Comics / Spotlight

Celebrating Geoff Johns Acclaimed Run On Green Lantern!

By Alexander Jones
February 12, 2013 - 01:29

Geoff Johns brought a creative spark to Green Lantern that revolutionized the comic book industry in 2004. After nine years and about 100+ issues Johns is bidding farewell to one of his most incredible contributions to all of comic books. This article will focus on all of the incredible things Johns achieved within the space of his Green Lantern work.

The first thing Johns did with the Green Lantern saga was nothing less than controversial. Bringing back one of the most beloved characters in comics after one of the biggest falls is truly a sight to behold. One of the most wonderful things that Geoff Johns did with the title was seed arcs well into advance. An obvious example of this is The Black Hand. Hand's true name was William Hand. William of course spanned the Blackest Night event which did not surface to the forefront till issue 43. Besides Black Hand, Johns started Hal Jordan's rise back to the best Green Lantern within his epic return.

Johns spent the next twenty issues of his acclaimed run building The Green Lantern mythos back from the ground up. The comic splintered between being a lighthearted action tale in the vein of Mark Waid's Daredevil, and the stoic seriousness of Johns’s other great book Aquaman. Carlos Pacheco and Ethan Van Sciver melded the beginning of a truly beautiful Green Lantern universe. Geoff Johns was discreetly laying down the groundwork to shake up the Green Lantern universe with some incredible events. A few highlights of these first few issues are Batman putting on the Green Lantern ring and the Darwyn Cooke drawn origin of the Hal Jordan.

In issue 20 all of the cards were revealed and Geoff Johns threw down the gauntlet. The very first pages of Sinestro Corps War feature a tainted purple man stripped down to his core. Long time Green Lantern adversary Sinestro has been rotting away in the prison of The Green Lanterns for so long he forgot who he truly was. In his cell Sinestro devises a plan to truly dominate the remainder of the Green Lantern Corps. Hidden within these next pages are the start of the seeds to the next big event the emotional core and even more. Readers were full of shock when the Sinestro Corps war hit in 2006. Many readers then jumped on Geoff Johns’ Green Lantern run of seeing what heights the book was truly capable of. After Sinestro escaped the prison he formed his own corps based on fear. The yellow lanterns formed into one of the toughest adversaries the lanterns have ever faced. Geoff Johns’ entire Green Lantern run can be based off of facing your fears and parallax embodies all of that for main character Hal Jordan. These next few issues also introduced arguably the most important character in Geoff John’s Green Lantern run, Sinestro.

Issues 24-42 featured the new emotional core Lanterns. Lanterns of hope, compassion, rage, and greed form in the DC universe. Johns spent the remainder of these issues capitalizing on some of his favorite new characters of the DC universe. It is truly amazing when one remembers all of the great characters Johns created in his Green Lantern run. From Saint Walker all the way too Larfleeze. Also included is admittedly one of the lower points in Johns run the Green Lantern Secret Origin story. While nothing in the Secret Origin is admittedly bad the whole saga was just overly familiar. However what the story did touch on is Atrocitus and William Hand who both are incredible characters that are very prominent in the remainder of the series. The story also paints the antagonist of the book as a driven confident hero. Sinestro is nothing but a saint within the pages of this story.
 
What could be bigger than the Sinestro Corps War asks a devoted fan of Green Lantern? Johns answered with two simple words Blackest Night. Blackest Night has truly been brewing in Johns Green Lantern run since the beginning of his tale. One could argue the tale is as old as the character itself. In Brightest Day In Blackest Night contained the first sentence of the oath of the Green Lantern. Blackest Night is that story and more. Blackest Night encompassed a huge event in the DC universe in which under Black Hand rises the dead. This concept is so incredibly rich due to the vast and beautiful history DC Comics has created all of these years. As a reader of comics when the storyline hit the shelves I will never forget my reaction to the first issue. The watching Hawkman and Hawkgirl stumble to their deaths truly packed a punch to the gut that many DC events have never even imagined hitting in my mind. A reader of Blackest Night is in for a treat. The main event spans a great eight issues complete with some great cliffhangers. The Green Lantern proper title was filled with Great moments as well abundant throughout the different issues. Blackest Night is hands down the greatest part of John’s Green Lantern saga. Something that hit during the Blackest Night saga was the 50th issue of John’s Green Lantern saga. John’s celebrated the occasion by bringing parallax the vicious villain which Johns built Jordan up from when he faced in the Sinestro Corps War and in the 1990’s.

The Brightest Day stories and War Of The Green Lantern event are both fun stories where John’s starts playing with all of the individual pieces he built. The truly big moment does happen until the end of the War Of The Green Lanterns event. Johns had been building Sinestro up for such a long time he spent the entire Blackest Night arc delving into the psychosis of Sinestro. Also during the Brightest Day event Sinestro stuck around and continued to help Jordan. This all leads up to the final moment of the War Of The Green Lantern arc. Hal Jordan loses his ring and is given his own from Sinestro. Sinestro is now a Green Lantern. Like it or not Sinestro is now his way to redemption.

The relaunch has focused on Jordan and Sinestro finding a common need to put a stop to the madness of The Guardians and save the Universe. In these few issues winding down to the end readers are still introduced to new characters. Simon Baz has become the protagonist of the book. A new character created by Johns, he will continue to persevere in the ongoing plans of The Green Lantern universe as with other characters. The only thing left to do is to prepare for the end of the ten year saga that Johns has been building. Hopefully over the past few years Green Lantern has taught you to face your fears.

Last Updated: August 31, 2023 - 08:12