Far Sector #7-12

Far Sector #7-12

Originally released in 2020

Written by N.K. Jemisin

Art by Jamal Campbell

Picking up where issue 6 left off, the society on the planet that Jo Mullein has been assigned to (the City Enduring) is falling apart, with cracks starting to show.  In particular, these issues show the problems with the race of artificial intelligences (the @At, or "At-At") that make up one of the three groups that live there - they use art and memes for money and nourishment, and in a society without emotions, there's not much in the way of either.  Earth memes are like gold to them, and there's an entire underground drug ring dedicated to making them with the help of Switchoff, a drug that gives people their emotions back.

This leads to some members of the @At taking on assassination jobs out of desperation, which leads to Jo needing to use her Green Lantern Ring in order to convert herself into data and chase them down. The art continues to be breathtaking, with the world of the @At being a highlight, but this beauty hides a darker underbelly - the @At are living in poverty, with many of them barely scraping by without the precious, precious memes, and many of them are effectively disenfranchised - whenever there's a referendum on the city's future, polling stations and online voting aren't accessible enough to handle demand, resulting in many @Ats not being able to vote, paralleling issues with real life elections.

There's even internal discrimination within @At society, with Jo's virtual assistant CanHaz being called a sell-out for working with Jo.  Despite (or because of) being the sole Green Lantern in the area, Jo also faces discrimination, with her being treated as wild, irrational, and unstable simply for having emotions when the majority of the people don't.

There's a lot going on in this story that parallels with real world issues - discrimination (based on racism or other reasons), a small group of people placing their views over the will of the majority, disenfranchisement, sowing division in order to cling to power... despite this, it never feels overwhelming or overly preachy.  The story is largely confined to the City Enduring, but the rest of the universe isn't much better - as it turns out, Jo becoming a Green Lantern was the work of one rogue Guardian of the Universe (the short blue people who run Oa), and they have no real jurisdiction in that sector.

Ultimately, the story comes down to the question of whether someone should follow orders because it's easier to think that some things are outside of your control and your hands are tied, or to do the right thing even if it seems like it's futile.  It's obvious which side is intended to be right here ("just following orders" carries some extremely negative connotations nowadays), but in a society where emotions are outlawed, it's harder for Jo to convince people of that.

The mystery is resolved well enough, with the big reveals being justified, and even when the mastermind is ultimately uncovered, there are still other threats to deal with, as other factions within the City Enduring are still trying to grasp for power or wealth.  The final two issues see the city dissolve into chaos as a result of all of these plots intersecting, and with her Green Lantern running on fumes, Jo's options are limited when it comes to resolving these various conflicts.

I think this might be my favourite Green Lantern story that I've read, at least so far.  The story's self-contained, it's well-written, the artwork (particularly the setting) is gorgeous, and the themes and issues are relevant, with the story doing its best to address them. (giving everyone in the society of the City Enduring a voice and making voting accessible for everyone, for example - it doesn't fix every problem that the society has, but it helps, and it's a lesson that parts of our own society could learn from)  The self-contained aspect of it likely helps a lot - unlike something like Annihilation, the audience (and, in some cases, Jo herself) is being introduced to these new races and characters, so the story takes its time with introducing them and it doesn't feel like the story overwhelms us with details.