The realm of Green Lantern comics has been the source of excellent writing for well over 15 years. Unfortunately, it took a while to get a lot of readers on board to follow the adventures of Hal Jordan and the rest of the cast of characters in the Green Lantern Corp. The main problem with GL is the same problem many DC Heroes face: they were first created in the Golden Age and the cultural landscape of the time crafted their appearances, powers, and backstory. If Superman were created today, his origin and powers might well be the same but there is NO WAY a modern artist would create a look so 1940’s.

Green Lantern suffers from the same problem since the surface of the character is hokey on many levels. However, rebuilding the character in a modern image is not hard at all. You simply need to make the character more mature and his motivations more complex. For the ardent fan of comics, such characters will draw in their attention rather quickly. However, some of the more casual or newer fans might not be so quick to check out a more traditional character. Traditional characters simply do not attract attention with casual fans because of the more classic look the traditional characters might embody. A new fan will be far more visually attracted to The Punisher because the Punisher looks more modern. (Ironically, the character has been wearing basically the same uniform for 35 years) But, when a major story arc occurs where a traditional character is redefined, people start to take notice. Slowly. Generally, it will take two or three more major story arcs for a traditional character to be followed by all spheres of comic fans and become a top seller.

In many ways, this is what happened with Green Lantern with the excellent REBIRTH storyline. (Then again, it really started with the legendary ending of ZERO HOUR) These days, Green Lantern is one of the top selling DC books due to its amazing storyline. It took a long time, but the true rebirth of Green Lantern is complete.