Welcome to Double Take, a column dedicated to highlighting different comics and each’s merits through a discussion between two veterans of the comic site space. One is yours truly, the person behind the Eisner Award-losing SKTCHD, David Harper. The other is friend of the site and the Eisner Award-winning comics critic Oliver Sava. And today, we’re taking on a big one.

It’s undeniable. DC’s Absolute line is a massive hit. It’s connected in a rare way with existing readers, it’s bringing in new and lapsed readers alike, and the publisher has played its hand perfectly in making sure each title is both great and available for an audience that’s desperately thirsty for these comics. When it comes to the past year of direct market comic products, it is the biggest story, and it isn’t particularly close.

That doesn’t mean every title has earned equal amounts of love. While the passions run high for sensations like the Absolute versions of Batman, Wonder Woman, and Martian Manhunter, others have connected with some and lagged for others. That’s not atypical, and it’s the nature of these beasts. They’re deliberately big swings, and ones that go in different directions than veteran fans of DC’s characters might expect for them. That will result in some level of polarization, and that’s true for the big books even.

But within the line, the title that might have the widest range of reactions might just be Al Ewing, Jahnoy Lindsay, and Lucas Gattoni’s Absolute Green Lantern. This title repositions the core group of Green Lanterns — Hal Jordan, Sojourner Mullein, John Stewart, and Guy Gardner — as residents of the same town in the fittingly named Evergreen. They’re all living their lives when a giant ship, one that’s in the familiar shape of a Green Lantern ring, and the alien being known as The Abin Sur arrives on the scene, and as is often the case with superhero titles, nothing will ever be the same for residents of this town.

Part cosmic horror and part interpersonal drama, this isn’t the superheroics and space cops you know from other Green Lantern titles. In a line filled with big swings, it might be the biggest, and that rubs some readers the wrong way. That made Absolute Green Lantern catnip for the crew behind this very column. So, today, Oliver and I will be talking about the pros and cons of this series after the conclusion of its recent arc. So, please, be warned, if you’ve not read issue #6, it’d probably be better to avoid reading this for now. We do get into heavy spoiler territory as we discuss the merits of this book.

David Harper: Oliver, I think it’s fair to say that in a line that’s been a sensation so far, Absolute Green Lantern has been the most polarizing title. Al Ewing, Jahnoy Lindsay, and Lucas Gattoni have crafted a series that has fans and haters alike.

Count me amongst the former, as I’ve been the whole time.

I know this is awfully Abin Qard of me to say this, but after finishing its sixth issue — which concluded its first arc — I couldn’t help but have three words in my head: I was right.

How are you feeling about Absolute Green Lantern now that its first arc has closed? Are you Aur? Are you Qard? Or are you somewhere in-between?

Oliver Sava: Your correct action might make you the new Abin Sur, and I will be your Ain. 

This book has been the slowest burn of the Absolute line, but that pacing builds a lot of tension and mystery over the course of the first arc. Major characters like Guy Gardner and John Stewart are killed off to up the horror element, but you know they aren’t really dead, so where are they and what’s happening to them?

It all leads to issue #6’s big reveal about what’s going on, which gives me a lot more questions, but now I better understand the framework this team is working within. And that framework is Qard, Rao, Sur, Aur. Or maybe the inverse?