Absolute Green Lantern #3 (2025)

 

Plot

Absolute Green Lantern is so amazing. I love this issue because it basically gives us so much context to what's going on. So, for those of you guys who haven't really been keeping up, not a whole lot's happened so far. It'll be huge now, but up until this point in time, all we really had was Abin Sur.

Basically, the guy who traditionally turned Hal Jordan into the Green Lantern after bypassing Guy Gardner. But within the absolute universe, it's a whole different ballgame because Abin Sur showed up here and then basically constructed this giant green dome around the town and you had guys like John Stewart and you have Kyle Rener and you have Guy Gardner and you have Hal Jordan among a handful of other people.

But seemingly when this dome happened and then Abin Sur showed up, a variety of people started attacking him and essentially they were all killed. Right? So you only have a handful of people left in the town.

One of the things that John Stewart had figured out is that seemingly gold or the color yellow is not impacted by the power of the green lantern. And so that's why the question is asked by Todd. He says:

"What are you mooning over there?" And John just holds up and says, "A gold ring." And he says, "Or rather electroplated tin, likely no real gold in it. I think it used to be an earring or at least part of one. I found it in the road yesterday."

And of course, Todd asks like, "Why would you be carrying around somebody's earring?" And he says, "Because of whose ear it was in." And of course, this catches Todd by surprise. But John says:

"Our friend hit the green wall so hard his head was pulled. His skin, blood, bone, nothing penetrated the shield. Nothing except for this." And he says, "Cheap, fancy dress, costume, jewelry by any measure. Why did it make it through? What are the rules? What don't we know?"

And it frustrates the hell out of John because he grabs the earring and he throws it through the green dome. And that's where Todd's like, "Okay, how?" Right? Why is it that gold or yellow or what have you can pass through this dome, but nothing else can? Nothing gets through. No animals, no objects other than this gold earring. And the response of John:

"I don't know, but I'm going to know everything. And I think before anything else, I should talk to Hal Jordan."

The Mystery Deepens

Now, one of the things to keep in mind here is that when all this initially popped off, Hal Jordan was not presented as the brave individual that we're used to from the main DC universe. I wouldn't go so far as to say he was a coward, but I will say like so many people, he panicked so much so that he tried to shoot Abin Sur.

Now, he was warned by John Stewart that's a bad idea. For all you know, he could take your hand. And then what ended up happening is that after all that had popped off, Hal Jordan had just shown up with a black hand. And so what you have are kind of two stories happening at the same time, which is to say you have what's happening right now with Sojourner talking to Hal Jordan who has a black hand. Everything else is effectively a flashback, right?

And so that's what makes this so dope is because in essence, how Jordan seems to be corrupted. We don't necessarily know a whole lot about it, but we will. We do know enough to know though that by wielding this black hand he launches an attack against Sojourner kind of against his will and it seems to overwhelm her power of the Green Lantern but not immediately because what she starts to do is conjure the power through her ring.

The Gold Connection

Jumping to this flashback, John has this conversation with Joe where he basically starts asking her about the wedding ring and he's like:

"I'm just wondering what it's made of, Joe. It's fine if you don't know." And of course, her response, "I was the one who picked out the damn rings, John. It's solid gold." She wanted something cheaper. It was our first fight.

So again, you kind of have a back and forth with these two. They clearly have history together, but John's like, "Look, I'm not really here to pick a fight, right? It's just there's something that I want your eyes on. There's something that I want you to see."

And so what ends up happening is that again with Hal Jordan here that Hal Jordan brings this kind of gold blue devil basically right he's like behold the blue devil only he's not blue because this is an all gold basically fun co-figure made to commemorate the 10th anniversary of a pretty forgettable Wayne Tarrant movie zero points of articulation naturally and he's like I paid eight bucks for it and so at that point John's like all right let's put this to the test because Hal Jordan gives it to John and he shows them right he's like I was hoping for a plastic sword or something like that, but this will definitely do. And he grabs it and sticks it through the barrier.

And that's when the two of them realize, okay, gold or yellow can penetrate this thing. And even John notices something, right? Because the object is bigger, the effect on the barrier is stronger. And he says that, right? Interesting. Definitely a stronger reaction than last time. So what do we think?

The Philosopher's Stone Connection

John asked the question, have you ever heard of the philosopher stone? Now, initially they haven't, right? And he says:

"It's a central symbol of alchemy, the substance that turns base metal into gold. It can also heal wounds, prolong life, create a homunculus, restore Voldemort, light an ever burning lamp. It's a symbol. It stands for enlightenment. What is base becomes gold through knowledge. So yes, Joe, cheap plastic can breach the barrier if it takes the form of gold. And I think that's a clue."

And so she asked the question, "What about actual gold?" And here's a crazy thing about this. And he's just like way ahead of you. And of course, John Stewart takes his grandmother's ring and he just throws it at the wall. And it's the question, let's just see what happens. And when actual gold hits the wall, it creates a substantial hole.

So gold itself has a massive impact on the Green Wall and seemingly the power of the Green Lantern. It has the ability to disrupt Green Lantern constructs.

The Tragic Conclusion

And so at that point it's like, okay, cool. So let's see if everybody has gold. Let's get as much gold as we possibly can around the town. Real gold, right? Not fake plastic stuff, but real gold. Which clearly means that some marriages are going to end, which is going to be a very interesting scenario for us to see.

The problem is we don't get to see it because Abin Sur shows up here and he just says John Stewart judgment is in progress and John Stewart is destroyed incinerated on the spot and he just says John Stewart has been judged and of course this leads to Joe and how Jordan freaking out and attacking Abin sur. Todd comes out with a shotgun. Todd fires off a shot. Of course Abin sur conjures a construct that block the bullets and he just says judgment is in progress. Todd writes be without fear and Abin sur takes off.

But the death of John Stewart leaves Joe and Hal Jordan and Todd completely and totally emotionally devastated because at that point it's just kind of like, okay, so we're basically in hell. We're locked inside this town. We cannot get out. The one person who had a clue to help us get out of this. He's gone now. So why in the world is this Abin sur even doing all of this to us in the first place?

Continue to Absolute Green Lantern #4 →