Green Lantern #1
Written by Geoff Johns
Art by Doug Mahnke, Christian Alamy, Tom Nguyen, and David Baron
I came in to this issue expecting it to be an immediate follow up to Green Lantern #67 and the War of the Green Lanterns, something that fit in after War of the GLs Aftermath, but not necessarily a rebooted title. To be honest, I’d be disappointed if this title picked up with a fresh start, or worse, if the canon was altered enough that Johns would have to open up with explaining away the differences. Thankfully we really did know coming in that not much would be altered, and after reading this issue it just isn’t all talk. This issue might as well be called Green Lantern #68.
Sinestro debuts in his new-old role as a Green Lantern to start the issue, and it’s just as Johns described. He doesn’t want the ring, the Guardians don’t want him to have it, but nobody seems able to get it off of him. The Guardians claim that it is a chance at redemption, but despite Sinestro’s recent humility which led the ring to his finger in the first place, he would never accept that he needed redemption. Everything he does is justifiable in his eyes, and that’s something that is somewhat unique to him. Johns has granted Sinestro a great and powerful voice in the book for years now, but to put him in the lead role? It makes perfect sense given the path the story has taken, and the change of focus from Hal is welcome for reasons I’ll get to shortly. Sinestro is tasked with protecting his sector, which means a trip to his homeworld. In his absence, his former soldiers, the Sinestro Corps, have turned from their task of protecting his planet and instead have enslaved it. He may have been a dictator, but he did not have them in chains, and it’s clear that if he has to wear this ring, he will save his people with it…from his Corps.
But what about Hal Jordan? Well, he’s here too. A lot. He’s back on Earth after month of being a fulltime Lantern, and it has really cost him. No job, over due bills, a landlord who won’t take a check and needs cash immediately, he doesn’t even have a car. He learns first hand why superheroes never ignore their secret identities. He’s been expelled from the Corps, he’s powerless and on Earth and has to adjust. So of course he dives out of a seven story window to attack someone he presumed to be attacking a woman, but wound up being a movie. My first thought was would he have even noticed that happening if he had the ring? Hal without the ring is someone who has no purpose, and he has no real understanding for what a normal life is anymore. He spends the issue trying to compensate for it, from trying to help someone he perceives to be in danger, to telling Carol that he wants to go back up in the air, all the way up until he completely shoves her away. So now he’s powerless AND alone! Johns flat out makes Hal’s life suck, and it’s the most interesting Hal has been in a while.
Doug Mahnke returns and it’s like he never left…because to be fair, he really didn’t. I can count the issues he hasn’t drawn in the last few years on one hand, and the style he brings to the table is what I’ve come to expect from Green Lantern. There’s a lot of good character work, faces look nice, the Sinestro Corps member we meet is freakish looking, and the detail work is great. Mahnke is a top talent, and he really brings this title up to a whole other level. It is interesting to see him handle the very human scenes of powerless Hal, as really, since Doug came on board it’s been Hal as GL 24/7, and I think this is the most Hal without a mask he’s drawn in his entire tenure.
The new status quo is an interesting one, to say the very least. Hal’s life has crumpled up and withered away into nothingness due to his own absence, and it’s not in a way where he can just pick it up and put it back together now that he’s back. His dedication to the Corps cost him so much from his personal life that he won’t be able to rebuild until he finishes hitting rock bottom. Sinestro, on the other hand, has been chosen for a purpose he does not understand to be that which he swore he would never be again. He’s gone from being the leader of his own Corps to once again being, in his eyes, at the feet of the Guardians. Now it’s really just a matter of how this plays out, and how long Johns allows these characters to remain in their current roles. If Hal gets his ring back within the first six months then I’ll feel pretty cheated, but if he rebuilds his life on Earth and betters himself as a person before getting it back? Then that could be pretty cool. Brand new Hal.
To sum it all up though, if you were reading Green Lantern before the relaunch, you’re going to find yourself right at home. If you weren’t? Well, this isn’t a completely inaccessible issue but…this issue might as well have been Green Lantern #68, because Johns doesn’t treat it like a first issue.
Overall?
8.5/10
