Green Lantern Retrospective: Prologue

With the conclusion of Blackest Night, the third part of Geoff Johns' Green Lantern trilogy, the character seems to be in an interesting place: he's got an obvious in-universe goal (to find all the emotional entities), but it's not obviously building towards any larger storyline. (Considering the way Blackest Night build-up pretty much set the tone of the book since the conclusion of the Sinestro Corp War, this is a welcome change.) So, since I've almost completed my collection of Johns' run on the book, I thought I'd take the opportunity to look at the run as a whole work, examining the overcoming themes and plotlines the book's been juggling since Hal Jordan's return.

Starting with "Rebirth", I'll look at each volume of the Green Lantern series building to Blackest Night. I'll be skipping Green Lantern Corps, since A) It's not written by Johns, B) It doesn't star Hal Jordan, and his return is one of the biggest themes of the run, and C) I, uh...don't have most of that series. Yeah. I'll certainly mention relevant events from that series when they arise (particularly in regards to Sinestro and his daughter), but for the most part, I'll be sticking to the Green Lantern series proper.

And after much consideration, I'll be reviewing Secret Origins in the order it was published, not prior to Rebirth. I don't have a particular reason for this, and that's just what I've decided to do. Besides, Secret Origins retroactively introduces Atrocitus into the mythos, immediately prior to the published debut of the Red Lanterns; it makes the character easier to talk about.

Assuming that I haven't gone completely around the bend by then, when I finally arrive at Blackest Night, I actually will be reviewing it and the Green Lantern tie-ins chronologically, probably breaking it in two once the various Lanterns return to Earth. Or make a super-huge post. Either is good.

Since I know that at least one of the three people who read my blog aren't particularly well-versed in the character, I should probably take the time to give some information on the character and his universe. Yeah.

Okay, the Green Lantern Corps are basically intergalactic police officers, created by the ancient Guardians of the Universe. The Guardians forged a series of rings that could created solid energy constructs, powered by the will of their wielders. The Guardians divided the universe into 3600 sectors, assigning two Green Lanterns to each.

Earth's Green Lantern was originally Air Force test pilot Hal Jordan. Eventually, former Marine John Stewart was deputized, as well as abrasive (but fun) jerk Guy Gardner.

The biggest recurring threats to the GLC were the Manhunter robots and Sinestro. The Manhunters were the Guardian's original police force, before the Guardians realized that without any sort of morality in their basic programming, the Manhunters were too zealous and ultimately dangerous as law enforcement agents. The Manhunters didn't take the news well, and keep popping up to cause trouble for the GLC over the years. Sinestro is a similar story; he was once considered the greatest of the Green Lanterns, until it was discovered that he was using his Green Lantern abilities to instill a fascist government on his home planet. The Guardians banished him to the planet Qwuad in the Anti-Matter universe. Unfortunately, Sinestro forged his own power ring and returned again and again to attack the Lanterns. He was eventually imprisoned in the Central Power Battery, the power source for every power ring in the galaxy.

...if storing him in the Central Power Battery, the source of energy for every Green Lantern ring in the universe, seems like a disaster waiting to happen, congratulations! You're smarter than the Guardians of the universe! But that'll come up later.

And then comes Emerald Twilight, probably the most controversial Green Lantern story ever. Intergalactic despot Mongul, aided by the insane Cyborg Superman, nuked Hal Jordan's home of Coast City. (Located on the coast of California, we usually assumed.) Hal didn't take this well, doing his best to recreate the city with the power of his ring. When his power ran out, he went on an insane rampage to the GLC's homeworld of Oa, trying to connect to the Central Power Battery to continue recreating the city. He killed anyone who got in his way, including Sinestro. Hal's rampage ultimately destroyed the Power Battery, effectively ending the Green Lantern Corps right there. The last functioning ring in the universe was given to artist Kyle Rayner, while Hal Jordan became the supervillain Parallax.

Parallax eventually sought redemption by sacrificing himself to re-ignite the sun and save the Earth. (Sometimes the sun just goes out, you know? These things happen.) It was eventually revealed that Jordan's soul had been bonded to the Specter as a means of doing penance for his crimes. The Specter is, essentially, God's spirit of wrath; he brings harshly ironic justice to vile sinners on Earth, but requires a deceased human host to do so.

...the nineties were kind of weird for the Green Lantern.

So, that's where the characters are when we start next week. Coolio.