Green Lantern: Secret Origin. By Geoff Johns

     Growing up, I never got into comic books.  I thought I liked the idea and some of the characters looked cool, but I never actually read a comic book.  I don’t know why, it might have been the way I thought my parents would react or I just didn’t know where to start. (my parents were very particular about what I watched and what I read growing up.)  But whatever the reason, I just never did.  I have always liked the comic based moves, whether they were batman, x-men, iron man and the rest of the latest Marvel comic movies.  But about a year ago the Green Lantern movie was released.  I kind of laughed at it thinking it looked cheezy and for as long as I had heard the green lantern character had been around, main stream culture didn’t now know who he was or what he was about, me included.  On a work trip last summer to pass some time, a coworker of mine and myself went to go see the movie.  To my surprise, I had a really good time.  I was shocked that I actually liked the movie and the character.  Don’t get me wrong, this isn’t a great movie by any stretch of the imagination. But it was really fun and some of the superhero concepts were really fun and unique.

     Over the past year I found myself thinking more about this character and finally decided that I would try and pick up a modern retelling of the Green Lanterns origin story.  After some research I decide that I needed to start with Geoff Johns take on the Green Lantern with the Secret Origin compilation.  After I ordered the book from Amazon, I found out that Geoff Johns is originally from Detroit and went to Michigan State University. (I won’t hold that against him, GO BLUE!)  That was an extra bonus for me.  I went into reading this with some skepticism.  It is a comic after all and we are told they are for kids only.  As I started to read the story and looked at the art work, I was taken back and just how much of a story can be told without pages and pages of written word.  A small amount of dialog and two or three frames of art work could convey the same amount of information as several written pages.  I was shocked.  I forced myself to read and observe slowly so I could take in what both the writer and artist were trying to convey.  After I was finished, I wanted more.  I was really surprised I enjoyed it as much as I did.  Like most movies that are based on some type of source material, this was not the movie story line.  The character of Hal Jordan has many more internal struggles then the movie portrayed.  There are many more things going on in the origin story then the movie told.  If you are looking to get into comics, and don’t want to start with the standard Spiderman, Superman, Batman characters give Green Lantern a try, you just might enjoy it.