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Posted March 31, 2013 by Earl Maghirang in Comics
 
 

10 Cool Green Lantern Moments from Geoff Johns’ Run

Geoff Johns has announced his departure from the main Green Lantern books after the end of the current story line ‘Wrath of the First Lantern‘. In line with this, we here at Flipgeeks take a look back at the ten best moments from Johns’ seminal run on the book.

 10. The Many changes of Hal Jordan

 

Through the course of Johns’ run on Green Lantern, he’s managed to let Hal Jordan try out the different rings that are out in the market. In the story arc ‘Agent Orange’, Hal was seen wearing a Blue Lantern ring leased to him by Saint Walker. In a fight with the Red Lanterns in ‘Rage of the Red Lanterns’ Jordan was infected with the red rage. Back to the Agent Orange arc, Jordan was also forced to wear the Orange ring. During Blackest Night, Hal also went through both the Black Lantern rings and the White Lantern rings. Oh and he’s also managed to don the Sinestro Corps ring that time when they had to fight Krona during ‘War of the Green Lanterns’.

9. Hal Jordan the Playboy

Not to be chauvinistic here but Hal did manage to snag some great looking girls through Johns run on the book. First we see him flirting and hooking up with Cowgirl, who suddenly disappeared from the book. Then Johns decided to bring back the classic pairing of Hal Jordan and Carol Ferris.  That guy is still cool.

8. Blackest Night

Whether you love it or you hate it, you can’t deny that Blackest Night was a financial success for DC Comics. Not only did they take the zombie concept and turned it inside out, they’ve also managed to kill off a lot of different characters which had little to a lot of ramifications to their respective books. It was also a vehicle for DC to return some of their beloved characters to the spotlight such as Aquaman and Martian Manhunter. That alone was such a huge feat in my humble opinion.

7. Dex-Starr

Grumpy Cat ain’t got nothing with this rage kitty that Geoff Johns co-created together with artist Shane Davis. Dexter was just another ordinary Earth cat when his master was murdered during a break-in gone bad. Later Dexter was taken and was almost thrown down Brooklyn Bridge when the Red Lantern ring chanced upon the frisky feline. This bad kitty was originally created as a gimmick and a throwaway gag but reader reception towards the red lantern cat was positive so he got more screen time. I would’ve made this number one but there’s still a large number of dog loving people so that was scratched.

6. Tie-Ups to Bigger Universe

While most of the stories in GL and GLC were focused on smaller events, there were certain arcs during Johns run that focused on the bigger universe. When Hal Jordan was wanted, the JLA gets to interfere and defend their teammate. During the New Guardians story arc, we see the Spectre hunting down the avatar of rage. Its these subtle crossover that reminds us that although theres a whole lore and tapestry inside Johns’ Green Lantern, it still operates on a bigger scale.

5. Multi-Colored Corps

In today’s setting, the idea of different colored Corps might sound too campy and too Power Ranger-y but back then I really thought the concept was cool. As arc after arc progressed in GL and GLC we get a glimpse at the different corps running amok in the Universe. Johns of course ups the ante by developing and creating some of the key characters for each corps as well as their own respective Oaths. Under Johns’ guidance the Star Sapphires also become a corp and wear rings rather than just have one single lady running around and looking for a host to latch onto.

4. Brushing up with Alan Moore

Johns knows a good tapestry when he sees it and this is the reason why he used some of the plot ideas that Alan Moore did for GLC and incorporated it into his own run. Moore was responsible for the ‘Blackest Night’ and was also the main driving force behind the creation of characters like Daxamite Green Lantern powerhouse Sodam Yat…

 … to even Ranx the Sentient City, which was the Sinestro’s version of GL Mogo.

3. The Sinestro Corps Heavy Hitters

One of the most interesting moves that Johns did when he was doing the ‘Sinestro Corps War’ was creating a sort-of ‘Big League’ for the newly established Sinestro Corps. Obviously Sinestro was present as well as his soon-to-be son-in-law Kyle Rayner who was offered up to be the new host for Parallax. The other additions? How bout the Cyborg Superman Hank Henshaw , breakout Infinite Crisis villain Superboy Prime and Crisis on Infinite Earths final boss the Anti-Monitor. How’s that for heavy?

2. Sinestro Returns to the GLC

If there was a real shocker throughout Geoff Johns’ run on Green Lantern, it was him reintroducing Thaal Sinestro to the Green Lantern Corps at the end of ‘War’. Sure we’ve read him doing all sorts of crazy stuff but there were some moments that foreshadowed the renegade Green Lantern to his abandonment of his own corps and forcible return to the GLC. During the final assault on Krona, Sinestro even jumped into the fight sans Yellow ring and armed only with what looked like a bone (or was it a stick). The end result is baddie getting the attention of the Green Lantern ring once the dust has settled.

As for Hal, well he got the boot at a very bad time especially since that volume of Green Lantern ended, paving the way for the New 52 volume.

1. Green Lantern Rebirth

When Green Lantern Rebirth came out, I knew that this was going to be big. And it was; from the closing page of the first issue to the return to form of the Green Lantern Corps, Johns was working his magic on the book. Its also done wonders for Hal Jordan who before this was doing time as the crazy-ass Spectre. Rebirth also redeemed Jordan in the eyes of many casual comic book readers as Johns used his magical retcon powers to explain what really happened (Parallax taking over and making Jordan do all that batshit crazy things he did during his legendary meltdown in ‘Emerald Twilight‘).

To Mr. Johns; thanks for the ride. It’s filled with ups and downs but it was still a good run nonetheless.


Earl Maghirang