Green Lantern suffers from the weight of too much back-story, history, mythos, whatever you want to call it – it makes reading this title an exercise in antiquarianism. And there is but one man to blame for this – Geoff Johns.

For close to ten years Johns has built up a massive chronicle of the Lanterns history and future. When I look back at Johns’ run (he will be leaving the title in May) I am amazed at just how many epic events took place with Green Lantern as the center of the action. Take a look…

“Rebirth”
“Sinestro Corps War”
“Blackest Night”
“Brightest Day”
“War of the Green Lanterns”
“Rise of the Third Army”
“Wrath of the First Lantern”

I can’t think of another series that has had so many monumental stories – each one building on the narrative of the last, creating a world rich in legacy.

For a while there Green Lantern defined the DC Universe and held it up on it’s shoulders. But those shoulders are getting weary and starting to break under the pressure. Perhaps this is why Johns is leaving the title – whats the old saying? “Go out when you are on top” “Quit while you are ahead”. Unfortunately the glory days of Hal Jordan and Co. are past them.

Reading Green Lantern now feels almost like a job – something you gotta do to keep track of things. Each page, each panel is just another parchment in the Lantern Book of Lore. Gone are the days of fighting Shark-Men – now every beat of the book is a detrimental step towards an ending that will never come.

Green Lantern was once given new life by Geoff Johns. He came in and did away with the past and gave us the new. Now the new is the past and it is time for someone else to come along and give the title life again.

Time for another rebirth.