I jumped on board The Green Lantern Season Two with issue #3 and was blown away by the ideas at work and Liam Sharp’s incredible visuals. Hal Jordan is back on Earth and taking on new threats one issue at a time. He thwarted an amazingly inventive alien last issue, and this issue it’s all about teaming up with The Flash. It’s also about toys. If that sounds absurd, you don’t even know half of it.
Did you know Hal Jordan was once a toy salesman? I didn’t either, until this issue. The issue opens with Hal and Flash meeting at a museum, soon meeting a woman they’re both familiar with, and then being sucked into an adventure involving an alien race that wants to playtest the heroes as if they were toys. It’s wonderfully absurd, and Grant Morrison even refers to this plot as the acid trip that it is, which should put a smile on your face. Because the book is so weird, you need to lean into enjoying the absurdity and go with it. Dialogue from the aliens can sometimes be tricky to read, Hal and Flash have to fight in absurdist ways, and the conclusion comes fast and equally crazy.
Speaking of absurdist fighting, gear up for a great Hustler reference as Hal uses a construct you’ll clap at. It’s that fun. At the same time, Morrison referencing Hal’s days as a toy salesman is fun and it’ll make you want to dip back into history. If there was ever a Green Lantern issue that deserves a Ritesh Babu annotation, this is it.
That’s a problem!
Credit: DC Comics
The art by Sharp is quite cool with an edgy old school vibe throughout. There are panels here that remind me of Bill Willingham’s work with Alan Moore on the 1987 Green Lantern Annual #3. The thicker ink work pulls the characters off the page a bit and makes the already kooky imagery more dynamic. There’s a panel where Flash flexes that’s quite cool due to the inking and detailing Sharp puts into the character. Steve Oliff’s colors further make this book feel like a lost chapter from the ’80s. Green Lantern loyalists are going to love it.
I will say, however, the book is pretty tough to get into from a historical sense. Having no memory of Hal being a toy salesman, I was left a bit confused at the time. There’s an exploration of an entirely new thing here though, so it’s not insurmountable to find this entertaining.
This is a fun and totally absurd adventure to dig into. It’s a reminder of how weird comics were and can be if given the right touch of wacky ideas. Pick this up to be transported to a time when Green Lantern was getting into perplexing adventures in space.
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