The Greatest Green Lantern Comics In Recent Years

For over a decade now, Green Lantern has been one of the biggest heroes in DC Comics. The franchise serves as one of DC’s pillars thanks to the efforts of creators in the 2000s. While Green Lantern had brilliant runs in the past, it can sometimes be hard to convince new fans to check out older comics.

Some DC fans find the storytelling or even the art difficult to connect with beyond a certain era. Others just want to read something new, so they can feel closer to the material as it is now, rather than a decade or more back. Fortunately, there are many great Green Lantern comics that DC Comics has published within the last five years.

10 Best Green Lantern Annuals, Ranked

10 Green Lantern: Legacy Reminds Readers About The Importance Of Legacy

Some amazing Green Lantern stories took place outside continuity, like Green Lantern: Legacy, an original graphic novel from Minh Le and Andie Tong. The focus is on Tai Pham, a teenager who discovers his grandmother was part of a secret guardian force known as the Green Lanterns, when he inherits her ring.

Brought into the Green Lantern Corps, Tai gradually learns the importance of the Corps’ history… even as he accepts the importance of his own. Smartly, the comic doesn’t force Tai to learn the ins and outs of his new powers, but also challenges him with twisted forces like racism and gentrification. Green Lantern: Legacy is a great young adult graphic novel that stands alone while including enough of the Green Lantern mythology to leave newcomers curious.

9 Green Lantern (2021) Annual Continues To Evolve Jessica Cruz’s Character

DC’s Green Lantern Annual #1 Puts a Thrilling Jessica Cruz in the Spotlight

When Jessica Cruz made her debut, she was as a woman who’d lost control of her life. Forcibly given the Earth-3 Power Ring, she was afflicted with a voice in her head telling her to be even more afraid of everything. Jessica’s come a long way since then, and Green Lantern (2021) Annual celebrates her growth.

When her Green Lantern ring quits working, Jssica Cruz takes control of a Sinestro Corps ring to keep fighting. After dumping a pair of Sinestro Corps enemies on Sinestro’s doorstep, she’s told to keep the ring to guard her own sector. Mistrustful of Sinestro but still wanting to help people, Jessica learns fear can be harnessed in many ways. Though Jessica won’t stay a Sinestro Corps member for long, this annual has already gone a long way in helping Jessica develop as a character and a hero.

8 Green Lantern: Earth One Volume 2 Introduces A New Threat To The Galaxy

The original Green Lantern: Earth One placed Hal Jordan and the Green Lantern Corps in a hard sci-fi world, where the Corps fought a losing battle against the Manhunters. Volume 2 opens in a galaxy that’s been partially brightened by the Corps before they have to face an even more dangerous challenge: the last Guardian of the Universe.

When Hal Jordan tries to stop a war from breaking out between Earth and an alien planet, he runs into a mysterious new and vastly more powerful Lantern Corps. Like any good Earth One comic, this second volume of Green Lantern: Earth One continues to introduce familiar concepts with a fresh spin. Meanwhile, Hardman’s artwork creates a universe that feels cold, dark, and dangerous, with only the emerald light offering a ray of hope.

7 Green Lantern: War Journal #1 Gives John Stewart A New Challenge

Hal Jordan gets his due in his own solo comic, but John Stewart isn’t being left out. Philip K. Johnson places John Stewart on a new adventure in Green Lantern: War Journal. Here, John tries to live a normal life as a good son after resigning from the new version of the Green Lantern Corps. However, it isn’t easy leaving the superhero life behind.

In Green Lantern: War Journal, Phillip K. Johnson gives a light horror vibe to the Green Lantern universe in the form of a dangerous new villain. There’s also a more thoughtful approach given to John Stewart now that he’s in his own solo comic. Every John Stewart fan will be begging for more content like this.

6 The Green Lantern #1 Pushes The Reset Button On The Green Lantern Mythology

The Green Lantern #1 is Grant Morrison At His Best and Weirdest

After Geoff Johns’ landmark run on Green Lantern, most other runs that followed remained under its shadow. While some runs were still great, Morrison’s The Green Lantern was the first to push a much-needed reset button on the entire thing. While The Green Lantern #1 maintains all the elements people know about Green Lantern, Grant Morrison and Liam Sharp presented a vision that still felt entirely their own.

Liam Sharp’s maximalist approach to art places as much detail on the page as possible, creating a masterpiece readers can return to countless times and find something new. Meanwhile, this first issue turns Hal Jordan into a modern version of the classic Silver Age character. Morrison’s Hal feels like the coolest, most experienced Green Lantern ever, handling challenges that would ruin other Green Lanterns.

5 Green Lantern (2023) #4 Is A Great Silver Age Team-Up Comic

Jeremy Adams has switched from controlling The Flash’s world to Green Lantern and things are as great as ever. Locked out of space, Hal Jordan has to learn how to build a life for himself on Earth again… even as Sinestro continues to cause problems for him. While Sinestro has the element of surprise, Barry Allen shows up to help one of his oldest allies even the odds.

Though it’s just one part, Green Lantern #4 is still special. Recent Superhero comics have often felt like big action stories or they feature heavy character focus. “Fast Friends” manages to do both. It’s refreshing to see two of DC’s best heroes working together as teammates and being friends.

4 The Green Lanterns Of The Multiverse Challenge The World Of Anti-Matter

Hal Jordan experiences a trip through the multiverse in a three-parter from Grant Morrison and Liam Sharp. The story begins with Hal on a swords-and-sorcery planet. Despite being there on “vacation,” Hal gets embroiled in s dangerous adventure that grows into something bigger. In The Green Lantern #9-11, Green Lanterns from multiple Earths team-up as Hal goes on a mission to save his one true love, Carol Ferris, even if it isn’t the Carol from his Earth.

This three-part story is packed with some of the best art DC’s had in years. Meanwhile, Grant Morrison throws wild ideas at the reader, expecting everyone to just catch on. They develop their version of the multiverse in a way that feels like a semi-sequel to The Multiversity, but without making the reader feel like they’re missing out on anything. It’s a part of Green Lantern lore DC should absolutely return to one day.

3 Green Lantern 80th Anniversary Gives Every Major Green Lantern Time To Shine

Green Lantern: 10 Stories To Re-Read Before The 80th Anniversary Special

Anniversary comics are so common readers can often overlook them, especially if they don’t do anything special. However, Green Lantern 80th Anniversary is exactly what every anniversary comic should be. It’s a massive comic, but it gives focus to all the different characters and eras of the Green Lantern Corps.

There’s a focus on the future in stories like James Tynion’s “Dark Things Cannot Stand The Light,” centering on Alan Scott’s revised history. Meanwhile, “The Voice” presents a day in Jessica Cruz’s life and a realistic depiction of what living with anxiety is like. Green Lantern 80th Anniversary also has some of the most iconic creators throughout Green Lantern history, from Geoff Johns and Ivan Reis to Ron Marz and Daryl Banks. This issue is a must-read for long-time Green Lantern fans.

2 Far Sector Introduces A New Setting And New Member Of The Corps

Young Animal’s Far Sector #1 Is a Moody, Slow Start

Award-winning sci-fi writer N.K. Jemisin and superstar artist Jamal Campbell’s Far Sector isn’t just one of the best Green Lantern comics, but one of the best DC Comics of the last decade. The miniseries creates an all-new character Jo Mullein, a former cop turned Green Lantern, set loose in the dyson sphere known as the City Enduring.

Far Sector gets to the core of what makes “Green Lantern” work by doing a sci-fi police procedural. Mullein is a perfect protagonist: likable and heroic enough to carry the book without other veteran Lanterns around. Perhaps even more impressive, Far Sector creates a world that’s interesting enough on its own without bringing in a bunch of other ancient DC sci-fi elements that would require a tour through Wikipedia to understand.

1 Alan Scott: The Green Lantern #1 Redefines Alan Scott For A New Era

DC’s Alan Scott: The Green Lantern #1

The original Green Lantern, Alan Scott, finally gets a comic of his own again. Everything isn’t the same as it once was, now that the hero had come out as gay in the 2021 one-shot Infinite Frontier. In Alan Scott: Green Lantern #1, Tim Sheridan and Cian Tormey pick up on many of the threads left between Infinite Frontier and The New Golden Age.

Set in the 1940s, the first issue sets up an engrossing mystery in Alan’s past, before he became a Green Lantern. However, it also explains Alan’s challenges in keeping his queerness out of the public eye at a time when society was far less tolerant. It’s not only an effective period piece, but redefines Alan Scott by giving him a fresh stage in a modern era.