Green Lantern: Rebirth

[T3hsc0tt]

hey guys just a quick Q
is the green lantern :rebirth a good starting point for someone new to the character and comics in general?

[Lord Bravery]

Yes it is THE place to start reading the new era of Green Lantern. If you are new to comics and GL you should enjoy.

I didn't enjoy it because it retconned an important character development for the main character and made his journey for redemption meaningless.

[AaronJ]

Absolutely. If you want to read GL, then Rebirth is the place to begin. It's one hell of a story, too, if you ask me.

And Geoff Johns' run since then has been fantastic, really. Sure, there have been highs and lows like with anything, really. But the lows haven't been very low, truth be told; and the highs have been out of the ballpark.

[Karl O'Neill]

Secret Origins by Johns as well would make a nice companion read with Rebirth.

[Flashpoint]

Absolutely. If you want to read GL, then Rebirth is the place to begin. It's one hell of a story, too, if you ask me.

And Geoff Johns' run since then has been fantastic, really. Sure, there have been highs and lows like with anything, really. But the lows haven't been very low, truth be told; and the highs have been out of the ballpark.

Secret Origins by Johns as well would make a nice companion read with Rebirth.

I second Aaron and Karl. Good advice on both counts.

[-BMC-]

Which should be read first, Rebirth or Secret Origin? Or does it not matter?

[レベッカ]

I just wish there was a simplified series explaining all aspects of Hal Jordan's downfall.


The Parallax stuff was so confusing. I understand Hal Jordan was upset about Coast City or whatever, but I didn't get what the "yellow monster infection" had to do with it.


Zero Hour should have focused more on Hal Jordan [alternatively, never been written].

[Flashpoint]

Which should be read first, Rebirth or Secret Origin? Or does it not matter?

My advice? Read Rebirth first, then Secret Origin. Reason being, Secret Origin is a retelling of Hal's origin whereas Rebirth was more a relaunch and revision of the entire GL Mythos from the ground up. You'll learn more about the GL Mythos as a whole first, then can get into Hal's individual history after that.

[AaronJ]

My advice? Read Rebirth first, then Secret Origin. Reason being, Secret Origin is a retelling of Hal's origin whereas Rebirth was more a relaunch and revision of the entire GL Mythos from the ground up. You'll learn more about the GL Mythos as a whole first, then can get into Hal's individual history after that.

I agree. And really, Secret Origin can almost be read at any time during Johns' run. But, yeah: Read Rebirth first.

[FunkyGreenJerusalem]

Which should be read first, Rebirth or Secret Origin? Or does it not matter?

Rebirth is an entertaining story, but it does go through a lot of continuity.

Some people loved it, some GL fans hated it - I had a passing knowledge of Green Lantern, and was able to follow it fine, but I don't know how it reads if your new to the game.

My suggestion would be to start with Sinestro Corps War - it's from around the early #20's of the series, but it a big epic war between the Green Lantern Corps and the newly formed Sinestro Corps (who use fear as their weapon).
It will give you a good taste of the series, and it gets straight into the action - no continuity to stress about, and plenty of well drawn action.

[NightMage]

I'll put in a "yes" vote for Rebirth. That's one of the few TPBs that when I pick it up, I can't put it back down until I've read the whole story.

Fantastic.

[Professor Arkham]

Rebirth was the first thing I read when entering the world of Green Lantern and I loved it!! I couldn't put it down. I have slowly made my way through all the GL trades up to Blackest Night. Really, the entire run is great.

[Omegalith]

I'd advise against reading it first if you're not already comfortable with the rather strange type of highly-flexible continuity comic books can have. This is the best possible story you can make out of years of continuity awkwardly battered into a usable shape by a writer with very strong opinions of how things should be different...

But it's still a story made out of years of continuity awkwardly battered into a usable shape by a writer with very strong opinions of how things should be different.

Green Lantern Corps: Recharge is pretty good for giving you an idea of what the franchise is like, (rather than just the parts that revolve directly around Hal, which is what Secret Origin will show you) and it's nowhere near as convoluted and bizzare as Rebirth.

Or to summarize what I just said: Rebirth is both pretty good and the start of the story, so start there if you're already familliar with ultra-dense retcons. If you're pretty new to comics, consider reading Recharge then moving back to Rebirth once you already know you're enjoying the series.

[Raker616]

Couldn't reccomend GL Rebirth highly enough, to me it's still the best thing Johns has done on GL and that's saying alot because I love what he's done his entire run. It's basically taking a garbage story like ET which assassinated Hal Jordan and the GL mythos and brought them all back to life and then some. It's a great jumping on point for new fans, i've given out my TBP copies of GLR to several of my friends and they all enjoyed it and started to follow GL because of it.

[witchboy]

I was only aware of GL from reading JLA, and I've started reading the GL trades starting with Rebirth, and I found it to be a good intro to the GL series. I recommend startign there and working your way thru the rest of the series in publication order.