Green Lantern: The New 52

Batman and Green Lantern have been such solid sellers in recent years, that with the reboot their continuities have been allowed to continue more or less where they left off. A quick look at all the Green Lantern-related books:

Hal Jordan will likely feature regularly in both Justice League and the flagship Green Lantern title, although he didn't make the cover of that latter! We'll come back to that.



John Stewart and Guy Gardner share top billing in the Green Lantern Corps title, and Guy Gardner is also part of the Justice League International.

Kyle Raynor looks to be a part of a separate team of crayola rings in Green Lantern: New Guardians. When I start putting together the previews that have been released for the first few books, I think major changes are coming to the Green Lantern universe sooner rather than later.

But the Red Lanterns appear to be going their own way, as Atrocitus tries to find his path now that he no longer has his lifelong goal of revenge to drive his rage.

Alan Scott died recently in the Justice Society of America books. And while recent Green Lantern history remains, Alan Scott was never really a part of that. And the whole concept of the Justice Society in general doesn't seem to fit on New 52 earth. I suspect that JSA will eventually get its own reboot on some other earth in the multiverse with Alan Scott alive and well, but that they didn't want the titles to go multiversal just yet.

So onto the point of this blog:

Green Lantern #1

The cover tells the story: Sinestro is a Green Lantern again, and as we discovered within the pages, Hal Jordan is not, having been fired by the Guardians. We're picking up right where the "War of the Green Lanterns" storyline left off, with Hal pissing off the Guardians one too many times by teaming up with the crayola rings to go after Krona, and despite saving the universe from Krona, the Guardians have stripped him of his ring. But in the process, to the shock of Sinestro as much as anyone, a Green Lantern ring chooses him once again. The Guardians uphold the choosing, believe Sinestro can be redeemed. Sinestro promises that he's not playing by their rules, but since he revealed in the War that he still loves the Corps and the Order that it stands for, he's keeping the ring. 

So far so good, but here's where I have a problem: How many times has Hal Jordan found himself ring-less and once again been "chosen"? Heck, the ring he had taken away just chose him the issue before. Granted, the fact that his sector already has plenty of lanterns works against him, but the rings seem to work by their own rules at times, and rings seem to really like Hal.

It feels like a huge plot hole that the Guardians should address, especially in the wake of Sinestro getting a ring. Otherwise, when the inevitable happens, it'll be like, "Seriously, what did you expect?"

And now that I think about it, there's definitely an inherent logic flaw on the part of the Guardians that they would uphold the choosing of Sinestro while firing Jordan who normally couldn't keep a ring off his finger if his life depended on it.

Awkward...

So the new Green Lantern title splits its time between Hal, to remind us he's not going anywhere even though he's a really pathetic human being now (wonder if any of the crayolas will try to recruit him?) and Sinestro, who's on his way back to his own sector and his homeworld. Oops... Sinestro left his yellow corps in charge of Korugar, and the yellows are none too thrilled to see a green ring on his finger. Looks like it's going to be Sinestro versus the Sinestro Corps!

As a final note, I mentioned I don't normally give art much attention unless it's bad? Wow, some of the drawings of Hal in this book are BAD.

FAIL if your answer is not along the lines of "buying pepper spray".