 Earthman Hal Jordan brings justice to the stars. And I'm here to give you a review. Hey everybody, welcome to another exciting episode here on YouTube. This is A Week in Geek Them. My name is Giovanna Menendez and today we're going to be talking about a very interesting run on a beloved DC character. Of course, I'm talking about Grant Morrison's recent run of Green Lantern. This is Volume 1 Intergalactic Lawman. Like I just mentioned, this is Grant Morrison's foray into the space cosmic, if you will, with the character of Green Lantern, with art by the fabulous Liam Sharp. This book is all kinds of interesting. Now with Morrison, he can be a polarizing figure. Not everybody is a fan. Not everybody appreciates the wacky, zany introspective or eccentric view, I should say. When it comes to Grant Morrison and the books he writes from Doom Patrol to Animal Man and everything else in between, the man has built a legendary catalog of heroes. And some of his work can be a little bit difficult for new readers to pick up. Other people that are more accustomed to his writing style will be right at home. However, the Green Lantern hardcover here is very reader-friendly material. However, I do have to put up a warning. If you are going to read this book, you must pay attention to what you're reading. This is not your standard super heroics, bad guy punching, planet saving, overlord type final fight that you're accustomed to with superhero books. This isn't necessarily a book about Green Lantern going up in space and beating up this bad guy and saving the day. It's a lot more complex than that. And I would like to think that the modern reader is accustomed to these sorts of writing sensibilities. Now when the book first starts, you are introduced to a bunch of weird alien characters that me personally I had never seen in my life. So I had no idea who the hell they were, but they were in the process of defending a planet and you see that one of them or two of them I should say are Green Lanterns and they're stopping sort of like this intergalactic heist. And what soon follows is a sequence of events that each they keep escalating and they relate to each other in different and interesting ways to the point where our Green Lantern, how Jordan has to get involved and it grows into this full blown conspiracy within the Green Lantern core. Something about having to do with the Black Stars, a sort of paramilitary group that has risen from the shadows that seeks to overthrow the Lantern core and establish itself as sort of this new police state that preaches about a unison with the world and with the worlds and the universe and all that stuff like a perfect equilibrium and breaking down the norms of society and intergalactic law and all that stuff. So it goes into pretty heavy political implications and metaphors that Grant knows how to do. However, at the beginning of the video I did mention that you can get a little bit lost if you're not paying attention and that is because there are a ton of terminology thrown out there about cosmic things, cosmic races, about astronomy, about a whole bunch of weird stuff that I foolishly did not do my homework on. So admittedly I was a little bit confused at first, but I stopped, I gave it a second go and plus the story itself on purpose is a little bit misleading and confusing because of this conspiracy, how it's investigating, which may involve a traitor within the Lantern core. You see the rise of this paramilitary group. They have a sort of a thought weapon as well, same as the Lantern rings. You also see them get involved with a character that a lot of people have talked about of how closely he resembles our Judeo-Christian view on God and the character turns out to be something else. I won't spoil it, but planet Earth gets abducted. There are intergalactic illegal bids going on. It goes everywhere, but in a very fun, dark and sort of like this futuristic neo-noir version of space, the drawings on the planets and the characters, buildings, and ships are all very gothic-like. They reminded me of Geiger's drawings and I do believe Leigh and Sharp specifically mentioned that it was a heavy inspiration for the creation of this book, for the look of this Green Lantern run. So it's very claustrophobic. It's very dark and heavy. The mood is very bleak. Characters are sweating. You see their tired, heavy expressions and it sort of brings the atmosphere a little bit down. There are some gorgeous shots of neo-oir, which I did not know was a thing. I learned that as I was reading the book. You see all the landscapes and how beautiful they look with different lighting. The space shots look fantastic. It really looks like you're out there. It doesn't look like a poppy, fantastic version of space. It looks more realistic of what we would expect. It's almost more scary looking because it is at heart a cop drama. So you have to build this suspense with the characters in space doing their thing. And I get it. The story of course does not get resolved if we only have six issues in this book. But what we do get is a very cool exercise of drama in the part of the Green Lanterns. They're usually pretty stuck up and a character like Hal has always broken the rules and sort of brought this outlaw Gun Ho spirit to the Lantern Corps. And I won't reveal what technically happens, but there are some really cool things in it. Some reveals, some conspiracies and stuff. It's not until you get, I think it's by the midway point where the story finally breaks down and it explains to you just what the heck is going on and why all the different stories like they relate to each other, but they're not consistently attached. They're not as cohesive as they should be, but that's on purpose. You're being misled, and when you do get that revelation, everything just hits you and you're hooked. That's what happened to me at least. I was hooked with the story and everything that follows was just really, really awesome. The concept of the Dark Stars that it could be sort of this mind breaking organization that sort of wants like this universal freedom, literally universal, versus the police state of the Green Lantern Corps. I thought that was pretty fascinating. It could be a subject for more discussions later on as the run develops, because it ends on a pretty interesting cliffhanger. You do see some things that I personally haven't seen before with the way the Lantern Rings are used and the way the Corps behaves. I thought was really well done. Again, the villains of the story, they're a little bit wacky and sort of different compared to the usual fare for Hal Jordan, but it works. It's a more cerebral take on the Green Lantern mythos. Not so much, yeah, there is a bunch of action, but it's not so much shooting stuff and fighting in space. It's more about the cop drama aspect, which was heavily marketed when this book was first coming out. So yeah, I do recommend it. Just pay attention to what you're reading, and I don't mean this in a condescending way. Just literally pay attention, because you are going to be lost. There are tons of characters, and if you're new to Green Lantern, do not worry. It's very reader friendly. You don't really need to know anything. Just know that Hal Jordan is a Green Lantern and he saved the Earth countless times and he's a space cop. After that, you're good to go, in my honest opinion. The villain motivations, it's more about the collective mindset and how they're one single unit, like a beehive mentality or something. It's interesting. It's very different from other villains in space, but I dig it. It's a very interesting drama that is still unfolding as of this recording. So yeah, great art, fantastic writing from Grant Morrison, not too crazy, pretty accessible to new fans, and I cannot wait for volume two. Have you read Green Lantern, Intergalactic Lawman? Let me know down below. By the way, I'm getting a little bit tired of dust jackets. This is fine and everything, but look at what we have here. This is awesome. I'd like this cover a lot more than this, in my opinion. It's pretty freaking fantastic. Also, yeah, this could have easily been an oversized hardcover, the size of this. Look at that. I mean, it really does suffer because this is regular sized. You kind of want that big pop in your books when you read, especially the space story with such different usage of color and the contrast and all that stuff. It looks a ton better. It looks a lot better, I should say, in oversized hardcover. But like I mentioned, the art is quite stellar, quite beautiful. It does get sci-fi trippy with fantastic coloring. Here's the famous character at God Like Being. I thought that was pretty funny, the way it was all laid out. Also, I didn't know at first. This is like a volcano looking green lantern, if you can see him in the background. I didn't know that you're supposed to see a face in there. I thought that was pretty weird and wonderful at the same time, because the lantern cord should be weird and wonderful. Seriously, look at that art right there, that fantastic contrast of the green lantern colors with the blackness of space. Just iconic. There's some of that cop noir goodness that I was mentioning earlier. Not a whole lot of extras. Really fun story, plus a cameo. Or not a cameo, a full blown issue with one of my favorite heroes, Adam Strange. Just overall, a really fun, interesting read. Like I mentioned earlier, what did you guys think of Green Lantern by Grant Morrison? Have you read it? Let me know down below. Also, what's your favorite Grant Morrison book, aside from this, if it is your favorite, and your favorite Space comic book? Let me know down below. I'm very interested in finding out. Guys, as always, you can follow me on your favorite social media, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, all that fun stuff. You can subscribe to my channel, like, comment, do all that awesome stuff, hit the notification bell so you know when new videos are coming up. I've got to go. I will catch all of you on our next episode.