Sorry I'm a few days late with this but stupid polar vortex and whatever. I was going to try and keep these all in one thread, but it's kind of a pain to update the title every time we move on to a new character so such is life.

Today I thought we'd do Green Lantern. I want to try and rotate between DC and Marvel here anyway, and I think GL gives us a unique opportunity because we aren't just talking about one character or era. The Green Lantern mythos stretches all the way back to Alan Scott in the 1940's through Hal, Guy, John, Kyle, etc. so not only can our favorite stories vary wildly, they might not even involve the same character.

I love Alan Scott, but I grew up with Hal as my main GL as early as Challenge of the Superfriends. And finally, after a decade Green Lantern Rebirth brought Hal Jordan back and in the forefront of the GLC. And for me, it doesn't get much better than the Sinestro Corps War that soon followed. Think of all the new characters that spun out of that storyline and all the new ideas it introduced to the DCU. Now some might not even like the introduction of the Rainbow Lanterns, but how can you hate on Dex-Starr?


But all of that came after the Sinestro Corps War. There hasn't been many 'event' books in recent years that got me excited to the point where I couldn't wait for the next issue, but this one did.


"Oh dayam, they got the Anti-Monitor a yellow ring? Sh!t just got realz!"

And it has one of my favorite character moments ever in comics between Hal and Sinestro…



Waitaminute, you say, didn't Hal murder Sinestro once? Well...yeah, but...shutup. Characters grow.

Flashpoint!

Ok, so maybe the whole Rainbow Lanterns got played out well after this, but it's like bubble gum. That first burst of Hubba Bubba sugary goodness is so sweet and fresh. And blowing bubbles is fun. But eventually all that popping and chewing kind of stretches out the flavor and the softness and eventually your jaw gets tired. And I think that happened way way after this, but the Sinestro Corps paved the way for so many new characters and concepts that still effect the DCU today. At least I think they do, I don't read many new comics anymore. But yeah, I tore through this first pack of gum and the taste was glorious.



Plus, it finally explained the GL aversion to yellow.

I don't have a ton of Green Lantern experience, but I'm a huge New Frontier fan. Hal as both the summation of Space Age optimism and the counter to its jingoistic drive was a pretty great use of the character. Made me totally get the appeal that I usually don't see in the space opera take on it.

I'm also a big fan of Alan Moore's GL stories. It's amazing to me that he came up with multiple distinct takes on the concept in stories that make up about a single issue's worth of reading.

My top two is ...


Alan (Golden Age) Scott




Hal (Silver Age) Jordan




Modern (Jessica Cruz) Version - Honorable Mention

Green Guardsman







In my own love of the Justice Guild, he is my personal favorite.





I watch this occasionally for fun and entertainment.

Hal Jordan has always been my favorite GL

My favourite GL run was probably Hard Travelin' Heroes from Denny O'Neil and Neal Adams. Between Hal and Barry's Silver Age run, I definitely found Barry's stuff more fun but Hard Travelin' Heroes was a book that took Green Lantern and put him with the Green Arrow and the stories became more grounded for the most part and largely look place on Earth. I read these issues a few years back, the full run, and I still found it very readable.

The heroes found themselves dealing with the drug epidemic, cults and deprogramming, a hobo Jesus and bumping heads with Sinestro's sister. I think Neal Adam's was actually at his best on this book. I actually think the artwork here is a bit stronger than it was in Batman. While Dick Giordano did a great job inking Neal's pencils in Batman, I think Frank Giacoia really captured Neal's linework where as it looked a bit cleaned up and lost some of its style with Giordano's approach.