Jump to ratings and reviews
Rate this book

Green Lantern

Green Lantern: Willworld

Rate this book
Unsure of who he is or where he is from, Hal Jordan only knows that he must rescue the strange, green-costumed creatures who have been taken captive, learning more about himself and the fantastical world he inhabits in the process.

96 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2001

6 people are currently reading
206 people want to read

About the author

J.M. DeMatteis

1,908 books232 followers
Also Credited As:
DeMatteis, John Marc
Ellis, Michael
Lombego, Wally

Bio:
J.M. DeMatteis was a professional musician/singer and rock music journalist before entering comics in the late 70's.

Credits include Spider-Man, Moonshadow, Brooklyn Dreams, Justice League, Abadazad, Hero Squared, the Life and Times of Savior 28.

Created I, Vampire , Creature Commandos, Moonshadow, Hero Squared (co-creator), Abadazad, Stardust Kid, Savior 28 and more.

Ratings & Reviews

What do you think?
Rate this book

Friends & Following

Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!

Community Reviews

5 stars
80 (25%)
4 stars
120 (37%)
3 stars
84 (26%)
2 stars
22 (6%)
1 star
10 (3%)
Displaying 1 - 30 of 30 reviews
Profile Image for XenofoneX.
250 reviews355 followers
December 26, 2015
I know there has to be something to Green Lantern I'm missing; reviewers I like and respect are too fond of the character for all those convoluted Geoff Johns epics and events to be complete shit. So I was pondering this, thinking about how much I hate jewelry-based super-powers and green blobs of 'imagination', when I remembered 'Green Lantern: Willworld'.

Look at that line-work! Geof Darrow would approve... Seth Fisher drew the hell out of this thing. Rest in peace, Seth <:-( :
description
description
description

It seems like every Green Lantern book I've tried to make peace with before and since J.M. Dematteis' 'Willworld' has only succeeded in making inter-stellar travel impossibly dull (nice going dicks... as if NASA didn't do enough damage to America's interest in space exploration with all those boring televised shuttle launches). The inconceivably vast expanse of our galaxy has never felt so tiny and crowded, not since the days of Copernicus and Kepler, anyway; it's just a battlefield for squabbling, rainbow-hued gangs, like super-fabulous, flamboyantly gay versions of the Bloods and Crips. Then there's the obnoxious rhyming oath. Non-rhyming oaths chanted in unison are embarrassing enough, but the deadly-earnest stupidity of that rainbow-rhyme for boring douchebags... Ugh.

description

'Willworld' was different. It was released around the turn of the millennium as a deluxe hardcover featuring a full-length, self-contained, and completely original graphic novel. This wasn't the only entry in the 'DC Originals' project. The first one was the brilliant 'JLA: Earth 2', by Grant Morrison and Frank Quitely. So when I saw 'Willworld', by the talented vet DeMatteis and the clean-line master of detail Seth Fisher, I was all over it. DC went out of their way to make this book look good, which is not the case nowadays; they drive me nuts by using the cheapest, crappiest paper and covers. Under the dust-jacket of 'Willworld', however, you'll find a fancy marbled-green faux-leather cover with gilt-embossed titles and and thick, high-gloss art-book paper (I'm speaking only of the original edition; I can't vouch for later printings).

Fisher via Escher:
description

Instead of drowning the reader in Green Lantern mythology, Dematteis gets rid of it. How does a writer go about separating this old-school hero from several decades-worth of baggage? Well, amnesia. It might be the lamest trick in the hack writer's handbook, but in this case, Dematteis makes it an integral part of the plot. So... Hal Jordan wakes up in a strange place, with no idea how he got there or who he is. He's on the outskirts of a ruined city, riding an elephant-camel hybrid he's named 'Trigger'. But he soon discovers that the strangeness goes far beyond his memory malfunctions; this isn't called the Land of Odd for nothing.

description

Other members of the Green Lantern Corps are trapped inside transparent plastic bubbles, floating lazily around the Winsor McCay-meets-Francois Scuiten-style art nouveau architecture... and the gigantic disembodied heads that are policing the citizens. The population is 'culturally diverse', I guess: bird-like aliens; knights with rusty cod-pieces; androids, cyborgs and robots; reptilian mutants and mammalian were-things. Even Hal's 'Good Samaritan' pals are a bit idiosyncratic. The sweet-natured, 6-armed waitress named Kelly and the cab-driving salamander called 'Huf' act as Hal's guides on his Remembering Mission to remember his mission... and apparently both of his companions see their own version of reality in the Land of Odd, very different from the place Hal Jordan sees.

description

Another friend soon introduces herself as 'Glance', an angel with the Tinkerbell-dimensions of a fairy. The giant heads monitoring the Land of Odd are -- appropriately -- the Thought Police, housed in a colossal HQ in the form of a skyscraper-sized head. After meeting the great and flabby potentate Kat'aa Peelar, Hal's adventure begins in earnest, with all the trippy, unpredictable twists you could fairly expect from a cool little 120-page comic.

description
description

The imagination on display here temporarily made me love the idea of Green Lantern. If only every GL book could do something like 'Willworld' -- just a fun, strange adventure full of some fantastic ideas and artwork. And that artwork. My love for the clean-line style of McCay, Herge, Swarte, Giardino and Darrow made the appearance of two brilliant practitioners entering the mainstream in the mid-late 90's an exciting thing. Although Fisher's first comic, a Vertigo 2-issue prestige-format story titled 'Happydale: Devils in the Desert', didn't get much attention, I was immediately sold on Fisher's brilliance. A couple years later, in 2001, 'Willworld' appeared; it's one of the most under-rated mainstream art performances of the new-ish millennium, but enough people recognized his talent; he was the equal of Frank Quitely and superior to some of the best artists using a similar style at the time, like John Cassaday. Most comic fans won't see or particularly like that assessment, but Fisher and Quitely are 'artists' artists'. John Cassaday isn't. His art on Planetary is fucking incredible, but just not on that level... IMO.

The DC Comics work -- interiors on all, covers on most -- of Seth Fisher 2001-2005:
description

Unfortunately, just as he was making a name for himself at DC and Marvel, he was tragically killed after falling from a rooftop in Osaka Japan, January of 2006. He had been living in Japan for several years, and his wife, Hisako, had given birth to their first child less than a year before. I was saddened to hear that such a talented and positive person had been lost, but I still enjoy revisiting the works he left behind in his brief but remarkable career.

Seth Fisher's site is still maintained by his friends and family, and is well worth checking out for more of his art and story.

description

More Art-book Reviews

More Comic-book Reviews

More Novel Reviews

A Mysterious Review That Might Be Related to the Book in Question, But Written By A Friend Instead
Profile Image for Keith.
Author 10 books285 followers
June 23, 2013
Man! What a lovely after-dinner mint of Weird this book is. Aside from a couple of points of 90's datedness (an unabashed Matrix rip, etc), this is a timeless and mostly continuity-free Green Lantern tangent from the late, tragically great Seth Fisher, whose technicolor vomit of style graced far too few superhero books before he passed away. It's a freight train of What-the-Fuck for 100 straight pages and despite its defining irrelevance, it's a highly aesthetic example of hardcore comicbookery that is in no way confined by its superheroic window-dressing.

Profile Image for Himanshu Karmacharya.
1,150 reviews113 followers
March 30, 2022
A wild psychedelic ride from start to finish, where our beloved Green Lantern is stuck in the Land of Odd. This book has perhaps one of the best arts that I have seen in a comic book. Considering the quality of the book, I think it is highly underrated.
Profile Image for Beatriz Robalo.
88 reviews
July 29, 2022
People who say they find this confusing are people who just wanted to read a simple no non-sense, extremely predictable, 'BANG' 'POW' comic book.
This is not it.

And thank God, what a breath of fresh air! The art is amazing, somewhat psychedelic, so so weird and defies the standard design and narrative we expect of a super hero comic book.
The narrative is actually engaging, I didn't find it confusing, it actually felt like coming home after a long time gone (Neil Gaiman fan here- I found the book shares many things with Gaiman's stories). It's different from what people are used to and I think that's a good thing that ought to be done more in comic books of characters that represent so much as Green Lantern does.

It's about dreams and reality and how easily they can be mistaken, it's a journey with Hal Jordan, the Green Lantern as he understands things aren't as linear as he previously believed.

The art and subject heavily reminded me of Sandman, so that's probably one of the reasons why I enjoyed it so much. And yes I will take all those times they mentioned dreams, nightmares and dreamers as Sandman references (I will not be taking criticism).

For my first Green Lantern comic book, I think I couldn't have made a better choice.
Profile Image for Eric.
428 reviews1 follower
March 20, 2022
It was definitely bizzare and exhausting to follow and read but what a visual treat. Seth Fisher adds details in every inch of the pages and backgrounds, master at character design and setting design, it was all so Trippy and crazy I loved it, worth checking out for the visuals
Profile Image for John.
1,682 reviews29 followers
November 7, 2018
MAKE COMICS WEIRD AGAIN

I'm reading this in preparation of Grant Morrison's "The Green Lantern #1" tomorrow. This book is written by "ahead of his time but now dated" JM DeMatteis and the late Seth Fisher.

It's reminds me a bit like "Mosaic" exploring the weirdness and diversity of the Green Lantern Corp and the Cosmic Universe. It's a bit like the Valerian. There's a lot of weird out there. This makes it slightly hard to read at times. This is a surreal comic about the pivotal moment that Hal learns to control his Will--to go from novice to legend. Basically an ode to imagination, quantum mechanics and Little Nemo.

Profile Image for Rizzie.
558 reviews6 followers
May 26, 2019
I have no idea what the hell this was, but I enjoyed it. It wasn't really a Green Lantern story. In fact, I'm not entirely certain it was a story at all! Rather, it's mostly a gallery of Seth Fisher's craziest ideas all packed into one loose narrative, and for that alone, it's definitely worth it. Fisher died way too early, and I suspect he would've participated in some true masterworks had his career been a bit longer. But this is what we have, and as a showcase of artistic talent, it's pretty undeniably incredible. But don't come in expecting this to be a GL story, or even for it to make sense. It's completely chaos (on purpose) so just enjoy the ride and don't think about it too hard.
Profile Image for Seth Abernethy.
92 reviews2 followers
October 26, 2023
A delightfully bizarre GL adventure of such a quality one can absolutely expect from writer J.M. DeMatteis, who specializes in the weird and wacky. Combined with the stunning art of Seth Fisher, Willworld entertains both with an engaging and unique story - expanding on the mythos of the Green Lantern Corps and taking Mr. Jordan on an adventure perfect for picking up at any point in whatever continuity a reader is in the middle of, ending, or just starting. An easily re-readable tale that even after reading a dozen times will never get boring to just stare at for hours on end. Fisher's work in this book reflect that of childhood seek & find books and the wacky whimsical feeling of long lost maximalism and zany architecture. The readthrough is quick and inconsequential to the overall Green Lantern story at large, but that is all the more reason to pick up and enjoy this wonderful journey into the absurd. Definitely recommended to any Green Lantern fan and any fan of nonsensical ridiculousness.
1 review
June 8, 2024
MIND BLOWING MOJO

I can’t speak highly enough about this tale!!! GREAT story, WONDERFUL artwork and a fairly nice ending to tie it all together. What more could a budding GL cadet want.
Profile Image for David Allison.
266 reviews5 followers
July 4, 2020
The plot provides a schematic view of creativity; thankfully, the visuals provide the real thing in abundance.
Profile Image for Keith.
1 review
July 6, 2025
William S. Burroughs x Green Lantern as directed by David Lynch.
6 reviews3 followers
April 17, 2012
It's difficult to put into words what's so great about this book. Almost everything I love about it is rendered indescribably on the page with some of the most beautiful, original art I have ever seen. Every page, every panel, is a riot of insane imagery. In the same way that Guillermo Del Toro seems able to pack more ideas into a single film than most artists manage in a lifetime, so artist Seth Fisher crams a multitude of dense symbols, signs and visual quirks into a 3-issue mini-series. Willworld is the kind of book that repays multiple readings. There are so many ideas to absorb it's impossible to do so in one go. I would be equally happy just to leaf idly through the pages, flicking back and forth to catch an image here or there. Fisher takes the relatively simple concept of a Green Lantern training exercise that takes place in a world built by imagination and runs with it, using it as an excuse to build something entirely new. It's really refreshing to see an artist take an established superhero property like the Green Lantern and move away from the look that regular readers have come to know. While there are plenty of visual references that anchor you firmly in the world of Hal Jordan, they are new; less tried and tested. It was a real treat to read Willworld and feel like I was experiencing something unique.

And the writing? That's pretty great too. J.M. DeMatteis crafts a story that draws you into the mystery, giving a loose framework for Fisher to build his images on while staying enough out of the way to let an incredible artist shine. I really liked the way things were tied up and the way Hal learns about a vital part of his heroic makeup. But for me, this story is all about the art.

Arbitrary Rating: 5 heads out of 5.
Profile Image for Jean-Pierre Vidrine.
636 reviews4 followers
May 27, 2011
The easiest description one can give this book is "Green Lantern on acid." A lot of people would say that, and not mean it to be derisive. Accurate as that may be, I'm not fond of the phraseology. With "Willworld," DeMatteis does with Green Lantern the very thing that all writers should do when writing for a pre-existing property: he takes a character that has become myth and tells a wonderful story with that mythical character that one can enjoy without necessarily having to know decades of publishing history. DeMatteis' story here is a poignant one that calls to mind the kind of unrestrained imagination that all children have, and most adults won't allow themselves to have. At the same time it is an interesting addition to Hal Jordan's history as a Green Lantern. Seth Fisher's artwork is perfect for this tale. His style (slightly reminiscent of the styles of Quitely and Russell) is not "typical" superhero, so it fits with this very atypical superhero story. His redesigns for the main power battery, the environs of Oa, and the Guardians' robes are so great that I really do think they should be the standard for the usual look of the Green Lantern comics.
For anyone who enjoyed this book, I recommend another gem from DeMatteis. If you can track down his Elseworlds tale "Supergirl: Wings," you won't be disappointed.
Profile Image for Devin Bruce.
112 reviews40 followers
November 15, 2008
This was just an amazing read. I like Hal Jordan, although he’s not my favourite GL, and J.M. DeMatteis has written some really great comics. But that's not why I would recommend this book. It's because the art here is a revelation. The way Seth Fisher draws Willworld, it’s like he’s the only person who could have done it: such great attention to detail, amazing little humourous touches, and stellar panel composition. I sometimes had problems with the dialogue, which can get a little clumsy, but the characterization seems right on. Again, though, the reason to read Willworld is for Fisher’s art. He was an unbelievable talent.
Profile Image for Chazzbot.
255 reviews37 followers
April 5, 2012
The story here--about a will-power exercise in the early stages of Hal Jordan's role as Green Lantern--is no great shakes. The real draw is the obsessively detailed art of Seth Fisher, whose work looks like a cross between Moebius and Geof Darrow on acid. Inventive, colorful, and freakish, Fisher's imagery is trippy in all the right ways. This is a comic in the grand tradition of Jack Kirby, in which the words are largely superfluous to the visual narrative. What's even more impressive is this book offers a solid 100 pages of artwork, allowing one to dive in to Fisher's imagery without touching bottom. This is the first time I've encountered Fisher, but he is one to look for.
Profile Image for Steve.
67 reviews1 follower
October 14, 2012
Really interesting artwork. You see something new every time you look at a page.

As for the storyline, I ultimately enjoyed it - on balance. The story meandered far too much for my liking. Whilst I fully appreciate that is as a literary device to reflect GL's confusion, that doesn't stop it making the story drag a bit.

I a fan of DeMatteis. Loved Moonshadow, and really enjoyed his run on Justice League. This book isn't in the same class, and was a really a 2.5 star for me.

Profile Image for D..
712 reviews18 followers
October 10, 2013
J.M. Dematteis channels his influences (Lewis Carrol, Eastern Mysticism, The Beatles, and many more!) into a unique Green Lantern adventure. It takes awhile for the story to gel, but the artwork is brilliant, and there's some great moments of characterization, as well.

This isn't going to be everybody's "cup of tea," but if you don't mind something out of the ordinary, you'll probably get a kick out of this.
Profile Image for furious.
301 reviews8 followers
February 27, 2008
amazing. beautiful. spectacular. one of my favorite comic tomes of all time. weird & surreal & brilliant. most certainly not what you expect from a more or less mainstream superhero comic, this book is loving crafted with characteristic whimsy by writer JM DeMatteis & features stunning, heady visuals gorgeously rendered by the late Seth Fisher. this is a brief, perfect psychedelic bubble.
Profile Image for Robert Marsh.
Author 31 books19 followers
August 12, 2010
Another title with fantastic, ground-breaking artwork from Seth Fisher. But oh, man. The story. I've read this several times and still have no idea what it's about. That's not genius. That's just bad story telling. I wanted to throw this across the room when I was done with it. But I value Seth Fisher's artwork too much. Book got saved and recommended. But only for the artwork.
Profile Image for Valentine Boyev.
52 reviews1 follower
April 11, 2015
Art is really odd, but so fascinating. You can easy spend an hours for viewing all details and characters. Storyline here in the background.
So it's more like an artbook, but comics)
Picture: 5/5
Story: 3/5
Profile Image for Julian Munds.
308 reviews6 followers
September 10, 2015
This was not my favourite. Aside from the fact I figured out what was up shortly into the read, the rendering of the character was kind of off. The outside art was detailed, although I wasn't always sure where I should be looking. This story felt slow and I was just not into it.
Profile Image for Josh.
639 reviews
November 22, 2021
Quirky standalone think-piece with tons of imagination and great art. Willworld is a very odd comic that may not appeal to everyone, but it's worth checking out for anyone looking for a different take on Green Lantern.
Profile Image for aiyonna.
21 reviews10 followers
August 17, 2023
so much fun love saves the day yet again. i love interactive comics and philosophy and relating everything back to childhood soooooo this was made for me
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 30 reviews

Can't find what you're looking for?

Get help and learn more about the design.