So, Geoff Johns ended “The Wrath of the First Lantern” and his epic, near-decade run on Green Lantern with issue #20, which was a huge lovefest for Hal Jordan, another problem-solving application of “come on, shoot green laser rays at the bad guy REALLY HARD this time and we’ll win!” and, oddly, kind of dictating the futures of all the main characters. Also, he murdered all the emotionless Guardians of the Universe, leaving us with a new batch of much groovier Guardians who have been stuck in prison guard duty for millennia and don’t know what the existence is like anymore. While Johns’ contributions to the expansion of the GL mythos are undeniable, constantly having everyone – including Sinestro – tout that Hal Jordan Is The Greatest Best Green Lantern God Ever Gave Man On Earth doesn’t really make us believe it. In fact, it prompts a sort of sneering disbelief on princple. Show us, don’t tell us. And just having him shrug off completely subjugating Nekron and gaining Black Lantern powers by saying “Oh, I just willed it to happen” doesn’t count. It doesn’t even make sense. Will is for the green power, not black! What was Blackest Night all about then if you could just do THAT?
Ugh. I had no opinion on Hal Jordan until I read GL: Rebirth, which was was where Johns started, and by the end of miniseries, I was already sick of hearing about how perfect and amazing he was. Ten years later, it’s still going on. However, Johns is done now, and Robert Venditti is stepping into the big chair with Green Lantern #21. Maybe he’ll have a take on Hal Jordan that won’t make me want to slap the douche off his face.
The book opens with a focus on a Green Lantern’s only weakness – running out of power in the ring that makes all wishes come true. Hal Jordan, John Stewart, Salaak and new recruits are fighting off an unseen enemy in the near future, and everybody’s running out of juice. When they go to the Central Battery, they find IT is somehow out of juice, and you hear Hal Jordan saying something we’ve spent ten years hearing that he’d never say. “We’re done for.”
Flashback to now, and Carol Ferris, whose love for Hal powers her ability to be a Star Sapphire, is nonetheless pseudo-dumping Hal for being a couch-surfing schmuck, putting forth the proposition that the closer she gets to Hal, the weaker her love becomes. “Maybe I don’t love you. Maybe I just love the promise of you.” On one hand, this is kind of awesome, because it’s sort of a meta-parallel to the idea of Hal Jordan: Greatest Of All Time vs. Hal Jordan: That Annoying Guy Who Is Always Way Too Goddamned Smug. On the other hand, making Carol incapable of love (and therefore power) if it isn’t tied to this one specific dingus makes her completely dependent on a man, and relegates her to perennial adjunct status. That’s not good.
In short order, Hal Jordan is made the new leader of the entire Green Lantern Corps (and hilariously tries to insist he isn’t leadership material, when all we’ve heard forever is he is The Best Ever) while the new Guardians go explore the universe and learn things – which I’m sure we’ll hear more about in Green Lantern: New Guardians, as they also have a new task for Kyle Rayner. Salaak, for some reason, has quit his job, forcing Kilowog to become the new administration poozer, while Hal immediately starts annoying Kil by sending out rings of dead Lanterns to find new recruits before they’ve rebuilt the Oan infrastructure to support them. And that’s when Larfleeze attacks! Trying to steal everything from Oa now that it’s weak.
It’s a kinda decent start from Venditti, and I’m willing to give him a little time to find a way to make Jordan somehow interesting. Billy Tan’s artwork is pretty cool when he’s not drawing humans. His faces get a little Liefeldian here and there, as do his proportions, but then you’ve got stuff like the Larfleeze splash page that looks fantastic.
Overall, some new blood on the GL books may be what they need. They’ve had their moments, but they haven’t seemed to be consistently compelling lately. Maybe a fresh direction will help. Green Lantern #21 might not be a clean enough break, but hope springs eternal. Wait… that’s Blue Lanterns…
