Jeremy Adams finishes out one DC era and starts another with the DC All In Green Lantern Vol. 4: Civil Corps. Three Green Lantern issues bookended between two specials is not a “crossover” per se, but Phillip Kennedy Johnson’s brief writing assist foreshadows characters and situations from Johnson’s Green Lantern: War Journal making their way into Green Lantern’s conflict. It is well done, as Adams' Green Lantern has been of late, a fine superhero sci-fi opera that’s not nearly as continuity heavy as Green Lantern events can sometimes be, and the ending left me eager to see what comes next.

[Review contains spoilers]

I had hoped the “Civil Corps” moniker would be more than just a pun; I wondered previously if it indicated some Green Lantern corps charged not with peacekeeping but with providing aid — the drama of Green Lanterns who clean up after disasters or fix infrastructure on alien planets. None of that is here, and by the end of the book we don’t have a concrete charge for the revitalized Green Lantern Corps — it remains to be seen what Green Lantern or the new Green Lantern Corps titles will be about — so it’s unclear what if anything might have changed aside from our Corps having defeated the rogue United Planets Corps.

That’s been building throughout the first year of Adams' Green Lantern, which had a rocky start but impressed in its second and third volumes. In War Journal, Johnson’s had John Stewart in other dimensions fighting ancient powers related to Johnson’s cross-title fantasy saga, but here John’s “Dark Star” ring gets usurped by Thaaros, the corrupt United Planets president from Green Lantern. As such, a crossover unfolds, and particularly once Thaaros' factions begin to rebel, summoning the mad henchman Varron from War Journal and pitting him against Thaaros. Civil Corps becomes appropriately, compellingly busy, a multi-front war that includes not only Tharros and Varron against one another and the Corps, but also a possessed Mogo and other threats.

To that end, Adams juggles a large cast. That’s fewer alien Lanterns and more Earth Lanterns, since the cadre of Earth Lanterns is at this point pretty large, but I don’t necessarily mind. I appreciate that Adams even works in Golden Age Green Lantern Alan Scott, as Adams did in Green Lantern Vol. 3 in the run up to Absolute Power, making Alan feel more a part of the Green Lantern cast than other writers have. The teaming of John’s Lantern-construct sister Ellie and Teen Lantern Keli Quintela is also fun. Only Simon Baz felt too much in the background, though I see him on an upcoming Corps cover.

Adams also seemed to struggle with Star Sapphire Carol Ferris; I recognize she’s the rookie, but she’s often mute in the background of scenes while Hal Jordan and John or others figure things out. The scene where Carol confronts the Predator entity is interesting, rather removed as it is from the rest of the story. Adams depicts the Predator indeed as a nefarious stalker, shunting it seems the period where the Predator was the embodiment of the Sapphire corps' love; I’m curious where Adams goes with this and whether it affects Carol any to be at odds with, I think, the entity that provides her powers.

Perhaps because Civil Corps continues directly into the next story, the final part and the “Fractured Spectrum” epilogue emphasize “mood” over plot; we get more than a few pages of Hal staring out at the stars and thinking how good everything is. But that space isn’t given to fleshing out the quick announcements that “the Guardians have returned” off-page, for instance, and Kyle Rayner’s sudden knowledge that people are manifesting Lantern powers throughout the universe, something we’re told but don’t actually see. Surely some of this must be in one or the other upcoming title, but the brief references make Civil Corps' ending feel rushed.

I recall DC’s 1990s “Trinity” crossover between Green Lantern, Darkstars, and LEGION as a high point, Hal Jordan’s last hurrah before “Emerald Twilight.” Jeremy Adams' Green Lantern Vol. 4: Civil Corps gets heady toward the end of part two (Green Lantern #17), with a “Next” box breathlessly announcing a variety of events, plus an additional “one more thing” splash page. That put me in mind of “Trinity,” and even that Adams is getting that excited just in his own title, no line-wide specials needed — I like his enthusiasm and I’m eager to see all of this continue.

[Includes original and variant covers]