Title: The Green Lantern.
Story-Arc: The Day the Stars Fell.
Volume: 2.
Writer(s): Grant Morrison.
Penciller(s): Liam Sharp, Giuseppe Camuncoli & Trevor Scott.
Colourist(s): Steve Oliff & Liam Sharp.
Letterer(s): Tom Orzechowski.
Publisher: DC Comics.
Format: Paperback.
Release Date: July 7th 2020.
Pages: 208.
Genre(s): Comics, Science-Fiction.
ISBN13: 9781779502681.
My Overall Rating: ★★☆☆☆.
Previously in The Green Lantern (2018-) Series:
The Green Lantern (Vol. 1): Intergalactic Lawman by Grant Morrison.
The Green Lantern lore allows for the perfect match made in heaven as it essentially fuses interstellar science-fiction with crime-fighting action and mystery. With a wide array of heroes donning the green suit and ring, the character has lived long enough to have countless writers and artists bring to life a colourful yet weird universe. It was only a matter of time before the legendary writer Grant Morrison gave us his own wild take of the character. With his never-before-seen imagination that continues to grow to this day, this series was a golden opportunity for him to make fans of the Emerald Crusader proud. Or was it? Teamed up once again with artist Liam Sharp, acclaimed writer Grant Morrison further explores the unknown universes of the intergalactic lawman as the danger grows bigger than ever.
What is The Green Lantern: The Day the Stars Fell about? Collecting The Green Lantern #7-12 and Annual #1, the story throws readers into a universe within Hal Jordan’s Power Ring as he faces strange creatures and learns to resolve his problems by himself. It then shifts to a space cop adventure where his alliance with Green Arrow and Carol Ferris are highlighted and put on the forefront while an intergalactic mess is stirred up among the United Planets. To wrap things up, the story then introduces the evil Blackstars as they attempt to create the Anti-Matter Lantern and bring forth the anti-matter universe where reality is bent in unimaginable ways. This is where all of the Green Lanterns need to work together in their final stand against the destruction of reality.
Writer Grant Morrison is well known for his psychedelic story-telling. His love to forgo any narrative structure that would make his stories accessible and linear always invites a fair amount of criticism but it isn’t always without a reward. He sometimes has an ability to craft complex plots while interweaving social commentary or subtle psychological or societal thematic that make for some ambitious yet fascinating reads but he is also capable of going overboard. This was the case. Although the first volume served as a truly authentic homage to the Green Lantern universe, a bit rough around the edges too, this second volume saw the writer take the hero to all kinds of edges of the universe and miserably fails to create a cohesive narrative as each issue continuously skips around from one insane story to another.
The story also seems to stretch itself thin as it tries to tie into ongoing developments across the DC Universe (e.g. Bendis’s United Planets subplot). It simply felt like writer Grant Morrison was letting himself loose and rushing himself into poorly executing a couple dozen of his kooky ideas before moving on to other projects. Artist Liam Sharp, however, continues to offer a retro visual style that remains fairly consistent but slightly altered to fully embrace writer Grant Morrison’s wackiness. Similar to his narrative, the artwork steers clear from any sense of order and makes full use of the entire page without resorting to traditional panels and dialogue bubbles. It wouldn’t be too much of a stretch to say that they wanted to make sure that the kaleidoscopic nature of the story was fully observed by the reader through both story and art.
Following the showdown in the final issue, it was clear that writer Grant Morrison’s shenanigans were to continue but not with a 13th issue within this series, that now comes to an end, but rather with a new three-issue series entitled The Green Lantern: Blackstars that will have significant repercussions on the DC Universe history. It’s safe to say that my interest in it is almost at rock bottom now. Maybe if I’m feeling like taking some hard drugs without taking the actual thing, I’ll go check it out…
The Green Lantern: The Day the Stars Fell is a cacophonic and catastrophic story-arc absorbed in a ludicrous story-telling black hole that leaves you in limbo.
Thank you to Penguin Random House Canada for sending me a copy for review!
Psychedelic story telling??? Man! I didn’t like the movie and don’t think I’d like this one either Lashaan!
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Hahaha yes, it’s a trippy, trippy story! 😉 You even have a hippy lantern smoking his way around in here too! 😀
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Ooph, harsh. and justifiably so it seems.
If Morrison continued the storyline in a trilogy, did someone else take over the main GL comic line?
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No. Morrison is currently five issues into his “Season 2” of “The Green Lantern.” I’ve tried a couple of issues but am sad to say it’s even worse than “Season 1”. 😥
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That definitely gives me no hope whatsoever hahaha I’ll maybe test out Darkstars and then the Season 2 when I feel like I’ve got nothing else to do or something! 😛
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You’d be surprised by the trippy stuff in here. Like Wakizashi mentions, he’s begun Season 2 of his run which takes place after the whole three-issue Blackstars thing. I probably won’t be in any rush to discover what that has to offer for now hahaha
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I watched movie years ago. Not my favourite. Great review!
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Ahhhh, the movie was a mess and everyone agrees hahaha Thanks for reading, Yesha! 🙂
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You know I always used to confuse Green Lantern and Jim Carrey’s The Mask (the movies of course!) 🤣🤣 BUT MAN WAS THAT AND AWESOME ONE!! 😍😍
“Psychedelic story-telling” 🤣 Made me think of several words and phrases – all jumbled up – Johnny Depp’s face in the movie Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas! 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣
“Stretch itself thin”? Like butter spread over too much bread? Bilbo? The Hobbit? MIDDLE EARTH? I like how our conversations always lead us there – the place of dragons and magic! 🤷🏻♀️😉🤣
That ending! I THOROUGHLY enjoyed this review Lashaan! SUCH FUN! 😍😍😍😍
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Hahahahah you keep on going back to that Depp movie every time I mention psychedelic hahahaha 😛 And how you connected this to Middle-earth is beyond me hahahaha Thanks for reading, Rain! I appreciate it. 😀
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ITS TOO AWESOME LASHAAN! I forget though – have you watched it yet? IF NOT THEM PLEASE DOOOOO!! 😍😍😍
Okay…let me explain it to you! 😉 So…in the movie Lord of The Rings: The Fellowship of The Ring – when Gandalf goes to meet Bilbo on his birthday party? They talk about the mountains and Bilbo says the following:
“I feel old Gandalf. Stretched. Like butter spread over too much bread!”
🤣🤣 THATS HOW I CONNECTED IT! 🤷🏻♀️🤣
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Daaaammmnnn hahahah 😛 I’ll now remember this when I revisit the movies after finishing the books. I’ve seen the movies many years ago, post-cinema-release and have very few memories of how things went down. I’ll have a proper opinion on them this time around. 😀
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Hahah!! YOU BETTER DOOO!! 😉🤣
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You took me up only to bring me back down….I want so badly to love the Green Lantern for all the same reasons as everyone but he’s kind of a mess. It sounds like I should pick up the first volume but maybe skip this second one.
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Hahahaha I like to do that for a lot of books that ended up disappointing me but had something special to work with, although unsuccessfully. 😛 The first volume is definitely better but not exceptional enough to be a starting point for anyone who wants to discover the character! I’d prefer recommending people to Geoff Johns’ Green Lantern run instead! 😀 Thanks for reading!
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Oh, thank you so much for the Geoff Johns’ recommendation! I will pick up a copy of his work instead.
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Hmmm… so it sounds like you really enjoyed this one, eh? Oh well, they can’t all be winners, I suppose. I don’t think I ever followed Green Lantern, and I don’t know that I’m going to start now. 🙂
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Hahahah I definitely found this disappointing. 😛 If you were to want to discover the character, I’d probably offer other much more fruitful series/stories, especially the New 52 run by Geoff Johns, which you’re indirectly making me want to go through again hahaha
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Excellent review, Lashaan. I tried this series because I’ve liked a lot of Morrison’s earlier writing. It started off okay, but lost me halfway through “Season 1.” Sharp’s art is very 2000AD, if you’re familiar with that British sci-fi comic book. Sadly, “Season 2” is even worse, so far.
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Thanks, man. I appreciate it. I’m a huge fan of his earlier works too and would jump on any opportunity to read his stuff but I feel like anything he does nowadays doesn’t match the ingenuity of his stories back in the day. I’ve been recommended to check out 2000AD and plan to someday. Your upvote for it definitely made me push it higher on my list. 😀
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Looks like the author is getting tired of his own works or maybe he’s just on his very own trippy trip himself ahahahahah Fantastic review, Lashaan! On to the next 🙂
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Hahahaha I do wonder if he just decided to give up on being rational and go full-out cause… why not? 😀 Thanks for reading, Jee!
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I think my psychic abilities are getting stronger. I saw “Green Lantern” and the cover and thought: “2 stars.” Lo and behold… 2 stars…
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Well, well, well. Divine Goldie. We’ll see if the next Green Lantern guess will be just as good. 😉
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Hm…I still haven’t got around to reading volume 1 and not being a huge Morrison fan (he’s more often than not “overboard” for me, but there are exceptions – Batman: Gothic I really like!) that makes me more reluctant, adding to that the fact that you were quite underwhelmed by this second collection (AND given how much of a Morrison fan you are my good man). Great review as ever my friend!
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Yep… I think you can safely ignore this series if you ever contemplated the idea of skipping it too. I’d rather revisit his past work than go through this one again honestly hahaha I don’t know if I’ll ever continue with what he’s doing here but nothing really compels me too, except maybe a desire to spew some negative thoughts on something hahaha Thanks for reading, Chris! I appreciate it a lot. 😀
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This sounds like a true fantasty cartoonish universe.
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A quite insane one too!
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