Back to basics is a cliche way to talk about reboots and restarts, but for Green Lantern #1 it’s incredibly apt. Grant Morrison – the outlandish, high-concept sci-fi magician with classic runs on so many comics properties like Batman, X-Men, JLA and Animal Man over the past 30 years – has come to the character of Green Lantern with a fresh start and a more grounded approach. A grounded approach, that is, that involves shape shifting aliens who love limes, a sentient flu virus space cop and packed pages of alien worlds and characters.
For the uninitiated, the Green Lanterns are an intergalactic law enforcement team whose power rings give them access to untold power so long as the user channels their to overcome fear. With over 7200 members in 3600 sectors of space, they have a lot ground – or should I say planets? – to cover.
Shaking off the high-stakes space opera and multi-part crossovers, Morrison brings a smaller, more controlled feeling to the character of Hal Jordan by focusing on the primary role of the Green Lantern Corps – space cops. This new direction takes its cues from police procedurals, westerns, pulp novels and classic comics, and blends them with the weird ideas and concepts Morrison is known for.
In just the opening pages, readers are introduced to a Green Lantern whose ring finger is bitten off, only for him to use the ring to keep the finger floating nearby throughout a fight scene. The same Lantern is also the host to a sentient virus Green Lantern who subdues criminals by infecting them with its flu-like properties. This is set against a lush casino planet backdrop. And that’s only the cold open.
Morrison’s Hal Jordan feels like a wandering western lead. Swagger, bravado, but unable to keep his personal life together. It is the ur-take on the character from his days as a test pilot with Paul Newman looks in the 1950s through to his heel turn in the mid-90s. A super-successful relaunch of the character in the early 2000s launched him and his title into the center of the DC Comics Universe under the pen of Geoff Johns.
Morrison doesn’t so much reject all of that, but condenses it in just a few scenes. We’re introduced to Hal as he dreams of being back out amongst the stars, then as he interacts with his latest flame who chides him for losing a job pumping gas by running down his diminishing resume. When Hal gets into a fight later in the issue, the real him surfaces. The dashing hero, the cocky test pilot. It’s a fresh start for the character that harkens back to the feel of the character in the 80s and 90s without coming off as nostalgia.
Liam Sharp’s art stands out in the issue as both a complement to Morrison’s ideas but also as setting so much of the tone for the book. His figural work is loose, with exaggerated proportions and a general ethereal, otherworldly nature to the space-borne action. As soon as we get to Hal and Earth, though, the lines are harder, stronger, stiffer.
When Hal charges his ring and declares the oath, a sort of He-Man pose is evoked, but then just pages later a costumed Hal, soaring in to save the day, with a hovering, lanky, almost angelic posture. “Chill,” he says with his head canted at an angle, “I’ve got this.” Taken page-by-page it may seem that the styles change quickly or even inconsistently, but on the whole it feels like an organic part of the story. One artist using small stroke, pressure and angle changes to pull more out of the story.
Sharp’s page construction stands out as well. Each one has a different panel construction, a different feel and layout. Some feature standard grids, others have framed splash pages, others use page-length backing panel with smaller panels structured to enhance that backing. It’s a style more associated with European comics and makes the issue feel unique, like an artifact from another time.
Sharp’s style reminded me a lot of classic cosmic artists like Jim Starlin and Dave Gibbons, Kevin O’Neill’s collaboration with Alan Moore on Green Lantern, all with a healthy dose of 2000 A.D. splashed in. His panels are dense, packed with characters, action and detail. His creature designs feel unique. It’s a perfect pairing of artist and writer.
The creative team and the fresh concept are great jumping on point for anyone looking for sci-fi action, especially those hankering for something in the vein of 70s sci-fi or British Invasion 80s comics. It feels new, it feels classic and it feels right.
Rating: 9/10
-Brian McNamara
