gardner, and Shepherd. All of this comes as a shock to everyone being that Kilowog was supposedly killed in a previous battle against the Fear Corps, so how he became a part of the Corps that killed him remains a big mystery.
A Big Discovery
While we aren’t sure how Kilowog is back amongst the living, we do find out throughout the issue how he became a Yellow Lantern. Stewart theorizes that Kilowog was possessed by the yellow spectrum, which would explain why he wasn’t his normal self, and Hal essentially confirms this by telling the group how Lord Premiere Thaaros has taken out all of the central power batteries he could find and figured out a way to manipulate the spectrum and then push people into different emotional states, essentially creating a sort of mind control.
The Lanterns confront Thaaros and have a huge fight now that he wields the Darkstar ring, and he eventually falls. That’s when some mysterious former allies then circle the presumed dead dictator and give a bit more insight into how Thaaros managed to control the spectrum.
Those who have been following along with Green Lantern might remember that at one point Thaaros captured Keli Quintela. Keli is an 11-year-old Lantern who tapped into a special gauntlet that is able to utilize the power of the emotional spectrum like her follow Lanterns, though in some different ways. She was captured by Thaaros’ army and then this issue confirms that experiments were run on her during that time. This group reveals that those experiments led to Thaaros discovering how to shift others into different parts of the emotional spectrum, and now that technology is theirs to claim.
That also explains how he was able to turn Mogo from a Green Lantern to a Red Lantern, and Red Mogo is seen careening towards the planet as Thaaros’ last ditch effort to exact payback for his defeat. So, we now know how Kilowog is a Yellow Lantern, as well as how Mogo is now a Red Lantern. What we don’t know is how Kilowog came back to life int eh first place, but hopefully, that will be revealed soon.
What did you think of the revelations in Green Lantern Civil Corps Special #1? You can talk all things comics and DC with me on Threads and Twitter @mattaguilarcb!