DC Comics and reboots have gone hand in hand for 70 years, with their first reboot coming with 1956’s Showcase #4, birthing the Silver Age and rebooting characters like the Flash and the Green Lantern. 40 years ago the publisher changed their entire multiverse, doing away with the old infinite Earths and birthing a new DC Universe. Post-Crisis on Infinite Earths DC Comics had problems, but readers got some of the best versions of the greatest characters in the publisher’s history. Numerous characters were rebooted over the post-Crisis years, and 22 years ago, DC put out a reboot that is head and shoulders above the rest: Green Lantern: Rebirth, by Geoff Johns and Ethan Van Sciver.
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Reboots have become a common occurrence in comics, with Marvel rebooting characters every couple of years (if they sell; some characters like Iron Man, Captain Marvel, and Ms. Marvel have gotten almost yearly reboots lately that never catch on). However, there’s an art to it, and Green Lantern: Rebirth is the perfect example of that particular comic discipline. The book brought back Hal Jordan and the classic Green Lantern mythos and catapulted the character to superstardom for years. Looking at the book and what came after it, it’s plain to see just how flawless this 2004 classic is.
Green Lantern: Rebirth Gave Readers Everything They Could Want from a Reboot
DC Comics in the ’90s had a few key moves, and one of them was breaking a classic character and replacing them. Hal Jordan got this treatment in the story “Emerald Twilight”, becoming the villain Parallax, killing the Green Lantern Corps in order to steal their power to rebuild his destroyed home Coast City, which was lost in “Return of Superman”. For years, he was replaced by new Lantern Kyle Rayner. Eventually, he redeemed himself by reigniting the sun after Final Night, and became the Spectre.
In the ’00s, the publisher was all about bringing back their classic universe, and in 2004, writer Geoff Johns, who had become a superstar thanks to JSA, The Flash, Hawkman, and Teen Titans (Vol. 3), was tapped to bring Hal back. He was teamed with artist Ethan Van Sciver, who had gotten his start on the indies, did fill-in work on New X-Men, and worked with Johns on The Flash: Iron Heights. While fans thought that Kyle was one of the best Green Lanterns, many fans were excited for Green Lantern: Rebirth, and the first issue showed they were right to be.
The book had a tall order in front of it. Hal had run out of steam in the ’90s, so the book had to rehab the character. It had to rebuild the Green Lantern Corps, and it had to make it all interesting. That was the problem with the Corps in the early ’90s; it felt like an outdated idea. However, Johns was more than up to the job. Green Lantern: Rebirth revealed the truth behind Hal’s change to Parallax and brought back one of the greatest villains in DC history: Sinestro. In fact, the characters were why the book was so great. Johns just understood how to write Jordan, Sinestro, Kyle, Guy Gardner, John Stewart, Kilowog, Ganthet, Green Arrow, and the rest. It was perfect from the first word.
The story had it all: it took an old story and added to it. It resurrected a classic mythos for a new generation. It took a villain people had forgotten about, modernized him, and set the stage for him to become something new. And, most importantly, it made Hal into a character that fans wanted to hang out with again. Johns took everything that defined the character in prior years and brought it into the modern day. The book is full of Hal Jordan-glazing and it worked perfectly. It made him into a big deal, and fans were hooked. It set up Green Lantern for superstardom, with Green Lantern (Vol. 4) and Green Lantern Corps (Vol. 2) becoming two of the most read books in comics in the ’00s.
They Don’t Make Them Like Green Lantern: Rebirth Anymore
Reboots aren’t exactly beloved nowadays, mostly because we’ve gotten so many bad ones in recent years. They’ve also become so prevalent over the years that they aren’t really special anymore. Green Lantern: Rebirth came at a time when reboots weren’t as common, and it was able to succeed in every way imaginable. While it’s not perfect — the art from Van Sciver hasn’t stood up very well at all, honestly — the writing was so good that you can read it today and still love it.
It also led to some amazing places. It planted the seeds for “Sinestro Corps War”, which kicked off a multi-year epic that would lead into Blackest Night. It made the Green Lantern books into some of the bestselling comics in the land, and fans loved Jordan again. It was able to do everything that a reboot needed to do, and it created a story that is infinitely re-readable. Reboots don’t get much better than this, and it remains the GOAT.
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