Green Lantern: Earth One volume 1 (2018)

 Green Lantern: Earth One volume 1 (2018)

Written by Gabriel Hardman and Corinna Bechko

Drawn by Gabriel Hardman



    DC Comics has been around for a while. With characters dating back to the late 30s and 40s and multiple retcons and reboots and too many imprints to count, things can get confusing. Needless to say, following the continuity can be damn near impossible at times. But have no fear, Earth One is here! DC created the Earth One line to simplify things and set things back to square one. Not necessarily to retell their origins in the perfect distillation, but to let great creators take a stab at injected some life into some of these older properties. A nice jumping on point to someone who had never heard of any of these characters. Some were great, others were horribly mediocre. But for me the best representation of the potential of this idea is Green Lantern: Earth One. Green Lantern seems to be a tough nut to crack as they say, for some bizarre reason. I’ve always thought that it should be easy to make being part of an intergalactic police force visiting bizarre planets, and interacting with the many alien species that make up the universe, cool. But after a failed movie with Ryan Reynolds and the end of Geoff Johns 8-year opus coming to an end it seemed like the best days of Green Lantern were behind.

    Then this book comes out, from two independent creators I had never heard of. Telling the same old Hal Jordan origin, I’d heard a thousand times before. But this one was different, while most attempts at the character tried to go bigger this origin went smaller. Don’t get me wrong it’s plenty big, visiting countless unique planets and people along the way, but it doesn’t get swept up in the hype of its own story. It remembers that the important thing to a story are relatable characters.

    Let’s talk plot. This story shows Hal Jordan go from being a space miner/salvager in space to a Green Lantern who discovers the mystery of the Green Lantern corps disappearance and the rise of the Manhunters who have subjugated the universe and want to hunt down every Green Lantern. It may seem like there’s not much of a story but having a simplified story it allows the characters interactions to shine. I won’t say to much more about the story, because I would hate to spoil any of the great twists and turns.

    The artwork by Gabriel Hardman is spectacular. It’s gritty and scratchy, making it stand out from the more polished work that typifies the title. A lot of the space scenes look like they take clear inspiration from Ridley Scott’s masterpiece Alien. I liked his artwork so much that I picked up his independent horror comic one shot The Belfry to get more of it.

    So, all in all this book is great. If you are a Green Lantern fan or maybe more importantly if you’re not this book is a must read. It’s easy to jump into as you don’t have to know anything, and you don’t have to track down an obscene number of issues. It’s all available in one fairly cheap hardcover volume, and now is the perfect time to get it as volume two is releasing later this year. Green Lantern: Earth One volume 1 is the Green Lantern movie we should have gotten.  


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