DC Relaunch: Green Lantern

Green Lantern has become one of the largest franchise for DC Comics, behind Batman and Superman. It now boasts its own family of titles, and has expanded into a variety of worlds. This Green Lantern, the one who started this iteration of the Green Lantern, is Hal Jordan.

Being as we've seen information about the other Green Lanterns in their own books, I feel it's safe to say that Green Lantern will be starring Hal Jordan. Hal's been through alot in his life. Being burdened with a ring that allows to create almost anything out of willed energy that taps into the universe itself, having to deal for years with a variety of problems from the women in his life, and then being possessed by the embodiment of fear and killing many of his friends in the corps before dying himself. But he redeemed himself. And despite all that, being back in the ring slinging game, did Hal listen more to what others said? Did he follow what the Guardians, who overlook the actions of the Green Lanterns, told him to do? Nope, Hal will always be Hal, which is hardheaded and doing what he thinks is best. Which often, is at least somewhat in line with what is best. Or at least keeps him on his feet to do the right thing the next time.

More recently Green Lantern has had to deal with a great many foes, and the expansion of the world of the Lanterns, discovering that their green energy was not the only one that could be tapped into by a full-on army of Lanterns. He's fought hard and he's built bridges. At the end of the day, Hal has been extremely busy saving the universe the past few years. And he doesn't look to stop any time soon. If you reading this, then you've been missing out on an epic scale space adventure that is only just beginning. And you've been given a brand new starting point.

Geoff Johns and Doug Mahnke are back to continue their work on Green Lantern. Together they've been working on the book since Blackest Night and have continued through Brightest Day and now The War of the Green Lanterns. Doug Mahnke is also known for his work with Grant Morrison on Frankenstein for his Seven Soldiers mini-event, and with Joe Kelly on JL Elite.

Green Lantern has been running for some time, but here's a few modern suggestions to keep you grounded:

Green Lantern: Secret Origin
Green Lantern: Rebirth

Tomorrow I'll take a look at what's in store for the other Lanterns with Green Lantern Corps.

DC Relaunch: Aquaman

For sometime now, poor ole Aquaman has had it kind of hard. Admittedly, most of the character that appeared in Superfriends didn't really get a fair shake, but he's in particular had a hard time carrying a series in recent years, and he's also come under fire from fans and Adult Swim as a useless character. Can he talk to fish, he can swim really fast, but what else is there? Well, y'know, being able to easily swim the depths of the sea typically gives you a pretty durable body and really impressive superstrength. He's also had some very interesting methods of his talking/controlling sea creatures, like the time he set Superboy straight by dropping a tsunami and a ton of whales on him.

Anyway, Aquaman has been getting some better attention these days, after being killed uneventfully and eventually brought back to life by Geoff Johns in the pages of Blackest Night and Brightest Day.

Aquaman is connected to the sea. And there's alot of stories to tell there, you just really have to grab the reader's attention in the first place. Over the years Aquaman has had it pretty rough, so while he can be an alright guy, he is often closed off from his friends. He's a king, but he'd much rather handle biz himself that send someone else off to do it. And since he's only half Atlantean anyway, his family, to him, is usually those he keeps close: his wife Mera, Aqualad, and Aquagirl. Mera is just as powerful as he is, and also has powers of hard water manipulation (essentially creating effective weapons out of nothing, which the current Aqualad has as well). He does have a short temper, especially when it comes to people messing around with his oceans.

Aquaman is an adventurer. When checking out his stories, fully expect there to be lots of stuff going on, and some hard action. It's fun, and all those people talking about Aquaman just talking to fish are missing out on that.

The new Aquaman will be handled by the Geoff Johns along with Ivan Reis. Together, they've worked on Green Lantern and Brightest Day. Reis has also worked with former Green Lantern Corps writer Dave Gibbons on the cosmic mini-series The Rann-Thanagar War.

My favorite Aquaman stories have been the work done by Peter David in the early 90s. While his run was cut short, his notable changes to the character (including the harpoon hand seen throughout the Justice League cartoons) have not been without recognition. However, much of it has not seen collection. Here is what you can find, aside from the Showcase and Archive volumes:

Aquaman: The Death of the Prince by Jim Aparo & Others

Aquaman: Time & Tide by Peter David & Kirk Jarvenin

Aquaman: The Waterbearer by Rick Veitch

Come back tomorrow where we'll be taking a look at the The Flash!

DC Relaunch Daily, Part one: Justice League

As many of you who may stumble across this blog are aware, DC Comics is preparing a massive relaunch of their titles, with 52 new books being released to the general public (that's right they're not just for nerds anymore (p.s., they never were!)), not only in shops, but online the same day. For those of you aware, thanks for stopping by. Please link this blog to a friend who could potentially be interested in reading comics. Because that's what I want to do here.


I've decided that I want there to be more people reading. I like the idea of reading comics as something that people do because they enjoy it, not something we wallow in as nostalgia, whether it be people like myself who are regular Wednesday release readers, to the people who whenever I bring up comics they think back to something they read as a kid, and how much they loved it (but you couldn't get them to pick up a book if you tried). As comic book readers, we have a negative stigma. So invite those reading this to forget about that. DC has given you a way around the comic book shop. Comics are now released online. If you've ever been interested, even remotely, I'd like to help open the door. But, I'd imagine, you don't really know where to begin. So day by day, I'll be going over these books that DC is providing for you. By no means should you try to read them all! That way lies madness. But if something catches your eye, why not?



So I'll begin with the first title being announced, and that is Justice League by Geoff Johns & Jim Lee.


Here's the first cover that was released:


The Justice League has always been a team that handled the largescale threats to Earth that as individuals may have been a bit much. But together, they're the heaviest hitters Earth has to offer, and it's hard to get very far against that.



Most of these characters should be pretty familiar to you: Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, Green Lantern, The Flash, and Aquaman. Depending on your age, it may even be safe to say that you're familiar with Cyborg, as he was one of the main characters of Teen Titans (which was a great show for young and old, in my opinion). These are your Big 7, as they're usually referred to. The core of the Justice League. As you might imagine, being the biggest and most important characters in the DC Universe is a busy job in itself. A few members aside, these are protectors of their respective cities. So as per usually, there's a few more members that have yet to be revealed. Geoff Johns, the writer, has stated the League will boast up to about 13 members. So there's room for everyone.


I'd like to now talk about the creators working on the book, which can be, for many, as important as who the book is about.


Geoff Johns is a writer who's been working at DC Comics for sometime. Currently, in addition to writing, he is Chief Creative Officer at DC. He's well known for long runs on the comics The Flash, JSA (and later published as Justice Society of America), Stars & S.T.R.I.P.E., Action Comics, and for his very long run in revitalizing Hal Jordan as the Green Lantern, and expanding the Green Lantern franchise into multiple books and soon to be a movie. His works are known for having hints and seeds throughout a long run, while still being accessible to new readers jumping into the latest story. I myself started reading his Green Lantern about 25 issues in.


Jim Lee is an artist who has been in the comics industry for a long time. Part of the teams responsible for the immense popularity of the X-Men in the early 90s, he left Marvel Comics with other artists to start Image Comics. After a time, Lee took his properties and studio Wildstorm on its own, separate from Image. After a time it became enveloped as a line all its own within DC, publishing his Wildstorm Universe, licensed properties, and various creator owned works such as Alan Moore's ABC line of comics. Recently he was named with Dan Didio the co-publisher for DC Comics.



Just a few works by these two creators I'd like to recommend:


Green Lantern: Rebirth by Geoff Johns & Ethan Van Sciver
The Flash: Dastardly Death of the Rogues by Geoff Johns, Francis Manapul, & Scott Kolins
Superman: Secret Origin by Geoff Johns & Gary Frank
Batman: Hush by Jeph Loeb & Jim Lee


And a few of my personal favorite Justice League storylines (excluding Justice League International, more about that later):



JLA by Grant Morrison & Howard Porter (vols. 1-4)
JLA: The Obsidian Age by Joe Kelly & Doug Mahnke (Books 1 & 2)
Justice League Elite by Joe Kelly & Doug Mahnke (vols 1 & 2)



Being as these are my personal favorites, I'd hardly say they are the easiest or the most representative of what you'll be reading in the new Justice League title. Merely representative of what I liked before. If you are interested in reading further, these suggests are here, and if any readers would like to further those, please do so in the comments! But I should say, do not feel pressured into reading these books as a primer for the new title. It should stand on its own.



Tomorrow, we'll be getting into the first of the solo titles announced, Wonder Woman!