Warning! Spoilers for Far Sector #11!
When it comes to the galactic cops known as the Green Lantern Jo Mullein’s reason for traveling to the outskirts of space finally revealed, a future war can be averted before it has a chance to start.
Touched on before diving back into the ever-escalating pressure cooker of a situation Jo has been dealing with since her arrival in the City Enduring, the very first page of Far Sector #11 by N.K. Jemisin and Jamal Cambell, lays out a quick transcription between unidentified Guardians of the Universe – aka the tiny blue alien bosses of the Green Lantern Corps – regarding Jo and her secret mission. Unknown to the rest of the Guardians, Jo’s mission has always been presented as an extremely important one, and is a task that fans are only now beginning to understand.
Redacting the participants of the conversation “for reasons of internal security”, the mysterious Guardian (designated Guardian 2) responsible for Jo’s dispatch takes their fellow brethren to task as they succinctly explain why Jo was unofficially sent across the stars, who made her “nonstandard” Green Lantern ring, and most importantly to fans, show how far the Guardians and by extension their Lantern recruits will go to stop a future war. Immediately making it clear that Guardian 2 was the alien behind deg Jo’s ring and giving Jo her secret orders, they then go on to tell their colleagues, “The rest of you were taking too long,” when the rest of them demand to know why Guardian 2 acted out of turn.
The point is then brought up that the Corps has “…no true jurisdiction in that region,” and that the Guardians need to pull Jo out of there immediately, an act that would effectively erase the good Jo's mission has done up until that moment and squash her chances of further success. Unperturbed by this comment, Guardian 2 then drops the bombshell as to the reason they sent Jo out to the City Enduring to begin with: to stop a city that would “…transform into an aggressive empire, threatening peace on a galactic scale and ultimately requiring the intervention of the entire Corps,” clearing up in one fell swoop the entirety of the situation that kick-started Far Sector’s story to begin with.
Not shy about forcibly taking matters into their own hands to push the limits of their power in the past (the Guardians’ murderous Manhunters are still fresh on the galaxy’s mind a millennia later), the idea that even one rogue Guardian would go to this extreme preemptive length to send an unsanctioned Green Lantern to a far off planet to squash an even more far off and potential disaster is one that shows the scale and reach of Guardian politics and thought. Furthermore, and knowing full well that the City Enduring would need to be completely wiped out should this future war ever occur, Guardian 2 is committed to keeping Jo stationed, a decision the rest of the Guardians reluctantly agree with.
So while the Guardians and their Green Lanterns have done some questionable things in the past that have shown their willingness to push the limits of their control to the extreme, Green Lantern Jo Mullein’s reasoning for stepping onto the streets of the City Enduring is actually a good one. And now with the murder mystery of Far Sector and the resulting unrest reaching their climax, the prevention of a future war might actually be in the cards…as long as Jo makes it out of there alive to see that future, that is.
