Geoff Johns Green Lantern Run Review

Geoff Johns Green Lantern Run Review

Geoff Johns has been writing Green Lantern, which is now it it’s fourth volume, since 2004′s Green Lantern: Rebirth, and has been acclaimed as the best take on the character of Hal Jordan. In Rebirth, Johns took Hal Jordan, then the Parallax/Spectre combination, and brought him back from the dead to take his rightful place as Green Lantern of Sector 2814. Johns is responsible for bringing us the ultra-popular Sinestro Corps War storyline, along with the current Blackest Night event, which is crossing over into just about every DC series currently in production, and is set to bring us Brightest Day in 2010. Johns was recently announced as the Chief Creative Officer of DC Entertainment, meaning he will have oversight on all DC-based media. Judging by Johns comic credits and the episodes of Smallville and JLU he wrote, I am confident his opinion will make or break what directors, producers, writers, etc. put into films, shows, cartoons and the like. Anyway, I am here to review Geoff Johns’ Green Lantern run up until now, so let’s get to it.

Green Lantern #1 Cover By Carlos Pacheco

Beginning with the spectacle that is Rebirth, Geoff Johns has taken the entire Green Lantern universe to a new level. He has brought characters to new levels, with the exception of John Stewart, who many people including me agree that Johns has taken the character to his lowest level of character development and involvement in the GLU ever. Hal Jordan has had the most development as a character, as he is the focus of Johns’ GL run, with Stewart running second in the roster, even though he has nearly no coverage as of late. Also, I must point out that Peter Tomasi has featured multiple characters and evolved them during his run on Green Lantern Corps, but none of them to the extent Johns has with Jordan. Johns has taken Jordan from a dead host of The Spectre who had died as a rogue, murderous Green Lantern into an even better character than he was before his infection by Parallax. Also, let it be known the Johns was the one that retconned Parallax into being an actual entity that infected people.As The Spectre, Hal had been equally as brutal to the people he rightfully* judged as the previous Spectre’s.

Before Jordan’s infection by Parallax, he had spent the latest portion of his superhero career roaming around from city to city, in my opinion bitching and moaning about shit he just needed to get over because he really didn’t have any control over any of it. Johns’ has also retconned Jordan’s mistakes being caused by Parallax instilling fear in him through the ring, which in my opinion is a cool addition to the GL mythos.  Johns has controversially retconned Hal Jordan’s origin, in the storyline Green Lantern: Secret Origin, which I will have a review of up on the site within a couple days. Johns changed the cause of Abin Sur’s death, the villain of the story, the beginning of Jordan’s career and more smaller changes to the previous origin that was in continuity, Green Lantern: Emerald Dawn I and II, which I will also have reviews of up soon. Here’s a short review of GL: Rebirth:

Green Lantern: Rebirth

Green Lantern: Rebirth #1 Cover By Ethan Van Sciver

Green Lantern: Rebirth in itself is one of the greatest Green Lantern series ever. The story is one of the largest GL events in history when you consider that it is all centered around one man. Hal’s Justice League teammates are in the series and it’s obvious that their patience with Hal at the beginning of the series is lacking. Thankfully, Hal’s return makes not only for a great read, but one of the best selling Green Lantern series ever, requiring multiple prints of each issue, each sporting different covers, which are also featured in the collected version of the series. The series if full of white-knuckle action, and moments that will make you say whoa. For instance, Hal punches Batman, reminiscent of “The Punch”, when Batman knocked Guy Gardner out cold in front of the Justice League in Justice League #5. Although, Bats would return the favor in Green Lantern #9, which was Hal and Bruce’s second get together since Hal’s resurrection. Overall, the series was full of cool moments and added quite a bit to the GL mythos, and is widely acclaimed by many GL fans.

Now, I’m going to review Johns’ GL run in 10-issue sequences.

Issue #1-Issue #10:

Green Lantern #9 Cover Inked Version By Ethan Van Sciver

Johns started out his run on Green Lantern by going smack into the middle of GL lore. Issues 1-3 featured a Manhunter Hal had fought with the Justice League, and an upgraded Manhunter sent by the “Grandmaster” to wipe out the obsolete versions of them, and the first appearance of The Lost Lanterns, the Lanterns Hal Jordan had supposedly killed on the way to Oa during Emerald Twilight who had been kidnapped and imprisoned by The Manhunters. Issues 4-6 feature Hector Hammond, The Shark, Black Hand, and a small appearance by Sonar. Issues 7 & 8 feature Mongul II and his sister Mongal versus Hal and Green Arrow as Mongul unleashes Black Mercy plants on GL and GA. Issue 9 features Batman and the Tattooed Man, and we see Bruce and Hal connect on a new level than any we’ve seen before. Issue 10 is the beginning of GL’s “One Year Later” experience, and features the first appearance of The Sinestro Corps and also has an appearance from Green Arrow, The Global Guardians and The Rocket Red Brigade. I love these first 10 issues to the series, they do a great job of paying homage to the past while still moving the overall story forward and adding more elements to the mythos.

Issue #11-Issue #20

Green Lantern #18 Cover By Daniel Acuna

Issues 11-13 feature Hal Jordan and Guy Gardner going to save the rest of The Lost Lantern’s after the reappearance of Tomar-Tu from Sector 3601, Manhunter territory. Cyborg Superman is revealed as “The Grandmaster” the Manhunter earlier in the series had mentioned. Issues 14-17 comprise the “Wanted: Hal Jordan” storyline, which features Hal going up against Amon Sur, the son of the man who passed his ring to him, The Weaponers of Qward, Rocket Red Brigade, and a Star Sapphire. We also see a Sinestro Corps ring attempt to recruit Batman, but he is too strong willed for it too take hold. Issues 18-20 form the “Mystery of The Star Sapphire” storyline, in which we see the Star Sapphire take over Jillian “Cowgirl” Pearlman, Hal’s newest crush and playmate. Those three issues also feature “Tales of The Sinestro Corps” features in which we learn the origin of certain Sinestro Corps, all leading up to The Sinestro Corps War storyline. These 10 issues are good because they show that even though Hal Jordan’s life has been going good, it is destined to get worse, and they do a great job of preparing us for “The Sinestro Corps War” without pushing info through our brains like DC did to when hyping Blackest Night.

Issue #21-Issue#30

Green Lantern #21 Cover By Ivan Reis

Issues 21-25 are part of “The Sinestro Corps War”, and feature the Green Lantern Corps with the JLA, JSA, and the Teen Titans versus the Sinestro Corps, The Anti-Monitor, Parallax-infected Kyle Rayner, Superman-Prime, The Cyborg Superman and his minions, The Manhunters. This event is another work of art that Johns has produced and show that both the GLC and the SC are forces to be reckoned with, especially if you consider the fact that nearly all of earth’s heroes are required to overcome the threat. Issues 26-28 make up the “Alpha-Lantern” storyline, where we see the first appearance of the Red Lantern Corps, Laira is banished from the GLC for the murder of Amon Sur and subsequently recruited by a red ring, the creation of the Alpha-Lantern’s, a GL/Manhunter hybrid that will soon cause problems for the GLC. Issues 29 and 30 are the first two issues of the “Green Lantern: Secret Origin” storyline, which changes Hal Jordans origin quite a bit. The changes were done so that Blackest Night would work with a new continuity to go off of. Overall, these 10 issues were great and all helped the GL mythos grow in more directions.

Issue #31-Issue #40

Green Lantern #39 Cover By Philip Tan

Issues 31-35 complete “GL: Secret Origin” and are all well-written and overall a great piece of storytelling and it fit’s with the current tone of GL. Issues 36-38 continue the storyline “Rage of The Red Lanterns” that begins in the “Final Crisis: Rage of The Red Lanterns” one-shot. These issues show that The War of Light is inevitable with the expansion of the RLC and their kidnapping of Sinestro, and also feature the first appearance of the Blue Lantern Saint Walker and Larfleeze, the Orange Lantern. These issues help set up crucial elements of Blackest Night and will surely be affected come BN #8 and the beginning of Brightest Day. The storyline is a good read and is definitely worth the cover price. Issues 39 and 40 begin the “Agent Orange” storyline by having the Guardians accompany a group of GL’s into the Vega System after recieving a transmission from Larfleeze regarding his encounter with the Controllers. The “Agent Orange” storyline is one of my favorite’s of all of Green Lantern Vol. 4, competing with “The Sinestro Corps War” and the first ten issues of the series in my opinion. Larfleeze is definitely an oddball and half the fun is from him, which is showcased by this storyline.

Issue #41-Issue #51

Green Lantern #50 Cover By Doug Mahnke

Issues 41 and 42 finish the “Agent Orange” storyline, resulting in the Guardians lifting the ban on entering the Vega System and Larfleeze learning the location of the Blue Lantern’s homeworld, which he learned from the Guardians. The blue ring Saint Walker had given Hal was the latest object of Larfleeze’s attention. Like I said, I love this storyline, Larfleeze is awesome. Issue 43 serves as the prologue to “Blackest Night” and shows the birth of the first Black Lantern, William Hand. This issue is a great piece of work by Johns and is simply a great issue. Issues 44-51 are part of “Blackest Night” and we see the return of Abin Sur as a BL, Sinestro vs Carol, BL-Martian Manhunter, the return of Xanshi and Hal Jordan fusing with Parallax in an effort to combat BL Spectre. These issues are phenomenal and show Johns’ ability to write a story that is focused on different people and different concepts that come together to make an excellent read. These issues are better than much of Johns’ run so far and show the darker side of what being a Green Lantern means.

Now I can’t review Johns’ run without considering the artwork so here’s a review of each artist that has drawn on the series so far:

Carlos Pacheco (Issues 1-3, 7-8): I must admit, I like Pacheco’s art and think he is fully capable of drawing GL.

Ethan Van Sciver (GL: Rebirth and Issues 4-6, 9): EVS is one of my favorite artists and many GL fans’ dream artist. I can’t really narrow down what makes his art so great, It just is.

Ivan Reis (Issues 10-17, 21-25, 29-38): Ivan Reis, the artist of “Blackest Night”, is simply amazing. His issues feature superb detail and great composition choices. I must say though, he draws a mean zombie. He has drawn the series more than any other artist and that is rightfully so.

Daniel Acuna (Issues 18-20): Acuna’s art is my least favorite from the series. I just don’t think his style matches GL in the way EVS, Reis and Mahnke do.

Mike McKone (Issues 26-28): To me, McKone’s art is like a mixture of Doug Mahnke and Patrick Gleason. If only we could add some Ivan Reis, Philip Tan and Jim Lee in there, then I think we’d have the ultimate GL artist.

Philip Tan (Issues 39-42): Philip Tan, in my opinion, is one of the best GL artists out there. His style is beautiful and just seems to do it for me.

Doug Mahnke (Issues 43-present): Mahnke is another great artist that does well on GL. His start on the series with #43 was jaw-droppingly beautiful and I can’t wait to see how long he stays on GL post-Blackest Night.

Overall Johns’ run so far has been like a roller coaster: lot’s of twist’s and turn’s but in the end you’re pretty happy with it. Fortunately Johns plan’s on being on GL for the near-future and we’ll only be able to fully judge his run when the roller coaster is completed and we get to experience every flip and twist. Here is the rating I give Geoff Johns writing on the series:

Geoff’s writing has been near perfect, but the changes he’s made to GL history have to count against him due to the changes being done to renovate continuity to his specifications. Here is how I review the art on the series:

The art has been brilliant for the most part, and DC has given the job to competent, qualified people who fit well with the type of series that is Green Lantern. Overall, here is how I rate Geoff Johns’ run on Green Lantern:

Yes, I did take the totals and find an average, but who cares? Until next time everybody?

–moyermason@yahoo.com