Green Lanterns, Issue #7 starts the new arc, "Family Matters." Jessica Cruz is at Simon Baz's family's house, and she's having social anxiety. It's Halloween season, and for Lebanese immigrants like the Baz family, that means making ma'amoul cookies using a complicated recipe. Both Simon and Jessica want to get away but for different reasons. Jessica is uncomfortable around people. Simon is uncomfortable around his mother, who's on her way. All the while, a former Guardian of the Universe, Rami, is meditating in the Baz attic, and he has a message.
This is a very needed issue. I unfortunately skipped Green Lanterns: Rebirth, Issue #1 and went straight to Green Lanterns #1, so I missed a lot of the early character development. I'll probably go back and buy that issue, perhaps today, but an action title without character development can be pretty bland.
I'm a big fan of Shaw Brothers movies from the 1970s, and the best ones involved a cogent reason for the characters to fight, plus a little humor. Sure, many got by on pure fight stylings along with minor story arcs, like Heroes of the East, which basically involves a Chinese husband beating up his Japanese wife's friends for no good reason (slight hyperbole), but in the end, the Chinese husband begins to respect the Japanese friends of his wife, something that wasn't seen in Hong Kong cinema of the 1970s, where the Japanese were evil and foolish.
What I like about Green Lanterns is that it isn't just, "oh, let's have a black/Muslim/Japanese hero so that we can appeal to new target audiences and look more diverse." The focus on Jessica Cruz's anxiety, perhaps stemming from PTSD or CPTSD, takes the title a step beyond what the usual diversity title is. Simon Baz is a flawed hero as well; he still carries a gun, and his arm is still in a cast from it being broken four or so issues ago.
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