Issue 3: In which our willing heroine takes a little trip into the past with Hal and gets on board with the big bad wolf.
The kernel of comic book goodness having been sufficiently planted in my brain, I headed back to my friendly neighborhood comic store and came out with Green Lantern: Secret Origin and Fables: Legends in Exile.
Poor Hal Jordan. He was doomed from the start, wasn’t he? His life just sucks. What else could he have grown up to be but an MPD-suffering superhero/villain in serious need of some quality beach time? Dad dies in front of him, mom dies not wanting anything to do with him, one brother hates him, other brother is just disappointed. He has girl issues, authority issues, family issues, and friend issues. Throw in a seriously creepy bad guy (a telepathic dude named Hammond) and an absolutely creeptastic boy named William Hand (ew, ew, ew), both at the beginning of his GL career, and it’s no wonder Hal eventually took a swan dive off the deepest end he could find.
I continue to enjoy Geoff Johns’ style of writing. In two trades I managed to get what I’m pretty sure are all the highlights of Hal’s Green Lantern career. Even the events that were only alluded to (like Hal’s hometown being destroyed) gave just enough detail that I get the gist of things. That makes me more likely to keep reading into the Lantern Corps mythology, which from what I can tell could take me forever and a day since someone apparently felt the need to make like Skittles and taste the rainbow (looks like the Romans had it all wrong—Cupid was just a Star Sapphire!). I did, however, successfully guess that Mr. Creeptastic (again: ew, ew, ew) ends up as a Black Lantern, so go me.
Okay, so I’m on board with GL, even though I expect I won’t have a chance of navigating the world on my own (I have already decided to just take the GL to-read list fellow Pop Bunker guru Elwood gave me as law). But Fables…now that is something I can sink my teeth into! I am totally, 100% on board with this concept. All our favorite fairy tale characters exiled to New York City? Brilliant. Divorces, unlikely love affairs, reformed bad guys, and liars abound—and that’s just in Legends. Now, of all the sub-genres of fantasy, which is already my book genre of choice, urban fantasy holds place of honor as my absolute favorite story type of all time in any genre. So Fables, which is urban fantasy all the way, has the possibility of emerging as my favorite comic book series once I’ve read enough to make that kind of distinction. I can’t wait to get my hands on the next trade in the series.
Plus, the Fables big bad wolf character Bigby seems reminiscent of Wolf (played by Scott Cohen) in the TV miniseries “The 10th Kingdom.” And Scott/Wolf was hot, even if he did have that sheep fetish going…
So, what’s next on my list? Well, besides the next Fables (Animal Farm, I believe?) and whatever Elwood has decreed from on high as my next GL read, I have Neil Gaiman’s Sandman: Preludes and Nocturnes sitting on my dining room table, still wrapped and waiting for me to pay it some attention. Honestly, though, I’m afraid to pick it up. Everyone who I trust to know these sorts of things seems to deem this series as one of the most important and influential in the history of comics. What if I hate it? My only exposure to Gaiman is The Graveyard Book, which I read for a Children’s Lit class in grad school a couple of quarters ago, and while I enjoyed that story I’m not sure how his literary writing will coordinate with his graphic novel writing. I suppose I should just rip off the cellophane and dive in. I’m sure I’ll like it. Right?
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An editor by trade and a writer by love with an affinity for TV, movies, and books. My television defaults to the Discovery Channel unless Bones or Rookie Blue are on. 
Elwood Hath Spoken… *snerk*
I’m super happy that you dig “Fables.” That book is almost a guaranteed slam dunk with anyone new to comics, because not only is the writing tops and the art beautiful, but it takes what you know from your childhood and completely turns it on its ear. Such an awesome comic. It’s one of the few – “Sandman” and pretty much anything by Gaiman being the others – comics I can get Stephanie to read.
Oh, and if you want some serious “ew, ew, ew” then pick up “Preacher” sometime. That’s one twisted, brilliant book.
Preacher… Oh, yeah. That is some marvellously warped fiction, right there.
One of the brilliant things about Sandman is that it’s so varied. What little I’ve read of Fables so far suggests it’s got the same thing going for it. You’ve got a framework that allows a whole range of very different stories to be told within it – in the case of Sandman, everything from Midsummer Night’s Dream to a nasty little tale about a serial killers’ convention.
Elwood, you probably know the title – there’s a John Constantine story by Gaiman that’s one of the most beautiful, heartbreaking things I’ve ever read. I found it in a collection at B&N awhile back, and didn’t buy it, and I haven’t been able to find it since.
I believe you can find that story in Neil Gaiman’s Midnight Days – Called “Hold Me”?
That’s the one. Thanks!
I know that Lady Constantine was in a number of “Sandman” stories, and I think that John was in some of the early issues, but not much after that. It’s been a long time since I’ve read “Sandman” and I’m a little ashamed to say that I’ve never read much “Hellblazer” at all.
I’m odd in that I love pretty much ever OTHER GL than Hal. In fact, I much prefer the non-human GLs, especially Arisia and Kilowog. I have a soft spot for Leezle Pon (he’s a disease) and Rot Lap Fan (he can’t see and so, does everything by sound) and Hannu and Stel and Boodikka…
Do you like spies and undercover stuff at all? If so, may I recommend Queen and Country?
Preludes and Nocturnes isn’t the best in the series, alas. It doesn’t get going until the next collection, The Doll’s House.