Green Lantern, Volume 2: Revenge of the Green Lanterns

Green Lantern (2005) (Collected Editions)

by Geoff Johns, Carlos Pacheco (Illustrator), Ethan Van Sciver (Illustrator)

Depuis son retour, Hal Jordan tente de renouer avec son entourage. Si certains héros, comme Green Arrow, apprécie de le retrouver, d'autres comme Batman, restent méfiants vis-à-vis de cette forte tête. Une mauvaise réputation qui rattrape Green Lantern quand d'anciens collègues, victimes de son coup de folie passé, font leur réapparition. (Green Lantern #7-13)

Genres: Comics, Graphic Novels, Dc Comics, Comic Book, Superheroes, Graphic Novels Comics, Science Fiction

176 pages, Hardcover

Published November 29, 2006

About the author

Geoff Johns originally hails from Detroit, Michigan. He attended Michigan State University, where he earned a degree in Media Arts and Film. He moved to Los Angeles in the late 1990s in search of work within the film industry. Through perseverance, Geoff ended up as the assistant to Richard Donner, working on Conspiracy Theory and Lethal Weapon 4. During that time, he also began his comics career writing Stars and S.T.R.I.P.E. and JSA (co-written with David S. Goyer) for DC Comics. He worked with Richard Donner for four years, leaving the company to pursue writing full-time.

His first comics assignments led to a critically acclaimed five-year run on the The Flash. Since then, he has quickly become one of the most popular and prolific comics writers today, working on such titles including a highly successful re-imagining of Green Lantern, Action Comics (co-written with Richard Donner), Teen Titans, Justice Society of America, Infinite Crisis and the experimental breakout hit series 52 for DC with Grant Morrison, Greg Rucka and Mark Waid. Geoff received the Wizard Fan Award for Breakout Talent of 2002 and Writer of the Year for 2005, 2006, 2007, and 2008 as well as the CBG Writer of the Year 2003 thru 2005, 2007 and CBG Best Comic Book Series for JSA 2001 thru 2005. Geoff also developed BLADE: THE SERIES with David S. Goyer, as well as penned the acclaimed “Legion” episode of SMALLVILLE. He also served as staff writer for the fourth season of ROBOT CHICKEN.

Geoff recently became a New York Times Bestselling author with the graphic novel Superman: Brainiac with art by Gary Frank.

Reviews

[Alejandro · Rating 4 out of 5]

Cool reading!


I bought this in its single comic book issues, but I chosen this TPB edition to be able of making a better overall review.


This TPB edition collects “Green Lantern” #7-13.


Creative Team:

Writer: Geoff Johns

Illustrators: Ethan Van Sciver, Carlos Pacheco, Ivan Reis


IT’S NEVER EASY BEING GREEN

Hal Jordan is back to be fully human and on his duties as Green Lantern of Space Sector 2814, and since then, things are moving fast.

Coast City is on reconstruction and slowly, some people are deciding to return to the cursed town.
John Stewart is Hal’s backup partner in the Space Sector 2814, while Guy Gardner (believe it or not) is promoted to the GL Corps’ Honor Guard (which are GL Corps’ officers without a specified space sector and they have jurisdiction on any sector in the Guardians of the Universe’s watch), while Kyle Rayner has become “Ion” and being assigned with special mission by the Guardians.

Kilowog keeps his usual duties as GL Corps trainees instructor, and Salakk is the new GL Corps’ Senior Administrator and Keeper of the Book of Oa (the guide book for the GL Corps).

While many rookies aren’t aware of what Hal did in the past (under Parallax’s influence), many veterans have returned to active duty and they have spread the rumors and therefore, Hal isn’t quite welcome around many GL Corps officers while he’s around in Oa.

It's not easy to be a Green Lantern...

...and even less easier to be Hal Jordan.


FRIENDS & ALLIES & FOES

Hal Jordan must face the son of Mongul and a new Tattooed Man but he won’t do it alone…

…Green Arrow will support him against the son of Mongul but they aren’t prepared against Mongul’s special kind of “mercy”. The ever popular Green Lantern/Green Arrow team-up will have to resist the temptation of a perfect life.

…Batman isn’t quite confortable with Hal’s return but he calls him to Gotham City to deal with the menace of a totally new Tattooed Man. The Dark Knight and the Emerald Knight make an uneasy alliance that will be tested.


ONE YEAR LATER

Due the self-imposed disappearance for a year of Superman, Batman and Wonder Woman, all DC titles (including Green Lantern) moved a year in its storylines, slowly revealing what happened during that 52 weeks.

Hal Jordan prefers to fly when he’s on US Air Force duty without the ring, to be able to feel the thrill of flying an aircraft like any other military pilot. However, that decision becomes troublesome when is revealed that he and other two fellow pilots (including Capt. Jillian “Cowgirl” Pearlman) were captured by Russian army and kept as POW for a time.

Hal Jordan isn’t favorite of different people, since a bounty is offered for him and a metahuman team, the Global Guardians, with a secret agenda, are publicly accusing him for causing international disturbances.

But all that can wait since…

When Hal Jordan fell into fear and was possessed by Parallax, on his raging journey to Oa, did horrible things…

…and fellow Green Lantern Corps members died.

But when Tomar-Tu, that was supposed to be between those murdered GL Corps officers suddenly appears on Earth, Hal knows that other of those fallen comrades may survive too but the back route leads to Space Sector 3601…

…and that’s bad news for the Guardians of the Universe, since it’s a fearsome sector without stars and where the Manhunters’ adopted homeworld is.

And the Guardians of the Universe prefer not disturbing the Manhunters if possible.

The Manhunters were the first attempt of the Guardians of the Universe of making a law enforcing organization, but that went disastrously, and if they were a major menace in the past…

…now they are worst than ever since they have evolved, updated, and under an insidious and very dangerous new leader!

Oh!…

…that’s not all, since in other space sectors…

…Sinestro is recruiting!

[Scott · Rating 3 out of 5]

Satisfactory but fast-moving and action-oriented graphic novel featuring the 'Emerald Knight.' The volume is split into two parts, though, which don't exactly flow together all that well. The first half features two short stories -- Lantern teams with old friend / companion Green Arrow to take on a psychic villain who, appearance-wise, was straight out of Little Shop of Horrors; then he flies out to Gotham City to assist Justice League frenemy Batman in battling an antagonist adorned with a Ray Bradbury-esque moniker. (Admittedly, said heroes don't work up much of a sweat in either of these stories, but it was nice to see GL paired with others. A solo character can become a drag without a conversation partner.) The latter-half storyline continues the previous volume's theme, in which GL continues to try redeem himself - this time on a rescue mission - in the eyes of the Lantern Corps.

[Anne · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed the story with Hal and Ollie, but I thought it was more of a Green Arrow story than a Green Lantern one. Also, loved the story with Batman, if only because of the interaction between Bruce and Hal. The rest of the stories were good, too. There are some set-up scenes in it for Blackest Night that I enjoyed, as well.

[Sandee is Reading · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm getting way too interested and invested with these Green Lantern stories. Look at all the questions I've written down for my friend to answer. I was writing all of these down while I was waiting for my prescription glasses and sipping my Starbucks frappe.



And mind you, this was me not even halfway through the volume.

I was a bit worried, at first. There were a lot of things mentioned that I had no clue what it was about. I was about to chuck this and not continue with it anymore. Good thing I kept reading because questions were definitely answered as you go through further into the story. Although, I would have to say I wasn't a fan of how some of the things were told. It was too... expositiony? Is that even a word? Okay. How can I explain this properly? Hal's past was told by Hal himself as stuff was going on simulataneously. There were some parts where you see what happened, but mostly, there was just Hal telling you about stuff you've missed. I would have wanted to see it, not just be told that this is what happened. Does that make sense? It should because I dunno how else to explain it.

I didn't expect the villain though because I thought it was going to be someone else. Did I like the villain here? I dunno. Maybe. I feel where his anger was coming from. He said he forgave Hal, but he was also punishing him for his crimes. They said the best type of villain is the one that thinks he's right. This guy falls under that. I'm just not particularly fond of him because despite me understanding why he did the things he did, I just felt it's a bit shallow. He ended up killing quite a number of people because he was upset? Really? Tsk tsk.

The thing about Green Lantern that I love the most is how there are a lot of stories to tell. They have an infinite number of galaxies to discover, alarmingly huge number of alien lifeforms that they have to fight to maintain peace within the galaxy. I can't wait to read the next one!

[Donovan · Rating 4 out of 5]

I didn't like this as much as Rebirth or the previous volume, but it's still a damn fine read. I'm learning that, because of the scale of Green Lantern stories, they can become busy and confusing very quickly, especially if you don't know everything about GL history. So here Mongul, Jr. comes to conquer Earth with life sucking plants. Little do we know that at some point, Green Arrow and Green Lantern are subdued and begin hallucinating. This could have used more clarity, because the situation at the end of the first issue suddenly changed and I was like, wasn't Mongul chained up? Then we see Hal's father, who's been dead forever, and Sinestro is still a good guy. I'm thinking, something has to be fucked up. So that first issue was mentally taxing.

It gets better though. In Gotham, Bats and Hal have some awesome banter. Bats hits him to return the favor from Rebirth, and then slams on the Batmobile brakes when Hal insists on not wearing a seat belt. I was laughing most of the time these two were together. But there's a poignant "did he really write this" moment, one of the most tender and mythical of Batman I've ever seen in a non-Batman comic. Hal lends Bats the Ring, and tells him to overcome his fear, because he knows the sort of similar demons Batman carries. But Batman is fear. I won't spoil the rest, but I wanna see a comic where he finally transcends the fear. Some may say, well that isn't Batman anymore. Hm, sounds interesting doesn't it?

Issues 10-13 follow Infinite Crisis and jump ahead one year. This is a bit odd. I'm trying to rack my brain as to what the hell even happens GL related in Infinite Crisis (and now I'm going to reread). But anyway, GL Tomar Tu shows up for revenge on Hal. I think for his reign as Parallax, I can't be sure. I feel like I'm always missing something with GL history. Anyway, Hal and Guy investigate Tomar Tu and go to Sector 3600, beyond GL jurisdiction and home of the Manhunters, when they see holy fucking shit is that who I think it is?! Haven't seen him since Dan Jurgens! Wow! That's a twist!

I must admit that while the beginning was a bit confusing, things became more clear and exciting as the book went on. I love how huge these stories are, settings that span the entire universe, allies always at odds with one another. I don't always know what's going on, but Johns generally doesn't berate his readers for their incomplete knowledge. The pacing was quick and tight, and that twist was epic, building right up to the end to continue in later volumes. Johns started a little clunky but finished strong. And the artwork by Pacheco, Sciver and Reis is drop dead gorgeous as usual. Onto the next volume!

[The Lion's Share · Rating 3 out of 5]

ooooooh Cyborg Superman, didn't see that coming!

[Subham · Rating 4 out of 5]

Reread: 31/12/2021

I loved this volume! Its the teamup of Hal and Ollie as they go after Mongul and I love the whole dream sequence and his fight with his supposed arch-nemesis who led him to emerald twilight and then the friendship between them is highlighted and Johns has this uncanny ability to give character moments which are so well done and then the team up with Bruce vs Tattoo-ed man and I liked that story too and finally one year later, Hal and Guy go to sector 3601 and fight Cyborg-Superman and his manhunters and that leads to the rescuing of dead green lanterns . This volume felt too much like it was cleaning the sins of Emerald twilight and then giving Hal some great moments of redemption and also hinting towards future storylines to come. So another awesome volume! And the pencils of Reis are <3!

_______________________________________________________________
This was a good read, first we pick up with Hal and Ollie vs Mongul and his sister and as is to be expected they are trapped within Black Mercy and have to fight their way through that dreams/nightmares and return back to reality and it was a good story and shows the bond between Hal and Ollie. Then Bats and Hal team up to fight Tatooed man and they are even after this issue, they are friends again or so it seems like. Then we pick up one year later after Infinite crisis, the rocket reds vs Hal whose after Igneous and it sets up future stuff where Hal is like not respecting boundary laws and Global Guardians are after him! Then we have the rescue of the other GL's on the planet Biot where the manhunters and their Grandmaster aka CYBORG SUPERMAN have these GLs trapped and its upto Hal and Guy to rescue them and its easily the best story out of all of them! You just see how committed Hal is to rescue them and his fight with Henshaw settles what happened when Coast city was destroyed and by the end, Hal is somewhat redeemed and its a good scene to see and like as a Hal fan rewarding. But something is going on with Superboy-Prime thats for sure! Another great volume by Geoff and co!

[Ignacio · Rating 4 out of 5]

Pues mira que yo de la continuidad de Linterna Verde muy poquito, y más de su etapa Parallax. Sin embargo, qué bien me ha entrado la minisaga de cuatro episodios donde Hal Jordan y Guy Gardner acuden al planeta de los Manhunters para ver qué ocurrió con unos miembros del Corps a los que Jordan se ventiló en su etapa malvada. Aparte del desarrollo de la historia de Oa, se disfruta del fondo que le dan a Jordan y sus ganas de expiar los pecados cometidos en una historieta épica, muy bien dibujada por Reis (a falta de más Pacheco, se le parece bastante en su síntesis de Adams/Davis/García-López). Le añades los dos números de Pacheco con el cruce con Flecha Verde contra los hijos de Mogul y redondeas el primer tomito notable de esta colección. Si hay más así me lo voy a pasar en grande.

[Xavier Guillaume · Rating 4 out of 5]

Green Lantern: Revenge of the Green Lanterns starts off strange, but keep reading because it gets really interesting. The story starts off with Green Lantern and Green Arrow trying to stop Mongul from taking over Earth. How Mongul exactly plans on taking over Earth, it's kind of strange. Let's just say Mongul decides to play Suddenly Seymour.

The Green Brigade wins, for now at least, and then Green Lantern decides to team up with Batman to take on the Tattooed Man. Yeah, I think they could have done a little better with that name. The Tattooed Man is kind of interesting, think of Kevin Spacey in Se7en, only with tattoos, that can kill you. Anyway, Batman and Green Lantern say "tattoodles" to the Tattooed Man, and we're left with one of the most iconic Batman scenes when Green Lantern convinces Batman to don the Power Ring.



Yes, psychic green bats! What else he conjures is kind of touching, and I admit I was close to getting a little watery eyed.

The next portion is where the book gets really good. I really want to tell you what happens, but I don't want to spoil it. Let me just say, you know how I got really excited for the Manhunters appearance in No Fear? Why don't you extend that excitement by 1000?

Overall, I really enjoyed the book, giving it a 4/5. I probably would have given it a 3 if I were to judge it by the beginning alone, but it gets really good, and I mean really good. Let me just say the last two pages of the book left me stunned, and so excited for what's coming up next. Maybe it's because I'm gay, but there's something about a hot, naked archnemesis trapped in a floating green cube surrounded by 50 Green Lantern guards that I find strangely enrapturing.

[Stephen · Rating 2 out of 5]

2.0 stars. This volume collects Green Lantern 7 through 13 and was a bit of a disappointment after I read and liked Green Lantern, Book 1: No Fear. I thought the one story with Batman was pretty good but I found the rest of the stories very forgettable.

[Zezee · Rating 2 out of 5]

As posted on Zezee with Books.

Though I’m not familiar with Green Lantern, I was willing to try something new. I was aware of the Green Lantern movie that was made a couple years ago staring Ryan Reynolds, but I haven’t watched it. Everyone says it sucks and I’ve never felt the need to watch it whenever it’s on TV. I was, however, curious about Green Lantern after reading Red Son and didn’t realize until I read Revenge of the Green Lanterns that there are more than one Green Lantern, that they are a group.

That surprise aside, I didn’t find the story in Revenge of the Green Lanterns appealing. Actually, I thought this volume was composed of individual stories and it wasn’t until the end that I realized they are connected by Hal Jordan’s past when he was under Parallax’s influence. I did find his attempts at atoning for his past actions interesting, but since I couldn’t detect a strong connection throughout the stories, the volume as a whole didn’t have a strong impact on me.

Also, I think this volume is more suited for someone who’s familiar with Hal Jordan’s background. Maybe if I’d known beforehand that he had deceived his fellows, I’d be more concerned about him and his problems while reading this.

However, of the issues that make up Revenge of the Green Lanterns, I found Branded the most interesting; but because of its characters, not the story. I mean, the story was okay, but the villain was very interesting because of how he’s illustrated — tattoos covering his body which he can make come to life. Batman appears in Branded too. He caught my attention there and now I’d like to read more about him. Actually, in the stories I read, I was more curious about the side characters than Hal Jordan. I guess it’s because I didn’t care much for his story.

(Btw, the little smurf dudes seem evil to me. I think they want to take over the world. But I might be wrong.)

Art style:

The art throughout is pretty good. I liked both the illustrations and colors. All the characters are fit. The men ripple with tight muscles and the women are all slender and sleek and drawn from angles that best feature their “assets” (I just think some of those angles are very suggestive). Green Arrow looked pretty good too. I liked his goatee and mustache.

As mentioned before, I love how the villain in Branded is illustrated because of the many tattoos across his body. The illustration of him is very detailed and he looks like a badass: shirtless wearing only cargo pants and dog tags.

I also love the illustration of Cyborg Superman (I think that’s his name) in the last issue, which is also titled Revenge of the Green Lanterns. His mechanical parts are very detailed and I love the shading and colors on him. It’s pretty impressive.

Overall: ★★☆☆☆ 1/2

The story was…meh, but I liked the art.

[Yvonne · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another green lantern book that my brother decided to read. much better then the previous volume.

I knew I was going to really enjoy this the moment I got to the second page and I saw the black mercy. Just for the record my favorite superman story is the one that introduced this wonderfully horrible plant and I love any just about everything I have ever seen the plant featured in.

There's also a great story with Batman, what's not to love. I really like how John's writes Batman and green lantern. The two characters here are the same ones who John's had meet for the first time in the 2011 Justice League issue #1. It flows so well.

John's also handled the one year forward jump really well. He had some ongoing plot stuff and he managed to make it work while having the year long hiatus be believable.

This is really good.

Again though, I ask, when was the last GL' s history had a complete revision? a complete reboot? They are referencing the green lantern/green arrow road trips now. It's like green lantern has been traveling in a straight line forever and only the other earth heroes around him have changed. There are some things that couldn't have happened the same anymore. like anything to do with Hank Henshaw/the cyborg superman, who never became a cyborg in the current timeline. But Jordan still references the surrounding events in today's books. I am going to have to do some research.

[Shannon Appelcline · Rating 3 out of 5]

A Perfect Life (#7-8). Ah, it's the ole' Mongol and the dream flowers trick. Though it's cool to see Hal and Ollie team up, their "perfect life" dreams really aren't that interesting. The story ends with some interesting looks at families, but that's about it [3+/5].

Branded (#9). Hal fights a scary new Tattooed Man. There's some good world building in the new Tattooed Man, but that doesn't make the fight particularly memorable. More notable is the repairing of the relationship between Hal and Bruce (Wayne) [3+/5].

Revenge of the Green Lanterns (#10-13). And as he closes out his first year of the Green Lantern comic proper, Johns is still trying to repair the damage of Emerald Twilight. This time around, he welcomes back the many well-characterized and original Lanterns from before the Twilight by coming up with a ham-handed reason for their survival. It's nice to see Hal and Guy working together, and it's nice to get some closure on the first arc's return of the Manhunters, but this still ends up being a long fight without much depth [3+/5].

[Kaotic · Rating 5 out of 5]

Note: I own the individual comics and not the trade paperback version. But seeing how GoodReads does not have the individual volumes on here, I am using these to post my reviews.

Every review on here is posting about how they hate this series. But I really enjoy it. It is fast paced, has good artists and a good story line. I also see everyone complaining on this volume with one simple statement:

"Where's the revenge?"

What I have to say to that is - read between the lines. The Green Lanterns are not about going out and seeking legitimate painful revenge. That would defeat the purpose of their corps.

Think about the psychological and the rift. Think beyond what is in front of you.

[Joshua Adam Bain · Rating 4 out of 5]

The story is building!

So we still have the same formula of short stories that will eventually tie together further down the track. I think Johns run is something that should be read as a whole instead of parts or single volumes. If I picked this up randomly I would have thought this was rather lack lustre. But because I've read what's happened further down the track it's so fun see how everything came together like small pieces on a puzzle.

We get the one year jump here thanks to the Infinite Crisis events. So again we jump in with no knowledge of what happened in the missing year, but we get a brief idea of some of the events. I'm hoping they delve more into Hals month in the POW camp. Hopefully in the next volume.

All going well so far. Can't wait to get volume 3!

[J.M. (Joe) · Rating 2 out of 5]

What a flippin' mess. I almost didn't finish GREEN LANTERN: REVENGE OF GREEN LANTERN (where was the "revenge," by the way?). It's pretty much a one-star effort and my perception of Geoff Johns's ability to craft a semi-cohesive story has really skidded to a halt (hire me, DC!). The tale with Batman in it redeems GL:RoGL for basically a half star, bringing it up to 1.5. I think I'm done with his run. I'm not going to subject myself to it anymore. He had twelve or more issues to convince me, and didn't get it done.

Two stars (out of five). Can't recommend this one except to the most hardcore GL fans (again, mainly for the Batman issue).

[John Yelverton · Rating 5 out of 5]

The book series just keeps getting better with each page turn, culminating in the return of Arisia.

[Marco · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'm still waiting to fall in love with this series but it's not happening.

[Judah Radd · Rating 5 out of 5]

Really epic. Loving this run. Not sure why it took me so long to get back to it, but now I’m committed.

[Pavel Pravda · Rating 3 out of 5]

Tahle kniha trpí tím, že je vytržená z delší řady. Čtenář je tak hned vhozen do něčeho, v čem se vůbec neorientuje. Doposud jsem četl pouze knihu “Tajemství původu” a oproti té jsou zde úplně jinak rozdané karty. Vyprávění se neustále odkazuje k předchozím událostem, a ač se scénář snaží spoustu odkazů vysvětlovat, tak to pro mě byl trošku guláš. Až se nechce věřit, že kniha začíná sešitem #7, protože odkazovaných událostí je tolik, že se nemohly do šesti sešitů vejít a musely proběhout i v jiných komiksových řadách. Byl to pro mě docela šok, že oproti Halovi-nováčkovi je tady najednou Hal-veterán a přitom pořád vypadají stejně. Zkrátka z nafukovacího bazénku jsem byl vylitý rovnou do oceánu.

Kniha začíná dvěma kratšími událostmi, ve kterých si Hal Jordan dá týmovku s Green Arrowem a s Batmanem. Potom už začíná delší hlavní příběh, který dal název celé knize. Halovi svitla naděje, že by mohl alespoň částečně odčinit zločiny své minulosti a vydává se na zakázanou a téměř sebevražednou misi. Když pominu tu permanentní provázanost s minulostí, tak to bylo relativně pohodové a zábavné čtení. Kresba je pěkný mainstream a asi možná vás potěší více, než samotné příběhy.

[Mark · Rating 4 out of 5]

By this point in his run Geoff Johns seems to have settled down into a rhythm of excellent storytelling. Over the course of the stories collected here, he battles the children of Mongol, copes with a period of captivity (one told in flashback after a time jump), and discovers the secret of the new Manhunters that Johns introduced at the start of the series. Throughout them he balances nicely the battle scenes with the more introspective character moments, as Jordan works to surmount the accumulated baggage of his misdeeds and get back to serving as a Green Lantern. It's highly entertaining, and great reading for any fan of good superhero adventures.

[James De Leon · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Ollie and Hal story was nice - always nice to see this pair. The story with Bruce is also pretty good - nice to see them ‘getting along’ and nice seeing the iconic panel with Bruce holding the ring.

The rest of the stories are okay. We see Hal dealing with the repercussions of his past actions - - - as much as Geoff seems to want us to forget about them, he has to address this. Geoff does engineer a fairly decent manner to bring back deceased Lanterns in his quest to absolve Hal of past sins.

The art is mostly good - if anything, it can be a bit too busy, which is a complaint I had for the “Green Lantern Corps - Recharged” book.

[Aarthika · Rating 2 out of 5]

I really wanted to like this, but I'm not sure if this run is for me. There's so much going on, every single issue was packed with different storylines, and so much text, even the art was so busy (the art was beautiful). Things I liked include, Batmans Cameo and him trying on the ring, Oliver at the start and Guy Gardener's snarky lines. It just felt like too much was going on.

[Eric Burton · Rating 5 out of 5]

Another stellar volume in the Green Lantern saga. I loved the issues with Green Arrow, and there was one issue in the middle that had the best interaction I've ever read between Batman and Hal. Then you have the Revenge storyline, and it's fantastic as well. This might become my favorite comic run of all time, but there's still a ton more to read!

[Ben Horner · Rating 4 out of 5]

Johns & Reid work here is just as good as their New 52 run on Aquaman. A great jumping off point for me not knowing all that much about Green Lantern and much more enjoyable than the last one I read (which is the next book after this which probably didn’t help).

[Ithlilian · Rating 3 out of 5]

The Revenge of the Green Lanterns collection is not as good as Rebirth, but not much better than No Fear.

The Green Lantern/Green Arrow teamup "A Perfect Life" starts us off, an it was ok. Generic bad alien appears and attempts to kill and destroy. The special feature: plants that take over your mind and make you see your perfect life. That's interesting from a character development standpoint, but neither of the character's dreams are that hard to predict. Overall, it was a bit shallow, and there was a bit too much "the moral of the story is ___" sort of stuff. Brush your teeth and eat your wheaties kids!

Section #2: Branded. Unfortunately, as much as you would like to see Hal Jordan punch Batman in the face again, you will not be seeing that here. They give each other a hard time, and Hal ends up lending the ring to Batman. Well now, that was certainly interesting. Other than that, this section of the collection felt a bit too short. Interesting, but short.

Then we have the Revenge of the Green Lanterns segment, which is a huge building block for further events in the series I'm sure. I don't know anything about the previous Green Lantern Corps or who these people flying around are, but that's ok, it was enjoyable anyway. I personally don't mind the Green Lanterns being angry at Hal Jordan, they have a right to be, and now I finally know who that blonde chick is I keep seeing.

As far as my personal opinion goes, I could use a little more substance from this series. These are good as generic entries into the Green Lantern universe, but I know there is plenty out there to explore, so let's get to it already. I feel like these are really trying to establish Hal's character, and that's great, except it doesn't seem like he has much of one. He does whatever he wants, sleeps with whoever he wants, and yet is emotional at the same time. Going against authority and not being a mindless drone is great, so cudos for that. The problem is it makes him come off as arrogant, and that's not the most likable trait. Then we have the ladies man aspect of Hal Jordan. He had one relationship that was serious, got scared, and walked away from it. So, now he sleeps with anyone he wants. That's ok, these comics are written by men, for men, and I understand that big boobs and heroes that get whichever woman they want are appealing. Moving on. Hal's third character trait seems to be that he regrets what he did, and he is super sad that he killed all those people. Great, so now get back into the swing of things and start kicking butt. If I want to read that emotional nonsense I would read Batman.

There is so much that I hear about that I can't wait to get into in this world. The different colors of the spectrum, the Sinestro corps, Black Hand. I will keep reading these early issues until I get there, and they aren't horrible, but I've read 60s Green Lantern issues that are better, and I'm not sure if I really like Hal Jordan as a character after this installment.

[The_Mad_Swede · Rating 4 out of 5]

This volume collects #7–13 and picks up Geoff Johns' run where it left off in the first volume Green Lantern: No Fear (following his miniseries Green Lantern: Rebirth , which brought Silver Age Green Lantern Hal Jordan back to the DC universe).

In the first two-parter, "A Perfect Life", drawn by Carlos Pacheco, Jordan teams up with his old partner Green Arrow and together they face the children of Mongul. This is followed by a team-up with Batman, drawn by Ethan Van Sciver. Here Jordan and a wary Batman fight the new Tattooed Man and, perhaps most importantly, examine their common ground and how to interact after all that has happened (prior to Jordan's return).

At this point, the flow is somewhat interrupted since somebody at DC editorial had the asinine idea to come up with the whole One Year After malarkey, an "event" of sorts, which followed the whole Infinite Crisis event. The idea here was that all of DC's titles leaped a year into the future (leaving a gap in continuity, especially within titles own narrative continuity). Needless to say, this wrecked a lot of good sub-plotting, or at the very least forced some of it to premature conclusion in different titles. And mostly a dumb thing, since the specified time – a year – in itself is not a very clear fictional unit (seeing as how stories taking place over a year, rarely, if ever, seem to take an actual in-fiction year) to begin with.

Here, it causes a bit of a rupture that is annoying, but Johns quickly finds his balance by throwing us into a new four-parter, "Revenge of the Green Lanterns", drawn Ivan Reis. Here, we are suddenly confronted with the Global Guardians, an international super team who antagonise Jordan's handling of certain international crisis and who swiftly become a running sub-plot which I expect will bear fruit in the next volume (or later). There are also more sub-plot building by the introduction of recruitment being done to the Sinestro Corps (itself suggesting, of course, the return of Sinestro.

As for main story course, Jordan accidentally encounters Tomar Tu, a Lantern presumed dead at Jordan's own hands (while he was Parallax), who suddenly appears in a bad condition. Tu's ring shows that he has been to sector 3601, which the Guardians refer to as the Blackest Night and they forbid Jordan to investigate if there are more lost Lanterns to be found there. Folding in Corps business (e.g. the strong distrust and dislike of Jordan after all that has gone before), Johns has Jordan team up with fellow Earth Lantern, Guy Gardner, to find out what secrets sector 3601 might hide, regardless of the Guardians' prohibition.

And what follows is a really good story, which sets up a lot of interesting sub-plots for future volumes as well.

[Wing Kee · Rating 4 out of 5]

Not a retcon but a reconnecting of the past to the present.

Amazing writing, just simply amazing because of how Johns is able to rebuild bridges that were so very much not only burned but incinerated to the point of no return. But wow, what do I know he did it, he's brought back so many of the favorites! This second full arc for the GL series not only touches on amazing action but has great callbacks and character moments.

World: 3 illustrators, all bringing their A game and their distinct style to GL. I like that all can illustrate a sense of action and the power of the ring. The colors and the green really pop to show the energy of the Corps. The world building by Johns is amazing, it's not so much world building as world reconnecting. I don't want to ruin it for anyone but man he does an amazing job at reconnecting the pre Parallax GL to the present and this is simply an amazing world reconnecting feat.

Story: The first couple of single issues are great in the sense that 1) it reconnects Hal with Ollie (which we needed) 2) Deals with the Bats/Hal relationship from Rebirth and 3) Gives us a sense of the mindset and where Hal is in terms of his family and his personal life. Then we have the second half of the trade which deals with the massive world reconnection. I won't say anything cause the characters that show up and the villains oh man, this is awesomeness. I did find the 1 year jump a bit jarring but that's not the fault of Johns but rather the entire DCU due to the Infinite Crisis event. So yeah that's there but other than that jarring story time jump the rest of the tale is great. Just read it if you are a GL fan, it will mean so much to you.

Characters: Hal gets a lot of development, I do miss John missing from this arc, but I hope that gets fixed next arc. The couple of issues we get in the beginning really gives us a deeper look at Hal and where his mind is at, and also allows him to reconnect with Ollie and Bats. But the rest of the development I won't say cause the rest is amazing. We have had the Sinestro and Parallax part of Hal dealt with with Rebirth, now we will deal with the GL Corps and man was it awesome!

This arc I think is better if you are a GL reader, if you are a new reader there is certainly a huge cast of characters that will confuse you but man if you are a GL reader, this is...just amazing.

Onward to the next book!

[Quentin Wallace · Rating 4 out of 5]

I liked this volume a little better than the last. Green Lantern and Green Arrow team up to face Mongul's Son and Daughter, and we get to see the mind controlling plant from the famous Alan Moore Superman/Swamp Thing story return. Then we get to see Batman and Green Lantern face a new Tatooed Man and while I wouldn't say the two make peace, they at least come to terms with the past. The most important part of the story involves a planet of Manhunters, the Cyborg Superman, and the return of the Green Lantern Corps! I always wondered how the old corps members returned after Hal Jordan supposedly killed them. Come to find out most of them weren't dead but had been severely wounded and imprisoned near the edge of the universe by the Manhunters and Cyborg Superman. They had even collected a few that had supposedly died in other ways that had noting to do with Hal Jordan. Of course, they still remember what Hal did them and they aren't happy. Plus Hal has a bounty on his head and he's constantly fighting off bounty hunters.

I'm glad to see so many of the classic corps return, plus we had the first hints of the upcoming Sinestro Corps War. Great art and a cool story. This is Green Lantern done right.

[Martin · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of my favourite Green Lantern books, with a star-studded line-up of artists...

- a strong two-parter by Carlos Pacheco (as usual, a feast for the eyes) guest-starring Green Arrow and Mongul's destructive kids;

- a stand-alone story by Ethan Van Sciver (the weakest link in this collection, but worth a look - if only to see, albeit briefly - Batman all 'Green-Lanterned-Up');

- and the titular story, a fantastic, action-packed four-parter by Ivan Reis: oh-so heavy on the exposition, but with big revelations, big stakes, awesome fight scenes, and the return of many long-thought-dead (or at least forgotten) characters. Not the least of which: Hank Henshaw a.k.a. Cyborg Superman!