Hal Jordan has got to be one of the most abused heroes ever created in comics. In the whole history of the field, no other hero - in my opinion - has been through such a mishmash of soap opera wallowing and evil plotting.



In the beginning, Hal Jordan was one of the coolest heroes ever in the 1960s. He was the second hero to be brought back to be updated to modern times and given a makeover in SHOWCASE comics (as long as you don't count Lois Lane). As a test pilot, Jordan was fearless. He was a skirt-chaser and always out for a good time. I loved those intergalactic adventures he had in the early books.



Then the 1970s came along and Denny O'Neil paired him with Green Arrow, turning the whole series into a tour through the social issues and growth problems the United States was going through. I enjoyed that run and thought it was great, especially since Denny recreated Green Arrow into the fantastic, opinionated character he now is. However, I didn't see how showing Hal Jordan having questions about whether or not he was doing the right thing during that era was undermining what Green Lantern was all about.



One of the scenes Denny did that I will take to the grave with me was of an old black man talking to Hal, saying how he'd heard Green Lantern had helped a bunch of purple skins, and orange skins, but why hadn't Green Lantern ever helped people with black skins? Words to that effect.



At that time, I thought that was powerful writing. And it was. Except for that whole little bitty thing of putting the cracks into Hal Jordan. Later writers came along and made Hal more human. By that, I mean they turned him into a failure. They gave him an alcohol problem that seemed straight out of the pages of IRON MAN.



Then they destroyed Coast City, his hometown, on his watch. And they turned him into Parallax, the worst villain EVER in the DC Universe. (Except maybe for Superboy-Prime at this point.) They even had his old friend Green Arrow kill him with an arrow through the heart.



After that, they turned Hal into the Spectre, the spirit of vengeance. The Spectre is another character that's been all over the place as writers have each tried to put their unique spins on that hero. So you had these two out-of-control entities somehow going to make a better hero together. (Kind of the you-got-chocolate-in-my-peanut-butter/you-got-peanut-butter-in-my-chocolate thing I suppose.)



The Hal Jordan/Spectre combo didn't work for me at all. The costume looked dumb. All the personal issues the writers created seemed to come out of left field.



In the end, Hal Jordan had been stripped of everything that had made him unique and likeable as a superhero. When I'd been young, I'd wanted to be Hal when I grew up. (During those times I hadn't wanted to be Batman, and I have to admit that the Batman thing is still there. I've grown more realistic over the years, you see. But if power rings are ever discovered, the Batman thing is subject to change.)



The fans were outraged. They howled for years. They didn't buy the Hal Jordan/Spectre comic books and the series was cancelled. The universe was without Hal/Green Lantern/Spectre. Then writers started going back in time and meeting the young Hal/Green Lantern. They found excuses to do this. They even brought young Hal/Green Lantern to the present for a while.



Now matter how much Hal Jordan got killed or had his body thrown into the sun to save the world and redeem himself, he wouldn't go away. Fandom remembered him much too vividly. Then the DC archives started getting published and a lot of people started asking, Where's this Hal Jordan/Green Lantern?



The decision was made to bring Hal Jordan back and make him Green Lantern again. Wailing and the gnashing of teeth was heard throughout fandom. I was one of the worst.



Even when I heard Geoff Johns was going to be doing the comic book, I wasn't happy. After everything that had been done, I figured that this was one save, one retcon (one of the most hated words among comic book fans - except when a character or a storyline was so badly butchered nothing else could be done - and DON'T even get me started on the "Spider-Man: One More Day" nonsense) no one could pull off.



I snorted in derision. I stamped my feet in annoyance. I bellowed my displeasure for all to hear.



The comics came out and I blew them off. Wasn't going to read them. I was too busy to read comics at that time anyway.



Then the graphic novel containing the five issues of GREEN LANTERN: REBIRTH came out. I was curious, but I resisted. After all, wasn't I inordinately busy? And then there was that whole doubting thing.



The fans, however, loved what Geoff Johns did. And I have to admit, after reading the graphic novel, I totally have to agree. Geoff Johns is one of the most brilliant writers I know. He pulled a hero out of the burning building that had been made of Hal Jordan's life. From the tattered fabric of the Green Lantern Corps history, Johns saved the best part of the mythos and made it stronger by making it more detailed and complete.



The writing in the graphic novel is intensely introspective not only for Jordan, but for several other major characters as well. Johns reforged views on Kyle Rayner, the newest Green Lantern who some of the old guard hated from the time he took over Hal's magazine, Guy Gardner, and even Sinestro, a long time villain of Hal's who had at one time trained him. Everyone was a part of what had happened to Hal Jordan, and we get to see how Parallax came about.



Johns figured out why the Green Lantern's rings were vulnerable to yellow, and he told all of us. He was the first among us to notice it when Hal first started to lose it, and why. When we thought Hal had killed Sinestro, Johns knew the true story. He even knew about the deal Sinestro struck with the being known as Parallax while Sinestro was imprisoned within the Power Battery on Oa, the planet of the Guardians.



The answer to what had gone wrong with Hal Jordan as a man and a comic book was simple. Johns's restitution of the character was elegance.



You truly won't read a better book about redemption. And if you're a Hal Jordan/Green Lantern fan, you'll be cheering by the time you turn to the last page of the book.



There were so many high marks and emotional points in the story that I could make a laundry list of them. But one of the best, one of the most surprising, is when Green Lantern gets tired of Batman's lip and punches him out!



Of course, for long-time comics geeks like myself, this was just a play on the events Keith Giffen set up in his run on the JUSTICE LEAGUE when Batman punched out Guy Gardner. But man, I loved that scene! A guy who will punch out the Bat? Now that's fearless!



I could rave forever about the accompanying art in the book. The space scenes are genuinely cool. The urbanized sprawl of cities is easily recognizable. Each of the dozens of heroes in the book are drawn in unmistakable fashion. Artists Ethan Van Sciver and Prentiss Rollins have drawn one of the most beautiful books I've ever seen, and they did it all while working with a HUGE cast.



If you're an old Green Lantern fan that has walked away from comics for a time out of disgust, Geoff Johns will strap you back into one of the best adventures you'll ever take. If you're a new fan drawn to comics because of all the superhero movies coming out of late, this is definitely a graphic novel you'll want to pick up. Especially now that a Green Lantern movie has been (pun intended) green-lighted.



I loved this book and it's one I'm going to read several times. I've picked up the other graphic novels in the series and can't wait to get to them.