GREEN LANTERN #1

Review by: TheNextChampion

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Written by GEOFF JOHNS
Art by DOUG MAHNKE and CHRISTIAN ALAMY
Cover by IVAN REIS and JOE PRADO
Variant cover by GREG CAPULLO

Size: 32 pages
Price: 2.99

Sometimes you can’t go home again.

I remember getting back into comics around 2008, not even remembering who or what a Green Lantern was. Now with Geoff Johns, a slew of artists (mostly Doug Mahnke for me), and a big screen adaptation that seems like a big joke now. But what made me interested in the character, or now universe spanning characters, is how much of a great space opera it was. Johns had so many great ideas and storylines for this entire universe that it was compelling to pick up each issue. But then, around the time of Blackest Night, the sparkle turned into a dimmer which then turned into complete blackness. (See what I did there?) I just couldn’t find myself caring about Johns was creating because it felt more like he cared about his ‘bigger picture’ then actually telling a good story. So with the reboot coming and this new predicament of being a Green Lantern once more I was excited to see what was their to offer.

Apparently not much was offered in this reader’s eyes because this book was nothing but problems by (almost) page one. Where to start….Well I think we should start that it’s plain as day that Geoff Johns can’t write Hal Jordan even to this day. Before the reboot it was obvious that Johns put him aside for the major storylines and just barely put enough effort to connect him to the story. With Hal now being grounded as a Lantern for the time being it was a real slog to read this. I just don’t care about Jordan and Johns writes him in the most boring way possible. I find it really hard to believe a man, who’s main power comes from an object and I see little reason why he’s so muscular in retrospect, be able to jump across buildings and immediately knock someone down. Even if it was a set up for a (failed) joke it still bordered on the unbelievable which is saying something for a book about space cops. Johns writes Jordan in such a bland, and sometimes annoying, manner that it’s hard to really care about his love life or trying to become a member of the Corps again. The strongest moments in this issue are, not surprisingly, the Sinestro stuff but Johns plays so little with that that in the end it feels like the focus of the book is decidedly unbalanced at the moment. The cover and interviews would certainly indicate that Sinestro is the main character this time around and while it makes sense to have Jordan be in the spotlight too, it’s bizarre not to have a full blown first issue with mainly Sinestro.

While it’s great to see Doug Mahnke back on a book it’s also not the best way to see him return. I don’t know if it’s the inking, which he normally has nine million people ink his work, or the fact that he hasn’t drawn Green Lantern in a while but it certainly feels un-Mahnke like. There are occasional moments of brilliance such as Sinestro spying on Korugar and the fight scene that comes after it looks great. But other pages such as straight on shots of Jordan, Carol, or Sinestro are uneasy to look at. Maybe I just didn’t pay attention to it before the relaunch but Mahnke does drew some ugly faces in this. Sometimes he draws a ton of wrinkles in one panel, the next it’s almost a perfect circle to make it look like a head. Carol immediately looked like a mannequin to me after her reveal page. It might have to do with the fact that Tom Nguyen did some of the inks and not Christian Alamy. Alamy has inked Mahnke for a long time now, and again a ton of other artists have inked for the guy so it’s hard to keep count, but when it changes to Nguyen (which is easy to spot) it just looks bad. Maybe Nguyen had to come in to make sure this came out on time (which has to be the case here) and that’s a shame. Cause maybe with a little more time the pages could look a bit more even in the end.

Here’s the biggest problem with this entire comic. Considering this is a company wide relaunch there is absolutely, and I can say with 100% certainty on this, nothing different about this title. I might have dropped Green Lantern before the reboot but I get the feeling that nothing has changed with Hal, Sinestro, or anyone else in this book. Hell, Ganthet is literally wearing the same outfit from before the reboot with no explanation on why he’s so different from the other Guardians. Add to that with a really boring story on Jordan trying to life without the ring, and disappointing artwork by Mahnke overall and you got one very disappointed fan. It seems that Geoff Johns just isn’t cut out to write this series anymore and his bland writing on this shows it. Maybe it’s time to get a new writer in here and freshen things up, especially for the supposed ‘reboot’ of this character.

Story: 1 - Poor
Art: 2 - Average

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