Seeing Green?

Greetings, my name is Jordan. Previously, we looked at three different comics that people reading "Rebirth" should check out at some point, either because of their storytelling, or the characters in them. This time, a look at the Green Lantern comics, and the differences between Hal Jordan and the Green Lantern Corps Vol. 1: Sinestro's Law and Hal Jordan and the Green Lantern Corps Vol. 2: Bottled Light, and the Green Lantern I know from Blackest Night. I shall only be speaking of GL before "New 52", as I have not had the chance to read any of those yet.

In Volume One, Hal Jordan has left the Green Lantern Corps, having stolen a pair of prototype gloves (which would have been used instead of rings) to try and take the blame for the universe hating the Corps. The Corps itself has gone missing, and the Sinestro Corps has taken control of the world, establishing its form of order through the yellow color of Fear.

I absolutely loved this! Sinestro has control of Warworld, which is usually either Mongol's or Cyborg-Superman's. On Warworld, he has constructed a fear engine, to harness the emotion from the Universe in order to supercharge his corps' rings. Hal Jordan is elsewhere in the universe, and forges his own Green Lantern ring out of pure willpower, which was formerly impossible, except for the Guardians of the Universe (the little blue men creatures who created the Corps).

It was nice seeing the ring forging; a first for a Green Lantern. I hope this leads to a new level of power that we shall see in future GL comics under the "Rebirth" title.

Volume Two is even better than the first! Following the destruction of Warworld by Hal Jordan, and his supposed death, the Green Lantern Corps heads to the planet Xudar, where a distress call has been picked up. They find a massive star creature (aptly called Starro), who has been an issue for the Justice League in the past, hovering over the planet. However, this is not the main enemy the Corps faces, as once they run it off, they are trapped in the city. Eventually, it is revealed that Brainiac 2.0 has trapped both the Green Lantern Corps, and the good members of the Sinestro Corps, as well as the entire city, in a containment cell, for some grand collector.

During this time, Hal Jordan is being rescued from his assumed death by Kyle Rayner, the White Lantern, and two former Guardians: Sayd and Ganthet, the only two who remain alive. Near the end of the volume, both stories merge into one: Hal, Kyle, Sayd, and Ganthet arrive to help the two corps against the grand collector, who happens to be Larfleeze, the orange lantern of avarice.

This book was fantastic! It was awesome to see the two corps reconcile, and I hope they stay that way. Also, seeing a Brainiac was amazing!! He is usually an enemy of Superman, or at least his various versions are, and seeing him under control  of none other than Larfleeze was great! I am looking forward to future volumes, in hopes of seeing Larfleeze again, either as an enemy or a temporary ally.

In regards to the Blackest Night era, the characters all seem fairly similar. Soranik Natu, formerly a Green Lantern, and major player in the Blackest Night comics, is a Sinestro Corps member in "Rebirth", yet she acts similarly to the former series. Kyle Rayner is a White Lantern in "Rebirth", and the White Lanterns came around in Blackest Night, with Thaal Sinestro (during the alliance of all the color corps against the Black Lantern Corps) being the first. Sayd and Ganthet are still banished from the Green Lanterns, as each was in BN, though neither is part of any corps (Sayd having agreed to become the Orange Guardian for Larfleeze at the conclusion of the Blackest Night event, and Ganthet becoming a Green Lantern member). 

I do hope there are references to the event at some point in the "Rebirth" run, as I was a huge fan of the entire series. As for now though, I thank you for reading. Tune in next time for an unspecified post.