If “Green Lantern: Earth One” Volume 1 looks like a sequential version of a cinematic space opera, it’s because the man behind the visuals has storyboarded over 30 feature films, including the box office hits Logan, Interstellar, and The Dark Knight Rises. Lucky for us, Gabriel Hardman and his wife, Corinna Bechko, know that space operas are a dime a dozen in comic books and that it’s the story and the characters that make them sing.
Written by Gabriel Hardman and Corinna BechkoCover by Gabriel Hardman
Illustrated by Gabriel Hardman
Colored by Jordan Boyd
Lettered by Simon BowlandThe newest Earth One original graphic novel presents an all-new origin for the Emerald Warrior!
Hal Jordan yearns for the thrill of discovery, but the days when astronaut and adventure were synonymous are long gone. His gig prospecting asteroids for Ferris Galactic is less than fulfilling-but at least he’s not on Earth, where technology and culture have stagnated. When Jordan finds a powerful ring, he also finds a destiny to live up to. There are worlds beyond his own, unlike anything he ever imagined. But revelation comes with a price: the Green Lantern Corps has fallen, wiped out by ruthless killing machines known as Manhunters. The odds against reviving the Corps are nearly impossible…but doing the impossible is exactly what Hal Jordan was trained to do!
From co-writer and artist Gabriel Hardman (Invisible Republic) and co-writer Corinna Bechko comes a soaring original graphic novel that takes a radical new look at the mythology of Green Lantern and provides a great entry point for new readers
The “Earth One” stories have been an admirable editorially-driven initiative by DC, a series of graphic novels reimagining and recontextualizing Earth’s mightiest and most iconic heroes for a generation of readers either not weened on comic book history or not interested in the more simplistic origin stories. The first volume of “Green Lantern: Earth One” is no different as readers join our hero in a decidedly non-heroic setting. In the tradition of mountain men or the denizens of the wild west, Hardman and Bechko introduce Hal Jordan as a man who is literally adrift and living in the frontier of future, outer space. He’s a man uninterested in returning to Earth, the place that is the home to the ghosts that still haunt him, and he’s perfectly content with spending the remainder of his days as a company man drilling for minerals on distant rocks and carving out some small outlet for discovery. It’s almost as if he is serving some sort of penance, and readers are given a glimpse into why via a handful of panels that enrich Hal’s psychology. Hal is an idealist who has seen his ideals crushed by the bureaucratic machine, and when we meet him, he’s a shell of a man. So when Hardman and Bechko’s Hal is accidentally imbued with the power of the Green Lantern ring, it’s like Luke accepting his father’s lightsaber. He has been given the first piece to solve his existential problems as well as a tool to help save the universe, but he doesn’t know how to us it.
Hardman and Bechko’s script shares many commonalities with George Lucas’s original science fiction opus in the way that the story is constructed, but it’s a commonality across most successful screenplays, if you know what to look for. A solid script for a complete story like the Earth One series format allows has four parts: protagonist has a problem, protagonist accepts ownership of the problem, protagonist begins actively trying to solve the problem (with poor results), and protagonist realizes he or she has the final piece for solving the problem. It’s a time-honored structure grounded in the oldest mythologies and narrative traditions, and Hardman and Bechko set “Earth One” on that bedrock. In this story, Hal’s will is the missing piece. Sure the ring is nice, but Hardman and Bechko know better than to have it be a magic bullet. The ring becomes the instrument of Hal Jordan’s salvation, but more importantly, that salvation makes Hal an exemplar for the Corps. The key inflection point had to be the thing that drove Hal to outer space in the first place, a lack of will to stand up for something wrong and the realization that he will not make that mistake again.
Continued belowIn short, the story is a Swiss watch of storytelling construction that borrows heavily from cinematic science fiction conventions. And the surety of the narrative along with the expert panel design and pacing makes for a story that hurtles across 144 pages without stopping for breath. Frankly, it feels like more story than it is, and by the end, readers shouldn’t wonder if it’s a perfect blueprint for a film adaptation of Green Lantern. It absolutely is. It even sets the stage for the Green Lanterns’ future arch nemeses in a Machiavellian twist and lays the foundation for a rewarding friendship between Hal and Kilowog.
To belabor the Star Wars connection further, Hardman’s outer space has the same imperfect junkyard veneer. OA is a scarred and ruinous planet on the brink of destruction, and the ships, spacesuits, and vengeful Manhunters all look like they’ve seen better days. Hardman’s scratchy shading and confident thick lines are perfectly suited for this design choice, and the exploration of Abin Sur’s ancient and crumbling ship cheekily evokes another science fiction film favorite with a “lived-in” feel, Alien. Bringing back something from the ship even spells doom for an unlucky astronaut. Hardman’s dilapidated design aesthetic doesn’t mean this book is not also beautiful and elegant where the story warrants it. The treatment of line and form along with the confident balance of light and dark highlighted by the dazzling color effects provided by Jordan Boyd lets readers know they are in the hands of masters from the onset. There is also a certain economy to Hardman’s line work here. He knows when to lay off the details and focus on form and design in a battle scene and when to ratchet up the renderings to give the expository scenes more weight. And the power of the Green Lantern rings has never looked better and more organic, like a crackling and unbridled energy field rather than a giant green glob of space silly putty.
At every page turn, there’s something that readers have not quite seen before in a Green Lantern book, and on this basis alone “Green Lantern: Earth One” is unreservedly an instant modern comic book classic. It achieves this rarefied air by unabashedly embracing the spirit of its source and a populist ideology. It’s also an ambitious book that achieves high art while still being accessible. Messing around with a character’s genesis can be dangerous business, but it’s a testament to Hardman and Bechko’s work here that they managed to construct a origin tale that feels more emotionally true than the one we had already.
