Comic book heroes are more than just characters. At this point, they have become ideas. Every great character starts as an idea, and they evolve over the course of their stories to become a recognizable figure. However, while characters are so often established as one thing, the original idea still remains and can be forged into something new. Rewrites, reboots, and reimaginings are present in every form of media, but comic book heroes experience it the most of all. They are constantly broken down to their base parts, a singular idea, and reborn as something entirely new. They are used to answer questions that weren’t even being asked when they were first made.
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Comic book superheroes have been adapted in thousands of different ways, and in DC, these alternate takes are called Elseworlds. There are hundreds of Elseworlds out there. Some are so similar to the Prime Universe that they could slot right into it, and some are so different that it’s hard to even say they share the same character. Today, we’re celebrating eight years of having one of the best Green Lantern Elseworlds there will ever be, Green Lantern: Earth One. The first volume of this series released in March 2028, and after the first two, we definitely need more.
An Old Idea Given New Life
The Earth One line of books is vastly different from the normal DC Universe, choosing to reinvent the basic ideas in a more grounded, grittier way. For the Green Lantern, that meant Hal Jordan was an asteroid miner in the not-so-distant future. One day, his team discovered an alien spaceship, and inside, a lost Power Ring. Hal’s partner Volkov took it, inadvertently ripping apart their shuttle. Hal managed to snag the ring and survive, but the ring’s energy woke up a Manhunter that had been on board. He blasted it apart, but it rocketed him deep into space. When Hal woke up, he was on the alien planet Bolovax Vik and met another Lantern, Kilowog.
Kilowog explained how the robotic Manhunters controlled most of the galaxy, and they hunted the Green Lanterns. A battalion of Manhunters appeared, forcing Hal and Kilowog to flee with the plan of finding more disparate Lanterns. They met a few, but none were willing to fight alongside them. Just when they were ready to give up, Hal was enslaved by the Manhunters and taken to their home planet, Oa. Hal discovered that the Central Power Battery wasn’t actually destroyed, only contained, and used it to power up and send a distress signal to every Green Lantern in the universe.
The Lanterns answered, and though the final Guardian contacted Hal and told him to blow up Oa and the Manhunters, the Lanterns came up with another idea. They redirected the Central Power Battery’s unlimited energy to wipe out all the Manhunters on Oa. The Green Lantern Corps was officially reignited. In the far distance, the last Guardian bemoaned how the Green Lanterns weren’t wiped out, but he had his own idea ready and called his Yellow Lanterns together. Back on Earth, Hal found his old captain and told her they could fight their oppressors.
A Sci-Fi Masterpiece with Comic Book Ideas
This comic took the central idea of the Green Lantern and married it to classic sci-fi in the best way possible. It kept the best parts of the space-faring heroes, but trimmed the more esoteric and hand-wavey mythos to create a harsh reality where power controls and nobody is entirely good or evil. This isn’t a world of heroes. It’s a universe of scared, confused people who are trying their best to make their homes a better place, even when they don’t have any idea what that looks like. The Green Lantern Corps isn’t a peace-keeping force, here. They are an idea of unity among people who have nothing in common.
Beyond the awesome themes, one of the coolest things about this series is seeing Earth develop. It was already more advanced than the planet we know, and even more corrupt, but this trade paperback and the second volume showed Earth taking its first steps into the larger galaxy. The world developed into something unique, being a part of a greater galactic whole that is ripe for exploration. This series was something special, even among the Earth One line, and it definitely deserves another chance to explore the universe it spent so much time setting up.
Which Green Lantern Elseworld is your favorite? Leave a comment below and join the conversation now in the ComicBook Forum!
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Image Courtesy of MAPPA
