Green Lantern #29 Review

Geoff Johns is using Green Lantern #29 as an opportunity to deliver a “Secret Origin” story. I’m curious to read Johns decides to do much tweaking here and there with Hal’s origin in order to match it up more with what Johns has been doing with the Green Lantern mythos. So, while I normally don’t love re-telling of origins, I think that Green Lantern #29 should be a quality read.

Creative Team
Writer: Geoff Johns
Pencils: Ivan Reis
Inks: Oclair Albert

Art Rating: 8 Night Girls out of 10
Story Rating: 6 Night Girls out of 10
Overall Rating: 7 Night Girls out of 10

Synopsis: We begin with a Hal Jordan as a young boy holding his father’s flight jacket and watching his dad test a plane for Ferris. Young Hal tells a young Carol that his father is piloting the plane. Snotty young Carol comments that her daddy owns the plane that Hal’s dad is flying. Hal tells Carol that one day he is going to be a pilot like his dad. Bratty Carol responds that she is also going to be a pilot as well as own planes like her dad.

Suddenly, there is a technical glitch with the plane that Hal’s dad is flying. Hal’s dad takes the plane out away from the crowd and crashes the plane where there is no one around who can get hurt. Little Hal is horrified seeing his father die.

Hal thinks how after he saw his father die that there was nothing left to be afraid of. However, Hal’s mother went in the opposite direction and became afraid of everything that might harm her sons, especially flying. Hal’s mother forbids Hal from going to any air fields and hanging out watching planes.

We see Hal sneaking into an air field. He gets caught by the owner who then calls Hal’s mom. Hal’s mom angrily arrives at the air field and bitches out Hal for disobeying her orders. Hal gets loaded into the station wagon. Hal’s older brother, Jack, is pissed with Hal and tells Hal to stop making their mother upset. Jack then punches Hal. Hal’s little brother, Jim, is ultra cautious having been totally indoctrinated by their mother about safety first. Jim reminds Hal to buckle his seat belt.

We zip forward to Hal’s eighteenth birthday. We see Jim looking at the clock and waiting for it to strike midnight. Once it does Jim races into Hal’s room with a birthday present. Hal’s room is empty.

We cut to Hal sleeping outside of the Air Force recruitment center. The sun rises and the recruiting officer arrives to open the center for the day. Hal introduces himself and announces that he turns 18 today and wants to enlist.

We see Hal testing a new fighter plane. Hal is supposed to only take it up to Mach 1. Instead, Hal takes it up over Mach 3. The jet fighter then breaks up and crashes. Hal walks away from the crash and tells Major Stone that the fighter jet is good up to Mach 3.2 and is battle ready. Major Stone is pissed at how reckless Hal is with testing planes.

We cut to that night at a local bar full of Air Force guys and Marines. We see Hal with the Air Force guys and we see John Stewart with the Marines. One of the Marines acts like a Neanderthal and threatens to beat his girlfriend. Hal responds by punching the guy in the face. This causes a big brawl between the Air Force guys and the Marines.

The fight is broken up by the police. Jim then arrives on the scene and tells Hal that their mother has cancer and is in the hospital on her death bed. Jim says that Hal cannot come visit her since his joining the Air Force crushed her and practically made her sick. That Hal’s appearance will just upset his mother and make her worse.

Hal is distraught. Hal then thinks how he has made a mess of everything. That he has been a terrible brother and a terrible son. The next morning Hal takes a plane for an unauthorized joy ride. When he lands, Major Stone gets in Hal’s face. Hal then punches Stone. Hal succeeds in getting himself dishonorably discharged from the Air Force.

We see Hal arriving at the hospital. He tells his brothers, Jack and Jim, that he got discharged from the Air Force so he wants to see his mother. Jack yells at Hal that their mother just died. Jack is pissed at Hal. Jack growls that he had to leave college early, come home and get a job and take care of their mother and Jim. That Hal ran away and only looked out for himself. Jack screams that Hal killed their mother. Jack storms off asking when has Hal ever given their family anything.

Hal thinks about how he was always their father’s son and that Jim was their mother’s son. But, that Jack was always on his own path and that Hal took him off it. We cut to later that night with Hal at his apartment. Jim knocks on the door and hands Hal the birthday present that Jim wanted to give him when Hal turned 18. Jim leaves and Hal opens the present. Inside is a picture of Hal with his father and a note from Jim saying “To my brother HAL.”

Hal thinks how he has been dishonorably discharged and that he tore his family apart. Hal stared at the picture and wondered where the hell he goes from here. We then cut to Abin Sur questioning Qull and Atrocitus about the prophecy “The Darkest Night.” Abin Sur says that he wants to know everything about the prophecy. End of issue.

Comments
The Good: Green Lantern #29 was a solid read. Look, this was an origin issue, and origin issues by their very nature tend to be a bit boring for long time readers and enjoyable and helpful to new readers. That is just the nature of the beast. I won’t hammer this issue because I had to sit through the re-telling of Hal Jordan’s origin with practically no new changes or twists. That is simply what you get with origin issues.

Even though Green Lantern #29 wasn’t all that exciting of a read for me, I still found this to be a technically well written issue. Johns cranks out plenty of fine dialogue. All of the characters are nicely developed and the reader gets a wonderful sense for the tension and schism that ruptured Hal’s family. All of the scenes between the Jordan brothers were well done. Johns juxtaposes the anger and resentment that Jack harbors for Hal with the undying love and hero worshiping that Jim has for Hal.

Johns also gives us a nice inner monologue from Hal as the reader gets a great view into Hal’s mind and how he views his past actions and the damage that he inflicted on his family. All of the scenes between the Jordan brothers manage to give Hal’s somewhat flat character a bit more depth and texture.

Green Lantern #29 is a nice paced issue. The story doesn’t drag as Johns manages to give us a good mix of action and drama. Johns has a fine sense of direction and keeps this issue on track.

I enjoyed how Johns explained why Hal is a man without fear. Hal’s explanation that after he saw his father died what else was there left for Hal to be afraid of. I know this isn’t a new concept to Hal’s origin. I just think it is the perfect explanation of why Hal displays no fear.

The only part of Green Lantern #29 where Johns actually softly massaged Hal’s origin in order to dovetail it to the current Green Lantern mythos would be the final page with Abin Sur questioning Qull and Atrocitus about The Darkest Night prophecy. Personally, I liked that Johns is engraining the prophecy into Hal’s origin in order to properly integrate John’s tweaking of the Green Lantern mythos.

As always Ivan Reis supplies plenty of fine artwork. It is nice to have Reis back on the title.

The Bad: I didn’t find Green Lantern #29 to be all that exciting of a read. But, I’m a longtime reader so an origin issue is naturally going to be a bit boring for me. We don’t really learn anything new as Johns avoids doing much tweaking to Hal’s origin. The only real new information is the final page of this issue. And even that isn’t all that new since Johns has already hinted to this scene in prior issues during the Sinestro War.

Overall: Green Lantern #29 was a necessary evil. Johns needed to give an origin issue to all the readers who hopped aboard this title during the Sinestro War. That way, the newer readers are properly prepared to enjoy the stories leading up to the Darkest Night event for next year.

Green Lantern #29 is probably going to be a boring read for most longtime readers. If you have been following Green Lantern for a while then you don’t need to waste your time reading this issue. However, Green Lantern #29 is a wonderful jumping on point for new readers. Also, this issue will be enjoyed by readers who hopped aboard Green Lantern during the Sinestro War story arc. Green Lantern #29 will allow those readers who just hoped aboard a better sense for Hal’s origin and the back-story to the Blackest Night prophecy.