Green Lantern: Rebirth by Geoff Johns, Ethan VanSciver and Prentis Rollins

Hal Jordan was Green Lantern, called by the Alien Abin Sur to serve as part of the Green Lantern Corps. But he went crazy after Coast City was destroyed and became Parallax, who destroyed the Green Power Battery on Oa and killed many of the Oans. He was defeated, but his spirit was joined with that of the Spectre, who hoped to bring him Salvation.

Kyle Rayner, the new Green Lantern, has been exploring the edge of the universe when he finds a planet of strange creatures, who can only say one thing to him- "Parallax is coming."

Back on earth, Hal Jordan is trying to take in a relaxing ballgame, but the Spectre won't let him rest- all the people around him start confessing their sins to him, and he has to flee as the stands become a madhouse. Meanwhile, an old villain of Green Lantern named Black Hand breaks into Green Arrow's house and attempts to steal the power ring Hal gave Olliver for safekeeping. But when Ollie confronts the man, Hal shows up and makes Black Hand's name literal, turning it into coal, where it breaks off. But even as he does so, he's struggling with the Spectre, who is the one who did it.

And in Guy Gardner's bar, Guy and John are talking when some strange yellow energy takes over Guy, whose hands become something that look like guns. Yellow energy blazes from the guns and destroys the bar...all except for Hal Jordan's statue. And Guy is badly hurt- it seems like his body wants to turn itself inside out.

They take him to the JLA watchtower, and find that Coast City has risen again. But there is only one building there... Hal's old apartment building. Meanwhile, Carol Ferris has returned to the airfield her family used to own, and she's discovered Hal Jordan's old plane. Now, a storm sweeps in, and the airfield shivers and suddenly is back to the way it used to be- completely restored. And Hal is there, too.

Kyle has crash-landed to earth, much in the manner that Abin-Sur did, and been found by two hikers. He's trying to keep it together, but he's badly hurt, and he doesn't want to use his power ring- its fused itself to his hand, and he fears it is somehow corrupting him when he uses it.

What is going on? The JLA tracks down Hal and Carol, and another Green Lantern, Kilowogg, shows up as well. and something enters the heroes and makes them attack Hal Jordan. Finally Kyle makes it there and reveals that Hal was never Parallax- Parallax was a creature of yellow energy, the energy of fear, that the Guardians imprisoned in the great power battery on Oa. For years it slumbered there, and when it finally woke up, it targetted Hal Jordan to corrupt, making him seem to age faster, and undercutting his courage and belief in himself, all so he would go mad and release it from the Power Battery.

Spectre realized that something dark inhabited Hal and took on his body, hoping to drive out whatever it was lodged in his soul, but now Parallax is corrupting the Spectre, and it will be up to Hal and his fellow heroes to drive it out. But when it corrupts and possesses his fellow JLA'ers, is there any hope at all for Hal to defeat not only Parallax, but Sinestro as well, and then to drive it out of Ganthet, whom it now possesses? And even if they can, what will they do with it? Parallax cannot be left free to roam the Galaxy.

This graphic novel was a limited series whose sole and only purpose was to undo the turning of Hal Jordan into Parallax and rehabilitate his character, showing that he wasn't responsible for all that he did as Parallax, because he wasn't really Parallax, just possessed by the entity named Parallax. As a miniseries, I found it to be rather successful, but then again, I was never really a fan of the JLA, so this is more of the outsider's perspective from someone who hasn't read the entire series.

Hal not only rehabilitates his character (and has a standoff with Batman, who isn't anywhere near as charitable towards Hal's character as the other heroes are- but then. that's Batman's nature, isn't it? Suspicious, always.), but undoes several other things, like the graying of his hair and his premature aging. The series also undoes the "without yellow weakness" property of Kyle Rayner's ring, because Parallax was the yellow weakness in the Oan power battery- that's where it was imprisoned. At the end it is once more imprisoned and the Oans on Oa have decided to reonstitute the guardians. How that will work with four GLs based on earth, I really don't know (Hal, John, Guy and Kyle).

I liked this graphic novel, and it was interesting to see how they tried to redeem the character of Hal Jordan. I felt it was a successful redemption, but fans of the series and the JLA might feel differently. In the end, it was nice to see the greatest Green Lantern return to the fold, redeemed and reborn. Recommended.