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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, Geoff Johns’s run is considered the one to read. It certainly is influential, it leads to the famous Blackest Night event, and 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.

If Geoff Johns is mostly credited for the success of the Green Lantern title at that time, he was not alone. Peter Tomasi was in charge of the Green Lantern Corps series, and reading the two together is highly recommended. That said, DC Comics can’t stop republishing Johns’s books, but Tomasi’s work can be more hard to find.

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 looking at the details, here is Geoff Johns’ full run in Omnibus:

  • 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, 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.

As already said, Geoff Johns wasn’t alone and DC has finally started collected Tomasi and Gleason’s run in Omnibus:

Green Lantern by Geoff Johns new paperback collection

In 2019, DC Comics started to republish the series in a new format. Like the Omnibus collection, it’s mainly focused on Geoff Johns, the only issues from other series that are included are the ones connected to the crossovers.

Green Lantern by Geoff Johns (and more)

Everything started with a 6-issue miniseries called Rebirth. Then, Volume 4 of the Green Lantern series was launched.

The Sinestro War Corps! In this first crossover between the Green Lantern 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 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. 

What follows is the list of must-read TPBs that connect Green Lantern to the Blackest night story. For more information, go to the full reading order of the event.

Alert Event! After the Blackest night came Brightest Day, another (but different) event that follows the previous one. There are multiple ways to read it. You can follow our issue by issue reading order or just read the Green Lantern issues by Johns. With the TPBs, you can follow this order:

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

Event Alert! Green Lantern: Rise of the Third Army is a crossover event between all of The Green Lantern titles (Reading Order available here). 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 (Reading Order available here). 

Also, you can find all of these titles in the following books:

It’s the end. After that Robert Venditti took over the main Green Lantern title. In fact, all 4 Lantern titles gain new creative teams and go off 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, see our Green Lantern New 52 Reading Order or go to our complete Green Lantern Reading Order.

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