Newbie Green Lantern Question!

[HellBlazer]

I'm glad someone posted the chronological order of the GL books/comics.

I mean, i've read Secret Origin and Rebirth. I'm just starting Sinestro Corps War now and the events continue from Rebirth, so it's all good.

I'm just wondering which books are essential, because according to the majority of the lists, i've missed out No fear, Revenge of the Green Lanterns
and Wanted: Hal Jordan, so perhaps these aren't necessary to read?

I'm a new reader to GL, so sorry for the newbie thread!

[El Sombrero]

I'm glad someone posted the chronological order of the GL books/comics.

I mean, i've read Secret Origin and Rebirth. I'm just starting Sinestro Corps War now and the events continue from Rebirth, so it's all good.

I'm just wondering which books are essential, because according to the majority of the lists, i've missed out No fear, Revenge of the Green Lanterns
and Wanted: Hal Jordan, so perhaps these aren't necessary to read?

I'm a new reader to GL, so sorry for the newbie thread!

No Fear, Revenge of the Green Lanterns, and Wanted: Hal Jordan are not really essential. They're actually kind of different in tone and purpose to the rest of Johns' run. They give you a lot more character background for Hal and kind of show you "where he's coming from" but they have little to do with the Emotional Spectrum and Johns' greater world building. They're also sort of more basic, standard superhero stories as opposed to the "epics" that follow.

From Sinestro Corps War you should probably read all of Johns' trades through Blackest Night, as the trades in between introduce the new Lantern corps and a lot of characters / concepts that are important for the rest of the run.

So to basically answer your question, if you want to skip "nonessentials," you could go:

Secret Origin
Rebirth
Sinestro Corps War
Rage of the Red Lanterns
Agent Orange
Blackest Night

I think the stuff after Blackest Night is really bad so I won't go any further.

[HellBlazer]

No Fear, Revenge of the Green Lanterns, and Wanted: Hal Jordan are not really essential. They're actually kind of different in tone and purpose to the rest of Johns' run. They give you a lot more character background for Hal and kind of show you "where he's coming from" but they have little to do with the Emotional Spectrum and Johns' greater world building. They're also sort of more basic, standard superhero stories as opposed to the "epics" that follow.

From Sinestro Corps War you should probably read all of Johns' trades through Blackest Night, as the trades in between introduce the new Lantern corps and a lot of characters / concepts that are important for the rest of the run.

So to basically answer your question, if you want to skip "nonessentials," you could go:

Secret Origin
Rebirth
Sinestro Corps War
Rage of the Red Lanterns
Agent Orange
Blackest Night

I think the stuff after Blackest Night is really bad so I won't go any further.

Thanks a lot. Really cleared my mind!

[El Sombrero]

Sure, no prob. The trades you're skipping are pretty good, they're certainly not bad at all, so if you love the Johns GL run you might want to get them anyway. But if you're trying to save money / time, then yeah you can skip them.

Actually the main purpose of those stories is to kind of "re-set" Hal and reintroduce him and his world, and give readers some more background info about the Green Lantern universe. They are kind of helpful to understand what's going on. To give a quick recap:

No Fear:

Issues 1-3: intro arc about the Manhunters, the predecessors to the Green Lantern Corps that were originally tasked with guarding the universe. Gives some nice history.

Issues 4-6: issues that reintroduce members of Hal's rogues gallery. Hector Hammond, The Shark, Black Hand. Pretty cool art here, Ethan Van Sciver and Simone Bianchi.

Revenge of the Green Lanterns:

Issues 7-8: Hal and Ollie (Green Arrow) team up. Ollie is pretty much Hal's best friend and they have a long history together.

Issue 9: Hal and Bruce Wayne (Batman) team up. You saw in Rebirth that these guys don't really see eye to eye, so this was a nice issue to wrap up some of that.

Issues 10-13: Hal and Guy Gardner (another Green Lantern) discover a lot of the Lanterns that Hal supposedly "killed" as Parallax. Another Green Lantern villain returns. Fun story, Ivan Reis' first art on the series. You meet a lot of supporting characters here.

Wanted: Hal Jordan

Issues 14-17: the son of a character very, very important to Hal's history makes his first appearance. Plants the seeds for Sinestro Corps. Also nice character building with Hal and his girlfriend Cowgirl.

Issues 18-20: Hal and Carol Ferris (Star Sapphire). Introduces the Star Sapphires as another part of the Emotional Spectrum.

So I guess you can decide if those sound interesting to you or not.

[E. Wilson]

The problem with the first three books isn't that the whole status quo they set up is kind of junked at the conclusion of "Wanted". It's a shame, because it was a rather neat scenario.

[HellBlazer]

Wanted: Hal Jordan

Issues 14-17: the son of a character very, very important to Hal's history makes his first appearance. Plants the seeds for Sinestro Corps. Also nice character building with Hal and his girlfriend Cowgirl.

Issues 18-20: Hal and Carol Ferris (Star Sapphire). Introduces the Star Sapphires as another part of the Emotional Spectrum.

So I guess you can decide if those sound interesting to you or not.

This sounds great actually. Is it linked to Revenge of the Green Lanterns at all? I've read that both are similar, or something to that degree?

Who's very, very important?
Girlfriend? Cowgirl?
Does Carol become a Star Sapphire here?

Sorry with the 21 questions!!

[El Sombrero]

This sounds great actually. Is it linked to Revenge of the Green Lanterns at all? I've read that both are similar, or something to that degree?

They are similar because they're both done by the same artist (Ivan Reis) and have a similar tone / style. They both also involve figures from Hal's past coming back to challenge him in new ways / remind him of the past. I don't think they're directly linked aside from that.

Who's very, very important?

Highlight white text for spoiler: Abin Sur was the alien who crash-landed and "gave" Hal Jordan the Green Lantern ring many years ago. Abin's son, Amon Sur, first meets with Hal in this story (Wanted: Hal Jordan). Amon is portrayed as a villain aligned with Sinestro against Hal. It's a pretty cool story.

Girlfriend? Cowgirl?

Cowgirl was a pretty major supporting character for the first 20 issues of the series, but she's been almost completely phased out since. I can't even remember the last time she was mentioned. She's not really a particularly interesting character, but she was Hal's main link to "regular people" for most of the series.

Does Carol become a Star Sapphire here?

I think Carol has been known as "the Star Sapphire" for a long time now, but this story was where the Star Sapphires were sort of retconned into being part of the Emotional Spectrum.

[Ben D]

I actually would say that Revenge of the Green Lanterns is a little bit more on the must have section, because it shows why parts of the Green Lantern Corps distrusts Hal so much.

Does Carol become a Star Sapphire here?

Well if you're talking about her most recent tenure as a Sapphire, then no, she became one at the end of Rage of the Red Lanterns. If you're talking about the first time ever, then the answer is still no. She became a Sapphire in Green Lantern 16, 1962.

[HellBlazer]

They are similar because they're both done by the same artist (Ivan Reis) and have a similar tone / style. They both also involve figures from Hal's past coming back to challenge him in new ways / remind him of the past. I don't think they're directly linked aside from that.



Highlight white text for spoiler: Abin Sur was the alien who crash-landed and "gave" Hal Jordan the Green Lantern ring many years ago. Abin's son, Amon Sur, first meets with Hal in this story (Wanted: Hal Jordan). Amon is portrayed as a villain aligned with Sinestro against Hal. It's a pretty cool story.



Cowgirl was a pretty major supporting character for the first 20 issues of the series, but she's been almost completely phased out since. I can't even remember the last time she was mentioned. She's not really a particularly interesting character, but she was Hal's main link to "regular people" for most of the series.



I think Carol has been known as "the Star Sapphire" for a long time now, but this story was where the Star Sapphires were sort of retconned into being part of the Emotional Spectrum.

Wow, you've been such a big help. Wonder if you read Marvel as well as DC...



I'm putting you on my friends list. Be my mentor, as Sinestro was to Jordan...

[shingi70]

Whats the reading order for GL and the GL corps. Do i read the no fear arc then start on GLC or can i read them like GL 1 then GLC 1. where does the sinstro corps fall into this.

[Ben D]

Whats the reading order for GL and the GL corps. Do i read the no fear arc then start on GLC or can i read them like GL 1 then GLC 1. where does the sinstro corps fall into this.

http://forums.comicbookresources.com...34&postcount=5

[El Sombrero]

Wow, you've been such a big help. Wonder if you read Marvel as well as DC...



I'm putting you on my friends list. Be my mentor, as Sinestro was to Jordan...

Haha no problem. I don't think you want a "Sinestro," him and Hal don't really end up on the best of terms.

I don't read much Marvel. The company has kind of turned me off for various reasons and I just generally like DC a lot more. With that said, I know quite a bit about Daredevil & the X-Men, and I really like Spider-Man too (although I think Spidey kind of lacks great comics to read that aren't really dated). If you have specific questions you can PM me...I don't really visit the Marvel boards so I probably wouldn't see anything if you posted it there.