The 100 Graphic Novels You Should Read While Stuck Inside: Day Forty-one: The Green Lantern: Intergalactic Lawman

Shining Light

Tripwire continues its 100 Graphic Novels You Should Read While Stuck Inside with its forty-first choice, The Green Lantern: Intergalactic Lawman written by Grant Morrison and drawn by Liam Sharp, reviewed by Tripwire editor-in-chief Joel Meadows…

The Green Lantern: Intergalactic Lawman
Writer: Grant Morrison
Artist: Liam Sharp
Colours: Steve Oliff
Letters: Tom Orzechowski/ Steve Wands
DC

Green Lantern was one of the first comics I read as a kid. It is a character I have always enjoyed when he has been done well at DC. We’ve had a few classic GL stories over the years like the O’Neill and Adams run, some highlights in the 1980s under writers like Steve Englehart and Alan Moore and artists Joe Staton and Dave Gibbons and a few of the 1990s run too. But in recent years, Green Lantern has increasingly become just a vehicle for some questionable crossovers like Blackest Night. Morrison and Sharp have taken Hal Jordan back to basics while throwing some new ingredients into the mix.

Forced to go undercover to save the Green Lantern Corps, Jordan seemingly turns his back on his morals and his ethics and goes toe to toe with fellow classic DC space hero Adam Strange. He joins up with the Darkstars, who are the antithesis of everything noble that the Green Lantern Corp stand for. But of course this is all part of his subterfuge and this first hardcover volume ends with him about to begin a quest to save the universe and the Corps.

Sharp manages to channel classic comic art like Adams and 1980s GL artist Mark Bright while bringing something fresh and modern to proceedings. His Hal Jordan looks heroic but flawed. Morrison’s script also draws on decades on what is quirky and interesting about the character while giving it that Grant Morrison feeling. They are a great team and they have managed to inject vim and vigour back into a character that had been flagging for so long.

Colourist Oliff is a great match for Sharp’s art too , bringing out his lines with style and panache.

The Green Lantern feels like a classic take on an iconic DC character but it is also a very modern reinterpretation too. It is arguably currently DC’s boldest mainstream superhero book and a real breath of fresh air. It more than deserves its place in this list

Joel Meadows

www.dccomics.com

Here’s links to the other graphic novels reviewed so far

http://www.tripwiremagazine.co.uk/headlines/the-100-graphic-novels-you-should-read-while-stuck-inside-day-thirty-nine-new-teen-titans-volume-1/

http://www.tripwiremagazine.co.uk/headlines/the-100-graphic-novels-you-should-read-while-stuck-inside-day-thirty-seven-absolute-all-star-superman/

http://www.tripwiremagazine.co.uk/headlines/the-100-graphic-novels-you-should-read-while-stuck-inside-day-thirty-six-scalped-deluxe-edition-volume-one-volume-four/

http://www.tripwiremagazine.co.uk/headlines/the-100-graphic-novels-you-should-read-while-stuck-inside-day-twenty-four-batman-arkham-asylum/

http://www.tripwiremagazine.co.uk/headlines/the-100-graphic-novels-you-should-read-while-stuck-inside-day-nineteen-patience/

http://www.tripwiremagazine.co.uk/headlines/the-100-graphic-novels-you-should-read-while-stuck-inside-day-eighteen-blackhawk-blood-and-iron/

http://www.tripwiremagazine.co.uk/headlines/the-100-graphic-novels-you-should-read-while-stuck-inside-day-fifteen-daredevil-love-and-war/