 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. Hi everybody, welcome to another exciting episode here out of Week in Geekdale. I am your host, Jim Hernandez, and today we're going cosmic and talking Green Lantern Earth 1 Volume 1. This was a delight to read because I love cosmic stories. I love aliens and space and all that fun stuff and the idea. I love the idea of taking pre-existing characters and making new alternate realities, alternate planet Earths. And mixing things up and creating these new versions. And you're free of continuity. You're free to do whatever you want with these characters. It happened with Marvel with the Ultimate Universe and with DC. Yeah, you've always had the Elseworld books, but I kind of really like what they do with Earth 1. Whereas the Elseworlds are more like what-ifs and just one-shots. This is a little bit more elaborated. This is Earth 1 and it's a black canvas and you can do practically whatever the heck you want. We've had Batman, Superman, Wonder Woman, and Teen Titans. Now we have Green Lantern to play with. This is probably one of the most realistic takes I've seen on a superhero or cosmic character and that is in part due to the creative team. Gabrielle Hartman and Karina Bechko, I think I said that correctly. The art in this is just really interesting. I must admit I wasn't that knowledgeable when it came to the creative team. I know, a boohoo. But man, it just works. The moment you go into this book, the art is dark and muddy, but at the same time it's brimming with personality and it's sketchy and grungy and it has its own beautiful, unique flavor that I thought really brought all of the characters to life. Even if they were secondary characters, you still felt like these are real characters. This is like a real story. This to me felt like I was watching a movie. It felt real even though it's about a man with a green ring fighting robots in space. Basically, if you don't know what Green Lantern Earth 1 is about, the character of Hal Jordan in this Earth works for Ferris Galactic in a mining operation on asteroids. The more they mine with getting all the minerals and stuff, the bigger the paycheck basically. And apparently they don't touch on it too much just at the beginning and the end that the Earth has sort of hit a stagnation period where nothing really is happening. Everything seems like a very sterile environment and it's not until how desserts his previous job where it's alluded that he helped injure some people which may be like his counterpart in the regular DC world being a fighter pilot and all that stuff. He leaves that and he ventures into space like the last frontier and all that awesome stuff. So he goes into space and he's mining and in the asteroid, which is in the asteroid belt between Jupiter and Mars, he finds a huge iron metal looking ship and inside there is a dead alien which used to be this version of Avinsur and then we see a freaking giant manhunter and those are the villains for the book. So basically in this world the Guardians, their lantern creations, it may have gotten them a little bit too powerful for their liking so they sent in the manhunters to wipe them out and they succeeded. This is a universe where the Green Lantern Core is no more. There are Green Lantern users but there's no central battery in Owa so the rings aren't powered and the manhunters rule every sector in a totalitarian type scenario. They haven't attacked Earth or anything because there are no Lanterns in that sector so they focus their attention elsewhere. It is in this very moment where the dude that was with Hal, I keep forgetting the name, they find Avinsur's ring and the dude tries it on but it's not like the regular DC lore where the ring chooses its wielder. This time around I think anybody can use the ring, it's more like a standardized weapon. Eventually Hal is the one that keeps the ring and the manhunter activates and we see a really cool fight. This rookie Green Lantern take on this damaged old manhunter and he succeeds. He eventually passes out and meets the character of Kilowog. Kilowog is a descendant of the Lantern Core, his ring has been passed on through his family so he doesn't really know what the older days were like and he teaches, he fulfills his counterpart's mission of befriending Hal and teaching him how to be a Green Lantern based on what he knows but he is limited by his society that doesn't allow them to explore outside space. They're limited to his home planet and eventually the manhunters arrive and they realize that Hal has a ring and hijinks ensue. Listen guys, this is a very cool reimagining of the Green Lantern Core lore. It's really fun and the themes and the willpower and courage that embodies being a Green Lantern and specifically Hal Jordan that bravery is still there and it's really cool. I think the creative team knocked it out of the park in sort of creating this unique almost alien like version of what we've come to know but it still retains the core values, the essence of what makes Green Lantern such a fun and enjoyable read especially the art. The art in it, I loved it so much. I love the idea that using the ring, it looks very veiny or like roots taking hold of something. It looks very biological. It's not as bright and colorful as the main DC counterpart but it has its own unique flair that you instantly know like this is a different take on the Green Lantern Core. Eventually you do learn about a villain in this book and I thought that twist was pretty freaking amazing. I cannot go into it because I don't want to spoil it for you guys but by the end of the book I'm like yes please, we need a volume 2. However, the story of Hal, how he gets the ring and the friend's killer walk and finds out about Oha and all that stuff and look I'm not going to sugarcoat it. Eventually you know powers up and stuff. By the third act everything speeds up a little bit and it cuts corners which of course is the main problem with original graphic novels. I wish it could have been longer and I know they're testing waters to see if it's a hit to warrant a volume 2. I urge you to please check it out. I want to see a second volume of this series and see where the story goes because it has potential to be something really great and fun. But yeah, overall I really enjoyed it and actually a little tidbit. How cool is this cover image of an astronaut with a freaking Green Lantern ring? Obviously this is Hal Jordan but you get my drift. This book reminds me of like if Ridley Scott got his hands on the Green Lantern franchise and made a dark and space operatic movie I wouldn't mind if it looked something like this. It had some amazing visuals really really wonderful stuff that it just I don't know man like here's the fight with the manhunter and all that stuff and it just looks beautiful the usage of lights and shadows it looks like a camera effect like you're watching a storyboard for a freaking movie this is pretty badass and by the end I think the character is somewhat fully realized and kind of similar to OG Hal or at least post-crisis Hal I should say I don't know What do you guys think? Are you a fan of the Earth One line? Which one has been your favorite? Do you like interpretations like this? Let me know down below I'm very interested in finding out. Guys as always you can follow me on your favorite social media platform Thank you for liking, commenting, subscribing are the absolute best I have to go I will catch all of you on our next video