Friday, July 1, 2011

Green Lantern: Rebirth



Well after starting at "Blackest Night" and working backwards to "Sinestro Corps War", I'm now back to where it all started for Geoff Johns epic: "Green Lantern: Rebirth".  It was here that Johns, Ethan Van Sciver, and Prentis Rollins laid the groundwork for everything that was to come over the next several years and in many ways rebuilt the foundation for the GL mythos.

On a side note, after seeing Rollins & Van Sciver in person at Wizard World Philly, I can say that EVS is one funny dude.  Rollins had a pretty dry sense of humor too that played well off of EVS and Shane Davis who was also on the panel.  Another random side note, Rollins & EVS worked on "New X-Men" together during Grant Morrison's epic run...

Welcome back from that commercial break and welcome to my look back at "GL: Rebirth" where everything started anew for Hal Jordan and the Green Lantern Corps!

So for a little backstory for ya'll when this mini-series hit the stands, Hal Jordan was dead but "living" on as the host of the Spectre (a biblical Spirit of Vengeance) as a way to redeem himself for the evils committed as the villain Parallax. 

For even more backstory, Hal's hometown of Coast City had been obliterated during the "Return of Superman" story arc by the Cyborg Superman & the alien Mongul.  This led directly into "Emerald Twilight" where, driven by grief, Hal attempted to use his ring to recreate the city.  The Guardians stripped him of his power, he flew off to Oa, murdered several Lanterns, destroyed the Central Power Battery, killed Sinestro whom the Guardians had released from banishment, and flew off while Kyle Rayner was chosen as the last GL.  Hal then tried to recreate the world to his liking in "Zero Hour", sacrificed himself to reignite the sun in "Final Night", and was selected as the host for Spectre in "Day of Judgment".  Whooooo, maybe all that backstory is why DC is jumping back to square one...but then again half the fun for me was back issue digging.  Story for another day....

Well in the trade format we jump into "GL: Rebirth" with a short prelude from "Wizard X" entitled "The Day Before", pretty self explanatory for when it takes place.  Kyle Rayner saves an alien planet whose inhabitants keep chanting something the ring translates as "Parallax is coming". During this little adventure, Kyle also throws out a seemingly innocent mention of how Sector 3600 was wiped out a long time ago.  Meanwhile Hal, in his human guise, watches an airshow which nearly turns into a disaster until the new Spectre saves a plane from crashing.  A little bit of internal argument between Hal as a GL & Parallax ends with The Spectre stating how this union is "...for the good of not just us, but the universe itself."  Then, with a close up on The Spectre's eye which looks like Parallax's face, he mutters "This pathetic fear-filled universe.".  And off we go...

Enter Chapter 1 and a scene very reminiscent of Abin Sur's (Hal's predecessor) crash on Earth as another space ship crash lands on Earth, only this time it contains a panicked Kyle Rayner telling the people who find him "Don't be afraid"...kind of funny coming from a GL really.  He can't use the ring, or rather won't, is accompanied by a coffin, and refers to himself as "the first GL to know what fear really is".  It's a statement that implies Kyle has felt fear, and in his continual need for self-deprecation, Kyle believes he is the first Lantern to do so.  But as the story goes on the reader will learn that it really means something deeper than that.

We get a look at Carol Ferris, Hal's past love interest, as she walks the abandoned airfield once owned by her father while talking to her husband.  Of course she stumbles on Hal's old plane.  This one page managed to convey everything a new reader needs to know about Carol's history, and the art in the last three panels also tells the reader all they need to know about Carol's connection to Hal Jordan.  EVS draws a perfect look of shock on her face as she stumbles on the plane and wipes away the dust.

That same art/dialogue combo nails it on the head as John Stewart (the 2nd Earth GL) & Guy Gardner  (a former Earth GL) are introduced into the story for the first time.  The meticulous detail of Stewart's construct, the look on his face as he says he used to trust Hal, it all gives you an idea of just who John is.  Guy's cocky (though false) self-assurance that John trusts him, the fact that he wears a shirt with his own logo on it, his tight "show off my muscles" t-shirt all give you an idea of who Gardner is as well.  The friendship between this two is immediately evident as well as they engage in a discussion, albeit one-sided, about Hal, the Green Lantern Corps, and all of John's shortcomings.  Guy can see all of John's faults but is oblivious...or lying...about his own. 

Enter: Hal Jordan as he joins John & Guy at a baseball game.  A perfectly normal, everyday, human thing to do...the problem though is that Hal isn't human anymore.  His mere presence provokes the entire audience, including Guy, to confess their sins (In my head, I always hear those last 3 words in Antonio Banderas' "Desperado" voice) to the Spirit of Vengeance. 

Jump on over to Green Arrow & his female sidekick Mia (not as random as you'd think) as the villain Black Hand bursts in looking for something using some kind of tool as a tracking device (for more on this read "GL: Secret Origin" & see how beautifully Johns mapped this out).  His target: a GL ring that Hal gave to Oliver Queen.  Black Hand, whom Ollie refers to as a loser, ends up with an arrow in his hand just in time for Hal (as The Spectre) to enter the room full of righteous vengeance.  The Spectre burns off the hand of Black Hand (see more planning ahead there from Johns), before departing with omnious words to Oliver...



Could not find an image that wasn't cut off, but in the missing panels Hal utters "It's getting hard to focus Ollie. I...there's something wrong.  None of this should've happened.  This isn't me.  This isn't who I am."  Freaky indeed...


Back to Guy & John at Gardner's bar called...egotistically unsurprising...Warriors.  There the discussion about Hal continues, with both men praising him in their own way (hell Guy has a statue of Jordan in his bar).  During the convo, Gardner has an attack of some kind and explodes, taking the bar & John with him while over on the left coast, a certain decimated city apparently returns from the dead! 

A seemingly random jump to Hector Hammond in Belle Reve Prison bridges the gap to the JLA Watchtower where Guy is being looked at by Martian Manhunter & Doctor Mid-Nite whilst Wonder Woman & others investigate the remains of Warriors.  The only thing left intact...that statue of Hal.  Alan Scott, the mystical GL, isn't feeling so hot and the Flash (Wally West) is speeding around the partially restored Coast City only to find, alongside Aquaman, one building whole: Hal Jordan's old apartment building.  All of this is enough for Batman to declare Hal has returned to his evil ways...that the jump from Parallax to The Spectre was planned as part of some larger scheme.  Unsuprisingly John Stewart is the man standing up for Hal as he nails the whole problem on the head...



As the first issue closes, Hal restores one last part of his past, Ferris Air, while Carol stands in the midst of the wreckage.  We also get the title of this first story, and I don't think it's a coincidence that it's entitled "Blackest Night".  Hot damn is that a lot of ground covered and that's just the first issue! It's like the first chapter of "Sinestro Corps War" in that Johns dumps damn near everything into the first issue to get the reader hooked in.  It certainly leaves the reader with that "what happens next" feeling...

The 2nd issue starts just as crazy as a green energy bursts forth from the GL battery on Oa with the words "Find him. Find Kyle Rayner" as it shoots off into space.  Oh yeah, and it trashes a Hal Jordan statue as it erupts from the battery.  Kyle is still out of it on Earth, being watched over by two guys who were trolling the New Mexico desert for aliens, while his internal dialogue continues to debate on whether or not to use the ring. A ring that keeps repeating "Parallax, Parallax is coming" by the way...



Back to Hal & Carol at the airfield where we get a flashback to the first day they met as children, the fateful day that Hal's father died right in front of him after passing his jacket down to Hal; the same jacket he has been wearing in the story thus far.  Hal elaborates to Carol essentially what he hinted at to Ollie, that something is clouding his judgment and making him doubt himself, making him afraid...

Up to the Watchtower where the JLA/JSA are looking for Hal, Alan Scott is getting sicker, and Batman is being Batman.  Zatanna locates The Spectre energies, the JLA heads off to confront Hal and find him still at the airfield.  Upon confrontation, John Stewart freaks out and blasts everyone standing on the airfield!  He goes hardcore, blasting Superman in his eyes with green energy as John's ring now begins to repeat the mantra "Parallax is coming".  At the Watchtower, GA's ring duplicates itself and the new ring bonds to Guy Gardner...



That ring also keeps repeating the same phrase, as is Kyle's when we cut back to him finally recovering as he starts to explain that the yellow impurity has a name just in time for the future Drill Instructor of the GLC Kilowog to make his appearance.  Obviously acting...wrong, Wog is encouraging Kyle to use the ring, making the connection that this unusual behavior from John, Guy, and Wog is linked to ring usage.  The big cliffhanger hits when that green energy from the start of chapter 2 finally finds Kyle and is revealed to be Guardian Ganthet!  Not only that, but we find out that contained within the coffin Kyle came to Earth with is: Hal Jordan!

Chapter 3 opens with Ganthet trying to convince Kilowog to stand down as Kyle provides the info dump for the uninitiated as to the little blue guy's background.  One sentence pretty much sums it up: "Ganthet could crack the planet in half with a thought."  This stand-off also gives us what is for me the absolute coolest image of Kilowog ever put to paper:



The display of power from Ganthet as he fends of Wog is only a fraction of what the Guardian has to offer, but more importantly, Kyle finally uses his ring.  During that one page we begin to understand why the last GL hasn't used it thus far, "It's reaching into my soul again.", but what "IT" is isn't something quite known yet.  This....IT...also gives Kyle a look at what's happening with John Stewart at that moment and allows the reader to see what's gone down without devoting pages to it.  Nice touch...

Jump to Coast City & Hal Jordan as he's walked away from the JLA/JSA battle with John and finally gets an idea himself of what's really going on here.  A visit to his old apartment, a look at an old Lantern Battery, and the reflection of Parallax in the green tell him (and the reader) some of what we need to know.

Back to Kyle & Ganthet as they continue to fight the only GL whose ring makes noise (you didn't forget Kilowog already did you?), while the Guardian explains to Kyle that his ability to know fear, his "flaw", is the only thing keeping him from ending up like 'Wog & John. 

Kyle takes Hal's body and heads to the Watchtower where he assumes they will be safe while Hal battles for his very sanity with Parallax & The Spectre.  Kyle, greeted by a recovering GA, offers an explanation to Ollie (and to the reader) for what is really going on here, and we get our required massive info dump. First the truth about Parallax:


A yellow fear-eating creature traveling the universe that The Guardians eventually captured and stored within the Central Power Battery on Oa.  Over time Parallax became known as nothing more than the yellow impurity.  The Fear Entity's presence within the battery made the rings weak against its corresponding color. I actually think this is a brillant explanation for what essentially was a case of the ring being too powerful thus needing a weakness built-in (like Supes & Kryptonite essentially).

It's also the primary reason why a person with a GL ring must be a being capable of overcoming great fear in order to master the little green circle.  But nothing can last forever, and Parallax used the ring as a conduit to slowly poison the "Greatest Green Lantern", Hal Jordan, and it first showed in the white hair Hal had in his later days as a GL before Coast City (another great way to explain what came before!). 

The clincher was obviously Coast City's destruction and it was reinforced by Hal's assault on Oa, and murder of fellow GL's, not to mention snapping Sinestro's neck when the Guardians released him from his prison inside the Central Battery to fight Hal (another important story beat from the past).  Essentially Parallax is an entity latched onto Hal's soul, and even his death to reignite the sun didn't save him from Parallax.  As the next few pages show, it ultimately just gave Parallax access to the Spectre...and the big question, what woke Parallax up in the first place?


And that is how we close the third chapter!  Ain't this dude dead?!?!?  Well the first page of part 4 essentially consists of Kyle (who has largely been our narrator throughout) explaining how much of a badass Sinestro is...the only one of Hal's old enemies that Guy Gardner doesn't mock.  Sinestro honestly admits...while he's trashing the Watchtower...he never understood his yellow power until the Guardians imprisoned him alongside Parallax, essentially making him the master of fear, and setting the wheels of their own fate into motion.  Makes me wonder if the Guardians were essentially fulfilling the prophecies of the Book of Oa simply because they were prophecy?

Back on Earth, Parallax assaults Ganthet as he battles the possessed Lanterns but the owerwhelming power of the Guardian frees them from fear's control, and gives time for the collected heroes of Earth to join the fray.  At the Watchtower, Kyle & GA battle Sinestro and I think this may be the first "alley rat" reference from Sinestro towards Kyle but don't quote me on that. This little fight offers up another awesome moment after Ollie tries to charge up a GL ring...


Not only does that awesomeness happen but in the follow-up panel Ollie asks if the exhaustion and confusion he feels after using the ring...barely...is what Kyle feels like when he forces his willpower into the ring.  Kyle's response of "Every time" tells the reader more about how using the ring actually feels than any story before it, and Ollie's "Damn" is pretty much how the reader feels after seeing it.  Again, recognition must be given to EVS and crew for the bang-up artistic job on these panels.  Lesser artists would not have been able to convey these facials and all the emotions wrapped up in it...

On Earth we get the JL(S)A battle with Parallax along with the little bit of information that the reason Alan Scott was feeling sick was because the fear entity was trying to worm its way into his life as well but the differences between the GLC & his ring made it difficult.  Finally the Spectre helps Hal fight the Parallax influence, freeing them both, leaving Spectre free to find a new host and Hal...well Jordan is dead after all, he's off to somewhere.  Parallax, on the other hand, is still quite alive and hops into the body of Guardian Ganthet!  As for Hal, well the ring he left with GA comes in handy as Jordan's soul finds its way to the body on the Watchtower, and the "greatest gl" is restored!


And with the penultimate issue it is on!  Hal Jordan vs. Sinestro on the freakin' moon and we get the core (no pun) of what will drive this story for some time ahead.  Free will(power) vs. rule of fear...and one of the coolest things this chapter offers is a flashback to the first day Hal & Sinestro met.  Now I can't double check my "Secret Origin" HC to verify this because it is currently in the hands of a friend, but I do believe this exact pair of pages is part of the "SO" story...

In just a few pages Hal Jordan manages to show everyone why he was considered the greatest as he takes it to Sinestro AND verbally berates Sinestro for his disrespect of Kyle.  We also get the moment that scarred Sinestro forever as Kyle returns to the fight and embeds a ton of arrows into the wannabe dictator's back in the shape of the GL ring.  Sinestro escapes to the Anti-Matter Universe as the fight closes and we get another moment as a free Hal Jordan officially meets Kyle Rayner.  Tried to find an image...got this...



Kyle doubts himself, but as John & Guy said when this all started, Hal is the type of man to make you believe even in the most dire circumstances.  And the situation certainly is as we head back to Earth where Parallax has possessed Ganthet.  But before we get anywhere, Bats has something to say but so does Hal's fist...


The fight rages on and in the midst Johns' give us a wonderful description of just how all four Earth Lanterns & Kilowog function as GL's, how their personalities come out in their constructs, and how they all empower each other.  This fight is where the rebirth of the Corps begins.

Parallax is resecured inside the Central Battery, the Guardians return on Oa, Guy Gardner admits he missed it all, and Batman leaves well enough alone (for now at least).  We return once more to Hector Hammond as he deliver some ominous warnings about the future, Hal meets up with Carol to tell her he has plans that don't involve Ferris Air, and most importantly Hal & Ollie reconnect while Jordan reconnects with his lantern and that Oath GA can't quite remember...



So wow...just wow.  No wonder this was such a high selling book (the first issue went through four printing & sold a total of 156,975 copies; the second issue went through two printings & sold 122,221 copies. The subsequent issues sold 106,523, 108,077, 115,006, and 114,354 copies, respectively...thanks Wiki!), and so critically well received.  It set the foundation for everything that has been delivered the last few years in the GL-Verse from "Sinestro Corps Wars" to "Blackest Night", it laid down the base of the emotional spectrum, and gave explanation for elements of the past that didn't quite fit or just weren't ever given detail.  I think my favorite little throwaway line was Ganthet, the eventual creator of the Blue (Hope) Lanterns stating that "Hope is meaningless against fear...willpower is our only weapon."  See even the Guardians can grow...maybe not physically but emotionally, psychologically if they want to.

This is a trade that comes with the highest recommendation from yours truly.  Prior to reading this book my only knowledge of Hal Jordan as Green Lantern was his involvement in "Return of Superman" and the "Emerald Twilight" story arc.  Kyle Rayner was the GL that I knew and read, the one that I grew somewhat attached to while Hal Jordan was the hero turned villain trying to "fix" the world. 

The sheer power of Johns' writing and the beauty of EVS' art in this 6 issue arc are what drew me to Hal Jordan.  When I was given this trade as a gift, it was just as Sinestro Corps War was beginning I believe so I quickly got all the other trades I could find and took advantage of a big sale at my local shop to get the first 5-6 parts of "SCW" thatI had missed.  I don't regret it for a second and trust me neither will you.

So if you found your way here because of the movie, or if you're just curious about Green Lantern's history, this is the place where it all started again: "Green Lantern: Rebirth".  It's the place where it could all start for you too...

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