Green Lantern: Rebirth
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Green Lantern: Rebirth was a six-issue, monthly comic book miniseries written by Geoff Johns, and illustrated by Ethan Van Sciver. Published by DC Comics from October 2004 to May 2005 (cover dated December 2004 – May 2005), the series starred various members of the fictional intergalactic police force known as the Green Lantern Corps, most notably Hal Jordan, Kyle Rayner, John Stewart and Guy Gardner, as well as various other prominent heroes of the DC universe. It was collected into a single volume in November 2005. [1]
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[edit] Backstory
In 1994, DC Comics decided to do away with Hal Jordan, who had been the perennial Green Lantern of Earth since his first DC Comics appearance in 1959, and replace him with a new character to carry on the Green Lantern legacy, Kyle Rayner, in the hopes of attracting new readers with a younger character. The storyline, ”Emerald Twilight”, which began in Green Lantern vol. 3, #48 (January 1994), involved Hal Jordan descending into madness following the complete destruction of his home town, Coast City, by the villain Cyborg Superman, and becoming the villain Parallax. Jordan went on a rampage on the planet Oa, the planetary citadel of the Guardians of the Universe, who oversee and administrate the Corps. He killed all his fellow Green Lanterns, and all the Guardians save for one, Ganthet. He also destroyed the Central Power Battery, with which all Green Lanterns recharge their power rings, and even killed the renegade former GL, Sinestro, whom Jordan himself had exposed as a criminal who used his power ring to enslave his planet, and whom the Guardians apparently freed from his imprisonment in their Central Power Battery in a failed attempt to stop Jordan. Jordan then attempted to destroy all of existence so that he could recreate it to his liking in the 1994 miniseries and crossover storyline, Zero Hour.
This provoked outrage among some fans, and DC responded with more than one attempt to redeem Jordan’s image, first in the 1996 Final Night miniseries and crossover storyline, in which Jordan sacrificed his life in order to re-ignite Earth’s sun, and then in the 1999 Day of Judgment miniseries, in which his soul, languishing in purgatory, was chosen as the newest host for God’s “Spirit of Vengeance”, known as The Spectre. Finally, in 2004, DC decided to cancel the current Green Lantern monthly series with issue #181, and have Geoff Johns write Green Lantern: Rebirth, which would not only fully exonerate Jordan of his crimes in order to pave the way for his return as a Green Lantern, but would also explain lingering questions about his character, as well as reveal the decades-long mystery of why the Green Lantern power rings, the powerful weapons assigned to each Lantern that allow them to conjure virtually any form of matter or energy, were unable to affect anything yellow in color.
[edit] Rebirth synopsis
A pair of hikers walk along the fence of the abandoned Nellis Bombing and Gunnery Range in Highway Hill, New Mexico. A spacecraft suddenly falls out of the sky, crashing near them, and inside they find the Green Lantern of Earth, Kyle Rayner, injured and weak, who mumbles “It has a name”, and then collapses near a long green object that appears to be a coffin.
A series of strange and disturbing incidents then begins to occur. Jordan, pronouncing judgment on the villain Black Hand, becomes unable to focus clearly, and senses that something is wrong, telling his friend Oliver Queen (aka Green Arrow), “None of this should have happened. This isn’t me. This isn’t who I am.” The shape-shifting Vuldarian physiology of former GL Guy Gardner begins going haywire. The destroyed city of Coast City suddenly reappears to two pilots flying over it, though the only building that is restored is Hal Jordan’s old home.
Back in Highway Hill, Rayner, semi-conscious, tells the hikers that he has “to show them”. As he passes out, his power ring begins speaking, “Parallax is coming…”
When Batman, Superman, Wonder Woman, Aquaman, Zatanna, The Flash, and John Stewart confront Jordan at Ferris Airfield, where Jordan is reminiscing with his former paramour, Carol Ferris, Jordan insists that he is not responsible for the restored Coast City. Stewart, however, suddenly goes berserk, attacking the other heroes, his ring now intoning, “Parallax is coming.” Meanwhile, at the JLA Watchtower on the Moon, the emergency power ring that Jordan once gave Green Arrow duplicates itself, and places itself on Guy Gardner’s finger, restoring him as a Green Lantern.
Back at Highway Hill, the extraterrestrial Green Lantern Kilowog appears, and inexplicably attacks Kyle Rayner. However, Ganthet, one of the Guardians of the Universe, appears to stop Kilowog, attempting to protect the coffin, which it is revealed holds the corpse of Hal Jordan. He and Kilowog engage in a fierce battle, and Rayner himself feels something within his ring attempting to take over his will, much as with Stewart and Kilowog. Ganthet teleports Rayner and Jordan’s corpse to the Justice League Watchtower on the Moon. Meanwhile, Jordan investigates the appearance of his old apartment building, where he is confronted by the Parallax version of himself, who engages in a battle of wills with the Spirit of Vengeance bonded to Jordan’s soul.
It is then that the Spirit explains to Jordan the truth about Parallax, while simultaneously on the Moon, Rayner does so to Queen. Rayner explains that he journeyed to the edge of the universe, and on the tenth planet from the star Pagallus, the inhabitants told him that Parallax was actually a yellow demonic parasitic entity that was born at the beginning of sentience, feeding on fear, creating terror in anything it came into contact with, and causing entire civilizations to destroy themselves out of paranoia. It was this creature that the Guardians of the Universe imprisoned within the Central Power Battery on Oa, using fear's opposite energy, willpower. Rayner explains that there is an emotional electromagnetic spectrum into which the collective willpower of the universe is collected by the Central Power Battery, and that green willpower is the most pure. Parallax had lain dormant for billions of years, his true nature covered up by the Guardians to prevent anyone from trying to free it, and thus, it had eventually come to be referred to as simply “the yellow impurity.” This was the reason why the rings were useless against the color yellow: Parallax weakened its power over the corresponding spectrum, and hence only someone capable of overcoming great fear could master the power ring. The Guardians, therefore, selected only such persons to become Green Lanterns.
But at some point in recent history, Parallax was awakened, weak and hungry. It reached out to Jordan through Jordan's own ring when Jordan was at his weakest, spending years influencing him, causing him increasing self-doubt and fear, even causing his hair to turn white at the temples. Parallax's control over Jordan exploded with Jordan's grief over the destruction of Coast City, and it was Parallax who was responsible for Jordan's subsequent murderous activity. When Jordan destroyed the Central Power Battery, he unknowingly freed Parallax, which grafted itself onto Jordan’s soul, and suppressed Ganthet’s memories of the parasite. It was because Parallax was now free that Kyle Rayner’s own ring did not have any weakness against yellow, and following Jordan’s sacrifice of his own life during Final Night (a momentary glimpse of Jordan’s true heroic soul shining though Parallax’s influence), the Spirit of Vengeance drew in Jordan's soul, as it explains to Jordan, in order to eradicate the parasitic Parallax from it.
Green Arrow and Rayner are then attacked by Sinestro, apparently very much alive, who explains that it was he who used his Qwardian yellow power ring to tap into Parallax’s power and awakened it, and that the Sinestro whom Jordan killed was an illusory construct of Parallax’s, created so that his murder would serve as the final stage of Jordan's susceptibility to the impurity in order to break his will.
The Justice League of America and Justice Society of America arrive in Coast City to attack Parallax, but the entity inhibits their efforts by causing them to feel fear. The Spirit of Vengeance, however, manages to overpower Parallax, and finally removes the parasite from Jordan’s soul. Needing a soul to inhabit, Parallax attacks Ganthet, while Jordan’s soul is pulled toward the light of the afterlife. Ganthet manages to guide Jordan’s soul back to his corporeal body on the Moon. His soul and thoughts finally clear for the first time in a long time, Jordan emerges from the coffin resurrected as a mortal human again, once again taking his place as a Green Lantern, the white portions of his hair even restored to their original brown. He and Sinestro engage in a fierce battle on the Moon, and across entire star systems. Eventually, Jordan forces the renegade back into the antimatter universe into which he was first banished. Jordan and Rayner then journey to Coast City, where they, along with John Stewart, Guy Gardner and Kilowog, free Ganthet from Parallax’s possession, and imprison the parasite back in the Central Power Battery on Oa.
[edit] Reaction and aftermath
The miniseries was a sales success, with the first issue going through four printings, and selling a total of 156,975 copies. The second issue went through two printings, and sold 122,221 copies. The subsequent issues sold 106,523, 108,077, 115,006, and 114,354 copies, respectively. [2] The final issue was ranked #8 in sales, and the #4 selling DC book for that month. [3]
Tony Isabella, reviewing the series in Comics Buyer's Guide #1616 (May 2006), gave it five out of five “Tonys”, praising the story’s characterization, the book’s art, and opining that the explanation of the Parallax Fear Anomaly was “one of the single most brilliant concepts” he had ever seen in a Green Lantern comic book. ShakingThrough.net complimented the story’s “many rewarding moments”, also naming the Parallax Fear Anomaly. [4] Those who did not care for the series’ approach include Stephen Rauch of PopMatters.com, who thought the series was formulaic, and that the story was “The kind an eight-year-old writes, and is later ashamed of.” [5] Long time Green Lantern fan and author Jim Smith reviewed several issues in the Shiny Shelf web magazine and opined that the series "demonstrates, in every panel, the futility of endless Silver Age retro [and] is, in a quite meaningful sense, the very epicentre of all that is wrong with contemporary comic books." [6] Sean Ferrell of numbmonkey.com called the story “strong”, though opining that it had some flaws, including Scriver’s art. [7]
The series was collected into a single volume in November 2005.
DC Comics subsequently began a new Green Lantern monthly series starting with issue #1 (July 2005), with Hal Jordan once again the focal Green Lantern of the book. Trying to rebuild his life, Hal Jordan has moved to the almost deserted Coast City, which is slowly being reconstructed.
Shortly after Rebirth, Geoff Johns co-wrote (with Dave Gibbons) a 2005 five-issue miniseries, Green Lantern Corps: Recharge, which depicted Rayner, Gardner and Kilowog as they helped the Guardians begin the task of recruiting 7,200 new recruits to repopulate the ranks of the Green Lantern Corps, while dealing with a mysterious series of black hole formations that threaten the planet Oa itself. The series may have been produced at least partially to address concerns over what Kyle Rayner’s and Guy Gardner’s places in the DC universe would be.
After Hal was freed, The Spectre begins unleashing havoc on the world of magic. His consequences can be seen in Day of Vengeance, one of the build-up series to Infinite Crisis.
[edit] Sources
Comics Buyer's Guide #1616 (May 2006) (Page 49)
