Green Lantern: Legacy is the latest in a series of DC young adult graphic novels, and it focuses on how kindness and leadership can influence communities and the people living there. Take the jump for your Major Spoilers review of the book from DC Zoom.

GREEN LANTERN: LEGACY

Author: Minh Le
Illustrator: Andre Tong
Colorist: Sarah Stern
Letterer: Ariana Maher
Editor: Lauren Bisom
Publisher: DC Zoom
Cover Price: $9.99
Release Date: January 22, 2020

SOLICITATION: Thirteen-year-old Tai Pham lives in the apartment above his grandmother’s store, where his bedroom is crammed with sketchpads and comic books. But not even his most imaginative drawings could compare to the colorful adventure he’s about to embark on.

When Tai inherits his grandmother’s jade ring, he soon finds out it’s more than just a piece of jewelry. Suddenly he’s inducted into a group of space cops known as the Green Lanterns. He is about to learn that being a superhero takes more than just a ring. Does Tai have the willpower and the imagination to uphold his ba’s legacy.

A VIETNAMESE-AMERICAN TEEN JOINS THE CORPS

The DC Zoom and DC Ink lines have been providing quality storytelling, in my opinion. I haven’t read a bad one yet! My hope is that these books will encourage more young adults to experience comics. And they have a very reasonable price tag, too!

I always enjoy when a comic transports me into a culture I’m not yet familiar with so I can discover more about the worlds around us. Green Lantern: Legacy highlights Vietnamese-American families and those near them.

This book introduces a new Green Lantern, Kim Tran, a maternal figure in her part of Coast City, a well-known GL location. We see her coming to the end of her career, and the transition to her grandson Tai. She has been a powerful figure in her neighborhood, helping neighbors in need and serving as a leader to both newcomers and long-time residents.

With her passing, her ring chooses Tai as its next bearer. He’s very much the teen of today, an artist with many of his grandmother’s sensibilities.

We see Tai meet familiar ring-wearers like John Stewart and Iolande, who help acclimate him to the Lantern Corps.

We also see that Sinestro has quite a long reach as a Yellow Lantern.

There are new characters added to the GL mythos, including Tai’s friends Serena and Tommy, as well as a local businessman named Xander Griffin. Each has a role to play in Tai’s first days with the ring.

Sadly, racism and discrimination exist even in Coast City, revealed when bricks are thrown through the windows of the family business. So Tai has to deal with problems both on and off the Earth.

The characters all are human and relatable, even the alien Lanterns. There’s also a Jordan around! The story’s pacing moves well, usually quickly unless there’s a need for interaction or information. You need that variety in your book!

SHINING ART

A GL story requires the ability for an artist to help readers inhabit both Earthly and other-worldly sequences. Tong’s art flows seamlessly from one to the other so we are engaged in both situations.

I thought the action sequences were strong, and the facial expressions made it easy to grasp what the various characters were thinking about and feeling. Great job!

BOTTOM LINE: A Well-Done Story Told Through New Eyes

I particularly liked seeing the various generations learn from and grow with each other. I hope we see more of that in the future.

This book is more drama than punching and kicking, a nice change of pace from many GL tales. We still see big, green glowing fists, though.

My only quibble about this book is that Tai would be a great character even if Green Lantern wasn’t involved. I usually don’t like it when an opportunity to create a new hero/universe is missed by going down an already established path, but the storytelling is engrossing, so this is still a great adventure that I enjoyed.

Now that I’m on board, I hope this origin story won’t be the only tale featuring this new Green Lantern. I continue to believe that the Corps has tremendous potential for exploring where no GL has gone before (check out Far Sector), so I’m interested in seeing what other adventures this creative team might have in mind for Tai and company.

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