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Green Lantern Annual, No. 1, 1963 1998 (SC TPB) 80 pages
a.k.a. Giant Green Lantern Annual

Written by John Broome. Pencils by Gil Kane, Alex Toth. Inks by Joe Giella, Murphy Anderson, Frank Giacoia.
Colour reconstruction: Anthony Tollin. Letters: unbilled. Editor: Julius Schwartz.

Reprinting: Green Lantern (1st series) #37 (1949), Green Lantern (2nd series) #9, 12, 13, 16 (1961-1963) -- except for #13, the stories reprinted don't represent the whole original issue.

Additional notes: intro detailing GL's publishing history; mini feature on drawing GL by Gil Kane; guide to GL appearances -- up to 1963.

Rating: * * 1/2 (out of 5)

Number of readings: 1

One of the first of DC's recent quasi-TPBs done as homages to the time when annuals used to be collections of reprints, this "lost" 1963 annual (it was actually put together in 1998) reprints early 1960s stories of the Silver Age Green Lantern (Hal Jordan) plus an older story featuring the Golden Age GL (Alan Scott). Also included, as part of the "gag" that this is a lost 1960s annual, are ads for then-current, but now out of print, comics. Though, just to confuse things, there are also a couple of genuine ads for some other, recent "lost" annuals.

I won't detail the various times I almost had this in my hands, only to have the opportunity slip away -- suffice it to say, I had been trying to get a hold of this for, literally, a couple of years. Maybe it was because of that long quest that I actually found it a bit disappointing once I did get a hold of it. I wanted it too much.

It reprints four Silver Age stories (collected from a narrow period between 1961-1963). Since comics back then often featured a couple of short stories per issue, most of the stories don't represent the whole comic, and the stories here run from as little as 7 pages to a full, feature length tale of 26 pages.

Silver Age stories are, generally, more simplistic than today, with little -- if any -- significant characterization or human drama. But they can be fun for their good naturedness, outrageous ideas, and plot-heavy stories. Perhaps that's why the best of this collection is the feature length tale, "Duel of the Super-Heroes" (GL #13). It features the first teaming between Green Lantern and the Flash, characters that were established as friends in the 1960s and frequently guest starred in each others' magazines. Because of the greater length, the story is allowed to be a story -- to unfold, and take some turns, in a talle involving other dimensional aliens, and a brain-washed Green Lantern (allowing the Flash to be an equal star). For my part, there was an added nostalgia. I had never read a true, silver Age Green Lantern story before, but I had read some Flash stories from that period (usually in reprint digests) -- including a couple of other Flash/GL team ups.

Although not bad, the other stories aren't especialy memorable. Though for those interested in GL mythos, one features arch foe Sinestro, as well as an appearance by the GL corps ("The Battle of the Power Rings" #9) and another first introduces villainess Star Sapphire from #16 (less malicious than she would become years later).

I read somewhere the claim that early GL stories put an emphasis on GL's personal life, and his relationship with Carol Ferris (at least in back up stories) -- essentially the kind of soap opera-y stuff one associates with comics from a few years later. I don't know if the person who wrote that just misremembered, or whether the stories here just fail to highlight that aspect, but there's little of that human drama here -- stuff that could give the stories a litttle more depth. Yet neither are the stories that clever or imaginative. A story in which GL has to go into action even as his ring is just moments away from running out of power ("Zero Hour in the Silent City" #12) should've been an interesting "hook" premise, but it doesn't really live up to the possibilities. Even GL's power ring, usually used to make weird and outrageous contraptions, is here as often as not just used to zap things. The fun of contemporaneous Flash stories (or even Superman) is to see how they employ their limited powers in new and unusual ways. But GL's ring is so all purpose, it provides less opportunity for innovative uses of it. Maybe that's another reason I enjoyed the teaming with the Flash.

Even Gil Kane's art fails to excite. Certainly, it's competent enough work, getting across what needs getting across. But he hadn't evolved yet into the dynamic, explosive artist most of us remember him as being.

Art wise, it's Alex Toth's work on the Golden Age Green Lantern story (from more than a decade earlier) that impresses. I knew Toth was a legend, and I'd seen a bit of his later work, but this early art is a real eye opener. Using a style reminiscent of such folks as Milton Caniff and Frank Robbins (and, in recent years, Eduardo Barreto), with lots of high cheekbones and rumpled suits, Toth's art is full of atmospheric shadows and, for the time, unusual composition and dynamic angles that makes the story energetic and looking surprisingly modern. The story, "Too Many Suspects", is an interesting idea, though it's explained in the opening splash page so that it kind of renders the first few pages obsolete. But it too is basically just O.K., nothing more. And GL's ring is hardly employed at all!

This mock Green Lantern Annual is certainly an O.K. read, giving a glimpse at a long ago period (and is certainly cheaper, if you just want a sample, than one of DC's exorbitantly expensive Archive volumes, of which there have been a few Green Lantern ones). But there's only really one stand-out tale -- the Flash team up. And I'm curious, given what I'd read, whether the lack of private life moments reflects the period...or just the stories selected for this collection.

Cover price: $6.95 CDN./ $4.95 USA. 

Green Lantern: Emerald Dawn 1991 (TPB) 144 pgs.

Written by Jim Owsley (#1) and Keith Giffen (plot) & Gerard Jones (script) (#2-6). Drawn by M.D. Bright. Inked by Romeo Tanghal.
Colours: Anthony Tollin. Letters: Albert DeGuzman. Editors: Andy Helfer, Kevin Dooley.

Reprinting: Green Lantern: Emerald Dawn #1-6 (1989-90 mini-series) with covers

Rating: * * 1/2 (out of 5)

Number of readings: 3

I really wanted to like Green Lantern: Emerald Dawn. Actually, when I first saw it at a comic shop, I gave it a miss, assuming it was part of DC's desecration of Green Lantern/Hal Jordan wherein he turns into a super-villain and destroys the Green Lantern Corps. On learning it was published before that little editorial decision, and was in fact a retelling, and embellishment, on Hal's origin, ala Batman: Year One, I picked it up.

The story starts out promising in the opening chapter, but the longer it went, the more my enthusiasm decreased, becoming ambivalence bordering on disinterest by the end. I still have mixed feelings, having re-read it (all in one evening), to see if I was being too harsh on it. In fact, I clearly have mixed feelings toward it. I've read it more than once and, although unsatisfying, still find it is reasonably readable.

On the plus side, the realist art by M.D. Bright is very good (if undynamic), and the dialogue is certainly O.K. There is an appeal to the pacing -- somewhat laid back, taking its time with scenes (without being plodding). And, in many respects, it's not terrible. But there's nothing really great about it either. Had it been only three or four issues, it might have worked better.

You'd expect a six chapter epic to feature a sprawling, complex story, but the plot, involving an invincible yellow-armoured alien intent on killing the Guardians, leaders of the Green Lantern Corps, is pretty simplistic and straightforward...and repetitive. And the climax is unsatisfying, with even Hal not knowing how he accomplishes his victory (something I assumed would be answered in later, regular Green Lantern issues -- but I'm not sure if it was).

There are some moments that seem to want to gel into tackling big, weighty ideas...but tend to fizzle. The alien would-be assassin has a grudge against the Guardians and their self-appointed position as judge and jury of the Universe, but the writers never quite crystalize their point about power, authority, responsibility...if any. And when, at one point, one of the good guys refers to coming up with a "final solution" for dealing with the villain...one isn't sure what to think. I mean, surely that phrase has too much baggage in the latter part of the 20th Century to be used without recognizing its historical resonance? Giffen had also plotted an Aquaman mini-series around that time, with similar aspects (a kind of appealing, unhurried pacing, but weak characterization and plotting) -- and there, too, he employed the "final solution" phrase...but uttered, there, by bad guys.

There's not much fleshing out of the supporting cast in Emerald Dawn. Either they're given little to do (such as Carol Ferris, Tomar Re, Hal's brothers) or they don't even appear, like Tom Kalmaku and Katma Tui. Katma crops up in a couple of panels, but I think that's a mistake, since renegade GL Sinestro seems to still be part of the Corps, and she was Sinestro's replacement (if I remember my GL mythos).

So we're left with 134 pages of Hal Jordan...but this doesn't convince as the adventures of a young Hal, though maybe this was a "new" take on the character to go with the "new" DC. If so, all they did was substitute, not a new characterization, but a stock template. This Hal is a whiney nebbish feeling put upon by the world, a far cry from the sometimes bullish, over-confident Hal I used to read about. But it's not developed beyond the cliché. Why Hal is the way he is, self-pitying and given to drinking too much, is never explored, nor are his motivations (like why he became a test pilot after witnessing his pilot dad's demise). The writers want us to believe this is a sophisticated, "adult" take on a "simple" comic book icon, but it's half-baked and unconvincing. Surface without substance.

Re-telling origins should provide an opportunity to flesh out long ago, simpler stories, but instead they can border on paint by numbers. We see the obligatory scenes of Hal receiving his ring, his first journey to the planet Oa, etc...but most of it's perfunctory, not particularly fleshed out or imaginative -- most, though not all. This reminds me a bit of Batman: Legends of the Dark Knight #100, a comic I recently picked up in a back issue bin that retells the origin of Robin. Though not a bad comic, and nicely drawn, writer Dennis O'Neil brought absolutely nothing to Robin's story. He didn't elaborate on the plot, or provide any great character insight (in fact, the motivation was pretty oblique). It was O.K. if you were ignorant of Robin's origin, but appallingly lazy (and disturbingly mercenary) if you were looking for some justification for its retelling.

And that's kind of the problem with Emerald Dawn. The characterization is weak, the plotting shallow, and there are few memorable scenes or moments to justify this epic reinterpretation.

Even the Green Lanterns Corps has been re-envisioned as a more militaristic, boot-camp style organization (yeah, right, those are the guys you want wielding power rings!)

I'm not sure what the behind-the-scenes story is here. It's unusual to switch personnel in the middle of a mini-series, but here Jim Owsley wrote the first issue, then the Gerard Jones/Keith Giffen team did the rest. Was Owsley just warming things up for Jones/Giffen, or was he supposed to write the whole shebang but was fired?

There was a follow-up mini-series, Emerald Dawn II -- which was only collected as a TPB in 2003.

Unlike most TPBs, this was originally printed on newsprint-style paper, making this not quite as glossy as some, but certainly much, much more economical -- and agreeable for that alone. But it was re-issued in 2002 as a more conventional, and expensive, TPB.

Original cover price: $5.95 CDN./$4.95 USA.
Re-issue price: $__ CDN./ $12.95 USA.

Green Lantern: Emerald Dawn II 2003 (SC TPB) 140 pages

Written by Gerard Jones (plot by Keith Giffen). Pencils by M.D. Bright.Inks by Romeo Tanghal.
Colours: Anthony Tollin. Letters: Albert DeGuzman. Editors: Andy Helfer, Kevin Dooley.

Reprinting: Emerald Dawn II #1-6 (1991)

Rating: * * 1/2 (out of 5)

Emerald Dawn was part of the wave of DC Comics' projects arising after the Crisis on Infinite Earths, overhauling established characters, retelling their beginnings in "year one"-type stories...in this case, then Green Lantern, Hal Jordan. The first Emerald Dawn retold Hal's origin, his first encounter with the Green Lantern Corps, etc. Emerald Dawn II takes place, not so much after Emerald Dawn, but inserted into the last pages of the original mini-series. Emerald Dawn ended with Hal, accepting responsibility for a drunk driving incident, entering a prison then, cutting to a few months later, being released. Emerald Dawn II -- originally given the additional sub-title "90 Days" -- transpires during those months in prisonn.

Ever since I was a kid, I thought it would be a unique premise to have a super hero who was a convict. You know, sneaking out at night to fight crime, but having to be back before the morning head count, etc. (though I've subsequently learned there was a Golden Age hero who did just that, I think). Presumably plotter Keith Giffen thought much the same. But in addition to that, the story has Hal being tutored in the ways of his power by another Green Lantern...Sinestro. Long time fans know Sinestro becomes an arch villain, so that provides part of the drama as Sinestro's villainy is discovered by Hal and the Corps.

I had mixed feelings toward Emerald Dawn, which I felt was a thinly developed re-take on Hal's beginnings, that attempted to work in character nuance, but didn't pull it off very well. It's readable, even as, intellectually, it doesn't really pay off. Emerald Dawn II, by the same creative team, is also a mixed bag. On one hand, it benefits from a more original story...the Hal in prison, the tutoring by Sinestro, plus plenty of mixing outer space with earth-based scenes. On the other hand, it still seems like a six issue saga that might've been better cut back to four issues, and one where various sub-plots are introduced, but not developed particularly well. As well, at least the first mini-series built to a climax. This doesn't generate the same drive. Hal's a rather passive protagonist, not really impacting on much of the story. In fact, when Sinestro is finally caught and tried by the Corps...Hal has very little to do with it. Which might be fine, if the story was meant to be more of a Green Lantern Corps story, except other Corps members aren't especially well-fleshed out in his stead.

Perhaps part of the problem is the decision to make this about a young, novice Hal -- he doesn't really seem like Hal Jordan for the most part, who both pre-Crisis and post-Crisis, was usually portrayed as a seasoned, confident, thirtysomething. There is some nice attempts to weave in thematic threads, involving power and responsibility, as Hal sees in Sinestro the dangers of misusing their abilities, but even that isn't realized as fully as it could be. As well, the story ends with Hal admonishing the warden that the prison is in need of reform...but prison corruption never really seemed to be much of a theme in the body of the story.

It's also awkward the way the hard-nosed judge who sentences Hal at the beginning is treated as a bad guy because he wants to send a message about drunk driving. Given the fact that drunk drivers kill more people that do guns (I believe), do Giffen and Jones really want to send the message that the law shouldn't take it so seriously?

Perhaps the best part of the series is the portrayal of Sinestro. Previously just a super-villain megalomaniac, here he is presented as more complex -- as well as more terrifying and deranged. This Sinestro really believes himself a hero, believes his iron fisted control of his sector is for his people's on good. He's basically a paranoid-schizophrenic, and his unravelling when things fall apart for him is particularly well handled. It's probably the most chilling -- and convincing -- portrait of mental illness I've seen in a comic.

M.D. Bright's low-key, realist art is also appealing. It's nice to read a comic where the people look like people, where when they stand, or bend, or twist, their bodies seem to follow the same physical principles as the rest of us. Admittedly, Bright's composition isn't the most dynamic -- even with Giffen credited on layouts for a couple of issues -- but it tells the story with clarity and confidence.

Ultimately, Emerald Dawn II is not a great read, nor is it bad. It has some interesting ideas, and is more original than the first series, but tends to meander to a resolution, rather than build to a climax. Along the way we see early introductions of Guy Gardner and Katma Tui. But Jones, who wrote the regular Green Lantern series without Giffen's help, did better work on his own. Sure, it was uneven, but the characterization was more adult, and his plotting could be more eclectic. When I first read his Green Lantern: The Road Back, I liked it, though noted its flaws, but a second time through, I really liked it. Likewise, I appreciated some of his other work on the title more, as well (Green Lantern #21-24, 1990s series, ferinstance).

Unlike the first series, Emerald Dawn II was not collected in a TPB when it first came out. So why now, some twelve years later? Now that it has little relevance to current stories -- Hal is no longer GL (having been killed off, then becoming the new Spectre) and the Green Lantern Corps has been destroyed. It seems a curious editorial decision. But if DC really wanted to drag out some old Hal Jordan stories for TPB collections, there are many better ones out there.

This is a review of the story as it was originally serialized in the mini-series.

Cover price: $__ CDN./ $12.95 USA.

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