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Green Lantern: The Road Back 1992 (SC TPB) 192 pgs.

Written by Gerard Jones. Pencils by Pat Broderick. Inks by Bruce Patterson.
Colours: Anthony Tollin. Letters: Albert DeGuzman. Editors: Kevin Dooley, Andrew Helfer.

Reprinting: Green Lantern (3rd series) #1-8 (1990).

Rating: * * * * 1/2 (out of 5)

Number of readings: 3

In the convoluted history of Green Lantern, this was written at a time when the Guardians (the creators of the Green Lanterns) had left our universe, the Green Lantern Corps itself had disbanded, and the only remaining GLs were three earth men: Hal Jordan, bumming around America in search of himself, John Stewart, wracked with guilt over his incompetence in Cosmic Odyssey, and Guy Gardner, the egotistical buffoon who, at the start of this saga, seems to be the only active GL.

First and foremost, this is a Hal Jordan story. Guy is the secondary lead and John a distant third. This has Hal, largely resigned from being a GL, getting odd jobs on a farm or a fishing boat, periodically butting heads with Guy who's acting like a big green Mr. Mxyztplk, following Hal around and trying to get his goat. John, meanwhile, discovers that the last remaining Guardian on the planet Oa has gone insane and is transporting whole cities from all over the universe to keep him company. Drawn from his melancholic ramblings, Hal sets out to stop the Guardian (with Guy in tow).

Writer Gerard Jones here demonstrates a particularly fine ear for dialogue and a nice sense for crafting a scene. The chapters are highly readable on that level alone, mixing introspection, sharp dialogue, and wit and humour. Even "mundane" scenes of Hal just looking for work are involving and never seem dull. Pat Broderick is an artist I used to like as a kid and seem to be finding my way back to with this saga. He's got a slightly cartoony flare, and too much of a penchant for over-muscled heroes, but there's a robustness to his art that complements Jones' writing, dragging the reader from panel to panel, page to page, and with a clarity to the storytelling. Broderick really comes into his own with the later, space-oriented half of the saga.

The story unfolds as a good story should. The early issues (chapters) are self-contained mini-adventures with Hal on earth, with the mad Guardian storyline brewing in the background, like a storm front lurking ominously on the horizon of an otherwise mild afternoon. It means as a collection, this TPB straddles the two camps of being simply a run of stories...and a single epic. Even when the mad Guardian becomes the main story around the fourth or fifth chapter, it is still made up of scenes, of unexpected changes in direction -- rather than being a four issue brawl. It's a graphic novel. Perhaps it takes reading duller, more repetitive "epics" like Superman: The Death of Clark Kent or Batman: Contagion to put it in perspective and fully appreciate what Jones is doing. He's telling a story, not just a loose excuse for a bunch of fight scenes. There is an attempt at maturity, too, at presenting an adult -- essentially middle aged -- character (Hal) dealing with a difficult situation. In a sense, Jones is trying to write, not so much an "adult" super hero comic (which often implies sex or violence), but a comic for grown ups. When an earth woman trapped light years away on Oa starts panicking irrationally because she'll miss her loan deadline, we're seeing an unusually subtle bit of writing.

Part of the appeal to the plotting is that, frankly, I hadn't really seen it before. I'm not saying it's some radical, head trippy, bizarre odyssey. What I mean is that in comics, this month's story -- or this year's arc -- often echo previous ones. Same battles. Same arch foes. Same structure. That doesn't happen here. Whether it be in the early, stand alone, "lighter" episodes -- a ringless Hal and Guy having to face a couple of small town bumpkins who have their rings -- to the grandiose, multi-issue arc on Oa, with all its twists and turns and Hal having to think and strategize as much as use his ring, I can't really say "oh, this scene is just a rehash of Green Lantern #___" (which is ironic given that the story deliberately references some old GL stories). And it's the telling as much as the plotting that makes it so, as Jones sometimes lets the scenes and dialogue take us in unexpected directions.

At the core is Hal, with Jones clearly pumped to be writing this particular character. Admittedly, a problem with the story is that it starts out with Hal in a bit of a melancholic, introspective phase -- the whole point is he's turned his back on super hero-ing. But it's not really clear what brought him to that point, seeming more just a cumulation of events (likewise, the source of John Stewart's anguish is also not clearly articulated for those who hadn't read Cosmic Odyssey). But accepting that as the starting point, clearly Jones is writing about Hal Jordan, rather than simply Green Lantern's alter ego, and the scenes and events are filtered through him. Jones is maybe heavy handed playing up Hal as THE greatest Green Lantern -- basically using Guy for a negative contrast. But at the same time, he does capture a tone to the character that others have lost in recent years. His Hal is smart, confident, unfazeable, a man "born without fear", always searching for a solution...but he's also fallible, he's human and, above all, he's not cocky. He's level headed and so good at what he does, he doesn't need to flaunt it.

When I first read this, I was more conscious of (what I felt) were flaws. But it's a mark of something, that everytime I read it...those problems seem to fade further and further into the background.

In fact, after a re-reading, I'm sort of reconsidering one complaint. The villain of the piece is the Old Timer that travelled with Hal years ago in the classic Denny O'Neil/Neal Adams stories. As such, you might think seeing a friend insane would strike a chord of pity in Hal. But throughout most of it, Jones basically treats him as no more than the mad villain, there to be scary and provide the occasional quip -- like a cosmic powered Joker (though the Guardian's knowledge of earth pop culture seems a tad unlikely). Yet re-reading the character's end scene...I wonder if maybe I undersold Jones. It's subtle, relying on Broderick's visuals and less on what Hal says than on how he says it, but I think Jones is trying to suggest Hal takes it a little harder than simply a glib victory over a baddie. Still, he could've done more with the emotional dilemma.

Jones heavily draws upon that classic O'Neil/Adams run, with Hal once more hitting the road, even revisiting some of the same towns. But Jones' arc lacks the same socio-political audacity of those stories. Actually, what's funny is Jones makes a crucial character someone who Hal was supposed to have met back then...except she wasn't in those comics! But I guess that was part of the muddledness of DC's post-Crisis reality, which sort of said all previous adventures didn't occur...and if they did, they didn't necessarily occur the way they were told. And given Jones' desire to evoke those old stories, it's funny that a theme here is about Hal finding himself, declaring that he's no longer going to be a navel gazing whiner. It's not clear whether he just felt it was time to move the character in a new direction...or whether he was kind of thumbing his nose at previous GL writers (strange, given he was involved in the Emerald Dawn mini-series in which Hal was particularly whiny). Funnily enough, Geoff Johns made the same declaration when he relaunched Hal's adventures a decade and a half later!

Another qualm is some sexual innuendo that can become sexist. I mean, Guy visiting a porn shop is one thing -- it is Guy, after all. But Hal musing that he was happiest going from "town to town, woman to woman" is just plain uncomfortable. Modern DC writers like to play up Hal as some sort of super stud playboy. But that wasn't the character, and smacks a little of the writers letting their own fantasies hi-jack the character. As well, Guy is just an awkward character, period. He's the comic relief, but if considered seriously he should be regarded as a super-villain thanks to his abuse of his power.

This story laid the groundwork for the return of both the Guardians and the Green Lantern Corps to continuity, and the creation of the Mosaic world explored more fully in the spin-off series, Green Lantern: Mosaic. Of course, all that's moot for modern readers since a few years later the Green Lantern title would endure an even more traumatic shake up, eliminating all that stuff -- killing off the Guardians, the Green Lantern Corps, and even Hal (after first turning him bad). More recently, The Guardians, the Corps and Hal have all been returned (until the next desperate writer comes along and decides to kill them off again...and then someone will bring them back...and so on, and so on).

When I first read this, I liked it, but was conscious of some vaguely unsatisfying aspects. But everytime I re-read it, it just seems to inch up further in my estimation. In fact, it reminds me of Batman: Blind Justice in that I keep rewriting my review, not so much because I'm changing my opinion, but because I'm struggling to articulate to you, the reader, just how much I really like this arc, how much I savour the dialogue, the plotting, the...maturity. Jones' run on Green Lantern had its ups and downs -- I'm of mixed emotions on the two Emerald Dawn mini-series he co-wrote with Keith Giffen, but I liked another arc (from #20-24). But The Road Back is most definitely a keeper.

This is a review based on the story as it was serialized in the comics.

Original cover price: $__ CDN./$8.95 USA

Green Lantern: Secret Origin 2009 (HC TPB) 160 pages

Written by Geoff Johns. Pencils by Ivan Reis. Inks by Oclair Albert.
Colour: Ranov Mayor. Letters: Rob Leigh. Editor: Eddie Berganza.

Reprinting: Green Lantern (4th series) #29-35 (2008)

Rating: * * 1/2 (out of 5)

Number of readings: 1

After having read Geoff Johns' Green Lantern: Rebirth and the issues that comprised Green Lantern: No Fear, I reluctantly concluded that -- despite a certain affection for Hal/GL and despite the popular acclaim Johns' run was enjoying -- I'd probably sit out Hal's adventures while Johns was writing them. Yet here I find myself reading another arc from Johns' run and, more, an origin tale...when I've already read GL origin tales! So with all that acknowledged up front...on with the review.

Smack dab in the middle of Geoff Johns run on Green Lantern, when he was in midst of laying out an epic arc (destined to become yet another DC cross-title epic!) he stopped for the flashback arc, Secret Origin, which re-tells the origin of Hal Jordan/Green Lantern.

And one might ask, um, why? That's kind of the question facing a lot of modern comics writers. It used to make sense to retell origins because the original comic was long gone, unread by modern fans. But now, with reprints and TPB collections all the rage...it's not hard for fans to read earlier tellings of the tale. And in the case of GL, there's everything from the original origin in various collections, to the re-imagining in Emerald Dawn (and Emerald Dawn II) and even integrated into a broader epic in DC: The New Frontier!

So the other reason might be because the writer has some radical new spin he wants to give the old story (ala Batman: Year One). This can be problematic, as it can end up messing with something that didn't need messing with, and certainly raises questions about what is, and isn't, considered continuity. But although Johns tweaks things here and there, he doesn't really offer any radical alterations. In fact, Martin Pasko did more to shake up one's perception of GL in his 11 page story in the mini-series DC Comics Presents than Johns does in 150 some pages.

Maybe as the current architect of GL's adventures, Johns just felt his name should be on the true origin story, no one else's.

Another possibility is that previous origins were flawed, so the character was just begging for an origin tale done right. And maybe that's so. But in that, Johns hasn't really succeeded either.

Johns takes seven issues to cross his Ts and dot his Is, but does little to justify this epic telling. Even his treatment of Hal, as a feet of clay protagonist who has to grow into being a hero is pretty much the same as in the previous "definitive" origin, Emerald Dawn. And like with most origins, all the key scenes are in place, so there's a lot of just restaging scenes that have already been depicted dozens of times over the years: as a boy, Hal witnesses his test pilot father's crash; as a man he's a cocky sonuvagun who's his own worst enemy, and despite his piloting skills finds himself in the dog house with his bosses; he gets summoned by the dying Abin Sur to be given the emerald ring; he goes to Oa and receives training in his ring, etc. Even wrapping the arc around a battle with Abin Sur's killer is, of course, the same premise as in Emerald Dawn...albeit with a different killer (though a similar motive). For the first couple of issues, nothing really seems to be happening to justify the new telling, until we get to the end of the second chapter and Hector Hammond is introduced -- Hammond destined to be an arch villain, but here still just a normal man. To my mind, no previous GL origin had thrown Hammond into the mix, so it intrigued me to see how this would play out.

Turns out, not very interestingly. Johns doesn't really do much with Hammond, he's basically just a sidebar, nor does he give his origin any extra nuance -- he was a sleazy creepo even before he got his powers. And I always thought Superman foe the Parasite had the lame-brained-est origin in comics, but Hammond's rivals him! Johns also works in Sinestro and (I believe) Black Hand. But again, not really for any penetrating results. It smacks a little bit of hoarding, as if Johns was determined to lay claim to telling their origins before another writer did.

The back story for Sinestro was that he had once been a respected member of the Green Lantern Corps himself, and so Johns' utilizing Sinestro as a good guy is kind of clever...except that too had already been done, in Emerald Dawn II. Sure, unlike Emerald Dawn II, the story here ends with Sinestro still a good guy, leaving his villainy for a later story. And Johns does do the potentially interesting idea of having it be that Hal and Sinestro aren't just colleagues...but actually become friends. It smacks a little as if Johns was thinking about how many heroes had arch foes who were once friends and decided GL needed someone like that. But almost half a century after the character's creation, it seems a bit late to throw in that sort of a retcon.

The main changes Johns brings to the origin are less for this story, and more as a way of tying into, and foreshadowing, his later arcs -- specifically the Darkest Night theme. As such, though the story is self-contained (it is a flashback, after all) neither is it fully satisfying, as it's clearly meant to hint at things to come. Still, Johns does offer some interesting takes on various GL themes, involving will power and fear.

Actually, that's another way it echoes the earlier Emerald Dawn...both involve GL doing a supposedly impossible feat which is never explained here.

So if Secret Origin doesn't fully seem to justify its existence as yet another telling of the origin...how does it stand on its own?

Well, obviously, that's trickier to assess, since I have read earlier origins. But though it's not terrible -- there are some cute quips and humorous bits -- it still doesn't fully impress. And often for some of the same reasons Emerald Dawn didn't. Both try to present Hal as a more complex, more fallible person than his Silver Age version. But the results can be muddled and contradictory. For example Hal's rebelliousness is both supposed to be a sign of impulsiveness, a character flaw...and also what makes him a cool hero. Um...so which is it? Besides, wasn't the idea of Hal that he was a straight ahead, by-the-book hero -- one who could bend the rules, but only as a last resort? Wasn't that the crux of the character clash between him and Green Arrow when they used to hang out together? GL the space cop, GA the urban rebel?

There's just a kind of macho (Real-Men-Don't-Wear-Seat-Belts, Kids!), occasionally sexist streak through Johns' GL comics that isn't wholly appealing. At one point, GL comes to the aid of a woman being manhandled by her boyfriend...which then segues into your usual airforce vs. army good ol' boy bar brawl (with later day GL, John Stewart, one of the soldiers!) -- till by the end the abused woman seems to have been forgotten! And do we really need lines where a pilot boasts he'll teach a woman a "new meaning for the term 'landing strip'" in a GL comic? Ironically, I had complained in Emerald Dawn that the Green Lantern Corps seemed more militaristic than I recalled -- well, they may as well have been the peace corps compared to Johns' version, which is even more like grunts in space. I mean, are these macho bruisers really the sort you want wielding the "ultimate weapon" in the universe?

Although I've liked some stuff by Johns, other times I get turned off by his seeming infatuation with violence, brutality, and sadism -- something I've seen other reviewers comment on, so I guess it's not just me. Not only does he make the villains creepier and nastier than they ever were (Black Hand as some kind of sick necrophiliac?!?) but the heroes, too. I mean the Guardians crucifying villains? Abin Sur torturing them? Even the greater emphasis on the military, though not "sadistic" per se, reflects a guy who's just really in love with all that martial, military stuff.

And Johns even throws in some GL wallowing-in-the-mud scenes (like he did in No Fear) about which the less psychoanalysis the better. Actually, in Emerald Dawn there was also a use of mud...but with more relevance to the plot, and less fetishtic undertones.

Along the way, Secret Origin throws in various key supporting characters -- Hal's brothers, Carol Ferris, Tom Kalmaku, etc. But again, to little effect. Granted, Tom didn't even appear in Emerald Dawn, but here there's little attempt to really develop the relationship between the two. Likewise, GL Tomar Re appears, but with little sense why he was once identified as Hal's first friend among the corps -- save a scene toward the end where Tomar sides with Hal in a matter. But without any other scenes between them, it has little meaning. Of course, since many of these characters aren't part of the series anymore, maybe there was little point in playing them up. While Carol does have a significant part, even as her personality isn't well defined.

Johns clearly wants to write a deliberately paced, sophisticated drama, as much human drama as super hero adventure...but doesn't necessarily have the knack for that kind of kitchen sink realism, for making little domestic scenes seems as gripping and dramatic as any super battle.

And for seven issues, it's a pretty thin plot. When at one point a character remarks "what a life" Hal's led you're left thinking, um, he hasn't really done much (most of his "exciting" memories are just of his training on Oa!).

The art by Ivan Reis is very good throughout, with well rendered, realist fasces and figures, and detailed environments. But maybe it's just me, but like a few artists I've seen lately, as much as his craftsmanship is impeccable, occasionally breathtaking, the "art" side of things is less pronounced. His choice of angles for telling the scenes, his character designs, his body language. All of that is perfectly okay....without being especially stand out.

In the end, Secret Origin leaves me...ambivalent. Obviously, I come into it with baggage -- philosophically I don't think Johns and I are always on the same page about what makes a "hero" -- or even a man. It's certainly not bad, in writing and art, Johns all too frequent sordidness notwithstanding. There are some cute quips here and there. But it's a long way from being inspired, let alone surprising. Funnily enough, I had mixed feelings about Emerald Dawn, but liked it more. On a whim, I re-read Emerald Dawn after reading this...and enjoyed it even more, finding it just a bit better telling of the same basic tale.

This is a review of the story as it was serialized in the comics.

Cover price: __ . 

Tales of the Green Lantern Corps

This TPB reprints the early 1980s mini-series...plus a selection of short back up stories that were published in various Green Lantern comics. I've read the mini-series, but not (most of) the short pieces, so for now I've left the review of the mini-series in my Mini-Series Reviews section here.

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