Written by GEOFF JOHNS; Art by DOUG MAHNKE and CHRISTIAN ALAMY; Cover by IVAN REIS and JOE PRADO; Variant cover by GREG CAPULLO
Picking right up from where War of the Green Lanterns left off, Green Lantern #1 deals with uncertainty. As a result the book occasionally feels less grand than we have come to expect, but that doesn't mean that the book suffers for it. There isn't a lot of action, but the excellent character work means that you probably won't notice too much.
We follow Hal Jordan as he struggles to pick up his life on Earth after being cast out of the Green Lantern Corps. We learn that he hasn't been home for three months and as such has lost his job at the air force and is facing eviction from his apartment. Hal is struggling. So much of his identity has been 'Green lantern' that he doesn't know how to exist as just 'Hal Jordan' and this comes across brilliantly. Carol Ferris comes to his rescue and he even manages to bumble that up.
Sinestro reluctantly accepts the Green Lantern ring and travels to his native Korugar to find that his Sinestro Corps have enslaved the planet. It is made very clear that they have no loyality to him now that he wears a green ring rather than yellow. We see something from Sinestro that we don't see very often; a resignation that he will need help to oust them and liberate his planet.
Without spoiling anything, there is something up between Ganthet and the other Guardians of the Universe. This has been coming for a while (since Ganthet left them to found the Blue Lanterns and tension grew when he forged his own Green Lantern ring and became a Green Lantern). This doesn't take up a lot of page space, but the repercussions could be huge.
I had a tough time when deciding what score to give Green Lantern #1. I was very close to giving it 8/10, but felt that I needed to remove a star to reflect that the book isn't that easy for new readers to pick up. As a long time Green Lantern reader I understand who these characters are and their relationships, so when their dynamics are changed I can understand why and see that it is a natural progression. However, I feel that someone completely new to the franchise would have had too much to digest without enough explanation. The score that I ultimately gave GL is still a good one (remember I take 5 as average, not 7 like some reviewers) and I do recommend it. However, new readers may want to do some background reading first.
My rating:
A solid start to Green lantern v5. Spot on characterisation, new dynamics and loads of potential being set up. Johns' handle on the Green Lantern universe is nothing sort of astounding; add this to your pull list.
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