Somewhere out in space, select members from each lantern corps spectrum have been kidnapped and banished by a mysterious figure.
Meanwhile, on a desolate planet earth of the future, the ape Cornelius discovers a ring that speaks to him. He doesn’t know its origin but what is sure of is that if it can bring peace to his world, he will utilize it to his best. Meanwhile, the Green Lantern Corps get a disturbance signal from earth, but, it’s not from their earth. Who is responsible for banishing the individual lanterns from each spectrum? How did this mysteriously powerful ring of unknown origin make its way to Cornelius and the planet of the apes? And how is Green Lantern Hal Jordan entangled in all of this!?
Justin Jordan and Robbie Thompson has made a really promising first issue with this mini-series. Truthfully, I wouldn’t have thought about two properties such as these to crossover, but amazingly, who knew it would make a good fit? Their handle of the green lantern corps and the inhabitants of the Planet of the Apes all feel seamless, as though it was naturally meant to coincide. That seamlessness is not an easy task, look at Power Rangers / Justice League, it’s an odd pairing, although it manages to be fun and works, it still was an odd thought given that they are two properties that shouldn’t actually be able to work (even though it did). Jordan and Thompson display that they have a good understanding of the two properties, and even make a funny joke through Guy Gardner when he reminisces the times when the green lanterns used to fight actual threats that were not part of the lantern spectrums, which is hilarious. The story structure and pace were executed well, and all felt cohesive to the narrative that Jordan and Thompson has crafted. Hal is written as Hal and doesn’t act out of character, along with all of the other lantern characters. Cornelius is written as weary as one would guess for him to be, weary of all the war and death that has plagued his planet. You see the change in his being when he first discovers the ring. But what he’ll do next with that power remains to be seen beyond the last page of the book.
The artwork by Barnaby Bagenda is fun and beautiful. I don’t want to compare his art style, but in terms of having a fun visual flair, it’s definitely got some Francis Manipul vibes that make each page look awesome and exciting to look at. The colors by Alex Guimaraes are vibrant and really make Bagenda’s artwork pop, making each lantern and their aura stand out with synergetic energy and power. He also does a great job at making a barren earth look cool to look at. So often, there are times where colorists drown out the art with muddy colors that don’t do the art justice when barren landscapes are drawn, but Guimaraes avoids those mistakes and does good. The Letters by Ed Dukeshire are placed in the preferable spots where it never distracts or overwhelms the artwork on the page making it fun to read and not overbearing and text heavy that the art would suffer from.
What’s awesome is that BOOM and DC have two Batman/TMNT crossovers, and a Justice League/Power Rangers crossover. It’s really fun to see how unlikely properties somehow gel together. But none gel as better as this since for the aesthetics of Green Lantern, it makes more sense since it cohesively deals with time, space, dimensions etc, which is what Green Lantern as a series always dabbles in. So it fits perfectly into the fabric of this sci-fi adventure mashup. This is a good first issue for what looks to be a very fun crossover. Add this to your pull list.
Newsdesk 
Brian Isaacs - Executive Editor / Publisher