Rating:  -
Can Geoff Johns do any comic wrong? He writes the most amazing stories. This one is so big, involving so many characters and so much continuity, but it is SOOOO fun! This collects the 6-issue mini.
#1-#2. Everyone knows that Hal Jordan is being brought back as GL, but it's not easy - Batman remembers all too well that Jordan is responsible for horrible chaos in the past, and is very reluctant to trust him. Really, can you blame him?
#3. We get the works here: drama that keeps you on the edge of your seat, big action, the JLA, the secrets behind Spectre/Parallax/Jordan, and one mischievous lover of yellow. I couldn't be more pumped for the new start of the ongoing Green Lantern series.
#4. The last page of this book will send shivers down your spine. It is that good. The whole series has been building up to this point, and it pays off.
#5. Hal Jordan vs. Sinestro in an AMAZING battle! The art was spectacular, and the layout very good. So many great splash pages that maximized the action scenes. In the final scene, Batman holds Jordan back from fighting against Parallax. Bats still doesn't trust him, given his murderous past while under the influence of other beings.
#6. The 5 lanterns take on Parallax together, and we get resolution for the JLA-Jordan conflict. Big action, nice character moments.
Rating:  -
The way in which DC comics brought back Hal Jordan is an entertaining story but it doesn't make sense. The whole Parallax thing works as a retcon explaining the yellow weakness in the original Green Lantern rings, but it's a cop out, whitewashing Hal Jordan for the clamoring fan boys. Many will say that it rights a wrong done to Jordan by an earlier story, but doesn't it also take away the relevance of some of all time great Green Lantern stories of the past? When Jordan says "No more doubt, no more road trips..." he is also denying part of what made the character at all interesting and turns him into a one dimensional caricature. The story treats Jordan's return like the second coming of the messiah. In truth, he is pretty flat.
The better characterization comes when Johns deals with the other Green Lanterns. I have never much cared about John Stewart until I read Rebirth, it makes him a lot more interesting than he has been in a long time. Johns even made me glad Guy Gardener was back in that hideous green jacket of his. And while I was afraid that Kyle Rayner would be handled badly in Rebirth, he is treated with respect. Then again, perhaps the reason Rayner never gained as much of a following was the fact that his own title often featured lackluster stories. The best stories for a Kyle Rayner fan are probably found in the JLA volumes written by Grant Morrison.
Johns' writing is well paced and overall quite good, Van Sciver's art is very good throughout, its sad that the story rather misses the mark. DC gave in to fan pressure to bring back Hal Jordan, which is fine in and of itself, but the way in which it was done is too easy. Batman has the right idea in the story when he questions if everyone is just supposed to accept the very convenient story about possession where no evidence of this had presented itself before. Bringing back Hal Jordan is actually a good idea, but it could have been a far more interesting story, one about actual redemption rather than a whitewash of the character. If Hal Jordan had come back, penitent but wishing to redeem himself and driving himself to be a true hero again it would have fit into DC's "return to the light" without leaving a bad taste in my mouth. It is not worth buying, but it is worth reading once, borrow it from a friend
Rating: -
The saga of Hal Jordan, the Green Lantern borne
straight from the Space Age of the late 1950s and
early 1960s, has always been an elusive one to
get right. One of the greatest achievements of
legendary literary agent/DC editor Julius Schwartz,
the Silver Age Green Lantern owed as much to the
peace-keeping space rangers of SF fame (from "Doc"
Smith's Lensmen to Edmond Hamilton's Futuremen) as
it did to the endless array of trouble-shooting
1950s mavericks who gleefully fought for Justice
while subtlely tweaking the sensibilities of
McCarthy era demagogues whenever the chance
arose. Yet, after the glory days of author John
Broome, contributing author Gardner Fox, and
pioneering artist Gil Kane, the star-hopping
ring-wielder became the foil for any podium
which cropped up.
The early-1970s classics from Denny O'Neil and
Neal Adams inadvertently began the damage, making
steel-willed Hal Jordan a slack-jawed straight
-man for born-again liberal Oliver (Green Arrow)
Queen's every indignant epithet. While the latter
segments of that series corrected this initial error,
the idea of Jordan being a puppet for any writer's
whimsical fixation became a problem over the ensuing
years.
Perhaps the most grievous damage to the Hal Jordan
storyline occurred by the 1990s, ironically after the
early-mid 1980s saw author Steve Englehart and artist
Joe Staton produce the finest GL chronicles since
the Broome-Fox-Kane originals. By the 1990s, those
stories were callously tossed aside in favor of
giving Hal Jordan the "Top Gun" treatment.
Suddenly, Jordan was an alcoholic with white sideburns
and a limp characterization to match. Worse, when DC
saw the box they had written Jordan into, their
clever solution was to not to set it straight,
but to totally foul the mythos up. Jordan goes mad,
destroys the GL Corps, all but wipes out the Guardians,
and becomes a nefarious menace.
About the only good aspect of all that -one which
fanboys despise- is the conception of a great character
in Kyle Rayner. Without the help of the Guardians, young
Rayner learns the responsibility of wielding the
ring, and the weight that comes with it. Frequently
aided by the original Green Lantern of the 1940s,
the new kid becomes a formidable champion. Unlike
any GL before him, Kyle knows fear and faces it
for what it is.
It is the factor of Rayner's particular courage
which propels this exceptional Sequential novel
from author Geoff Johns (JSA, HAWKMAN, INFINITY
CRISIS) and illustrator Ethan Van Sciver. Van
Sciver's illustrative touch is sterling,
paying homage to the best of GL's past
illustrators while imbuing Johns' tale
of redemption and reclamation with a searing
style all his own. Striking deep with an
engraver's depth, Van Sciver is breathtaking
to experience.
As for the writer who's propelled the JSA to
the pinnacle of super-team chronicles with
his winding character interplay, the task
of putting another one of Comicdom's most
mishandled grand mythologies back on
track must have posed one walloping
challenge. Even HAWKMAN, which Johns
helped to unknot after years of
similar editorial confusion, must
have seemed child's play compared
with the mess that shifting, fickle
tastes had left the GL storyline
in.
The resulting saga is a masterpiece.
Picking up on threads skillfully
placed by authors Joe Kelly (2002's
GREEN LANTERN: LEGACY) and Judd
Winick in the last few years of
the Kyle Rayner GL title, Johns
weaves a work of genius.
Effectively utilizing every faux
pas of the past few decades, a
springboard is constructed for
one of the most effective cleanups
this reviewer has ever seen. Every
stitch of bad editorial judgement
past is confronted, resolved, and
turned around into a grand reforging
of mythology and fortitude. Even
the quizzical usage of The Spectre
is given a deeper purpose here, as
Jordan comes to grips what what has
been missing for too long - one of
the strongest personalities in
the Sequential field, one which
needs no second-guessers to set
his path.
When Hal, and long-time readers,
learn the actual reason for Jordan's
fall, it's bold enough to make you
pause, and simple enough to make
you say "of course". What's done
with it, and how this plays in
the ever-growing DC folklore, is
why REBIRTH stands as a very
endearing piece of strong
narrative.
Perhaps best of all, the restoration of
Hal Jordan places a whole new vitality
upon Kyle Rayner, the resurected
GL Corps, and so much more. As pointed
out by author Brad Meltzer (IDENTITY
CRISIS) in REBIRTH's introduction, what
this saga poses is not a climax, but
a crucial beginning.
One long overdue.
Rating: -
If you're a Hal Jordan Green Lantern fan who didn't like how the character was handled over the past few years, you have to read this book. It's a return to duty and glory for Hal Jordan and the Green Lantern Corps that's long overdue, highly recommended!
Rating:  -
He turned evil and tried to destroy the world. He was killed by his closest friend, but came back even more powerful -- and more evil -- than before. He had a last-second change of heart and sacrificed himself to reignite the sun. His spirit was used to drive the earthly manifestation of the Wrath of God in a war against injustice. And he was replaced in his old job by a younger, hipper hero.
And yet, Hal Jordan's return as Green Lantern was always inevitable. The question was how -- and how well -- it would be done. Geoff Johns succeeded admirably in "Rebirth," a book that neatly reconciles the various personae of Hal Jordan in one man -- the one he was always meant to be.
"Rebirth" isn't just another chapter in the ongoing story of the Green Lantern Corps. It's an in-depth study of the mythology of the Guardians, the rings of power and the entities that bear them. It is a dazzling portrayal of personality and conflict, not just of Jordan and his immediate circle of friends, but of many familiar DC characters. And, it's a much-needed reinvention of Jordan himself -- the hero he was and, for many readers, always would be.
The art by Ethan Van Sciver is ultra-realistic, his lines are crisp, clean and startlingly expressive. Johns' story flows from the pages in bright colors and shadows, and the glowing green light of Lantern's power will dazzle your eyes with blinding intensity. It's a brilliant story, artfully written and packaged, of incredible scope. "Rebirth" is truly one of DC's finest.
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