Green Lanterns: Rebirth #1 Review

While Green Lanterns: Rebirth #1 is very strong in its artwork and colors, a slow story and poor pacing pulls this otherwise good comic down from greatness to mediocrity.

Green Lanterns: Rebirth #1

Written by Geoff Johns and Sam Humphries

Art by Ethan Van Sciver and Ed Benes

Letters by Travis Lanham

Colors by Jason Wright

Published by DC Comics

This review contains no spoilers for the story of Green Lanterns: Rebirth #1

Green Lanterns: Rebirth #1 is clearly designed to showcase the newer relationship of Green Lanterns Simon Baz and Jessica Cruz. While this is a decent start for these heroes’ story, overall, it is a case of more whimper then bang. The heroes origins are both shrugged off very quickly, which for a new reader is not totally a problem. Overall, Johns and Humphries are developing the two lanterns as squabbling siblings, which works for this story. As they are portrayed not unlike Riggs and Murtaugh of Lethal Weapon fame.

The story penned by Johns and Humphries is very slow and, dare I say it, somewhat boring. I was massively excited for this new series and found my excitement significantly lowered at the comics end than it was at the start, which is not what should’ve been accomplished. While the writers threw in the meet up and training of the two Lanterns, this dragged the story down. It would have been better to have started the first issue with frantic action and left the meet up and training till the next issue.

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Not all is bad in this issue though, the artwork by Ethan Van Sciver and Ed Benes is very good. The costumes worn by the Green Lanterns are well-defined, and their powers are exciting and shown in a way that demonstrates their uniqueness without giving into camp. Their artwork shines in the details given to the characters. Emotions are shown, and tiny details showcased. There is a great scene that includes the Justice League, and each of them is given a great amount of detail. You can see the scales on Aquaman’s shirt, and see the flow of the cape on Batman. So the strength in this comic is most definitely the artwork.

Next: Superman: Rebirth #1 Review

The colors by Jason Wright were also very good. They matched the artwork well and had a wide range that was pleasing to the eye. Overall, I would give Green Lanterns: Rebirth #1 a solid 3 out of 5. Its art and color is very strong, but it suffers from a weak story and poor pacing. At this time, I’m not sure if I will keep reading this series in light of the excellent Superman: Rebirth and Batman Rebirth series. If you are a fan of the Green Lanterns though, then by all means give this a try.

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