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Green Lantern by Geoff Johns Reading Order (plus Green Lantern Corps, Blackest Night, Red Lanterns and more!)

When you look into Green Lantern comics, Geoff Johns’s run is considered the one to read. It certainly is influential and led to the famous Blackest Night event. It was epic and full of colors.

Johns started by bringing back Hal Jordan in the Green Lantern Corps (he became The Spectre after his redemptory appearance as Parallax in the 1996 event The Final Night), then he introduced new concepts and expanded the Green Lantern mythos in a big way that still defined it to this day–see The Emotional Spectrum Explained for more detail.

If Geoff Johns is mostly credited for the success of the Green Lantern comics at that time, he was not alone. Peter Tomasi was in charge of the Green Lantern Corps comic book series, and reading the two together is highly recommended.

Here is the official synopsis: It’s been years since the death of Hal Jordan and the end of the Green Lantern Corps. But as the Torchbearer Kyle Rayner is about to find out, the adventure of epic and mythological proportions is about to begin as the former Lantern returns to the land of the living to atone for his sins. And the cosmos will never be the same as Sinestro wages his war against the Green Lanterns with his newly founded, Sinestro Corps!

What to read before Green Lantern by Geoff Johns?

It’s a new beginning. You can go ahead with Green Lantern Rebirth, but if you want to know the basics about Green Lantern, these two books are recommended:

  • Green Lantern: Secret Origin
    Collects Green Lantern #29-35
  • DC Universe by Alan Moore
    Collects Action Comics #584, Batman Annual #11, Dc Comics Presents #85, Detective Comics #549-550, Green Lantern #188, The Omega Men #26-27,  Secret Origins #10, Superman #423, Tales Of The Green Lantern Corps Annual #2 & 3, Superman Annual #11 and Vigilante #17-18.

Green Lantern by Geoff Johns Reading Order:

Green Lantern by Geoff Johns/Tomasi & Gleason omnibus collection

Before taking a more detailed look into it, here is Geoff Johns’ full Green Lantern comics run in the Omnibus collection.

  • Green Lantern by Geoff Johns Omnibus Vol. 1
    Collects Green Lantern Rebirth #1-6, Green Lantern Corps Recharge #1-5, Green Lantern #1-25, Green Lantern Corps #14-18, Green Lantern: Sinestro Corps Special #1, Green Lantern Secret Files 2005 #1, Tales of the Sinestro Corps: Superman Prime #1 and Green Lantern/Sinestro Corps Secret Files #1.
  • Green Lantern by Geoff Johns Omnibus Vol. 2
    Collects Green Lantern #26-52, Blackest Night #0-7, DC Universe #0, Untold Tales of Blackest Night #1-2, and Blackest Night Tales of the Corps #1-2.
  • Green Lantern by Geoff Johns Omnibus Vol. 3
    Collects Green Lantern #53-60, Green Lantern: Larfleeze Christmas Special #1, Green Lantern (2011) #1-20, Green Lantern Annual #1, Green Lantern Corps #58-60, And Green Lantern Emerald Warriors #8-10.

For a long time, DC Comics mostly reprinted Geoff Johns’ comics, not the ones from Tomasi and Gleason. Finally, this has changed even if it’s only in the omnibus collection for now.

Green Lantern by Geoff Johns’ new paperback collection

In 2019, DC Comics started republishing the main Green Lantern comics series in a new format. Like the Omnibus collection, it’s mainly focused on Geoff Johns, the only issues from other series included are the ones connected to the crossovers (Books One & Four have been reprinted in 2024).

Green Lantern by Geoff Johns (and more)

This is our complete reading order for that era. It contains Geoff Johns’ Green Lantern comics, but also Peter Tomasi’s Green Lantern Corps and all the spin-offs and events. Everything started with a 6-issue comic book miniseries called Green Lantern: Rebirth. Then, Volume 4 of the Green Lantern Comics series was launched.

The Sinestro War Corps! In this first crossover between the Green Lantern comic book series. Sinestro has gathered an army of soldiers fueled by the fear they instill in others. And as one of the Book of Oa’s prophecies comes true, the Green Lantern Corps makes a last stand that reveals the reincarnation of one of their fold!

Alert Comic Book Event! The Prophecy of the Blackest Night has come to pass—a mysterious force is raising deceased heroes and villains into an army of undead Black Lanterns! The combined might of the Green Lantern Corps and an armada of living superbeings must now band together in a fight quite literally for their lives. 

  • Blackest Night Omnibus
    Collects Adventure Comics #4-5,7, Blackest Night #0-8, Blackest Night: Batman #1-3, Blackest Night: The Flash #1-3, Blackest Night: JSA #1-3, Blackest Night: Superman #1-3, Blackest Night: Tales of the Corps #1-3, Blackest Night: Titans #1-3, Blackest Night: Wonder Woman #1-3, Catwoman #83, Green Arrow #30, Green Lantern #43-53, Green Lantern Corps #39-47, Phantom Stranger #42, Starman #81, Suicide Squad #67, The Atom and Hawkman #46, The Power of Shazam! #48, The Question #37, Untold Tales of Blackest Night #1, and Weird Western Tales #71.

What follows is the list of must-read trade paperbacks that connect Green Lantern to the Blackest Night story. You can check out our guide to reading the Blackest Night comics event for more information.

Alert Comic Book Event! After the Blackest night came Brightest Day, another (but different) event that follows the previous one. There are multiple ways to go about reading it. First, you can follow our issue-by-issue reading order or only read the Green Lantern comics by Johns. With the trade paperbacks, you can follow this order:

We have reached a point in time that changed the DC Comics Universe. We entered the New 52 era, but the impact on Hal Jordan and the Green Lantern Corps was limited in comparison to most of the DC Universe. At that point, we entered Volume 5 of the Green Lantern comics series, Volume 3 of the Green Lantern Corps comics series, and the new Red Lantern comics (written by Peter Milligan) was launched, as well as the Green Lantern: New Guardians comics (written by Tony Bedard).

Event Comic Book Alert! Green Lantern: Rise of the Third Army is a crossover event between all The Green Lantern titles. The mysterious Third Army has risen across the cosmos like a plague, destroying everything in its path—and Hal Jordan and Sinestro are nowhere to be found. Now, it’s up to the new Green Lantern Simon Baz to become the hero that the Corps needs! After that, it was the Wrath of the First Lantern.

Also, you can find all of these Green Lantern comics in the following books:

It’s the end. After that Robert Venditti took over the main Green Lantern title. All 4 Lantern comics gained new creative teams and veered in different directions. Those titles enter a sort of a new phase collected in Green Lantern: Dark Days, Green Lantern Corps: Rebuild, Green Lantern: New Guardians: Gods and Monsters, and Red Lanterns: Blood Brothers. And everybody is quickly reunited in the crossover Green Lantern: Lights Out.

To know more about it, you can consult our article dedicated to reading the Green Lantern New 52 comics in order or go to our complete Green Lantern Reading Order.

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1 thought on “Green Lantern by Geoff Johns Reading Order (plus Green Lantern Corps, Blackest Night, Red Lanterns and more!)”

  1. Javier Arias
    Reply

    So, in order to get a compelt story line from beginning to end, I need to read all of this comics from top to bottom?
    Or is it a comboluted mess of super good comics that are not co-related to one another but are must read?

    I’ve read emerald twilight and rebirht so far and I like how you can see progression from one comic into the other, I know nothing of green lantern and would love to read a story from start to finish instead of reading a bunch of bits and tips from different storylines inside the omnibus.

    If I read from top to bottom this list of comics do I get a complete story line with an overall Setup, the Confrontation, and Resolution? Even if there are minor archs along the way.

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