Broken Frontier

Hal Jordan embarks on a return to sector 2814 and begins his second stint as Green Lantern.

Well, the wait is now over, as DC Comics finally released the first issue of the much heralded and most talked about superhero in the last decade. I am talking about the Green Lantern, and for anyone reading Rebirth, this series continues to renew the legend of Hal Jordan. The first issue comes complete with a larger page count and boasts the artistic talents of Ethan Van Sciver and Carlos Pacheco. It’s a lot to digest in such a short time, but it won’t take long before Hal Jordan is common place as Superman and Batman is in the DCU.

The issue starts out with a special look back at Hal’s origins on becoming the Green Lantern (with spectacular art supplied by Ethan Van Sciver). After that we flip forward to the present where Hal Jordan returns to his roots as a fighter pilot at Edwards Air Force base. He renews an old acquaintance with his long time friend Shane, who’s now a colonel, F/A - 22 squadron commander and family man. The two talk of old times, and it’s during this conversation that we learn Shane pulled a few strings to get Jordan onto the base and back into flight school. All seems to be going well, but it doesn’t take long before Hal is called back into space via a request from John Stewart. He quickly unleashes the ring’s energy and zips into outer space as the Green Lantern to meet John. The two then embark on uncovering a deserted ship left floating in space, and proceed to force a way inside to explore its mysterious contents. While the two Green Lanterns go about their duty, a strange alien being appears from out of nowhere on earth and begins searching for something. There’s obviously a connection between these two events, and I am sure the second issue will elaborate further on this.

Now as for the writing in the issue, I found it to be paced much slower than the previous stories on Rebirth. Perhaps Geoff Johns has done this deliberately, since he wowed the readers with so much drama and action in the beginning. But now with that monumental series out of the way, he can ease up a bit and examine Hal with a bit more scrutiny. Hal’s still engaging and intriguing here, but his character does take a back seat to the myriad of plot threads woven together by Johns. There is obviously a bigger picture here brewing and I am sure it will be an interesting read in the months ahead. I should also like to point out that the art accompanying the story was solid enough to match the slower pace than we have been treated to with Rebirth. I am assuming Ethan’s first four pages was meant to be the transition material to lead into the new art of Carlos Pacheco, whose work graced the remainder of the issue. I did enjoy Carlos’ work, despite it being much simpler and less dynamic than Ethan Van Sciver’s. There is a great deal of difference between these two artists, but I have to believe the intention here is to have both work rotating story arcs much in the same way Javier Pulido and Cliff Chiang did on Human Target. I guess in this case only time will tell if the pairing will work in the long run.

In short, I think this was a good start to Hal Jordan’s return to the DCU. Geoff Johns is more than a capable writer and his extensive knowledge of Silver Age history will launch the Green Lantern back into the forefront of mainstream comics. Again, it’s just a matter of time.

-Kenneth Gallant