WARNING: The following contains spoilers for Far Sector #3 by N.K Jemisin, Jamal Campbell and Deron Bennett on sale now

Cosmic space battles have always been at the heart of the Green Lantern corner of the DC Universe. There have been periods where the series has shifted gears and become more grounded however, focusing on real-world issues and how even a magic space ring that turns your imagination into reality can't solve everything.

While most Green Lantern stories in the last few years have been primarily sci-fi adventures, Far Sector has turned the galactic organization political again - more so than ever.

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RIGHT TO PROTEST

The crux of the issue comes when newly minted Green Lantern Jo Mullein is called to intervene in a protest that's about to turn violent. Tillij of the Steppe, leader of part of the planet's Peace Division, warns Jo that the protest has not been approved by the governing council. The protests were ordered to disperse but turned down the command. Jo is only given a short amount of time to disperse the crowd before the police open fire on them. She arrives at the protest when it's on the verge of chaos and initially seems to stop a full-blown conflict from breaking out between both sides over the world's strict laws of controlling emotions.

One side fights for the legality of Switchoff, the drug that allows the people of the world to feel the full range of emotions again. However, a counter-protest argues that those fighting for access to the drug just risk causing the same kind of chaos that destroyed their original worlds. Ultimately, Jo makes a decision to resolve the conflict, at least for the time being: she asks the protestors to put together a list of demands so she can bring them to the council. While this seems to break up the chaos at least briefly, things take a turn when the Peace Corp open fire on the protestors despite them disbursing. Jo's anger takes over and the issue ends with Jo prepared to bring down the entire force present at the protest.

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THE POLITICS OF THE SITUATION

The Green Lantern comics have a history of being politically minded. Green Lantern #76 by Dennis O'Neil and Neil Adams helped push the entire genre into the more political territory by directly forcing the characters to confront the racial injustice of their own world. Even in a universe where the Green Lantern can stop an entire invading alien army, he's done nothing to help end some of the most pervasive injustices of his society.

But Green Lantern comics, especially in the past decade, have been more focused on the large-scale cosmic wars between universal entities. There's nothing wrong with that approach, as many of those comics are bombastic and fun. But it's engaging to see Far Sector reapproach that earlier political idea of what could -- and what should -- some who can do anything do when they find a problem they can't just punch away. It takes a hard stance on policing, with Jo standing in for every person who doesn't understand why the police have to do things that make people fear them. It draws a line between those ideas and what a protector of the public should be.

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When Jo is confronted by the counter-protesters over her apparent apathy to "law and order", she recalls some very painful (and very real) moments in American history where that mantra was used to justify some very harsh and cruel ideals. It's a heavy but powerful moment. The comic specifically recalls the Manzanar War Relocation Center (one of the American concentration camps where innocent Japanese Americans were interned during World War II), Nixon running for President of the USA on a "Law and Order" campaign (a phrase that has often been a coded way to refer to constraining communities based on their race), a newspaper ad calling to bring back law and order (reminiscent of the front page paid for by Donald Trump that demanded the death penalty for the since proven-innocent Central Park Five) and a young woman of color with her hands up being confronted by a number of heavily armed police officers (referencing an infamous picture from Ferguson, Missouri after Michael Brown was shot by police and protests descended on the town).  It gives the proceedings a stronger weight.

When Jo is confronted by one of the elitist counter-protestors, who demands she present the council with both sides of the argument, she refuses. She says the ruling class has had their voices (and only their voices) heard for long enough, they can stand to be quiet and let someone else make their points for a little while. In a divided political age where most art is comfortable taking a "both sides" approach, Far Sector is overtly defiant of that idea. It's willing to argue that sometimes, Only now when the authorities open fire, the Green Lantern is angry enough to do something about it. It's incredibly compelling to see a modern take on the political Green Lantern story and superheroes in general, and for this one to suggest that unlike with Hal Jordan in the past, Jo Mullein is willing and able to literally fight for what she believes in.

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