Absolute Green Lantern #9 (2025)

Dr. Steve Dayton, a paranoid and eccentric scientist, builds a machine he calls the "Mento Device" to expand his mind and contact alien consciousnesses beyond Earth. He sees a vision of Mogo and hears a voice telling him to warn his entire world; and to fear "the face of steel". After waking up from the device he hears a knock on the door, and goes to answer with a gun in his hand. The person on the other side gives a code phrase and he opens the door to let his assistant Terry Long in. He tells Terry that the final test was a success, and in response Terry pulls out a gun and shoots him. As Dayton dies, "Terry" unmasks to reveal that he is in fact an assassin named Keith Kenyon. Kenyon also tells Dayton that Terry was selling him out to Hector Hammond, but Hammond got tired of Long and so had Kenyon kill him for the code phrase, and then kill Dayton for the machine. After Dayton bleeds out Kenyon calls Hammond to report the mission as complete and Kenyon tells him he has a new target: Jo Mullein. Meanwhile at Cameron Chase's apartment, Hal Jordan has been passed out since they arrived, almost twenty-fours hours ago. Cameron snipes at Jo that she knows Hal can't be Jo's boyfriend since he's in front of her face instead of behind her back. Jo retorts back that she's not going to just stand there and take all the barbs Cameron's been saving up. She says that when they met she had only just come out and arrived in the city when they met, and so she couldn't recognise the red flags when Cameron rushed ahead in their relationship. Cameron incredulously asks if Jo's accusing her of taking advantage of her, but Jo replies that she doesn't think Cameron plans to love bomb and then ignore people, she's just so much of a disaster she can't do anything else. Cameron says that she wasn't love bombing, she just genuinely loved Jo. Jo explodes with anger, yelling back that the only thing Cameron ever loved was her work. She rants that a starship dropped on her home, her friend is infected with an evil shadow, her boss is a "space Jesus" warning about killer planets, and she and a "bird guy" are being hunted because they're anomalies in the cosmic order. Jo screams that now she's finally part of Cameron's work and asks her if she finally wants to be around. Cameron calmly lights up a cigarette and asks who the "bird guy" is. Jo is nonplussed by Cameron's reaction but Cameron says that Jo is right about her and she needs to investigate any thread that comes her way, and Jo hadn't mentioned a bird guy before. Jo reveals that when she accidentally took the power she saw visions: a man with pink skin and metal in his mind; a black star; and Tomar Re, someone else who got their power by accident, an anomaly of the Red Level of Light. Cameron asks her to take the ring off and Jo bows up for an argument, but Cameron points out that they don't know if the power is in her or the ring. Jo removes the ring and the green light around her disappears. Cameron then snatches the ring from her, put it on and punches the coffee table, shattering it. She deduces that only Jo can access the ring's full power, but even if someone else uses it, it is still a powerful weapon. Cameron gives Jo the ring back and tells her to wear it at all times because she's vulnerable without it. She leaves to contact her partner Simon Baz, and tells Jo that while she's gone she should write down every detail of her visions and stay away from the windows. After she's gone Jo ruefully says that Cameron still doesn't want her around. At D.E.O. headquarters, Jonny Double meets with Simon and his temporary partner Kari Limbo. Simon tells him that he has made progress on the Evergreen investigation: a Nevada State Police trooper was reported missing a day and a half ago, and when his abandoned car was discovered on the side of the highway; investigators discovered footage of him confronting a man, the footage going dark, and the trooper disappearing. The civilian was identified as Evergreen resident Hal Jordan, and when Simon went through Hal's extensive social media he found pictures of him with Jo Mullein, who Simon recognises as Cameron Chase's ex-wife. Double tells them to follow the lead on Hal, and as soon as they both leave he calls up Hammond's assistant Carol Ferris to tell them what he has learned. At Cameron's apartment, Jo suddenly hears a knock on the door. From the other side, John Stewart's voice calls out to her, saying they don't have much time. The power lets Jo look through the door and she sees what appears to be John on the other side. She opens the door, and to her confusion sees that John is completely dressed in gold-coloured clothes. "John" shoots her in the shoulder with a gold bullet that punches straight through her force field and knocks her to the ground. She tries to get up, her power flaring, but he shoots her again in the gut. Kenyon unmasks and introduces himself, then covers his head with a gold helmet and tells her she can call him "Goldface".