Comic review: Green Lantern Corps #37 (Godhead Act 3, Part 2)- Democracy is an empty lie

Writer: Van Jensen
Artists: Bernard Chang & Mirko Colak
Publisher: DC Comics
Released: 10th December 2014


Without the illusion of democracy the US and all of the other western countries attached, limpet like to the new imperial empire of planet Earth, would have no moral legitimacy whatsoever. Their wars for corporate profit would be naked, displayed as the murderous, anti-human resource and money making schemes that they actually are. Why am I mentioning this at the beginning of a comic book review? I’ll explain.

The evil dictator

The main villain in the ‘Godhead’ arc is a character called ‘Highfather.’ He is portrayed as a tyrant because he is waging a war against various planets in order to defeat a greater evil, that evil being a villain called ‘Darkseid.’ In other words, it’s a preventative war. He’s subjugating people for their own good, at least that’s the way that he sees it, but he’s a villain, remember that. He’s a tyrant, a bad guy.

Now, think about reality for a second. What did the US do in 2003? They invaded a country for preventative reasons. They claimed that the country had secret weapons (they didn’t) and so they destroyed it, murdering hundreds of thousands of men, women and children, stole it’s resources and gave them to it’s multi -national corporations. They did all of this for good reasons, of course. Ask Tony Blair and George Bush, they defend those reasons still to this very day. That is not a controversial thing for me to say. It might annoy people when I say it, but it is fact.

Here’s my question. What does the average comic book reader think when he reads a comic book like the ‘Godhead’ arc where the main villain is doing exactly (and probably less violently) what the US, UK and many other western countries have done, and continue to do today? The character in this Green Lantern Corps comic book is a bad guy, right? So what the Hell does that make our own western governments? Think about it. Think about what is going on here.

And this is where the illusion of democracy comes into play. Without that illusion, that we are different because we get to choose our leaders, the truth is very naked, don’t you think? A very dangerous assumption is at work here, that being the assumption that evil only comes from a dictator (like Highfather in this comic book), not from a ‘free’ democracy. Safe in the knowledge that evil cannot exist in his own ‘democratic’ country, the average comic book reader can read this comic without seeing any irony in it whatsoever.

And here comes the heroic resistance fighters

So when the US gets ready for it’s next corporate election between the Bush and Clinton families, remember what I said here. The illusion of democracy gives moral cover for the actions of the tiny number of ‘elite’ families who own and control the west. No crazy dictator is needed when the political system is owned and controlled by a few corporate and banking interests. Crazy dictators are for comic books and mainstream news networks. That’s the truth, like it or not.

Oh yeah, the comic book review. Sorry, this is a review isn’t it? Green Lantern Corps #37 (Godhead Act 3, Part 2) does the usual crazy dictator thing, that I’ve just discussed, puts the lanterns in position as the heroic resistance, one of the Highfather’s goon’s gets a kicking, and it’s fight back time for the good guys.

All of this comic book action is played out with the usual lack of awareness of the real world reality where US corporate imperialism (backed up by the most expensive military/war machine that the world has ever seen) is fighting real resistance movements all over the world. Funny stuff really. You have to laugh, you really do.

Rating: 6/10 (Decent art and some narrative advancement)