Green Lantern: Rebirth #4 (2005)

Green Lantern: Rebirth #4 (March, 2005)
“Force of Will”
Writer – Geoff Johns
Penciller – Ethan Van Sciver
Inker – Prentis Rollins
Colorist – Moose Baumann
Letterer – Rob Leigh
Assistant Editor – Harvey Richards
Editor – Peter Tomasi
Cover Price: $2.95

Let’s get to reborning!


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Picking up where we left off, Sinestro has made his presence known before Kyle and Ollie at the wrecked Justice League Watchtower.  He talks about breaking Hal’s will… with the break of his own neck, to facilitate the Parallax sinking it’s mandibles into his soul.  Sinestro continues, noting how at one time he was the shame of the Green Lantern Corps… and how that has now changed.  Kyle feels his ring being infected by Parallax… and chatterbox Sinestro comments that he was only introduced to the Giant Yellow Fear Bug from Outer Space during his own exile into the Power Battery.

In Coast City, Parallax and the Spectre do battle… until the former tires of the latter.  Be blows up the apartment building at 22 Sea View.  As he trudges through the wreckage, the limp body of Kilowog crashes at his feet.  Ganthet informs ‘Lax that ‘Wog has been cured of the fear… and it’s about to get real.

Elsewhere Guy and John approach, both full of fear and vinegar… until Ganthet intervenes, and burns the scaredycat outta them.  They both have that moment of profundity where they realize everything that’s gone down… and everything they’ve done!  Together with a now stirring Kilowog, our little Corps (and little blue man) stand united before Parallax.

He thinks it’s cute… surely, he can take out a trio of Lanterns.  Well, not so fast, kemo sabe... they’re packin’ back-up in the form of the Justice League of America, the Justice Society of America, the Teen Titans… and more!

Back at the Watchtower, Sinestro continues to wipe the floor with poor Kyle Rayner.  It starts to get personal… Sinestro refers to Kyle as an “alley rat” who was never supposed to be a Green Lantern.  If he really wanted to “shake” him, he should’ve told him he didn’t like Nine Inch Nails.  Ollie, still wearing the duplicate Lantern ring, pulls himself to Kyle’s lantern… and tries to recite the oath… but can’t remember the damn thing!

He pulls himself into the next room where Sinestro has Kyle pinned down.  Sin thinks it’s adorable that Ollie thinks there’s anything he can do.  And so, Ollie launches a construct green arrow (heyyy) from the ring.  It pierces Sinestro’s chest, but doesn’t seem to injure him.  Suddenly there’s an explosion… Kyle, back on his feet, carries Ollie to safety.  Ollie is absolutely spent, and asks Kyle if that’s how it feels to use the ring.  Kyle answers “every time”… which… I dunno, I think we’d have a few Lanterns falling out of the sky if that were true.

Back by Coast City, the heroes unleash on Parallax… who has taken a particular interest in “the statesman” Alan Scott.  Suddenly, we see Hal Jordan tear through his Parallax facade… skin and all.  He calls out to the Spectre for aid… and it would appear that our Jordanian Trinity is now three completely separate entities… Hal Jordan, the Spectre, and Parallax.  Hal asks for the Spectre’s aid in stopping the Giant Yellow Space Bug from Outer Space… buuuut, he’s got better things to do.  Man, I hate the Spectre.  He knows that his next host will soon be murdered… and needs to be there to, I dunno, claim his soul or something.

Parallax, now without a tether… latches on to Ganthet!  Suddenly, a tunnel of light appears… pulling the spirit of Hal Jordan into it.  Ganthet fights off Parallax, and manifests a tiny orb of green light… releasing it, asking Hal to follow it.  As he ascends, he sees the spirits of former Lanterns Abin Sur, Tomar-Re, and his former squeeze Arisia.  Sur tells him he will succeed in overcoming fear.  Hal turns to the right, where he sees the spirit of his father, Martin Jordan.  He tells him he “wears it right”, referring to his bomber jacket.  The green orb cuts right, and instead of entering the hereafter, Hal chooses to follow it.

Back at the Watchtower, Sinestro is still playing with his food.  Suddenly, Ollie’s ring flies off his finger… and into the casket.

We close out with the Rebirth of Green Lantern.  Heyyy, lookit that!

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Alrighty, everybody back in their own bodies?  Good!

Now, I was of two minds about this when I first read it.  We’ve got Hal Jordan’s soul reuniting with his body… and rising up to (presumably) save the day.  Back in 2004/2005 I was a bit bugged that he was going to immediately outshine (pun!) Kyle… while at the same time, I couldn’t deny that the scene that was playing out was incredibly important.  This was Hal… back!  After a ring-less decade, Hal Jordan was back.  I might’ve been a Kyle-guy, but I could not pretend this wasn’t a big deal.


Other than that, this was a very “putting pieces in place” issue.  Our mini Green Lantern Corps are freed of Parallax’s influence… Hal, the Spectre, and the Giant Yellow Fear Bug from Outer Space are separated… DC’s cavalcade of superheroes are all present… not a bad outing, and certainly sets us up as we head toward our conclusion.


Really don’t have any complaints.  The Johns/Van Sciver team is always one worth checking out.  While I think Ollie being wiped out by using his will power to fire an arrow is a bit much, I really can’t be too mad at it.


Overall… if you’ve read this far in the series, there’s very little reason why you wouldn’t wanna read this one too.  Though, if Hal’s Cleared Conscience last issue was a turn-off, I suppose a case could be made for skipping it.  I dunno… I enjoyed it, and believe it to be worth reading.  This is where the “Rebirthing” actually goes down.


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