First of all I wanted to express my thanks to all of you who liked and shared the Jessica Cruz + Simon Baz Appreciation Post I wrote back in Octobor 22nd last year, and I certainly hope it was both as inspiring to some and maybe gave you an idea as to pick the series up. If not, well, I thank you anyway for your time for reading it. Today’s review can be as a “Part Deux” of it, so here we go.
The story is mostly a one-shot but it opens up with Jess on her bed in which I assume can be something daily for her:
Which hops into her thoughts as Simon and her are about to have pancakes in a small diner. Jess feels that she shouldn’t talk her struggles with Simon because it probably won’t help, that he doesn’t understand and would take it personally, making her feel guilty and it would only make everything feel worse. The Justice League later calls in for their assistance and they head out and after helping them out, they get other calls, like fixing a dam, helping civilians trapped by a landslide and a flash flood and the whole time, Jess is thinking to herself that helping civilians actually helps her as well. That focusing on other people and grounding herself in reality, her problems doesn’t seem so overwhelming.
And then a new villain shows up.
And it’s too much for Jess. The Gambler in all of his random doings, sayings, and outfit, Jess can’t seem to focus. She can’t focus. The Gambler sees an opportunity and knocks her down and Simon decks him. The two of them have a talk and Jess lays it all down.
When Jess gets home, she feels awful. She feels so angry, yet she feels embarrassed. So she gets back to her own routine, back to her own moment: Meditation, breathing and keeps herself grounded in the present. She later exercises, focusing her breathing and get a clear head. Her sister comes over and uses her time to rebuild her armor and sharpen herself, and ultimately…
But Jess is a Green Lantern, damnit. She can do this!
And it ends on a pretty positive note which we all can relate to, hopefully.
And that’s that. It ends on a message from Bats, giving them a new assignment in Gotham and a team-up. Hype!
Anyways. Once again, Sam Humphries has written another great issue and the daily life/struggles of Jessica Cruz. The only flaw (though a very small one) is that I would love to see what Simon goes through in his life, though we did see it a bit with his family and trying at least hide it from his family. But other than that, I really enjoyed this issue. The art is really good, especially the close-ups and the use of colors, especially the color green of the lanterns to good effect. I can only hope that Jess will overcome her greatest fears and become the greatest Green Lantern on Earth, but until then – we are all seeing that development as it progresses.
Final Rating: 4.5 out of 5.
As a closing words, I will leave with this quote from Stan Lee in 2012, “We tried to make our characters as human and empathetic as possible. Instead of merely emphasizing their super feats, we attempted to make their personal life and personal problems as realistic and as interesting as possible. We wanted to make them seem like real people whom the reader would like to spend time with and want to know better.”
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