Want It Got It TPB : Tales of the Green Lantern - Dave Gibbons Volume 1

Update: Released 11/20/12  Green Lantern: Sector 2814 Vol. 1 (Green Lantern (Graphic Novels))

Writer:Len Wein
Artist: Dave Gibbons
Publisher: DC Comics (1984)
Includes: Green Lantern #172-176 and #178-181

Dork Note: I would do this Dave Gibbons collection in two volumes. The first volume would end with Hal Jordan quitting the Green Lantern Corps.

Clipped from comiccon.com written by Lawson:

This was a cool period, 1983 and 1984, right before CRISIS ON INFINITE EARTHS, when the DC Universe still made sense to us kids who had been reading DC comics and who understood and even liked the idea of parallel Earths.

During the Wein/Gibbons run, Hal Jordan returned to Earth after a year-long exile in space ordered by the Guardians (those manipulative little blue-skinned bastards!). Hal moves in with his girlfriend Carol Ferris (hey, it's the 1980s, heroes can shack up now), although we're also introduced to a new supporting cast, as we typically are when a new writer takes over a title.

Basically, Green Lantern's life revolves around his employer, Ferris Aircraft, and making it profitable again. Which seems a little dubious ethically -- dedicating this awesome power to boosting one corporation ("Hello, Superman? This is General Motors. Um, listen ...") -- but Wein tries to make it a good vs. evil scenario. He has a corrupt congressman scheming to destroy Ferris Aircraft by ... well, by hiring a different C-list super-villain every month to attack the place (the Javelin, the Demolition Team, etc.). Because if a company is known to be defended by the powerful Green Lantern, a founding member of the Justice League of America, obviously the best strategy for attack is hiring a super-villain, not, y'know, quietly screwing with its stock price.

OK, Wein's stories are obviously a little thin, but they're fun, nonetheless. What's more fun is admiring Gibbons' art (he sometimes did pencils, inks and lettering; in a few issues, Dick Giordano inked) on a traditional superhero book, just a couple of years before he and Alan Moore produced WATCHMEN. You can really see Gibbons' style take form.

By the end of the Wein/Gibbons run, Hal Jordan retires and passes the power ring to John Stewart for a (short-lived, it will turn out, thanks to CRISIS) solo run as Earth's Green Lantern.