Hal Jordan cannot fly anymore. Deemed too dangerous to be in a plane, he now must stay on the ground and work as a mechanic. Meanwhile, Green Lantern Corps member Abin Sur races toward earth in search of informations concerning the «blackest night». When the prisoner he is carrying breaks free, his ship crash land and kills him in the process. With his death commences his ring’s search for a new bearer. It looks like Hal Jordan will finally fly again…

Geoff Johns’ ability to straighten up character’s continuity is something he is well known for. From Hawkman to Flash, he has, in the past, succeeded where others would probably have failed. So it was with great interest that I was waiting for his rewriting of Green Lantern’s origin.

The story reads quite nicely. We can easily understand Hal Jordan's frustration with not to being allowed to fly anymore. Carol Ferris is also reintroduced as an adult businesswoman in an effective way.  The major problem I have with Johns’ vision is when he starts creating new elements only to serve the current storyline. I am aware that you sometime need to make some changes to a story's continuity to make it work. However, rewriting it to fit a current event within the DC comics universe (namely the upcoming «blackest night» and Final Crisis to some extent) is a dangerous game to play. For me, the purpose of revisiting a character's origin should be to make new readers able to easily grasp a hero’s 30 years history while making it more credible and staying faithful to the creator's original vision. Don’t get me wrong, the upcoming «blackest night» storyline looks very interesting. But could they have done it without modifying our emerald crusader’s origin? I think so, especially since he already got revamped a couple years ago.

On the other hand, I don’t have much to say about the art. Ivan Reis does a great job depicting action as well as the more emotional moments. His splash pages, even if they are not showing epic fights, are still impressive. The cover is also interesting as it clearly summarize the Hal Jordan/Green Lantern relation with Carol Ferris. This situation was an integral part of the series earlier issues which make it appropriate to the content of the comic book.

A solidly written comic book but done for the wrong reason would be how I would quickly describe this issue. I rate it 7.5 out 10 for this reason.