Green Lantern: Hal Jordan, Vol. 1

Green Lantern

by Gerard Jones, Christopher J. Priest, Keith Giffen

EMERALD DAWN

Classic stories of the greatest Green Lantern, Hal Jordan, are collected in this new edition for the first time ever!

Only the fearless can be entrusted with a Green Lantern’s power ring, the universe’s most powerful weapon. When Abin Sur, the Green Lantern of Space Sector 2814, crash-landed on Earth, he knew it was time to pass the emerald mantle to a deserving human. After quickly studying billions of people, the ring selected test pilot Hal Jordan, who was busy making a mess of his life. Now gifted with an incredible trust, Jordan needs a crash course in both using the ring and what it means to be a Green Lantern. And he had better learn fast. Legion, the alien marauder who has already killed four Green Lanterns, has arrived on Earth to hunt down his fifth.

Witness the beginning of Hal Jordan’s heroic career post-Crisis on Infinite Earths, with legendary comics creators Gerard Jones, Keith Giffen, M.D. Bright and Romeo Tanghal, in GREEN LANTERN: HAL JORDAN VOL. 1, collecting GREEN LANTERN: EMERALD DAWN #1-6 and GREEN LANTERN: EMERALD DAWN II #1-6 for the first time in chronological order.

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

303 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 24, 2017

About the author

Gerard Jones is an award-winning American author and comic book writer. From 1987 to 2001, Jones wrote many comic books for Marvel Comics, DC Comics, Dark Horse Comics, Viz Media, Malibu Comics and other publishers; including Green Lantern, Justice League, Prime, Ultraforce, El Diablo, Wonder Man, Martian Manhunter, Elongated Man, The Shadow, Pokémon, and Batman.

Jones is author of the Eisner Award-winning Men of Tomorrow: Geeks, Gangsters, and the Birth of the Comic Book (2004); Killing Monsters: Why Children Need Fantasy, Superheroes and Make-Believe Violence (2002), and Honey I'm Home: Sitcoms Selling the American Dream (1993). Jones is co-author with Will Jacobs of The Beaver Papers (1983), The Comic Book Heroes (1985, 1996), and the comic book The Trouble with Girls (1987-1993). From 1983 to 1988, Jacobs and Jones were contributors to National Lampoon magazine. He and Jacobs began writing humorous fiction again in 2008 with the online series My Pal Splendid Man and Million Dollar Ideas

Reviews

[Chad · Rating 3 out of 5]

Collects both Emerald Dawn miniseries which retell Hal Jordan's origin post-Crisis. Geoff Johns further refined this in Green Lantern: Secret Origin. Hal is a huge a-hole throughout most of Emerald Dawn. He fights Legion, an entire race trapped in yellow armor who has since been forgotten while going through the established bits of his origin. It's been so many years now that I had actually forgotten about the ring's vulnerability to yellow. That seems like such a hokey concept now. Emerald Dawn II was much better. It takes place while Hal is in prison for drunk driving. He's also sneaking out at nights to train with Sinestro. M.D. Bright draws some nice clean lines in both books.

[David · Rating 5 out of 5]

I'm a huge Hal Jordan fan but I've never read this until now. Seems odd. But there you have it. Was originally published in my poverty-stricken college years. Been meaning to read the Emerald Dawn stories for ages. Now here they are in one lovely paperback volume. It's really wonderful. Maybe it's dated for today's readers but perfect for me. Geoff Johns cribbed a lot from this book and this book in my opinion does it better. I'd say it's a perfect book for new readers to comics and new to the Green Lanterns.

[Matt · Rating 5 out of 5]

Collects Green Lantern: Emerald Dawn issues #1-6 and Green Lantern: Emerald Dawn II issues #1-6

Emerald Dawn Review:

This was a great story, and acted as a new origin story for Hal Jordan post-"Crisis on Infinite Earths." In this story, Hal gets his power ring, meets the Green Lantern Corps., and fights his first battle as a Green Lantern. Hal makes some messed up choices before becoming a Green Lantern, but another story, "Emerald Dawn II," helps to redeem his character.

Emerald Dawn II Review:

This story takes place directly after "Emerald Dawn," and helps redeem Hal Jordan's character after he made some extremely bad choices in that first story. In this book, Hal is trained by one of the great Green Lantern's, Sinestro. "Emerald Dawn" acts as an origin story for Hal Jordan in general, and this book acts as an origin story for the Hal Jordan/Sinestro dispute.

[Christopher (Donut) · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fairly good "year one" treatment, in two six issue miniseries. The "Giffen touch" is evident.

The Sinestro fall from grace was well handled.

Some of the dark age element (if I may call then that), like drunk driving and prison breaks, were a little less charming. Not sure Hal Jordan is the kind of character who needs "shading," or at least, it didn't quite come off here.

Mere quibbles. This was mostly fun.

[Victor Orozco · Rating 4 out of 5]

Got to say I’m really proud of DC Comics for this epic reprint of Green Lantern from the 1980s. But given how poorly their Rebirth stories are, I guess the best way to sell more comics is when times were better.

Basically, this is Green Lantern - The Post Crisis of Infinite Earths when it was decided to have a do-over of the comic book universe. This collection includes the Post Crisis tales of Green Lantern Emerald Dawn I and Emerald Dawn II and it begins with Hal Jordan back to the time when he first encountered fear... yet at the same time had the ability to overcome it.

This version of Hal Jordan is a bit reckless and irresponsible, caused due to the trauma he suffered in watching his father die in a plane crash. Hal is not just some stranger piloting a flight simulator and then finds a great power, but a man weighed down by emotional pain. Yet manages to continue on as the premise of the story remains intact from the original 1950’s origin story. Hal becomes a pilot that finds the crashed vessel of Green Lantern Abin Sur leading him to be chosen for the Corps.

The big bad in this story is a yellow armored creature called Legion that pretty much sets up the continuing silliness of yellow being a Green Lantern weakness - an explanation that won't be resolved for another 20+ years in some of Geoff Johns work in the 2000s.

But the rest of the story continues with Hal Jordan not only fully trained as a member of the Green Lantern Corps but becomes a much more disciplined and better man as he ends up serving a prison term for a bout of recklessness. Unfortunately, he must deal with the responsibilities of being a Green Lantern and is partnered with Green Lantern Thaal Sinestro and though while powerful and capable partner, Hal learns the horrible truth about Sinestro that marks him as a foe that has been a thorn in his side for years in the original comic and continues to plague him to the present day.

Awesome read, truly a set of stories to reprint. Can’t wait for the next volume. B+

[David · Rating 4 out of 5]

While I'm more a fan of the Silver Age GL, I appreciated these stories and how they re-invented Hal Jordan's origin story. Highly recommend this, both for the stories and the artwork.

[Darik · Rating 5 out of 5]

A big swing at giving Hal Jordan, square-jawed jet-jockey of the Silver Age, the same level of depth and emotional complexity that DC was lavishing on its characters in the mid-to-late '80s... and I think it's a mostly successful one, even if it loses some of its character focus when writer Jim Owlsey (a.k.a. Christopher Priest) jumps ship after the first issue, leaving the bulk of the storytelling to Keith Giffen and Gerard Jones (the less said about HIM, the better).

Jordan, in this telling, starts out as a deeply flawed man. The book opens with a young Hal witnessing the death of his father in a jet crash, and the baggage of that trauma leads him to grow into a shiftless washout-- resentful, angry, completely unwilling to confront the fears that are holding him back... leading to self-destructive behavior that ruins the lives of the people around him. So when THIS guy gets chosen by a dying alien to become a Green Lantern-- an heroic champion of order and justice throughout the galaxy-- it forces Hal to confront the consequences of his own actions, because those consequences become much, MUCH grander in scope.

While the two miniseries collected here would expand into cosmic adventure stories as they went along, there's a decent throughline of personal responsibility that keeps them somewhat grounded. It never quite coheres into something GREAT (though the second mini, Emerald Dawn II, is more cohesive in mirroring Sinestro's fall from grace with Hal's struggle to find the acceptible limits of his new power), but this is still solid reading, and makes Hal into a more complex character than he'd ever been depicted as before (or since, for that matter).

[Adam Stone · Rating 3 out of 5]

The first arc is serves as a modern origin story about how Hal Jordan, who absolutely sucks in this story, becomes the Green Lantern. I like including this as a starting point because I think it's important to see what a bad person Hal Jordan was before he received the ring. It makes his downfall and later redemption more interesting when his origin story presents him as, not a heroic everyman, but a drunk driving loser who ruins his friends' lives. Also, the ridiculous Green Lantern trope of "willpower doesn't work on the color yellow" is laughably present.

My own sidenote, when Grant Morrison took over this title in 2016ish, his first story was called "Intergalactic Lawman", and I always read it as "Intergalactic Lawnman". There is a wonderful panel in this book of Hal mowing a lawn with his ring.

Emerald Dawn II sees Hal serving time for his DUI, where breaks in and out of jail to foil bank robberies and other petty crimes until his cellmate is killed and he needs a lawyer to defend him. I honestly never knew Guy Gardener was a lawyer, and I feel like I've read dozens of books with him in it. We also get to see more of Sinestro, who briefly appeared as a background lantern in the the first arc. Now we see that he's a bit of a fascist on his own world. The jail storyline, and the Sinestro training storyline are nice counterpoints to one another.

[Nate]

Emerald Dawn. Hal Jordan’s (first) post-Crisis origin. It’s fine for what it is, but I don’t think Jones communicates Hal’s fearlessness all that well. He’s hotheaded and not exactly what I would call a top candidate for the Green Lantern Corps. I like the introductions of the Corps, though, and Tomar-Re remains one of my favorite Green Lanterns. The villain also had more depth than I expected, and his story teases the sometimes questionable motives of the Guardians. Overall, a decent reboot of Hal’s origin, but it doesn’t add anything drastically new.

Emerald Dawn II. I liked this better than the first series because it’s a good character study of Hal as he comes into his own as Green Lantern and learns more about the Corps. It directly follows the events of Emerald Dawn with Hal serving a 90-day prison sentence for drunk driving. Meanwhile, Sinestro is tasked with training Hal, sneaking him out of prison daily and eventually bringing him to Korugar to quell an uprising. Jones does a respectable job setting up the conflict between Hal and Sinestro, even if Sinestro’s obsession with order is driven into the ground. Once again, I like how this story expands the Green Lantern (and larger DC) universe.

[Chris W · Rating 3 out of 5]

Basically a retelling of Hal Jordan's origins. In essence it's Hal GL year one. If you've read Geoff John's Secret Origins Hal Jordan you've basically read this already (they are very similar). Hal himself isn't really that likeable to me in this volume. He's like Val Kilmer's take on Batman, he's just kinda there and in the role and not particularly memorable or exceptional in any way. The true start that drives half this book is Sinestro. Sinestro, which this book devotes a lot of time and attention to, is a tragically flawed figure. He thinks he's helping when in fact he's establishing a dictatorship, he has some good intentions but is also malicious. Sinestro is truly the most interesting character in this entire volume, and because of his Character, I actually enjoyed about half of this volume. If you're a hardcore GL fan you might like this volume. If you know nothing about Hal Jordan than this is a good starting point. Otherwise either stick to Geoff John's run cause this really won't make you fall in love with GL comics.

[Ravi Nuxoll · Rating 4 out of 5]

Emerald Dawn I is uninteresting. Hal is hard to like. I’m not against a protagonist having flaws, but he doesn’t have many redeeming features. The plot is also uncompelling.

Emerald Dawn II is a huge improvement. It’s an origin for Sinestro as well as Hal, and all of the characters in the story are relatable on some level (with the exception of some of the characters in prison). It feels as if no one is absolutely good, but no one is absolutely evil either. The story has more gray area and it saves this collected edition and enhances the legacy of the Green Lantern.

[Scott Waldyn · Rating 5 out of 5]

Truly one of the most perfect, compassionate, and thoughtful superhero origin stories out there. I would recommend this volume to anyone looking for a great comic book read or even looking to start reading comics for that matter.

This is what stories of superheroes are meant to be, aiming for being our best selves and taking ownership for our flaws.

[Sarah · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was a wonderful origin story retelling. The complexity of the characters, the Corps, the conflicts—all perfectly done. I also liked that the creators didn’t shy away from making a hero pay for the misdeeds of his pre-heroic actions. A clean slate didn’t come without a hefty price, and even then, the slate is never going to be perfectly clear. In short: An engaging read from start to finish.

[Allen Setzer · Rating 3 out of 5]

The best part of the book is the second half with Sinestro. Good development on Hal and Sinestro. I’m not a fan of Hal getting drunk and driving. Just doesn’t seem like something he’d do. Maybe the writer wanted to warn people about it and used Hal as a vehicle to insert it into his origin. There could have been more likely reasons he could have ended up in jail.

[Mandy · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars

[Damian Knight]

Good graphic novel

[Raven Reads · Rating 4 out of 5]

Origin retelling! Great starting point

[Chris · Rating 4 out of 5]

Nice update and reboot. Now I get where the GL movie was starting from.

[Shawn Ingle · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was really good. Great character development and a story that flowed really well.

[Dabbling Madman · Rating 5 out of 5]

Love if!

Really Enjoying these older stories and artwork! I think I'm gonna keep reading! Can't wait to get to the other lanterns!

[Russell Pearce of Sector 2814 · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a must read of you are doing a part run of 80s/90s Green Lantern. This is pretty much the starting point for everything that Ron Marz and Geoff Johns did. The story is fairly self contained and does not require much of any previous knowledge of the character.