HAL JORDAN AND THE GREEN LANTERN CORPS: REBIRTH #1
Written by Robert Venditti
Art by Ethan Van Sciver and Jason Wright
Published by DC Comics
Release Date: July 13, 2016
The Green Lantern Corps has disappeared and Sinestro and his eponymous Corps have stepped in to fill the void. But at the far end of the universe, a green light still flickers as Hal Jordan attempts to recreate the Green Lanterns and fight back against Sinestro!
Hal Jordan and the Green Lantern Corps: Rebirth follows a familiar format for DC’s Rebirth specials: about half the comic is spent on a summary of events leading up to the Rebirth special, with the other half spent offering hints at where the relaunched title will go from here.
Hal Jordan, who had been absorbed into the force of Will as a side-effect of using an experimental Green Lantern gauntlet, returns to a physical state and forges a new Green Lantern ring. Meanwhile, Sinestro, whose Sinestro Corps has vanquished the Green Lantern Corps, monologues about his victory, then reveals that he has Parallax, the Fear Entity, imprisoned in the core of War World and intends to use it for some nefarious purpose.
Cards on the table: I’ve read all of the Green Lantern books from Green Lantern: Rebirth (the 2005 one) through the New 52, but dropped off at the reboot when the number of books I needed to follow just to tread water expanded from “just two, sometimes three,” to “at least four, often five, maybe even six.”
I inhabit the median space that is the perfect audience for this issue — interested enough in Green Lanterns and Hal Jordan to care to pick this book up, but not interested enough to have been following them for the last few years. Knowledgeable enough about Green Lantern lore to understand all the (let us be frank) ridiculous nonsense in the prior paragraph, but not so up-to-date that the recap portions of this issue aren’t greatly appreciated.
I can state with confidence that, if you enjoyed Geoff Johns’s Green Lantern and have since lapsed out of reading the books, this comic makes a perfectly fine jump-on (or jumping-back-in) point. The recap portions are thorough enough without being tedious, and the hooks for future plot lines are tantalizing. I’m legitimately interested in the idea of a Green Lantern Corps with Hal Jordan replacing the Guardians as the leader and I’m intrigued by the mystery of where the rest of the Corps has gone and how Hal will bring them back.
Ethan Van Sciver’s art is fantastic. Van Sciver brings an incredible eye for detail to both alien landscapes and creatures, and his Green Lantern work gives the book an appropriately cosmic feel. Even the opening shot of a calm ring of asteroids is breathtaking. A closeup of Sinestro’s tired, withered eyes, stained black and red, gives a real sense of how long Sinestro has been fighting for his victory, beyond what words could express.
Jason Wright’s colors really pop throughout and bring Van Sciver’s art to life, whether it’s the glow or lantern energy or the haze of War World’s atmosphere. There’s a particularly well-executed effect when Hall is in energy form, with a color overlay that’s halfway between the scrolling computer text of The Matrix and the Ben-Day dots of Silver Age comics. The color work on this comic is some of the best I’ve seen in recent years.
All of that said, while there’s a lot of good stuff in this comic, it’s somewhat limited by the fact that it’s a preface and a bridge. It explains previous stories and promises new stories, but it’s not an especially interesting story in and of itself. Hal Jordan and the Green Lantern Corps: Rebirth is well-executed, but ultimately inessential.
The Verdict: 7.0/10
