Let no great story escape a fan's sight. Green Lantern as a concept has been a major part of the DC Universe for decades. But it took until the character was elevated in Green Lantern: Rebirth that it became a major franchise. The brand has since had an animated series, two animated movies, and even a live-action film.
But for fans wanting to get into the character, what stories are best to help them not only understand the hero, but the different people— Hal, John, Kyle, Jessica, and others— who've worn the ring over the years?
10 Green Lantern: Emerald Twilight
Though the story has long been retconned, Emerald Twilight is still something every Green Lantern fan should read at least once. With Hal Jordan seeing his precious city destroyed thanks to Mongul and Cyborg Superman, he finally loses control.
Demanding the Guardians restore his city, he snaps when the Guardians instead take control of his ring from him. Hal tears into space on the way to Oa, killing other Green Lanterns and stealing their rings. By the end, everything that was the Green Lantern Corps is gone, and only Parallax remains, setting out to save the universe. Reading Hal’s fall makes his inevitable rise all the more satisfying.
9 Green Lantern: Intergalactic Lawman
Grant Morrison took over Green Lantern at the tail end of 2018 and they managed to create some of the most memorable comics with the character in years. These stories hearken back to the '50s Silver Age aspects of Hal Jordan, while also modernizing those ideas.
The Green Lantern universe feels strange and weird in the best ways, not just in terms of Hal's adventures, but the Green Lantern Corps and Oa as well. They've pulled back from the rigid rules of the Geoff Johns era to make the Green Lantern ring once again capable of the impossible— like storing an entire universe inside the ring.
8 Green Lantern: Secret Origins
For those looking for an understanding of how everything started for Hal Jordan, this is the place to begin. It features one of Hal Jordan’s earliest starts as a Green Lantern, but just as important it introduces Abin Sur and Atrocitus, re-contextualizing the origin of Abin Sur with the new storyline Geoff Johns was setting up with the characters. This book manages to not only set up the storyline of Blackest Night, but helps readers understand Hal’s origins as Green Lantern.
7 Green Lantern: Rebirth
Geoff Johns built a franchise out of Green Lantern starting with this mini-series. The story begins with the Green Lantern Corps in a state of disrepair, but Johns manages to fix the backstory of Hal Jordan by changing the identity of Parallax— and in doing so giving the Green Lantern Corps back their greatest enemy.
Though this book could’ve easily descended into being a comic where all the other Green Lanterns no longer matter, Johns instead gives each major and important Green Lantern a purpose in his new storyline, the start of a run that lasted for almost a decade.
6 Green Lantern: Sinestro Corps War
Everyone that was looking to see what Johns would do when given the chance to have a big event starring Green Lantern was not disappointed here. Sinestro Corps War is the perfect comic event— it’s loud, shallow, and cool in all the right ways.
Watching John Stewart assemble a sniper rifle out of Green Lantern energy is awesome, and the biggest shake-up possible occurs when the Corps is placed against not merely Sinestro, but some of the biggest villains in their universe.
5 Green Lanterns Vol. 2: Phantom Lantern
This comic focused on the latest two human Green Lanterns, Jessica Cruz and Simon Baz, and this is the volume where the comic hits its stride. The two heroes begin clicking together as a pair of Lanterns who need each other due to their inexperience, and get along because they both know what it is to be outsiders.
The two of them are tossed into battle against the incredibly powerful Phantom Lantern, someone capable of controlling every part of the Emotional Spectrum that powers the Lantern Corps. This book manages to both open up the Green Lantern mythology while giving great development to a pair of brand-new characters.
4 Green Lantern: Far Sector
Far Sector gives readers an all-new Green Lantern in the form of Jo Mullein, a young woman assigned to patrol the City Enduring, a massive space colony with multiple different races all working together.
Writer N.K. Jemisin and artist Jamal Campbell manage to create a story that distills everything about Green Lanterns down into something that’s easy to understand: A cool sci-fi setting, awesome use of one of the coolest sci-fi powers in the world, and a murder mystery that the lead character has to piece together while also learning how the Green Lantern ring works.
3 Hal Jordan And The Green Lantern Corps: Sinestro's Law
After years of watching the Green Lantern Corps get kicked around and minimized, Robert Venditti finally returns the Corps to prominence in the wider cosmic DC. The run starts with a new battle with Sinestro and his Corps. T
he Green Lantern Corps makes it back to their universe and are immediately thrown into combat with Sinestro, and prove why they’re the premiere peacekeeping force in the universe— not only shutting down Sinestro’s Corps, but re-establishing themselves for the rest of the world as well. Despite the name, Hal Jordan & the Green Lantern Corps is just a much a story about John Stewart and Guy Gardner as it is Hal Jordan, and is a great modern introduction to these characters.
2 Green Lantern: Kyle Rayner Vol. 2
Every Kyle Rayner fan desperately wants people to understand why Kyle is considered cool. This trade is about as close to explaining that as they’ll ever get, with Ron Marz making Kyle make allies and slowly get acclimated to the DC Universe.
He meets Guy Gardner and the Titans, joining his first super-team and getting revenge on the person who killed his girlfriend. But he also gets to have a showdown against Hal Jordan over the right to be Green Lantern, solidifying his role as a hero in the DC Universe for the next ten years.
1 Green Lantern Earth One Vol. 1
In a world where humans have made their way to space, Hal Jordan is a space miner for Ferris Industries when he runs across a spaceship that changes his life forever. The Earth One group of comics have always been unique re-interpretations of classic DC Comics storylines, and Green Lantern: Earth One is no exception.
It recasts the Green Lantern Corps in the role of a nearly extinguished collection of freedom fighters, battling against the vastly more powerful Manhunters who’ve almost conquered the universe. A gripping tale from beginning to end, it’s a perfect standalone story even though it opens itself up to tons more Green Lantern stories in the future.