The origin
Abin Sur, a dying alien lawman, crashes on Earth and orders his power ring to find a worthy successor. It chooses Hal Jordan, a test pilot, because he is entirely without fear. The ring turns willpower into hard light, anything Hal can imagine, it will build. He becomes one of thousands of Green Lanterns policing space sectors on behalf of the Guardians of the Universe.
What makes Green Lantern different
It is the only major superpower that is literally limited by imagination and courage, which makes the character an unusually direct test of the person wearing it. Geoff Johns later built an entire emotional spectrum around this, fear is yellow, rage is red, hope is blue, and turned a science-fiction cop story into a mythology about what emotions actually do to people. Hal is also one of very few heroes who has been a genuine villain and come back from it.
Where to start reading
The full reading order
Alan Scott, the first Green Lanterndeep cut
The original Green Lantern is not Hal Jordan at all. Alan Scott's ring is magic, not alien, and his weakness is wood rather than yellow. A genuine Golden Age key and one of the scarcest books on this list. Read it in a collection, and hunt the real thing only if you are serious.
+ Add to my want listGreen Lantern volume 1deep cut
Scott's own title, thirty eight issues, Bill Finger among the early writers. It ran out of steam with the rest of the superhero boom. Completist territory, but #1 is a serious book.
+ Add to my want listShowcase #22, the first Hal Jordanessential
John Broome and Gil Kane reinvent the concept from scratch: a test pilot, a dying alien, a ring that runs on willpower and a whole Corps out in space. The Silver Age Green Lantern key, and the book everything modern descends from.
+ Add to my want listGreen Lantern volume 2, the Broome and Kane yearsrecommended
Broome writes most of it, Gardner Fox fills in, Kane draws. Sinestro arrives in #7 (July to August 1961), Carol Ferris becomes Star Sapphire in #16, Black Hand in #29 (June 1964), and Guy Gardner in #59 (March 1968). Dip in for the villain firsts rather than reading all seventy five.
+ Add to my want listGreen Lantern/Green Arrow, the O'Neil and Adams runessential
Denny O'Neil and Neal Adams put Hal in a truck with Green Arrow and drive them across an America of racism, pollution and poverty that superhero comics had never looked at. Fourteen issues, and still the run people mean when they say comics grew up.
+ Add to my want listSnowbirds Don't Fly, the Speedy issuesessential
Green Arrow's ward Speedy is a heroin addict, and the book says so on the cover. The most famous two issues of the run and two of the most famous of the decade. Both are keys in their own right.
+ Add to my want listJohn Stewart's first appearanceessential
Guy Gardner is injured and the Guardians recruit an architect from the projects as Hal's new backup. John Stewart goes on to lead the whole franchise more than once, and this is where he starts. A modern key for good reason.
+ Add to my want listEmerald Dawndeep cut
The post Crisis retelling of how Hal got the ring, Keith Giffen plotting with Gerard Jones scripting and M. D. Bright on art. Later overwritten by Johns, but this is the origin a generation grew up on.
+ Add to my want listEmerald Dawn IIdeep cut
Hal's ninety day jail sentence, and his training under Sinestro before Sinestro was the enemy. Worth it for the relationship the rest of the mythology leans on.
+ Add to my want listGreen Lantern volume 3, the Gerard Jones yearsdeep cut
The relaunch that brought Hal, Guy and John together in one book. Solid, sometimes very good, and mostly read today as the run up to what happens next.
+ Add to my want listEmerald Twilightessential
Coast City is gone, Hal goes to Oa to take back everything, and by the end he has torn through the Corps and become Parallax. Kyle Rayner, an art student handed the last ring, first appears in #48 and is Green Lantern by #50. Hated at the time, essential now, because Johns builds the whole modern mythology on top of it.
+ Add to my want listRon Marz writes Kyle Raynerrecommended
Marz carries Kyle for the best part of seven years, from a kid who does not know what a Guardian is to the man who rebuilds the Corps. The Kyle era in one stretch. Read the first year at least.
+ Add to my want listJudd Winick's Kyledeep cut
Winick moves Kyle into more grounded, character led stories and the book is better for it. The last extended run before Hal comes back.
+ Add to my want listGreen Lantern: Rebirthessential
Johns and Ethan Van Sciver bring Hal back and explain Emerald Twilight in one stroke: Parallax was a yellow fear parasite living in the central battery, and it had been in Hal's head for years. This is the modern starting point, full stop.
+ Add to my want listGreen Lantern Corps: Rechargerecommended
Johns and Dave Gibbons rebuild the Corps itself, with Patrick Gleason drawing. It leads straight into the 2006 Green Lantern Corps ongoing, which Gibbons opens and Peter J. Tomasi later takes over. Read alongside Rebirth.
+ Add to my want listGreen Lantern volume 4 beginsrecommended
Johns writes every issue of this volume, sixty seven of them. The first twenty settle Hal back into Coast City and seed everything the Sinestro Corps War pays off.
+ Add to my want listThe Sinestro Corps Waressential
Sinestro builds a yellow army, the emotional spectrum arrives, and the Green Lantern books become the most talked about thing DC publishes. Read the Special first, then alternate GL and GLC. The four Tales of the Sinestro Corps one shots are optional extras.
+ Add to my want listSecret Originrecommended
Johns and Ivan Reis retell Hal's origin for the modern continuity, folding in Sinestro, Abin Sur and the first hint of the prophecy that drives Blackest Night. If the film ever gets made, this is the story it will be adapting.
+ Add to my want listBlackest Nightessential
The dead rise wearing black rings, and every emotional Corps has to stand together. Johns and Reis on the core book, Doug Mahnke on the Green Lantern issues, Tomasi and Gleason on the Corps. The biggest thing the franchise has ever done and one of the biggest events DC has run.
+ Add to my want listBrightest Daydeep cut
The twenty five issue fortnightly follow up from Johns and Tomasi, dealing with the twelve who came back. Wider than a Lantern book but it is where the Johns era lands.
+ Add to my want listGreen Lantern volume 5, Johns to Vendittirecommended
Johns writes #0 to #20 and introduces Simon Baz in #0, then Robert Venditti carries it to the end. Hal and Sinestro sharing a book is the hook of the early issues, and it works.
+ Add to my want listHal Jordan and the Green Lantern Corpsrecommended
Venditti's DC Rebirth run, the Corps rebuilt again with Hal, John, Guy and Kyle all in one book. Consistent, old fashioned space opera and one of the better places to start if you want the whole Corps rather than one Lantern.
+ Add to my want listGreen Lanternsrecommended
Simon Baz and Jessica Cruz, the two Earth rookies, learning the job together. Sam Humphries writes the first thirty two. The friendliest entry point on this list for someone new to the character.
+ Add to my want listThe Green Lantern, Grant Morrisonrecommended
Morrison treats Hal as a space cop working a beat, one strange case at a time, and it is unlike any other Green Lantern run. Twelve issues, a three issue Blackstars bridge, then twelve more. Dense, odd and worth the effort.
+ Add to my want listFar Sectoressential
N. K. Jemisin and Jamal Campbell, under the Young Animal imprint. Jo Mullein, a new Lantern policing a city where emotion itself is illegal. The best reviewed Green Lantern comic in a decade and it needs no prior reading at all.
+ Add to my want listGreen Lantern volume 6, John Stewart leadsdeep cut
Geoffrey Thorne puts John Stewart at the centre of the book, with the Corps cut off and the rings failing. Twelve issues and an annual.
+ Add to my want listGreen Lantern volume 7, Jeremy Adamsrecommended
The current run. Hal back on Earth, back with Carol, and the book back to basics. Thirty six issues and three specials so far, which makes it the longest sustained Green Lantern run since Johns.
+ Add to my want listChasing any of these Green Lantern issues?
Whether you are hunting a key, thinking about selling a collection, or just want to talk comics, I am always happy to hear from you.