Hal’s back and trying to live in the past.
Creative Staff:
Story: Jeremy Adams
Art: Xermanico
Colors: Romulo Fajardo Jr.
Letterer: Dave Sharpe
What They Say:
Spinning out of the events of Dark Crisis, the Guardians of Oa at the heart of the Green Lantern Corps have quarantined Sector 2814, home of the planet Earth-and its champion along with it! A heartbreaking defeat has sent Hal reeling, returning home to rediscover his roots…and find the man responsible for ruining his life: Sinestro. From the visionary team of Jeremy Adams and Xermánico (who brought you the epic Flashpoint Beyond) comes a tale of redemption, loss, and finding out that maybe…just maybe…you can go home again. At least if you’re willing to hot-wire a power ring to do it. Also featuring part one of John Stewart: War Journal from writer Phillip Kennedy Johnson and artist Montos!
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers):
I’m a number of years out of date on my Green Lantern stories, pretty much since the Flashpoint reboot over a decade ago, but I’ve enjoyed the character in a bunch of the non-continuity books over the years and have decades of prior reading of Hal and most of the gang. This series has Jeremy Adams stepping in to guide Hal to a new place in the DCU and it’s my first time reading their work, which they handle well here even if I dislike the flashback storytelling within it as a general rule. What got me to check out the book, however, was Xermanico on the artwork as I thoroughly enjoyed their stuff on some of the digital-first series I read several years ago and still miss. There’s a good dynamic look to the action here, the designs are great, and with the color work from Fajardo Jr, it delivers a solid experience without overdoing the green.
The larger premise for this is that with the Guardians gone, the Corps is now run by the United Planets and Sector 2814 is off-limits with the Lanterns from there being focused elsewhere. We get some of that with the backup story in seeing John doing his thing while Guy is getting caught up in some Revenant revival, neither story of which is terribly interesting yet or all that engaging. The main story isn’t that much better overall because it again reinforces Hal’s cockiness and confidence with him being very out of touch with things. He’s opted to come back to Earth with no money and prospects and live in his brother’s trailer while trying to figure out what to do next. Not the first time for Hal, won’t be the last. The problem is how he handles himself in this where he basically tries to pick up where he left off after leaving many years ago.
That means going to Ferris to try and get a piloting job from Carol only to be totally terrible in flying a drone, being dismissive of it, and having done no research to see what the state of things is like. It’s just a bad look for him all around and, frankly, for Carol to allow him to even try this since she knows who he really is – both as a Lantern and as a man. This is not a line of work for him and never really was, no matter how much he wanted it to be. So we see that in the present along with flashbacks to him getting caught up in some local trouble in Coast City where a new bad guy is causing problems. It turns out the guy got a broken but semi-functional Manhunter suit and is trying to make the name Steel Fury work but it’s mostly focused on showing how Hal is still wielding the ring and trying to be the hero. It’s not bad per se but the structure of the book just makes it feel awkward since it starts off with him rescuing some people in a structure collapse.
In Summary:
I’m someone that still likes Hal in the broader sense because he was my first Green Lantern that I read in the 80s before being exposed to more of them. That Guy was the follow-up in that period did not help, though I liked John a lot and enjoyed Kyle as a 90s interpretation. And the Corps was what won me over the most. Here, we get Hal coming back and being the same Hal as always and that’s just a bit tiring. I’m glad he gets smacked down as much as he does here but it shouldn’t have even reached that point and Carol should have been better written which would have led to better character material for Hal. I’m interested to see where the journey goes but I’m already disliking there being a backup feature as it just feels like it’s a state of friction with the main story. Either do it as a separate book or figure something else out. It just makes me not want to read the backup.
Grade: B
Age Rating: 13+
Released By: DC Comics
Release Date: May 9th, 2023
MSRP: $4.99
