NEW YEAR NEW GREEN LANTERN COMICS! 2018 was a great year to be a fan of the Green Lantern Corps. Yes they’re were some endings but all good things must come to and end. Thankfully the end of 2018 promised Green Lantern fans a bold new direction for Hal Jordan with Grant Morrison and Liam Sharp. Even though we only readers had two issues of this new run before 2018 ended, it’s pretty easily to tell that 2019 is going to a mind exploding trip for Green Lantern fans. Warning the following review will contain spoilers. You have been warned.
The insanity from this series continues, and this issue might be the most bat shit insane yet. If the previous two issues were any indication, but the love for DC’s silver age is at its peak within this issue.The opening sequence sets the tone perfectly as we see representatives from all sorts of evil alien races placing their bets on a shrunken Earth, and it only gets crazier as the issue progresses. What’s really incredible is how Grant is somehow giving gravitas to these surreal events, that within the hands of a lesser writer this would be more comedy laden. It’s clear that Morrison is walking a very small balance scale between surrealism, and intense action. For most readers this will be a litmus test when it comes to Morrison’s writing, despite the extra insanity of this issue, The Green Lantern still feels very grounded in comparison to his other works, but if this issue was a bit to surreal for you then you might want to jump off now.
One aspect that still doesn’t gel with me is Grant’s handling of Hal’s voice, but after this issue I believe that they’re is a point it. I firmly believe that Grant’s point is to put the most boring human in existence (and Hal has been jokingly called boring in the past) and put him in the most absurd situations. The only real problem is that Hal doesn’t overreact to anything like a normal person because he’s a Green Lantern and he’s seen his fair share of weird so his reactions don’t generate the response one might expect for white bread character. Despite my criticism, Hal’s still retains his strong personality, but it’s the lack of a bravado for him that makes Hal feel so different within this run.
If Liam Sharp doesn’t get nominated and win a Eisner trophy for his work on this issue, it’ll be a travesty. One of favorite aspects of Sharp’s art is Hal’s facial expressions, even though Grant’s writing of Hal hasn’t hit my fancy, Sharp’s facial expressions for Hal more than make up for it. Several pages within this issue made my draw drop, seeing “The Shepard” standing inside his ship, surrounded by various planets he’s captured for himself. It’s breathtaking, a page that can only be perfectly visualized within the world of comics. My only nitpick with Sharp’s pencils was his take on the Justice League namely Martian Manhunter looking like he takes steroids normally. That one page isn’t enough to detract for how gorgeous the team of Sharp and Oliff work.Trust me, you won’t be forgetting the art in this comic for quite some time. Some of it may haunt your dreams.
The Green Lantern #3 earns a 4/5