The emerald duo reunites in The Green Lantern No. 8

Hal Jordan returns to Earth for the first time in months, hoping to have a bit of down time. There’s no rest for the weary though as he runs into his old friend, Green Arrow. Spoilers for The Green Lantern no. 8 follow.

Starting off on a planet a Hadea-Maxima, a planet where murder is not considered a crime, but an evolutionary tactic and seemingly out of the Green Lantern Corps’ eye, Brotorr confronts those in his employ regarding a recent competitor escaping from under his nose. Before he’s able to do anything about it though, his workers all turn on him, ready to kill, but before any of them call pull the trigger, they all die by Brotorr’s hand. One is left alive though and is tasked with killing this mysterious competitor, Glorigold DeGrand, who is now on Earth.

Back on the soft soil of Earth, Green Arrow is attempting to foil a drug sale, but before he can, the buyer takes the drug and the seller attempts to escape. Luckily though, Hal Jordan appears from the heavens, catching the seller with fishing rod construct. The two green heroes get the location of the supplier out of the seller before making their way to help the user. Once they get to him though, he begins to die in their hands and the two do their best to attempt to save him.

Later, they find out that he survived, but that something has been taken from him. Neither Hal or Ollie know what. As they try to figure what exactly was taken from this man, the two have a heart to heart about Hal’s escapades around the galaxy and how he needs to ground himself. Coming to the apex of the conversation though, Hal’s ring finishes its scan of the drug which reveals what it’s made out of. Souls.

Image by DC Comics/Art by Liam Sharp

They head down to the pier to stop the drug ring and as they arrive, they see a giant arrow sticking out of the side of the building. Once they enter it, a giant is there that looks just like Ollie, who Ollie recognizes as someone named Xeen Arrow from Dimension Zero. His dimension belt has been broken him, killing him. In order to help him though, first Ollie and Hal need to stop Glorigold DeGrand.

Before they’re able to though, DeGrand gets the upper hand on them and that’s when the assassin sent to kill DeGrand arrives on the moon. Hal and Ollie sense that he’s there and try to get DeGrand to help them defeat the assassin to no avail. The two end up using Xeen Arrow’s bow and the giant arrow, sending it directly to the moon, taking out the assassin before he can destroy Earth. While they’re doing that, Xeen Lantern shows up, capturing DeGrand and helping Xeen Arrow back to Dimension Zero.

Grant Morrison and Liam Sharp deliver probably their weirdest issue of The Green Lantern yet with this issue, but it works on every level imaginable. It feels like a call back to both the oddness of The Silver Age with the comradery and character relations of Denny O’Neil and Neal Adams’ seminal run on the characters. Sharp’s art especially exemplifies this influence by looking much more Neal Adams-like than his usual style and it works incredibly well. This creative duo captures the heart of Green Lantern incredibly well and it’s a joy to see them capture that magic with Green Arrow as well.

9.5/10 

It’s weird and it’s wild, but The Green Lantern no. 8 is a fantastic callback to stories long gone while also doing something that feels incredibly original.