WARNING: The following article contains spoilers for Green Lanterns # 40, by Tim Seeley, Barnaby Bagenda, Mick Gray and Jay Leisten, on sale now.
Since being paired together by Hal Jordan, Green Lanterns Simon Baz and Jessica Cruz have been through a lot. They've fought evil Lanterns, their own personal anxieties, and the stress of the American job system. But nothing could prepare the Emerald Knights for their greatest challenge of all...superhero dating.
In Green Lanterns #40, the earthbound space cops find themselves dealing with a massive hurricane alongside a handful of other superheroes. Some you've heard of before, such as Power Girl, Blue Beetle and Firestorm; others, you may not have, such as Bulleteer. Once the chaos settles, it's Bulleteer who comes to Simon asking for the Lanterns to help find her missing friend, Night Pilot. And it's here that we learn about the hot new superhero dating app: Caper.
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Caper is essentially the DC Universe equivalent to Tinder; you swipe left if you dislike someone, swipe right if you like them. It's exclusively for the heroes out there, thankfully avoiding creepy situations with devoted fans. The company behind the app has designed it so that heroes don't have to reveal their secret identities on the app; they post a name, picture, interests, and their powers. With superhero/civilian romances rarely ending well, the only ones who could truly understand what heroes are going through are other heroes, after all.
Simon's gone on a date or two through the app (when possible), and he and Night Pilot hit it off, but the fact that he has no paying job and living in the sector house was a real turn off for her. When the Lanterns arrive at the Watchtower to look up any information they can on the missing hero, Jessica decides that she wants to be included in the fun and signs up with on Caper, hoping to land a big-time hottie like Nightwing. As "Pancake Princess" (Green Lantern, shockingly, was already taken) she begins sorting through her potential paramours, even signing up for the monthly recommended match feature.
As it turns out, Caper has been the common link between multiple smalls-time superheroes who have gone missing, ones whose appearances are so already sporadic that no one would really notice they were MIA unless they knew to look. Thanks to Cyborg's help, the Lanterns track down the location of Caper's developers, Hoocups, and head there to investigate. And here's where the issue gets really interesting...
As they touch down in front of the storage unit, Jessica receives her recommended superhero counterpart: Simon Baz, and he's a 93% match.
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Of course, Jessica doesn't tell her partner that they've been matched, claiming instead the app paired her with the Ray despite him being gay. But during their investigation of the storage unit, she does discuss things with her irritated ring, as best she can. It's against procedure of the Green Lantern Corps to lie to a partner, after all, but the complexities of human friendships and relationships are alien to a sentient piece of jewelry. In her eyes, however, it's worth the small untruth as it could potentially screw up their partnership if he doesn't feel the same way, or they give the dating a shot only to find that things don't work out. Considering that they go through a different catastrophe every other week, it's a legitimate concern on her part.
Green Lanterns has hinted in previous issues that there may be something potentially brewing between them, so this development doesn't come out of left field. In this issue, during their flight to the Caper HQ, for example, Jessica very quickly comes to Simon's defense when she hears about how bad Simon's later dates with Night Pilot went, highlighting all the good qualities about him that Pilot missed out on. Considering the time the two of them have spent together and all that they've been through in 40 issues, it only makes sense that a romance brew between them eventually.
Will Jessica tell Simon about her match? Does Simon completely feel the same? These answers will have to wait, as the Emerald Knights have to deal with something marginally less complicated than dating: the fact that Caper users are being kidnapped and sent to an alien dungeon on the end of the universe.