LeftyBrown's Corner

This is what happens when I run out of things to say (for now); I resort to speaking about Green Lantern. In the mid-nineties I returned to comics after a long hiatus. The whole Batman Knightfall storyline was the impetus, but I soon latched onto Green Lantern in which Kyle Rayner had just become the ring-wielder. As most comic bloggers know it was a tumultuous time mostly because of the way it went down, having Hal Jordan go mad, turn evil and virtually wipe out all of the Green Lanterns and Oa (the Green Lantern homeworld) in the process. I still don't like how it went down, but I did like the idea of a new GL on the block that was cut from the same cloth as Peter Parker, an average Joe who is still wet behind the ears when it comes to the superhero biz and learns that with great (green) power comes great responsibility.

The idea of replacing Hal Jordan went over like a lead balloon in some quarters, with the then writer even reportedly receiving death threats (yeah for an imaginary comic book character, go figure!). Now fast-forward 1 one hundred and some odd issues and sure enough Hal Jordan returns to his former Green Lantern role as the torch-bearer for the Green Lantern Corps. In a well=thought out miniseries, writer Geoff Johns returns Hal to his position and offers some insight as to why things went down the way they did. Geoff even pulled a surprise move and let Kyle Rayner live, which many people thought would exit six feet under as soon as Jordan returned.

Well, Identity and Infinity Crisis came and went, and Hal Jordan returned to an all-new title with Geoff Johns at the writing reigns. Now I like Geoff Johns quite a bit. For a capes & suits writer he does an excellent job at uniting past continuity with present danger and new creative roads to pave. His work on the current series has been pretty remarkable, but I think the book suffers a little from a couple of things.

I think the first problem is right now most the DCU is still in the after-effects of what the shape of things are in the DCU now OYL (One Year Later, an event the pushed the DCU ahead 1 year ahead during the events of the Infinity Crisis). So there are new twists in the DCU world stage that bear weight in the role of a superhero, not to mention the Green Lantern who is not only an Earth superhero, but a representative of an universal guardian that transcends nations. It's intriguing, and I am looking forward to see where Johns takes this idea of a representative that wasn't chosen by the Earth's citizens but feels the need to acts in its best interests (even if some nations disagrees with it).

The other problem is that it feels like there's this need to have every issue to be this big knock-out drag out action movie. I guess it sells books, and the new series does seem to be moving copies at a great rate. However I miss the social problems Hal Jordan had. I want Hal Jordan to have non-powered friends, a supporting cast, and yes, multiple love interests. That’s what I liked most about the Kyle Rayner years, he had multiple girlfriends (some of whom ended up stuffed in refrigerators, but that's another story), he had an interesting supporting cast that really worked well in the hands of some writers. Maybe it's too early to see those things in the series, but I'm hoping that Johns gets around to that sort of stuff. Sure who doesn't want to see Hal take on Mongul or Hector Hammond, but I also want him to also carve out a social life as well.

All in all I have great faith in Johns at the reigns of the Green Lantern title. It was Geoff that made me a huge fan of the Flash (which he did make excellent use of the supporting cast), and it was Johns that sparked interest that a bunch of 'old-timers' could still be a powerhouse of a team in the Justice Society. So I am enjoying the ride so far, and hope that Johns finds time to fill in the rest of the Hal Jordan story.