Green Lantern is a 2005 relaunch of the DC Comics hero (with as its eponymous Lantern). Spinning out of Green Lantern: Rebirth, the series is written by Geoff Johns, with art by Ethan Van Sciver and Carlos Pacheco, and with colors by Jesús Merino.
The series returns Hal Jordan to his former glory, by explaining that "Parallax" was actually the name of an imprisoned cosmic parasite that fed on fear and corrupted Jordan through his Power Ring. Furthermore, Parallax was blamed as the source of Green Lantern's infamous weakness towards yellow, by revealing that emotions of fear are attuned to the color yellow, as per a pseudo-mystical "emotional color spectrum" shared by all living creatures, with "green" attuned to the neutral emotion of "willpower".
Later developments would merge the Jordan and Rayner eras, have the Guardians descend further into Knight Templar-hood, and introduce the rest of the spectrum and their corresponding Lantern Corps, such as Agent Orange or the Sinestro Corps.
The first issue was published July, 2005. The comic was by far the most popular and successful Green Lantern era in the history of the characters, with reception by fans and critics alike praising the series.
Green Lantern (2005) story arcs with their own pages include:
- "Green Lantern #7: A Perfect Life."
- "Green Lantern #21–25: Sinestro Corps War."
- "Green Lantern #39-52: Blackest Night."
- "Green Lantern #53-62: Brightest Day."
- "Green Lantern #63-67: War of the Green Lanterns."
Green Lantern (2005) provides examples of:
- Cool Old Guy: Guy Gardner becomes a tough old man who still gets into fights he prevails in the "Where Are They Now?" epilogue of the "Wrath of the First Lantern" arc that concluded Geoff Johns' run.
- Demoted to Extra: Jillian "Cowgirl" Pearlman, Hal's fellow pilot and love interest prior to Blackest Night. She disappeared without any explanation as Geoff Johns shifted his focus to the various ring corps. She did eventually get a cameo, and then turned up in an issue written by Grant Morrison that let readers know what the character had been doing in the interim, but has not regained main character status in the Green Lantern books.
- Jerkass: Turytt, a Green Lantern introduced in Geoff Johns' run, picks fights with Hal Jordan and Kyle Rayner because he's a hotheaded asshole who's prejudiced towards humans. Even taking into consideration how a lot of the Green Lantern Corps' problems can be traced to occurring after the inducting of human recruits (such as Hal Jordan going crazy and forcing the Corps to disband in Emerald Twilight or Fatality having a vendetta towards the Corps because of John Stewart's failure to prevent the destruction of her homeworld Xanshi), he still goes way out of line due to believing this means the Corps shouldn't allow humans at all, never showing the slightest gratitude for the things Hal, John, Guy and Kyle did right and refusing to acknowledge that many of the human Lanterns' screw-ups weren't entirely their fault.
- Not-So-Harmless Villain: Black Hand, who was just a creepy necrophile before Blackest Night (at least once Geoff Johns retconned him).
- One-Gender Race: On a lesser level, the Star Sapphires, started by the Zamarons, only have female members. Geoff Johns says men can join, "but most are not worthy."
- Politically Incorrect Villain: Frank Laminski is established from the start as a racist jerk, with the "Secret Origin" arc that served as an updated retelling of Hal Jordan's origin introducing Laminski referring to Thomas Kalmaku by his infamous "Pieface" nickname (and is called out for it to reflect the changed sensibilities of the time).
- Put on a Bus: Jillian "Cowgirl" Pearlman, Hal's love interest for the first three or four years of Geoff Johns' run on the title. She disappeared with no explanation from the cast come Blackest Night. Turns into Chuck Cunningham Syndrome when she disappears completely after Brightest Day.
- Retcon: Geoff Johns retconned it so the Guardians were always half-female).
- Shout-Out: Allegedly in Green Lantern (Vol. 4) #25, the sound effect "EEEPAAAA" can be found. This is a shout out to The Simpsons Movie, in which Comic Book Guy says that "EEEPAAAAA" is a sound effect from a Green Lantern comic book.
- Took a Level in Badass: Johns has pulled this with a number of characters. Sinestro went from being a good arch-enemy to Hal and already badass to becoming a full-blown
Magnificent Bastard. Sodam Yat gaining the powers of Ion, even Black Hand gaining his own superpowers pre-Blackest Night was a nice level up in bad ass.- Prior to this, Sinestro rarely had speaking roles in comics, and was often depicted as a Palette Swap variant of the Joker. Now, he's straddling the line between Anti-Villain and Anti-Hero, despite Word of God saying much of his characterization is based on Adolf Hitler.
- Well-Intentioned Extremist: Thanks to Geoff Johns, Sinestro counts big time, believing that the Guardians are more trouble than they're worth and rationalizing the actions of his Corps as doing what needs to be done when the Green Lanterns aren't comfortable with doing so.
