Far Sector #2 // Review
The first issue of DC’s new Young Animal title Far Sector threw the reader into the deep end. It wasted no time in introducing its protagonist, human Green Lantern Jo Mullein, and it tossed out information about her new circumstances quickly and dared the reader to catch up. The pace doesn’t really slow down for Far Sector #2.
In this issue, Jo continues to investigate the first murder(s) in her jurisdiction in centuries. Her investigation leads her (and the reader) to a greater understanding of one of the three races of the City Enduring: the keh-Topli, a race of sentient plants who like to eat other sentient beings to feel closer to them. The issue also introduces at least one person in Jo’s personal orbit and shows the reader how complicated her life as a stranger in this strange land really is.
Sci-Fi/Fantasy novelist and superstar N.K. Jemison continues her magnificent worldbuilding in this issue. Her real talent, though, is in using Jo’s narration and actions to create a compelling and exciting main character who we want to follow through all of these bizarre circumstances. Jo Mullein feels like a real, complicated, flawed, interesting human being, and it’s a testament to Jemison’s chops as a writer that she’s somehow more fascinating than bat-winged aliens and sentient tree people who eat their friends.
Jamal Campbell’s art is excellent as well, without being flashy. Campbell understands that there is a lot of new information being thrown at the reader, and his clean lines and strong draftsmanship help convey that information as clearly and concisely as possible, serving the story magnificently. The lettering by Deron Bennett shines, particularly in Jo’s translucent green thought captions.
It’s refreshing to see a Green Lantern story that’s not about world-ending stakes and the clashing of godlike entities, but instead about law enforcement personnel trying to solve a crime. The fact that Jemison and Campbell have crafted such a beautiful, noir-influenced world for this Green Lantern to inhabit makes it that much more exciting.