Five Reasons

Green Lantern and Green Lantern Corps

By Rebecca Buchanan
January 18, 2010

I admit it right up front: I was never a really big Green Lantern fan (either the characters or the various series). When I first got into comics, Kyle Rayner was the one, the only, Green Lantern. Hal Jordan had wiped out the rest of the Corps years ago, leaving Rayner with the single surviving ring. Other ex-Lanterns, such as Guy Gardner and John Stewart *, were still floating around, doing their own thing, but Kyle was basically it.

And that was fine with me. Kyle was a fun character. I never read his solo series, but I liked him in JLA. I liked the fact that he was an ordinary guy (a perpetually under-employed artist) who suddenly found himself saddled with one of the most powerful objects in the universe. I liked the fact that he struggled with how to use that power responsibly. And I particularly liked Rayner's single appearance in the animated Superman series.

Eventually, I stopped reading JLA. But, by then the animated Justice League series had debuted. This time, the Green Lantern was John Stewart, and the the entire Corps was still around. Different continuity. In several episodes, Stewart flew off into deep space to meet up with his fellow Lanterns: Kilowog, Katma Tui, and many others who went unnamed. Those episodes, I liked. They were so much bigger than the stories that stayed on Earth. I wanted to see more of this Corps, composed of members of thousands of different species, with the whole of outer space to patrol and protect.

Eventually, the animated series came to an end (I was sorry to see it go; it had a great run). And I pretty much forgot about Green Lantern. Then, a few months ago, I tuned into iFanboy, and there they were, devoting an entire segment to Green Lantern. It seems things had changed since I stopped reading JLA and just about every other DC title. Hal Jordan was back. The entire freakin' Corps was back, along with Oa and the Guardians of the Universe. Jordan's nemesis Sinestro was back — and, uh, he had his own Corps. A Corps of yellow Lanterns whose power was derived from fear. And now the two Corps were at war, with pretty much all of creation at stake.

Curiosity piqued, I picked up Green Lantern: Rebirth, in which the story of Jordan's return is told. It's a bit complicated. Short version: he was infected by Parallax, the embodiment of fear, which made him turn on and wipe out the Corps. Ultimately freed of Parallax, Jordan joined the new Corps that Rayner had created in his absence. Parallax joined forces with Sinestro and the Sinestro Corps was born, yellow rings searching the universe for individuals with "the power to instill great fear."

Hooked, I bought up and read the entire run of Green Lantern and Green Lantern Corps trade paperbacks over the next few months. And I have five very good reasons for doing so.

1) The Corps. Originally, the Guardians of the Universe envisioned a Corps in which a single Lantern would protect each sector of space. In this new Corps, however, Lanterns work in pairs — which makes for some fascinating character interaction and development. Take Isamot Kol and Vath Sarn. Kol is from Thanagar, a member of the oppressed reptilian underclass. Sarn is a humanoid from Rann. Thanagar and Rann just fought a very nasty war. Thanagar and Rann do not like each other. Kol and Sarn do not like each other. At least, not at first. Their personal enmity is so bad in the beginning that they put their own lives and those of others in danger. It takes a long time, fighting side by side, doing what they can to make the universe a safer place, before they begin to trust one another, but I still wouldn't call them best friends.

There are plenty of other examples. Soranik Natu, a red-skinned, humanoid doctor from Korugar, teams up with Princess Iolande of Betrassus after Soranik's first partner is killed. Mogo, the sentient planet and moral center of the Corps, is teamed with Bzzd, a fly — yes, a sentient fly, and the smallest member of the Corps. The Daxamite Sodam Yat, the only person to ever leave his pathologically xenophobic home world, is teamed with blond, beautiful, elfin Arisia (she's, like, nine hundred years old). The android Stel and Green Man. Saarek can hear the dead, and Ash is obsessed with avenging his wife's death. And the Lost Lanterns. And the very creepy Alpha Lanterns. And Kyle Rayner and Guy Gardner (bestest buds). And so on.

Looking for a cast of well-developed, interesting characters? Look no further.

2) Hal Jordan. Since I began reading comics when Kyle Rayner was the one and only Green Lantern, I never gave much thought to Jordan. He was just some guy the other characters talked about occasionally. He was the man Rayner admired as the greatest Lantern who had ever lived, and the monster whom he feared becoming. Now that Jordan's not dead anymore (getting not dead is surprisingly easy in the DCU), I'm getting to know him — and beginning to realize why he has so many rabid fans. Jordan is sometimes compared to Marvel's Daredevil because he is a man "without fear." As he explains in Rebirth, while reflecting on his father's tragic death, "When your worst fear happens in front of your eyes — there's nothing left to be afraid of." He's calm and focused in the face of crisis, but also passionate in his defense of law and order and the innocent. He feels tremendous guilt for the murders he committed while under the influence of Parallax, but he refuses to allow the hostility and suspicion of his fellow Lanterns weigh him down. All qualities I deeply admire. On the other hand, he is a complete hound dog, thanks to his star-crossed love for Carol Ferris ... and that's a whole 'nuther story.

3) The Complex, Interweaving Story Lines. Green Lantern and Green Lantern Corps are technically independent series. GL focuses on Hal Jordan, and a bit on John Stewart. GLC, on the other hand, has a much larger cast. GL was fairly Earth-bound in its early issues, while GLC takes place on a number of different worlds (Oa, Betrassus, Ran, Thanagar, Debstam IV, et cetera). However, the characters interact with and refer to one another frequently, and events in one series impact the other; even more so now that the Blackest Night arc has begun.

This isn't a complaint. It's a compliment. Big, mega-crossover events are something of a turn off for me. I essentially stopped reading DC because of the mess that was Bruce Wayne: Murderer. So, no, I haven't read Final Crisis or 52 or any of the rest. It's a credit to the skills of the combined creative teams that they managed to pull me in and keep me here, despite my reservations.

So, if you're looking for a complex, but not over-complicated story, try Green Lantern and Green Lantern Corps.

4) The Imagination-Driven Artwork. Consider this: what if you had a device, like a ring, that could create absolutely anything you could imagine out of solid light, powered just by your imagination and sheer willpower? Pretty darn awesome, yes? Now imagine being the creative team who gets to craft stories for characters who wield those rings. Anything they can imagine and put on paper, it's there: an artificial arm, a gigantic screwdriver, a rocket pack, a humongous Lantern crest to bash a bad guy. And every character uses the ring a little differently. I love Jordan's description when he and his teammates take on a Parallax-infected Ganthet:

John's constructs are built from the inside out. You look, you can see every nut and bolt that makes it work. [...] Gardner's ring is like a leaky water faucet. Sparks always fly. Even when he's standing still. His willpower can't wait to get free. He opens up. And attitude disappears in a storm of emerald energy. Kilowog steps up. His ring is the only one that makes a sound. Like a cannon exploding. A green light fades into the air around Parallax. Kyle's sketching in his head. It sharpens into view, constantly being refined by his own imagination. Kyle's never satisfied. He's an artist. [...] For me it's about precision. Doing exactly what I need to do to get the job done. Concentrated power. Focused ambition.

The pop culture tidbits that the artists throw in are fun, too. At the beginning ofGreen Lantern Corps: Emerald Eclipse, Sodam Yat and Arisia are busy locking up a Sinestro Corps member. Said villain bears an uncanny resemblance to actor Steve Buscemi. I wonder if he's a Lantern fan?

There are also the costumes. Every Lantern's uniform is different, crafted by and for each character's personality and species-unique needs. The only thing they have in common is the Lantern sigil. Guy Gardner's uniform is flamboyant and macho. Jordan's is streamlined, military-neat. Iolande's is all caped-out royal. I love that individuality.

5) What Lies Ahead. The return of Hal Jordan; the creation of Green Lantern Corps 2.0; the exile of Guardians Ganthet and Sayd; the birth and defeat(?) of the Sinestro Corps; the introduction of new laws which allow Green Lanterns to use lethal force in the performance of their duties; the revelation of the existence of The Corpse, the Guardians' secret black ops unit; the return of the Zamorans with their own love-fueled Star Sapphire corps; the hate-filled Red Lanterns; the greedy Agent Orange; and now the Blue Lantern Corps, inspired by hope .... All of this leading up to Blackest Night. I have no idea what is going to happen. There are hints of another corps, the Indigo Tribe. When will we see them? Who is The Lost Sapphire? Can we see more of the Ganesh-like Brother Warth, please? I think he's cool. What will Ash and Saarek find when they reach their goal? What about the Daxamites; will they leave their home world to save the rest of the universe?

I can't wait to find out.

Although, before I go, I do have a couple of complaints. For one, none of the trade paperbacks are numbered. You have to check the title page to see which issues it collects to determine the order. And, even then, the trade paperbacks do not collect all the single issues. Green Lantern: Rage of the Red Lanterns collects GL issues 26-28 and 36-38. Um, were the missing issues important?

Additionally, there is Salaak. He's a cool character. He's the the Guardians' grand vizier/communications cooordinator/maitre d'/liaison with the Green Lantern Corps. The only problem is that the various artists all seem to be using different character keys for him. He looks radically different depending on which penciller/inker team is involved. A few times, I only knew it was Salaak because another character addressed him as such.

So, DC, just get those couple of things fixed.

* Plus Alan Scott. But he's a different kind of Green Lantern, who derives his abilities from a magical stone called the Starheart, not the gigantic power battery on Oa. ^

DC Comics
GL and GLC on Amazon — A very handy listing of all the trade paperbacks, in reading order
GL and GLC on Amazon Again — Another handy list