Required Reading: Green Lantern

For those of you not in the know, Green Lantern is a superhero whose adventures are published by DC Comics, who also publish the well-established superhero icons Superman and Batman. His powers are not the result of being the last son of a dead planet or from the inherited fortune of an emotionally-scarred billionaire playboy. The source of his power is an alien-made ring that enables its bearer to create objects of solid energy, project force fields and fly. It is a weapon that is limited only by the imagination and willpower of its wielder, and it is powered by an energy source shaped like (wait for it...) a green lantern.

Green Lantern is a part of an intergalactic police force called the Green Lantern Corps, which was founded by a hyper-evolved alien race known as the Guardians of the Universe. The Corps is comprised of 7200 sentient beings that are assigned to protect their home sector of space from extraterrestrial threats. At one point the rings were ineffective against objects that were colored yellow, but that weakness has been all but eliminated.

There have been many earthmen that were chosen by the Guardians to become Green Lantern at one time or another. Among them were an architect named John Stewart (who was prominently featured in the Justice League and Justice League Unlimited animated series), a hothead named Guy Gardner and a young artist named Kyle Rayner. And the concept of Green Lantern was around some 20 years before Hal Jordan or the Green Lantern Corps were created, with an engineer named Alan Scott wielding a magic-based ring and lantern that had a weakness to objects made of wood.

But the character that is most popularly associated with the Green Lantern name is hotshot test pilot Hal Jordan. The primary criteria for the selection of a ring-bearer are honesty, willpower and the ability to overcome great fear. Hal Jordan met all of these qualities more than anyone else on the planet, so he was the one that was brought to the side of a dying Green Lantern named Abin Sur and chosen to replace him.

This column (the first of many, I hope) is meant to act as a primer for the most essential stories that have featured Green Lantern, as well as the trade paperback collections they can be found in.

Green Lantern: Emerald Dawn & Green Lantern: Emerald Dawn II
Writers: Keith Giffen & Gerard Jones
Artists: Mark D. Bright & Romeo Tanghal
Both volumes are currently available in the trade paperbacks of the same name

This retelling of Hal Jordan's origin was told in two separate mini-series. Emerald Dawn was fairly faithful to the tone of Jordan's origin as it was told in the 1960's. It added a contemporary twist by having Jordan suffer the guilt of injuring his best friend as a result of his driving drunk. The story delves into his first meeting with the Green Lantern Corps, the Guardians and a powerful villain calling itself Legion. Once he completes his basic training and defeats Legion he turns himself in to the police on Earth and serves 90 days in prison for DUI.

Emerald Dawn II takes place during Hal Jordan's stretch in prison. The Guardians determine that Hal needs further training, and they decide that Sinestro, their finest soldier, is just the Green Lantern to provide it. What they don't know is that Sinestro's secret to keeping his sector free of problems is that he rules his planet with an iron fist. Even if he survives his training with Sinestro, he still has to go through his prison sentence without getting shanked "Oz"-style. At the heart of this tale is the progression of Sinestro from being the best of the Green Lanterns to becoming their (and Hal Jordan's) most implacable foe. He would later be given a yellow power ring by a race called the Qwardians in order to bring about the destruction of the Corps.

Tales of the Green Lantern Corps
Writer: Alan Moore
Artists: Dave Gibbons, Kevin O'Neill, Bill Willingham & Terry Austin
All three of these stories are currently available in the trade paperback DC Universe: The Stories of Alan Moore

Back in the mid-1980's, renowned comic writer Alan Moore cut his teeth writing some small, self-contained back-up stories in the Green Lantern comic book called Tales of the Green Lantern Corps. The characters and concepts in two of these tales have become cornerstones in the current Green Lantern Corps mythos. In the story "Mogo Doesn't Socialize", neophyte Green Lantern Arisia learns about the Lantern known as Mogo, the only member of the Corps that is actually a sentient planet. And in the story "Tygers", Hal Jordan's predecessor Abin Sur learns the details of his own demise and uncovers a prophecy that involves the destruction of the Green Lantern Corps, a prophecy that the Guardians will eventually refer to as "The Blackest Night".

Green Lantern & Green Arrow
Writer: Denny O'Neil
Artist: Neal Adams
These stories are currently available in the trade paperbacks Green Lantern/Green Arrow Vol. 1 & 2

In the 1970's an attempt was made to revive flagging interest in the Green Lantern comic book. Hal Jordan was paired with another green-themed hero called Green Arrow, who was initially conceived as a fairly bland combination of Robin Hood and Batman that used an arsenal of trick arrows to waylay criminals. Denny O'Neil had recently transformed Green Arrow (a.k.a. Oliver Queen) into a liberal-leaning crusader in the pages of Justice League of America, and decided to pair him up with straight-arrow Hal Jordan to up the tension ante of the storytelling. The result turned out to be more than just a superhero version of "The Odd Couple", as Ollie convinced Hal to get away from the stars and go with him to help the common man in America. The most famous story from this era was one where Ollie and Hal check in on Ollie's ward Speedy only to find out that he has become addicted to heroin.

 

Emerald Twilight/A New Dawn
Writer: Ron Marz
Artists: Various. These two stories are currently available in the trade paperback Green Lantern: New Dawn

There was once a time when the Green Lantern title wasn't selling as well as it does today. The powers-that-be at DC decided that drastic measures were in order to revive it. Back then, drastic measures meant getting rid of the lead character and replacing them with someone new. They did it with Superman (in The Death of Superman trilogy) and Batman (in Knightfall) and had some success, so they decided it was Hal Jordan's turn. But instead of killing or crippling him, they made him a villain.

The Emerald Twilight story arc opens with Hal Jordan kneeling before a crater. Grief-stricken by the destruction of his home town of Coast City, Hal attempts to use his power ring to resurrect the city and its people. The Guardians don't take too kindly to this and try to strip Hal of his ring. This drives him into conflict with the Green Lantern Corps and the Guardians, who pull out all the stops to defeat Jordan. They even re-deputized Sinestro! Taking on the name Parallax, he becomes a villain determined to right the wrongs of the universe no matter who he has to kill. With the Corps and the Guardians destroyed, the last remaining Guardian, Ganthet, creates one last power ring and battery and gives them to freelance artist Kyle Rayner with the words "You shall have to do."

In A New Dawn, Kyle Rayner gets thrown into the deep end of the superhero game with no training or experience, taking on heavy hitters like Mongul (with a guest appearance and assist by Superman) and Major Force, who kills Kyle's girlfriend and stuffs her body into a refrigerator for kicks. With more Earth-based stories and a character with an every-man tone not unlike Spider-Man, sales did pick up on the title, and the storytelling of the era was for the most part pretty solid.

Green Lantern: Rebirth
Writer: Geoff Johns
Artist: Ethan Van Sciver
This story is currently available in the trade paperback of the same name

Despite the fact that the character of Kyle Rayner was pretty well-liked, the majority of the fanboy population just couldn't let the hope go that Hal Jordan and the rest of the Green Lantern Corps would one day return as Green Lantern. Of course, since Hal had destroyed the Green Lantern Corps and the Guardians, that was easier said than done. In the years that followed his rampage, Hal sacrificed his life to save the Earth in the mini-series The Final Night, and his spirit was merged with the spirit of divine vengeance known as The Spectre.

It would take a miracle worker of Scotty-like proportions to sort this unholy mess out. Enter Geoff Johns, who instead of ignoring the more inconvenient pieces of story continuity and/or taking the easy way out by killing off Kyle Rayner, masterfully worked all of the story threads into a cohesive and believable (for comic books anyway) resurrection of Hal Jordan and the Green Lantern Corps. This is the story that put Green Lantern back on the comic book map and launched two new Green Lantern series, Green Lantern and Green Lantern Corps.

The Sinestro Corps War
Writer: Geoff Johns, Dave Gibbons, Peter J. Tomasi
Artists: Ethan Van Sciver, Patrick Gleason, Ivan Reis
This story is currently available in the trade paperbacks Green Lantern: The Sinestro Corps War Vol. 1 & 2

Geoff Johns brought Hal Jordan and the Green Lantern Corps back to a good place, but this storyline takes the excitement to, as Keegan Michael Keys on "Mad TV" would say, a "whole...nutha...level"! Sinestro and his yellow power ring had been a prominent thorn in the side of Hal Jordan, but he decides to up the stakes in his war with Jordan and the Corps by forming his own force, the Sinestro Corps. Just as the Green Lanterns wield rings that are powered by willpower, the Sinestro Corps wield yellow rings just like Sinestro's own that are powered by fear. In tales leading up to this story arc the rings were sent out to find sentient beings that had the ability to instill great fear. Even Batman was offered a yellow ring, but because Batman is ultimately one of the good guys he refused it.

 

Not content with his new army, Sinestro also recruited the likes of Superboy Prime, Hank Henshaw, Parallax and the Anti-Monitor to his side. The prophecy from Alan Moore's story "Tygers" looks as if it's about to come to fruition, and the Lanterns only have the slightest prayer of stopping it. This story paves the way to what is likely to be the most ambitious Green Lantern story ever told, "The Blackest Night". I can not wait to get my hands on that one when it comes out. I'm looking forward to it as much as I am the movie. I wonder which will be completed first?