DC Comics reviews 5/21/24 – Nightwing #114, Titans #11

Green Lantern: War Journal #9

John Stewart’s battle with The Revenant Queen has taken him to The Dark Star of The Fenn. He’s aligned with a small band of survivors where his natural leadership skills have kicked in to help. Still, this is a strange land and John doesn’t fully know the lay of the land such as what happens when someone gets infected and starts working on behalf of The Fenn.

Writer Phillip Kennedy Johnson does his usual stellar world-building establishing a new realm for John to explore on his own. The other Lanterns are dealing with the United Planets while John has his unique major threat playing out. Back on Earth, John’s construct of his sister is facing off with threats coming for his mother.

Artist Montos has made these sequences play out almost like a horror movie with a mounting sense of dread and tension. Montos also adds invaluable contributions in the backstory of The Darkstars, playing into another faction John has been associated with in the past. Montos’ art has such a strong lifelike quality to it. Adriano Lucas’ excellent color work offers sharp, piercing colors to break up dark, haunting backdrops to properly sell the hopeless tone. Letterer Dave Sharpe keeps the dialogue tight with larger, imposing fonts to convey terrifying sound effects.

War Journal is just a quality comic. It’s not upending the universe. All it does is allow Johnson, Montos and the rest of the creative team a viable platform to showcase John Stewart with some fresh and thrilling new threats.

Rating: 8.5 out of 10