Absolute Green Lantern #16 Review: Al Ewing and Sid Kotian Go Full Cosmic Pressure Cooker, WEPA!

WEPA! This is the kind of issue where you open the book thinking, “Okay, space cops, cosmic danger, some Green Lantern madness, let’s see what’s good,” and by the time you close it, you’re sitting there like somebody handed you a glowing ring and a therapy bill at the same time. Absolute Green Lantern #16 is not playing small-ball. Al Ewing walks into the room with that “I got mythology in one pocket and emotional damage in the other” energy, while Sid Kotian, Pressy, and Lucas Gattoni turn the whole thing into a neon fever dream wrapped in noir tension, sci-fi dread, and that beautiful DC cosmic weirdness that makes you whisper, “Nah, this is why comics still hit different.”

The issue, titled “All We’ve Got,” puts Tomar Re and Jo Mullein in the collision lane with the Blackstars, and let me tell you, the vibes are not friendly. This is not a cute meet-and-greet. This is not “Welcome to Space Court, please take a number.” Nah, fam. The Blackstars come in with that militant doom energy, acting like mercy is a paperwork error and survival is a crime against their busted little philosophy. They are cold. They are fanatical. They are the type of crew that would turn a rescue mission into a moral math equation and still somehow get the answer wrong. Then Sinestro’s presence, influence, and terrifying logic hang over the conflict like a gold-plated bad idea with perfect posture. That’s the danger here. It is not just power. It is certainty. The scariest villain is always the one who thinks cruelty is maturity.

Ewing does something slick here. He takes the classic Green Lantern question of “What do you do with power?” and flips it sideways. This issue is not just about willpower. It is about what willpower is supposed to serve. Is it order? Survival? Control? Sacrifice? Community? Jo Mullein has always been one of the most interesting Lanterns because she is not just some glowing fist with a badge. She thinks. She listens. She doubts. She measures the cost. In this issue, that matters more than ever because the Blackstars are basically screaming, “Make the hard choice,” while Jo is over here realizing that maybe the so-called hard choice is just the lazy choice wearing armor. That’s big. That’s grown-up storytelling. That’s not just capes and lasers, though we do get the lasers, thank you very much.

And Tomar Re? My guy is under pressure like a deli sandwich in a Brooklyn bodega press at 2 a.m. The book puts him in a brutal spot where the future of worlds, the lives of people, and the ugly temptation of sacrifice are all crashing into each other. He is not just reacting to danger. He is being asked to define what kind of Green Lantern he is when every option smells like smoke. The emotional core of this issue lives there. Tomar is not presented as perfect. Good. Perfect heroes are boring. This story lets him be scared, angry, tempted, and still capable of choosing something bigger than fear. That is where the title lands. “All We’ve Got” is not just a cool phrase. It is the thesis. When everything goes sideways, people are not ammunition. They are the reason you fight.

Sid Kotian’s art is doing serious work here. The Earthbound scenes have a clean cinematic rhythm, all sharp shadows, tight paneling, nervous faces, and danger creeping in from the edges like rent going up in New York. The action does not feel like superhero posing. It feels ugly, close, desperate. A guy getting jumped in a parking structure. A gun going off. Someone losing control. Someone else stepping out of the dark. There is a street-level grit to those pages that gives the cosmic material more weight because you feel the human cost before the universe starts screaming.

Then when the book rockets back into space, Kotian opens the whole visual throttle. The Blackstar imagery is wild. The giant black void, the green construct energy, the pink spectral figures, the gold weaponized authority, the whole page design starts feeling like a cosmic religious argument drawn in lightning. Pressy’s colors deserve a loud WEPA right here because this issue lives and dies on contrast. Green is not just green. It becomes hope, system, power, resurrection, memory, and defiance. Pink becomes death, psychic residue, lost souls, and something almost spiritual. Gold feels authoritarian, divine, and dangerous. Red and black bring the Blackstar cruelty like a warning siren. This is color as storytelling, not just decoration. Big difference.

What I love most is that the issue refuses to turn hope into some corny greeting card nonsense. Ewing understands that hope is not soft. Hope is not passive. Hope is the stubborn refusal to let monsters define the terms of survival. When Jo starts reframing the power of the Green Lantern not as a weapon, but as something that can connect, lift, shield, and awaken, the issue snaps into its strongest gear. That is the Green Lantern concept at its best. Not “I have the biggest space gun.” Not “My ring can make cooler toys than yours.” It is imagination with a conscience. It is power with responsibility. It is standing on stage in front of fear itself and saying, “Who’s ready for the green light?” Come on now. That’s a bar.

The Jessica Cruz moment at the end is the kind of cliffhanger that makes fans lean forward. Not because it is just another cameo or continuity candy, but because it feels emotionally loaded. Her line about being on Mogo’s side lands with this eerie calm, like rescue and danger just walked into the same body. You know something huge is about to pop off, but you also know it might hurt. That’s how you end an issue. Not with a cheap door slam. With a question that glows in the dark.

Real talk, this issue is dense. If you are jumping in cold, you might feel like you walked into the middle of three arguments, two psychic emergencies, and a cosmic hostage crisis. Names like Kari Limbo, Hector Hammond, Abin Sur, Jessica Cruz, Tomar Jo, Blackstars, D.E.O., and Mogo all fly around with purpose, but casual readers may need a second pass. That is not a failure. That is Ewing doing Ewing. The man builds story like a conspiracy board made of starlight. Still, a little more breathing room in certain transitions could have helped readers who are not fully locked into the current arc. But once you catch the rhythm, the issue rewards you. Big time.

Absolute Green Lantern #16 is a muscular, strange, heartfelt chapter that understands the difference between sacrifice and exploitation, between power and purpose, between being alone and being connected. It has noir bite, cosmic thunder, moral weight, and enough glowing spectacle to make your eyeballs pay rent. Al Ewing continues to write Green Lantern like the mythology matters, Sid Kotian delivers pages that shift from street danger to cosmic opera without losing emotional clarity, Pressy lights the whole thing like a spiritual emergency, and Lucas Gattoni keeps the chaos readable. This is not just another ring-slinging chapter. This is a story asking what the light is for.

This one is big, bold, weird, emotional, and proudly cosmic. A little dense for brand-new readers, yes, but for Green Lantern fans who love when the franchise gets philosophical while still punching holes in the universe, this issue shines like a ring in a blackout. WEPA, bring on the next one.

CRUSADERS SCORE:  
4.5/5

Writer: Al Ewing
Artist: Sid Kotian
Colors: Pressy
Letters: Lucas Gattoni
Cover: Jahnoy Lindsay
Variant Covers: Carlo Pagulayan, Jason Paz, Romulo Fajardo Jr., Eric Canete, Matias Bergara
Assistant Editor: Ash Padilla
Editor: Andrew Marino
Publisher: DC Comics

More Absolute Universe coverage: Check out our Absolute Green Arrow #1 review and Absolute Batman #20 review.