Writer: Robert Vendetti
Artists: Ethan Van Scriver
$2.99
DC Comics

Does every “DC Rebirth” issue have a metatextual theme to it, or are we just reading too much into it after decades of comic reading? Because Hal Jordan and the Green Lantern Corps Rebirth seems to be commenting upon itself just as many of the other titles have. Batman Rebirth focused on the constancy of Batman in comics. Superman Rebirth looked at the oddity of Superman being replaced by himself. Wonder Woman Rebirth peeled back the veil between fiction and reality in examining Diana’s ever-changing continuity. And now we have Green Lantern Rebirth, which seems to question how you keep a character fresh when you have so much continuity behind you.

The answer: you take the old and forge something new with it. Robert Vendetti had a tough task ahead of him when he took over Green Lantern from Geoff Johns, who definitively refined the character over a period of many years. How do you take over a book immediately following one of the most remarkable runs the character had in his career? So it’s unsurprising that Vendetti’s thirty-odd issues of Green Lantern were a little controversial and just not met with the same reception as Johns’ closing issues.

Regardless, Vendetti gets a second shot at things with the “Rebirth” relaunch of the title, now under the revised title of Hal Jordan and the Green Lantern Corps. Spoiler: the titular Corps doesn’t appear in this issue, except in flashback. What we do get here is some closure to the remaining threads of Vendetti’s past run with a Hal Jordan losing his sense of self on the edge of space thanks to the controlling effects of Krona’s gauntlet. The solution? Hal rejects the gauntlet, using it one last time to channel his own willpower into a brand new ring. It’s a new twist on an old weapon, even as it’s fully grounded in the willpower mythos of the Green Lantern story.

Now, where exactly this story is going isn’t clear yet. The issue does pay an early visit to Sinestro, still up to intergalactic no good. And there’s hints that Hal’s creation of his own ring is having larger effects on the other Lantern corps out there. Ultimately, this is–as most other “Rebirth” issues have been–a reintroduction to the character and a setting of the series’ tone going forward.

It helps that art chores were done by veteran artist Ethan Van Scriver, who contributed substantially to Johns’ run. For older fans, this will be a comfortable return to familiar territory as Van Scriver brings his spacefaring magic back to the title. They’re complimented wonderfully by Jason Wright’s colors, an absolute necessity in a book dealing with warring groups of color-coded warriors. Even readers who didn’t necessarily enjoy Vendetti’s replacement of Johns will have to be grateful that the book has a quality art team.

The only real drawback this book has is the lack of an actual Corps, minus Hal’s flashback reference to their disappearance. Future issues are going to have to explain why a book called Hal Jordan and the Green Lantern Corps is only about one guy so far. But for now, this title is off to a cromulent start and may be worth a look for both diehard Green Lantern fans and for the Hal-curious.

Rating: Three Oaths out of Five.