Some of you may not have heard of this little fringe title which has received little to no publicity or controversy. And by some of you, I mean those of you living in a cave without Internet access. Yes, this is the book that brings Hal Jordan back, and every superhero fan seems to have an opinion on that, but the truth is, nobody really knows what's going to happen here. There's been so much focus on the controversial "who is Green Lantern?" that no one has really dug into the plot or the characters or any of that good stuff, and the result is that there are some surprises in the pages of Green Lantern: Rebirth. Although we may know that Hal Jordan is coming back as Green Lantern, that still leaves the big question as to who would unravel the continuity landmines and questionable characterization that has dotted the Green Lantern title ever since the equally controversial "Emerald Twilight" story, and the poor bast...er, brave soul that has been called up has been Geoff Johns. I'm not always on the same wavelength of Johns these days, the way I was a couple years back, but I still can only think of two other guys who I'd trust to do this job right, and if I had to rank those names, it'd be a three-way tie, with Johns maybe getting a little bit of the edge. Matched with Ethan Van Sciver, who does career-best work in these pages, this is a promising start to the Green Lantern: Rebirth story. It's too early to fairly judge the miniseries one way or the other, but it's off to a good start.
I'll lay my cards on the table and say that my point of view on the whole Green Lantern thing is that "Emerald Twilight" was an interesting story horribly executed, and that I never bought into Hal's anti-heroic actions there, which basically defined all of his actions thereafter in the DC Universe. I also never really warmed to Kyle, regardless of who was writing him, although I didn't really hate him either, I just found him a substandard version of the Green Lantern character, a character concept that I liked. So that's my point of view, and I know that Green Lantern fandom is fractured and contentious enough that I might not have the same problems with or requirements of this kind of story as others do. However, my general sense is that this is a good, if surprisingly slow-paced, first step, and that it shows more respect for the characters and superhero tone of the DC Universe than most of the Identity Crisis-influenced storytelling being done by so many of the writers at DC right now.
There were, to my mind, two really big dangers in the way Hal Jordan could have been approached in this one. One is that he's "Saint Hal," the best Green Lantern ever, and that he deserves the costume back despite whatever happened. The other is that he's a corrupt fallen hero married to a spirit of vengeance who can't be trusted with the power, and getting him back is a mixed blessing. To his credit, Johns does both of these takes and as a result gives a very balanced account of the flaws and strengths of Hal Jordan. While I might have winced when realizing that Hal's insanity and mass murder pretty much had to stay in continuity, Johns takes the sting out of it by suggesting that Hal is still trying to fix things, but maybe that he's being influenced by a greater power and so some of his more questionable actions can be excused. It's a tricky line to walk, and it won't work for everyone, but Johns has me on his side with this one.
Of course, while Hal Jordan plays a big part in this story, this really is a story of Green Lanterns, and not just Hal Jordan. Guy Gardner, a once-promising comedic foil and unusual hero, has been relegated to joke status and token big death in the last few years, and it looks like Johns is of a mind to fix that. Sure, the sudden problem that crops here looks like a disease caused by exposure to plot necessity, but it's believable and consistent with his unusual new powers. In addition, I really liked the interaction between Guy and John Stewart, two guys who are very different but who have plenty in common, and this is one thing that Ron Marz and Judd Winick did that Johns picks up on and uses. Johns also has a limited but important role for Kyle, one which should make Kyle fans a little less nervous about whether or not their favorite character is going to be destroyed as punishment for replacing Hal, and a small but important role for John Stewart. John's verbal showdown with Batman is terrific, a nice reminder that Batman isn't always right and that his paranoia can be a flaw as well as an asset.
The plot of Green Lantern: Rebirth is kind of sketchy at this point, to be honest, and that's probably the only real failing of this first issue. There's an ominous warning of a new threat, and strong hints that Hal/Spectre is unstable, as well as a general gathering of the important cast members and a strange occurrence in the destroyed Coast City, where the fall of Hal Jordan began, but while all of these events are pretty notable, the real reason for the story or the direction it's going remains pretty vague. However, the sense of pieces being moved into place is very much there, and the characterization that most of this book hangs on is terrific. Johns is a guy who I tend to think of as a plot-oriented writer, but I forget that he has his way with dialogue and character moments, and there are any number of them here. We get a lot of insight into how Hal is viewed through other people's eyes, but we really don't see inside Hal's head much, so that his role in the story remains somewhat enigmatic, tantalizing the reader with what's really going on while revealing a lot about all of the characters.
The first time I really took notice of Ethan Van Sciver's artwork was when he worked with Geoff Johns on Flash: Iron Heights. So it seems appropriate that the artwork that knocks that image out of my head as his best work is also with Johns, here in the pages of Green Lantern: Rebirth. Van Sciver is aided by sharp, bright colors from long-time Green Lantern colorist Moose Baumann, and if Johns's writing is a key component to a successful revitalization of Green Lantern, than artwork of this caliber is probably equally important. When it's time for heroic moments, Van Sciver delivers, with Kyle's desperate crash to Earth early on, John Stewart gliding over New York City or the spooky and effective showdown with Spectre, Black Hand and Green Arrow. More notable, however, is that Van Sciver really gives a sense of place, with the crowded ballfield in New York or the mysterious goings-on of Coast City or the setting of the last two pages, and he does phenomenal work with the characters as well, making them expressive and real despite the abundance of flashy spandex and sci-fi elements. 8/10
