This week heralded the first Rebirth issues from DC Comics, and today’s DC Throwback Thursdays is taking you all the way back to this past Wednesday! That’s right, we’re taking a look at not one but TWO Rebirth releases from yesterday: Green Arrow: Rebirth #1 and Green Lanterns: Rebirth #1!
Jumping right into, let’s take a look at Green Arrow: Rebirth #1. Written by Benjamin Percy with art by Otto Schmidt, Green Arrow: Rebirth #1 brings the emerald archer back to his roots. Not only has Ollie returned to Seattle, Washington, but he is now sporting his iconic goatee (finally!) and his fiery, liberal spirit is back in full force. This is an Oliver Queen that readers know and love from the great Green Arrow/Green Lantern run in the 1970’s and from Mike Grell’s incredible run on the series; an Oliver Queen that has sadly been missing from the DC Universe since the New 52 reboot. The Hawkeye-lite version of Ollie/Green Arrow is gone, replaced by the version we all know and love, and the timing couldn’t be more perfect.
But Green Arrow’s return to form is not even the best part. Enter Black Canary, as the two – once married pre-New 52 – are finally coming around to one another again, as God intended. Canary joins with Green Arrow as the two investigate reports of homeless people being abducted in the streets of Seattle. Canary is a great foil for Ollie,
and their banter is a blast to read. Percy does a great job of building up the palpable tension and burgeoning romance between the two, playing with readers’ hopes and memories of their past, pre-New 52 relationship.
I’ve never been a huge Green Arrow fan – I had only really read Green Arrow/Green Lantern because I’m a GL fanatic – and was sorely disappointed when I jumped on the New 52 series after being introduced to the character via the CW’s Arrow. Thankfully, Green Arrow: Rebirth #1 brings the Green Arrow from GA/GL into the modern now, and in a way that has me hooked already. I’ll definitely be adding this to my monthly pull list!
Moving on to what, I must admit, was my most anticipated DC Rebirth release: Green Lanterns: Rebirth #1. I’ve long held that Geoff Johns’ seminal run on Green Lantern is the greatest comic book run of all time, so you can imagine my joy when I found out that Johns was partnering with Legendary Star-Lord writer Sam Humphries for Green Lanterns inaugural issue! Even better – it didn’t disappoint!
Green Lanterns: Rebirth #1 follows the two newest Green Lanterns of Sector 2814 – Jessica Cruz and Simon Baz. Johns and Humphries do a great job of bringing new readers up to speed on these two new Lanterns, and in a few short sentences from each we get a whole series worth of character hang-ups and hints about their origins. For me, it was great to finally see Simon Baz again – DC made such a hub-bub about the new Green Lantern when he first appeared years ago, but he’s been woefully underused ever since. This was also my first introduction to Jessica Cruz, and I find her fascinating already. A Green Lantern who is agoraphobic? Now that’s awesome! Talk about literally having to overcome fear – just to even do her duty as a Lantern! Also, Cruz’ GL suit is really cool looking, and meshes nicely with that of Simon’s (who I always thought had a really cool Lantern suit as well).
The issue is largely a set up of what is to come in the Green Lanterns series proper. Hal Jordan puts 
both Cruz and Baz through a test – and they both fail miserably, bickering back and forth about who really is Earth’s Green Lantern. Jordan creatively forces the two to work together and grow as Earth’s Lanterns, warning them of a new threat brewing in the universe. Fan-favorite Red Lantern Atrocitus makes a cameo on the last page, promising a “Red Dawn” to follow the Blackest Night and Brightest Day. Add that to what looks like a new Power Ring that utilizes the entire emotional spectrum introduced in the issue’s prologue, and it looks like Cruz and Baz really have their work cut out for them. It should definitely be a blast to follow along!
That’s it for today folks! Be sure to tag us with #DCTbT and let us know what you thought about Green Arrow: Rebirth #1 and Green Lanterns: Rebirth #1. Check in on Monday for a new Marvel Must-Read Mondays!
