Some thoughts about The Green Lantern #1

Can the Green Lantern save the universe from a mysterious threat?

A group of criminals is killing members of the Green Lantern Corps and is willing to cause even more chaos. The only person who can stop them is Hal Jordan and that's it is if he finally decides to focus on his more important job.

Here it is, the long-awaited beginning of Grant Morrison's run on the Green Lantern franchise. This has been rumoured for a long time and probably many things have changed over the course of the years for Morrison's story but even despite of that, this is actually an interesting beginning.

Morrison doesn't make readers wait and he opens the issue in a pretty bizarre manner full of strange creatures and a mysterious event that some of them are planning. This is pretty much as Morrison as you can get and it works, it really works for this series because I feel like the "alien" feel of the franchise has been missing for a while and I'm glad that the writer is able to bring it back. The presentation certainly helps, if there's another thing that I can appreciate about Morrison's writing is the way how he makes the events flow and this opening escalates perfectly towards the inevitable appearance of Hal Jordan and this quickly cements him as a pretty important figure.

Speaking of Hal, Morrison once again decides to not ignore anything from his history and addresses even old events like the fact that he couldn't keep a job (at least not a normal one) and how his life is mostly dedicated to his space career. The story also shows him in an interesting way, depicting him as a pretty experienced man who is able to recognize aliens simply because of their behavior, this Hal has seen a lot and has learned from it. Pretty compelling portrayal overall.

The plot doesn't offer a lot though, is mostly pure set-up that puts all the key pieces in place for what is about to happen although it does bring a few old concepts back so is intriguing in that regard.

What I fear though, is how this will conclude. Yes, too soon to worry about that I know, but after reading so many Morrison books where he's so fixated on following his "themes" up to the point where he forgets to deliver an actual satisfying finale, I don't think my worries are unjustified.

Liam Sharp offers his talents in art duties and his work is quite appropriate for the story due that he's able to follow the writer's bizarre vision perfectly by creating grotesque creatures and impressive sci-fi visuals.

Promising overall, really hope things continue this way.