GREEN LANTERN, VOL. 1: INTERGALACTIC LAWMAN – graphic novel

GRAPHIC NOVEL WEEK

It’s not a secret that Green Lantern is one of my favorite superheroes and when I see the opportunity to get an ARC of a GL graphic novel, I’m likely to put in a request. Based on this cover, however, I was really concerned as to how much I was going to like this book. Ah ha … how quickly I forget not to judge a book by its cover. And yet, isn’t cover art on a book intended to help sell a title? Seriously, look at this image of GL … muscles on muscles on muscles. Is that what makes someone a superhero? Even in the graphic novels? There’s just nothing about this figure that looks ‘real’ to me and that betrays a lot of what has always appealed to me about the character.

But enough about the cover.

One of the questions I’ve had regarding these superhero books is how can they manage to keep coming up with stories that will engage and excite when they’ve completed epic stories that deal with saving entire universes. But author Grant Morrison manages to do just this by bringing Hal Jordan/Green Lantern back to his roots. There’s a conspiracy going on and it looks like there may be a traitor within the Green Lantern Corps.

Hal has to go to the rescue of planet Earth, which has gone missing and is found, up for auction. The buyer, who greatly resembles the Christian god as popularly imagined, may have an iron-clad contract on his purchase. Space cop Hal Jordan must get it all squared away in order to save humanity (again).

The story is pretty basically a detective story, which makes sense when you figure that the Green Lantern Corps are essentially a galactic police force. As a detective story with a superhero protagonist, this works just fine.

The art here really helps make this story interesting. Artist Liam Sharp works some magic with inventiveness and whimsy. Morrison writes in a number of unusual aliens and Sharp seems to have a field day with it.

I seriously thought that there were multiple artists at work on the series. Some of the art was quite ‘simple’ – with just a figure or two in the panel and a little bit of background to add depth. Other pages had panels packed with miscellany – scads of items all over the panel. I truly thought that this reflected the styles or different artists at work but as I paged back through to see who these artists were, I was surprised to find only Sharp’s name.

There’s nothing earth-shattering here (pun intended), but I enjoyed the read as a little diversion from some of the weightier books I’ve been reading lately.

Looking for a good book? Green Lantern, Vol. 1: Intergalactic Lawman is a decent addition to the Green Lantern series with some very nice artwork.