The really good thing about having a comic book collector for a colleague is that I get to enjoy them without having to shell out a single centavo. And I avoid the long wait between issues too. :)
A few weeks ago, I had the pleasure of going through the event, Blackest Night. Yesterday, I sat through the whole limited series that was Green Lantern: Rebirth. To be honest, before the Blackest Night, I had the faintest idea of who the Green Lantern was. I'm not a big fan of superheroes, see. But the whole philosophy behind the Corps and all that, now I found those fascinating. It's interesting to look into all those constructs and see how the themes are repeated in other epic stories.
So Rebirth, owing to the fact that it included a recap of who Hal Jordan was, and how he had become different and then how he sacrificed himself for greater good, gave me a better idea of who the Green Lantern was before Parallax, and The Spectre.
I had expected to see a glimpse of what relationship Hal Jordan had with The Flash before Blackest Night but this was not evident in Rebirth. Instead, what shone through was the conflict between Green Lantern and Batman. More important though, was the bond between the Green Lanterns, specifically Guy Gardner and John Stewart. Kyle Rayner played the vital role of unearthing the truth, and bringing Hal's body back to Earth.
To my opinion, Rebirth was not so much as the story of Hal Jordan's escape from the clutches of death. It is, just as the name implies, the rebirth of a legend. This is DC Comics' finest attempt at restoring Hal Jordan's old glory. I can see how this would have been a hit for old GL fans, especially when you consider how Batman was so unforgiving.
In brightest day, in blackest night . No evil shall escape my sight.
Let those who worship evil’s might beware my power, Green Lantern’s light!