Green Lantern: Rise of The Third Army (Comics) | Review

The Green Lantern Corps has faced galaxy-ending threats before but what happens when the real danger comes from within? Rise of The Third Army throws everything you thought you knew about the Guardians of the Universe straight out the airlock into deep space.

This 2012-2013 crossover event strips away the safety net and forces readers to question whether the protectors of order have become something far worse than any villain they've ever faced. The Guardians, tired of emotional weakness, decide to create a new army that operates without free will or any individual thought at all.

The Third Army isn't just a threat to overcome. It's a philosophical gut punch about control, autonomy and what happens when those in power decide the ends justify any means. The stakes feel uncomfortably real because the enemy isn't some cosmic monster.

Geoff Johns (Flashpoint, Infinite Crisis) anchors the writing across the main Green Lantern title while Peter Tomasi (Blood Tree, Brightest Day), Peter Milligan and Tony Bedard handle the other books. The collaboration mostly works, though tonal shifts between titles can jar you out of the story when reading everything consecutively.

The Guardians of the Universe have had enough. After countless failures from their Green Lantern Corps, they secretly begin creating the Third Army, a hive-mind force that converts beings into mindless soldiers. No willpower required. No emotions whatsoever.

Hal Jordan and the rest of the Corps find themselves fighting a desperate war on two fronts against overwhelming odds. The Third Army spreads like a virus across the universe, turning everyone it touches into more mindless soldiers. Meanwhile, the Guardians systematically dismantle the Green Lantern Corps from within.

The real horror isn't the body-snatching army itself. It's watching the architects of justice become tyrants who genuinely believe they're saving the universe. This event connects directly to War of the Green Lanterns and sets up the massive First Lantern storyline that follows.

The Guardians' descent into authoritarianism didn't happen overnight. It's been building since Geoff Johns' entire run, with this arc serving as the breaking point for their sanity and moral compass. Everything from Blackest Night to the emotional spectrum wars has been driving the Guardians toward their inevitable breaking point.

The crossover weaves through Green Lantern, Green Lantern Corps, Green Lantern: New Guardians and Red Lanterns titles. Each book handles different pieces of the puzzle. Hal Jordan deals with being expelled from the Corps right when Earth needs protection most desperately.

Guy Gardner and John Stewart face the Third Army head-on while trying to maintain order among increasingly panicked Lantern Corps across the galaxy. Kyle Rayner gets tangled in the deeper cosmic implications. The Red Lanterns provide an outside perspective that highlights just how badly the Guardians have lost their way.

What sells the premise is how personal it gets. These aren't faceless heroes fighting abstract evil. Watching characters realize their mentors and leaders have become the very thing they swore to fight against creates genuine tension that resonates throughout every chapter.

The Third Army itself works as both physical threat and metaphor. It's what happens when you strip away everything that makes beings individuals and reduce them to tools. The Guardians think they're creating perfection. They're actually building their own worst nightmare.

The pacing stumbles occasionally when jumping between four different titles without proper coordination. Some issues feel like they're marking time rather than advancing the plot but when the story hits its stride, particularly in moments where Lanterns directly confront the Guardians, the emotional weight lands so hard.

You feel the betrayal. You understand why some Lanterns consider walking away entirely. The crossover manages to make a cosmic-scale threat feel intensely personal. That's harder to pull off than most writers realize, especially when coordinating across multiple books.

Rise of the Third Army proves that institutional betrayal cuts far deeper than any villain's scheme could. When the Guardians start viewing their own Corps as expendable test subjects, the philosophical questions become far more compelling than the action sequences. That's what separates this from typical crossover fare.

Johns brings his typical epic scope and character work. He understands how to make cosmic threats feel personal. Tomasi matches that energy in Green Lantern Corps, focusing on military aspects and brotherhood between Lanterns facing impossible odds under hostile leadership.

The art team rotates between Doug Mahnke (Final Crisis, Swamp Thing: Green Hell), Fernando Pasarin, Miguel Sepulveda and others. Mahnke's work on the main title stands out for its visceral intensity and detail. The Third Army looks genuinely disturbing under his pencils. These aren't monsters you want collectible figures of.

Where the art occasionally falters is in maintaining visual consistency for the Third Army across different titles. The creatures look subtly different depending on who's drawing them, which can pull you out of the story when binging the entire event in sequence over a weekend.

The color work deserves a special mention here. Green Lantern books have always used color as storytelling shorthand and this event leans into that hard with striking visual contrasts. When Lanterns fall and get converted, watching their signature green fade into the Army's sickly palette cuts deeper than dialogue alone.

Rise of The Third Army doesn't reach the heights of Blackest Night or Sinestro Corps War but it earns its place in Green Lantern history. This is a bridge story that had to transition from one major arc to another while standing firmly on its own merits and delivering satisfying drama.

The concept of the Guardians as antagonists works far better than it should. These aren't mustache-twirling villains by any means whatsoever. They're true believers who've convinced themselves that absolute control equals absolute safety. That makes them more frightening than any traditional monster could hope to be.

If you're invested in the Green Lantern mythology, this is required reading. It fundamentally changes the relationship between the Corps and the Guardians in ways that ripple through future stories. The payoff comes in the First Lantern arc that follows immediately after.

The event proves that sometimes the most compelling threats come from questioning authority rather than just punching bigger monsters or cosmic threats head-on. It's not perfect but it's brave enough to take risks with established characters and cosmic order in ways most crossover events refuse to even attempt or even consider.

You can read Green Lantern: Rise of the Third Army is collected in a 416-page hardcover edition. It's also available as a trade paperback. Digital editions are offered on Amazon Kindle, ComiXology and DC Universe Infinite, so you can read it on nearly any device.