At the end of the pre52verse, Hal was stripped of his ring & Sinestro actually recieved a Green ring. I remember the book ending with Jordon being slung back to earth and kinda crying on a road in the middle of nowhere. After reading the zero issues of Green Lantern, New Gaurdians, & GL Corps and not seeing Hal Jordon, I thought DC was going to throw in the towel on the character again. After all, Kyle Rayner, John Stewart, and even Guy Gardner gained in popularity on Hal's previous hiatus as the Spectre, so why not only bring him back with major crossovers or Crises?
But here, Sinestro comes to earth after a few months of Hal Jordan just being Hal and offers him a way to get his ring back. Now before I get into the story, I wanted to mention this small montage that it touches upon and what I'm sure alot of people didn't give much thought of, given that it was simply a setup of what was to come... Basically Hal's life sucks. And this is where it gets interesting, if you think a bit meta on the subject: Hal was a bonified super hero, having saved the world, the galaxy, our very existence itself a few times over... Yet, he has to come back to 1) not getting the girl 2) not having a job/not being able to return to his old job 3) a world that very quickly forgets all he's sacrificed for the greater good. I think it's a really interesting concept: a hero that gives up everything returns to nothing after their fall-from-grace. Wouldn't this be a great setup for a new villainous Hal arc?
Nope. Doesn't happen. It's just a setup to see why Hal would accept Sinestro's proposal: In exchange for his Green Lantern ring returned, he must help Sinestro destroy his Sinestro Corps & free Karugar from their oppression. Hal agrees (not as reluctantly as I believe he should), and we're off to the races with this story arc!
The thing I loved about this story were the few throwbacks to the 'way things used to be' wherein Hal is being taught new ways to use his ring that nobody in the Corps every taught him. Again, proof Sinestro was their best and brightest. There were wonderful moments in this that hearkened back to the original core story of Hal Jordan being thrust into the Corps and having to learn from a condescending Sinestro. There's wonderful verbal jousting that goes on here.
Furthermore, there are several times Sinestro is appointed a "hero" by the local populace. This is great because you actually see an internal struggle within Sinestro, where, even though he may not acknowledge it, the title feels good. He, of course, shrugs it off and abruptly makes sure everyone knows he's not a good guy, but there's still that moment of hesitation that reminds us all Sinestro does what he thinks is just.
There is an obvious lead-up of all Green Lantern comics to an event forthcoming, but I'm glad to see that with DC's new52 reboot, there wasn't crazy retconning and changing of origins. This said, I did see that after the first major Green Lantern event comes and goes, it looks like the new guy from issue #0 steps up in the Green Lantern series. Sad thing, too, because I'm really digging Sinestro wielding green & Hal having to be the obedient dog-on-a-leash. There's one more run with these two from #6-12, before the 3rd Army arc begins, and I'm looking forward to reading them!
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