We continue with the second episode of Raquel’s arc, and we’re taking a slight departure from the usual into a pleasantly surprising - and familiar to some - foray into quite the story with “Encounter Upon the Razor’s Edge”. As always, there are spoilers ahead, so if you haven’t watched the episode: go do so now!
It was a clever little pun with the title, and a little show called Green Lantern: The Animated Series. For those of you who aren’t familiar with it, the show’s singular season aired concurrently to YJ: Invasion, and both shows shared the same fate way back in 2013. Although GLTAS hasn’t yet been revived, this episode serves as a subtle crossover, and a nice way to get some form of closure for the time being. We highly recommend checking out the show - it’s also available on HBO Max - before diving into this episode.
We kick off the episode with two ultimatums, delivered by Bart and M’comm, with their own respective groups. Bart is more than happy to help the Legion install the parts they’ve been collecting for three and a half months, but he will not install the final piece until he finds out how exactly they wound up there, and what is really going on. Meanwhile, M’comm, who up until now has been more than satisfied following Darkseid’s orders for his own goals, has now decided he needs answers if he’s to follow Lor Zod’s plan. Both the Legion and Lor Zod agree, opening the doors for the interwoven storytime that plays out throughout the episode. It serves to explain quite a bit of what’s been happening behind the scenes, from the glimpse we saw in the Season 3 finale, through the Mars arc, and finally see what Lor Zod’s plan has been. We have some interesting cameos and name drops, plus why he hates Conner so much, planning his demise, and how the Legion has been trying to stop him, with some successes, and the eventual failure.
We also meet Earth 16’s version of Tomar-Re and Killowog. Comic fans will surely recognize both, as they discuss the success of the summit. Killowog has no high hopes, while Tomar-Re is trying to be more optimistic, considering the powerful groups that are meeting. But before they can delve deeper into the discussion, they receive an emergency distress call. The caller is a Blue Lantern - Razer!
For those who are unfamiliar with GLTAS, Razer was a character created for the show, one of the main characters and eventual protagonist after a rocky start, a wielder of the Red Lantern after losing his wife. Throughout the course of the show, he redeems himself, and the show ends with a Blue Lantern headed his way. While Killowog is hugging his old teammate, Razer explains that he’s all out of hope, the source of power for his blue ring.
Killowog has his moment mother-henning Razer on his silence for four years. He explains everything to his old teammate, placing the events of GLTAS’ finale four years ago, while also tying it to the show’s mythos, with Metron showing up in the past and offering to hold the Red Lantern ring for safekeeping, and thus preventing someone else from using it. Razer journeyed to find Aya, the Green Lantern sentient AI that he fell for, but the search proved futile thus far, hence the failure of his ring, and his presence on New Genesis: he’s here for the Red Lantern ring.
On New Genesis, the Summit is about to begin. Orion welcomes Raquel and Jay as the Justice League’s representatives. They’re soon joined by Vykin, who helps assure Raquel that she shouldn’t judge Orion too soon. Tomar-Re and Killowog make up the rest of the participants, and the Summit has begun. It’s tense, with a few quips at the expense of the Lanterns. Much to Raquel’s dismay, the diplomatic binds are tying everyone’s hands, so no one can help Earth with the metahuman trafficking that has been rampant.
We also catch up with the Foragers, who have some tender (albeit tongue-twister) moments, showing the range of Jason Spisak’s skill at juggling two very distinct characters in Forager and Razer.
While Lor Zod continues his story, Razer is trading his blue ring for the familiar red. He requires rage to power it, and it comes too easily once Metron reveals that he’s been planting the fruitless leads that led to the loss of hope because his entire plan was to study the rings, he had no interest in helping Razer. Razer and Metron have an all-out fight, with the latter treating it like a science experiment, until it starts going south.
Meanwhile Raquel is trying to talk to Noble about the mounting pressure of their son’s diagnosis, and how she can’t do anything because she has to deal with the Summit not going as intended. Her reasoning echoes the Green Lantern’s in an interesting way. Noble tries to reassure her, but first she has to deal with the trail of destruction Razer is leaving.
The only thing to break Razer out of his trance is seeing that Forager’s purple counterpart was badly hurt. Razer makes a demand to have the blue ring returned, and Metron denies him, instead hitting him with a beam of energy. Through his pain, Razer is able to command the blue ring to return to him, effectively making him now a mix of both, equal parts hope and rage.
Once all the heroes are gathered, Razer heals Forager and restores the statue he destroyed, now with both Foragers there as well. The episode wraps up with Bart finishing his project: a cosmic treadmill, and a Forager duet of a song for Jay’s 102nd birthday.
Overall, the episode was a lovely way to honor GLTAS, bringing back Jim Krieg and Giancarlo Volpe to write this episode, and thus expand on the Lantern mythos for Earth 16. It also sets a lot of things up for the next few episodes, such as Lor Zod and the Kaiser Thrall, the Legion now having a working time ship, and figuring out where the Summit will go from here.
Between the humorous moments, as well as the nostalgia kick from seeing familiar faces, the episode was an enjoyable adventure that allowed for a small respite from the madness that some of these arcs have been pushing, and is reminiscent of the Mars arc in the calm before the storm. We’re sure that soon enough, things will pick up, especially considering the scenes from the trailer released just before this half kicked off, and the rush will be back, but until then, we’ll continue humming along to the Forager duet of Flash’s birthday song!
