Green Lantern #0

Hey everyone, JT here with the last review of this comic week, before New Comic Day and the whole new week of comics! Thanks to you guys we're closing this week with the only DC Comics review of the week, which just so happens to be the debut of the newest Green Lantern. So let's get to it!

Green Lantern #0

Summary: We start things off with an Islamic family living in Dearborn, Michigan. They watch as the events of 9/11 unfold, which of course leads to them being picked on and called terrorists throughout their lives, especially Simon Baz and his sister Sira. As an adult, we see Simon, having stolen a car, when he looks in the back and finds out there's an armed bomb in it. Simon calls his sister and tells her to tell his parents he didn't do this, he did steal the van but he didn't know about the bomb. He tells her to get some things out of his safety deposit box and that they belong to him and her son now. He apologizes about Nazir, but he's cut off when he's rear-ended by the police. Simon heads towards and abandoned factory and jumps out of the van as it hits the building and he bomb explodes. Simon is quickly arrested and a few days later we see he's basically suspected of being a terrorist. Simon says he didn't know about the bomb and he isn't a criminal, to which they mention that he stole the van and was arrested for illegal street racing. He was also in a crash, which killed his brother-in-law Nazir. Simon reiterates that he's a car thief, not a terrorist, but the hot heads in charge of National Security want a answers, so they get ready to electrocute them out of Simon. Simon is able to fight his way out until he's stuck staring down the barrel of a gun, when suddenly a Green Lantern ring flies through the wall and onto his finger. The ring tells Simon Baz "he has *ERROR* the ability to overcome great fear." Simon immediately flies through the roof after taking a surge of energy. We then see the main agent in charge of the interrogation notifying Amanda Waller that suspected terrorist Simon Baz has a Green Lantern ring. We then see Cyborg has intercepted that call and notifies Batman that something may be wrong with Green Lantern Hal Jordan, and asks if anyone has heard from him. Simon's story comes to a close as we see him lying unconscious in a field, as his ring says "Message waiting." The epilogue of the story shows us Sinestro and Hal Jordan trapped in Black Hand's ring as the issue ends.


Thoughts: First things first, I'm a Detroit boy, just like Geoff Johns, so I loved the references to streets and things that I know around here like the Detroit Free Press Newspaper, that was cool and definitely made things feel more realistic for me. That aside, this was a good story. I liked the introduction of Simon Baz, the story was interesting, I'm curious as to why he stole that van but we'll know soon enough hopefully. I'm wondering how the fact his ring said error will play a part in Baz's time as Green Lantern. All in all I enjoyed this story, it wasn't perfect but it set up a lot of questions, introduced Simon Baz as an interesting character, and it was new but enjoyable and easy to follow.

Score: 8/10 

Simon Baz: I'm a car thief, not a terrorist!