Absolute Green Lantern #4 (2025)

Table of Contents

The Black Hand Speaks

Now, we finally start getting answers because what you do is you pick up again here in the present day with Hal and Joe and the black hand basically speaks to how it says:

"How Jordan judgment was made but penance can be offered." Now of course you get this kind of red response right: "Penance you were right. You are right. You are always right. The truth is there for all to see. God is not a ring of light. God is a big black zero. the dark circle around everything. And inside the circle is a single black star, the black star, Hal."

And so what we do is we pick up with this moment in the here and now with Sojourner and Hal Jordan in the present day. And basically how's response to her telling him he needs to get it together is no, right? I don't want to. Now, of course, Joe kind of responds with a bit of an apology and saying that she didn't necessarily mean it, but she says:

"You need to snap out of this. Stop letting this thing control you, this black hand or whatever it is. I do not want to hurt you."

And the response of Hal:

"I wish you could, but it will not let you. So just go get out while you can."

The Nature of the Black Hand

What this shows here is that the black hand is intermittently possessing Hal Jordan. Now it also demonstrates a measure of sentience in the sense that the black hand speaks to Hal Jordan. Now, that is kind of a rule that is still maintained from the Jeff John's days when you actually had Black Hand, who was kind of the harbinger of the rise of the Black Lantern Corps. Basically, a servant of Nekron, the leader of the Black Lanterns.

So, you do kind of get these little moments here and there where the traditional mythos ties in. But then Hal Jordan is overtaken by the Black Hand when Joe says, "Look at what you did." So, as you guys can probably tell, the Black Hand responds to anger. It responds to rage.

Here's the other thing, too. Look at how Jordan, look at the way he looks. I'm really, really hoping here that what's happening is he's channeling the black and the red aspects of the emotional spectrum, right? Death and rage. Clearly, he's pissed off. So, the rage aspect makes sense, but we don't know how much of this is due to simply just the darkness and how much it's due to any other thing.

The Truth About Abin Sur

And so the question that Hal asks is what happened to Evergreen Joe? And that's when you jump back to the city and you get this kind of conversation between Todd and Hal and Joe where Hal is talking about actually shooting Abin sur because one of the things that he had realized in the conversations with John, right? The idea that gold passes through the barrier that sure Abin sur creates these green barriers in order to prevent himself from getting shot. So what would happen if Hal Jordan made goldplated bullets, they would pass through the barrier and they could take out Abin sur.

And so at that point, Joe asked the question, right? Why are we the last ones out of a whole town? How many of nearly 3,000 people? Why are the three of us the last ones? And she's like, I'll just go ask. So, she walks outside of the building and starts calling the name of Abin sur. And this is when the answers come into play because Abin sur appears to her and he says:

"Sojourner Mullein, be without fear."

And she just asks why, right? Why did you kill all of them? And the response of Abin sur:

"Them all I do not have understanding. Existence ended for Jason Simmons as an accident of the barrier and his relative speed when he crashed into it on his motorcycle. Existence ended for Rita Powell as a considered judgment as her chaotic action ended existence for Beatrice Coles. Continued chaotic action was unacceptable. So I destroyed her because she killed somebody else in trying to kill me."

But Sojourner doesn't really understand. She's like:

"No, I saw it happen, right? You can't just pretend that you didn't kill these people. You murdered John in front of us. You killed Guy. This whole town, you disintegrated all of them. And now you're pretending that you didn't."

And the response of Abin sur:

"Sojourner Mullein, no other existence has ended as an action of this Abin sur. Guy Gardner, John Stewart, Abigail Cable, and 2,89 other existences have not ended. They exist in OA. They are within the Omega Alpha. They are in the second stage and judgment remains in progress."

The Shocking Revelation

Now, here's the crazy thing because once you start to decipher what Abin sur is actually saying, when Abin sur appears to someone and says, "Be without fear," he's not judging them and saying, "Are you without fear?" He's saying, "Do not be afraid." It's cool. It's just this amazing recollection. It hit me like a ton of bricks when I figured it out. I was like, "Wow." Because they're all being converted into Green Lanterns.

Because Sojourner asked the question:

"Tell me what that means. What judgment the second stage of what? If you've taken them somewhere, can you bring them back?"

And the response of abin sur:

"Continued existence must be within light. Judgment must be made. I am the abin sur. A must be selected. A ra initiates must be selected. Initiates against the darkness. Be without fear. Sojourner, 'Fear Cord. Fear the weaponers of Cord.'"

And so it just kind of leaves her flabbergasted because he says:

"Now you have understanding. Judgment is in progress."

The Big Picture

That's the crazy thing because Abin sur coming here, it's the traditional Green Lantern mythos reworked in a new way. Instead of Abin Sur arriving on Earth like he did in the main DC universe as a Green Lantern who was basically dying, sending his ring out for a new host which initially was going to choose Guy Gardner and instead chose Hal Jordan in the absolute universe. He shows up on this world, locks down the entire city and says, "Let's begin the process of figuring out which one of you are qualified to be a Green Lantern."

Now, the way in which he does it is sketchy at best, right? Somebody barges into your home, locks the door, makes it impossible for you to escape, and then starts saying things like judgment in progress. Yeah, you're going to think they have it out for you. You're going to think they mean to kill you. But again, in a lot of ways, she's left with as many questions as she has answers because you jump back to this present moment.

Sojourner's Transformation

And how asked the question, what happened then, Joe? What did you do? And Joe just says:

"Once Abin Sur started to take off, you saw what happened. He was doing that thing that he always did. He went unsolid. He was going to become a ball of light and fly up to the sky and not answer anything. So I reached out instinctively, not thinking. I did not have understanding. I didn't grab him. I reached into him into his unsolid. My hand went into the green flame. And my wedding ring, my wedding ring was solid gold like the ring John threw. the one that tore a hole in Abin sur's barrier and now it was inside him. I was inside the light and the light was inside of me."

She basically took the power of the green lantern from him, right? She literally absorbed that power into herself and became the new Green Lantern that way. And that's why Abin sur says chaotic action, right? This is an unpredictable act. You are not thinking when you're making this act. Anomaly and then she just says you know what happened after that. The barrier came down, the flame went out, and the giant green lantern symbol that was floating in the air smashed into the city and detonated like a nuclear bomb.

The Absolute Universe Connection

And so at that point, you switch over to the aftermath of it all. And you have this guy, right, where you ask the question, "Is everyone already here?" And they're like, "Yep, right. Ground team found one survivor, sir. We suspect there are others." The Nevada police say one of their controlmen is missing. And at that point, the guy's like:

"Look, don't bore me with the details, right? I love that we've got a human resource to work with. Ground team, I'll get a double H stake box in the mail. But when I ask a question, I need you to hear the question in the question. Do you understand what I'm asking?"

And so he's not asking, did you find anything in terms of are there any survivors or anything like that? Did you find anything of use? And so he asked the question:

"Let me make it a little clear. Just how badly did Morgan screw us with that emergency broadcast? Am I about to see any sticky fingerprints from Lazarus?"

So again, we're getting elements from other Absolute titles. Lazarus of course being the organization that employs the Peacemakers in the Absolute Superman comic. And she just says they may have the knowledge, but with their ongoing situation, basically Superman, they could not get ahead of us on a response. And that's where he's like, "That's exactly what I wanted to hear because it means we're the first with boots on the ground. We've got our own little gateway city event happening right here in Nevada."

The Bigger Narrative

So, what's basically going on here in the absolute universe on a broader scale? It's a race to hunt superheroes, those individuals that have powers. That's the bigger narrative and the bigger story that's being told. And all these organizations are trying to get their hands on these various levels of powers so they can use them for their own ends.

The military is going after absolute Wonder Woman. Lazarus is going after absolute Superman. Absolute Joker is going after absolute Batman. The Flash is being hunted down. And now it's the Green Lantern. So, it's a phenomenal narrative. Can't wait until the first big event happens.

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