New 52 Green Lantern #1 Review

Spoilers! Read at your own risk.

First off, I’ll put a disclaimer on this review stating that I had never read a Green Lantern comic book previously. I was always intrigued by the character, picking up various elements of the Green Lantern mythology and major players through other DC sources and of course the action figure lines, but never dove into the stories myself. Then, the 2011 movie happened with Ryan Reynolds as Hal Jordan, whom I never liked (personal preference) and again I quelled that dormant Green Lantern fandom. Next, DC re-launches their entire universe, hopefully making it more accessible to people like me who had always sat outside the DC store window and browsed from beyond the glass never to go inside.

Green Lantern #1 is seemingly immune to the reboot and picks up where the last series left off, this time with an arbitrary resetting of the issue to number 1. You can tell that this isn’t a reboot just by the character featured on the cover. If this was actually a re-launching of Hal Jordan as Green Lantern, there is no way you’d see Sinestro’s giant head adorning that cover instead of Hal’s. Upon researching this issue, having never read GL before, I see that my suspicions were correct and the issue is indeed just picking up where it was left, mostly unaffected by the New 52.

The story starts in the middle with mild exposition throughout. Sinestro gets his Green Lantern ring back, despite his decades of evil-doing. Hal Jordan is back to civilian life, dealing with domesticity, ring-less, just like his long-time girlfriend. Quaint, no?

There are long stretches with Hal, pages even, where he does nothing but talk about uninteresting things in his life, especially to a newcomer like me. Nothing dynamic happens on a visual level nor a story level. Just two people walking down the street talking. That’s fine for issue #28 or #259, but for an issue #1 I found this to be very dull. Juxtapose that with Sinestro’s story, which the issue cuts to back and forth, and you have the exact opposite of Hal Jordan’s role. Reflecting the cover that contains the story, Sinestro is the real star here, as he returns to his planet and sees devastation he himself enacted and decides to clean house once again. For me, this was far more interesting than anything revolving Hal.

Technically, the issue doesn’t astound me, either. The art is basic, the panel composition plain, and the style doesn’t do much for me on an aesthetic level either, floating somewhere between realism and newspaper funnies. The dialogue does its job, my favorite scene being the first with the Guardians and Sinestro, followed by another Sinestro scene that provides the most action in the entire book. Also, I can’t go through this review without mentioning the most unintentionally disturbing panel I’ve ever seen, where, with a close-up, Hal asks his girlfriend to dinner in a creepy way, accompanied by a drawing that makes him look trollish. I guess I’m just reiterating my dissatisfaction with the art and panels.

Overall, I will pick up issue 2, but that is only thanks to Sinestro’s storyline. Guessing by the way DC delivered this issue with the former (possibly currant) villain getting top billing, that’s exactly what they were expecting.

Score: 2.5 out of 5 “Okay-ish.”

Written by Chris Harder

Tags: DC, New 52, Green, Lantern, Comic Book Reviews