SPOILERS AHEAD
I just spent the last couple of weeks
re-reading the entire run of Green Lantern written by (surprise)
Geoff Johns. And even though I had read all of these stories before
they were as fresh and exciting as ever.
The series centers around the story of
Hal Jordan: his return from death and his place as protector of earth
in the Green Lantern Corps. Green Lantern: Rebirth opened the door
back to the DC universe, but Johns did it in a way that did not
ignore any of the previous continuity, but honored it by
incorporating Jordan's controversial past to weave an intricate
narrative.
Admittedly, the first 2 years of Johns
run on the series are not his strongest. The action and scope feel
narrow. But he used those issues to set up the characters and worlds
that would become indispensable in future stories. As stated in my
previous post on Geoff Johns, he had 2 insights that were unexpected
and obvious: 1) Why only one yellow ring? And 2) Why only a Green and
Yellow Ring? When he finally began incorporating these ideas into
the story-proper, the book really exploded.
I particularly enjoyed the short
stories at the end of the issues leading up to the Sinestro Corps
War. Like Alan Moore's “Tales of the Green Lantern Corps,” the
“Tales of the Sinestro Corps,” not only were self-contained
imaginative stories, but they gave a wonderful context of character
for the war itself. The Sinestros were not just faceless enemies,
but people who understood and feared.
The Sinestro Corps War was not only one
of the greatest comic book epics in its own right, but it marks and
important turning point for the series. From this point on, every
issue would be tied into the main storyline, pushing ever forward to
the next big event. Some would get event fatigue, but Johns knows
how to slowly build anticipation while spinning a darn good tale at
the same time. And so he has moved like a roller coaster, up and
down from set up to thrill ride. We've gone from the Sinestro Corps
War to Blackest Night
to the War of the Green Lanterns,
and now
leading to the 3rd Army.
One of the strengths of these arcs is
that it does not go in expected directions. I remember being
convinced I knew how the heroes were going to resolve the Blackest
Night. I think Johns anticipated this because I saw, what I thought
was the solution, come together half way through the story. And then
everything fell apart for our heroes. Johns always leaves you
guessing.
The regular artists on the book also
deserve a lot of credit. Ethan Van Sciver, Ivan Reis, and Doug
Mahnke all of taken these wild alien concepts and ground all of them
in a intelligible humanity. Attrocitus the Red Lantern is
horrifying, but there are moments when we see past his armor to his
raw pain. Larfleeze is evil, but his body language is so silly,we
cannot help but laugh.
I would argue that the series has 3
main characters. The first is Hal Jordan himself.
One of the things
I love about Jordan is that he is very Captain-Kirk like: he leaps
before he looks. He is not suicidal or harboring a death wish or
anything dark like that. He simply is a man of action. He does not
have patience for talkers. He is the kind of man who would have cut
the Gordian knot, not out of lateral thinking, but out of frustration
(“See, now it's untied. Can we move on?”). His courage extends
not just to fearful enemies but the courage to be who you are and not
what people tell you who you should be.
The second is Sinestro himself.
He is
the dark reflection of Jordan and a perfect foil. Where Hal is
passionate, Sinestro is cold. Where Hal is active, Sinestro is
calculating. But they both ironically have the same goal: they want
to protect the universe. Hal believes that people need to be
inspired to use will power to do what is right. Sinestro believes
that fear will keep evil people in line. At first I thought that
bringing Sinestro back into the Green Lantern Corps was just a
gimmick. But now I see that this is where Johns has been leading the
character the whole time. Can Sinestro be redeemed? That is the
question of the series.
The third is Carol Ferris.
Unlike the
Lois Lanes of the DCU, Carol has become a superhero in her own right
to fight along and help Hal. She gives Hal his most important
motivation: love. His fearlessness and recklessness will eventually
destroy him unless he has a tether to this world. She gives him the
human connection he needs and she forces him to grow. In many ways
Hal never grew up. He fights with the passion of a man in his 20's.
But Carol helps him understand how his actions have consequences and
that he must learn who he is without the ring.
The main theme of the series is
overcoming fear. Johns has shown us how we find courage in igniting
our own power of will to conquer the fears in our own lives. That is
what makes you a hero.
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