Green Lantern by Geoff Johns Reading Order: How to read the most ambitious run in Green Lantern history?

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When I started this blog, this reading order was one of the first on my to-do list. I pushed it away, but I finally came back to it when I read that there’ll be a new reprint next year.

What about Green Lantern by Geoff Johns?

I didn’t really know a lot about Green Lantern, but when I started digging into what is considered must-read, the Geoff Johns run on the famous DC Comics series was often named.

It’s a great way to enter the Green Lantern world. Johns created a new start and expanded it in a big way that still defined it to this day. It’s full of great characters, well-thought storylines and a lot of ambitions.

If you don’t know what the Green Lantern Corps is, it’s like the space cops of the universe. Hal Jordan became a Green Lantern when an alien crashed on Earth and gave him his ring of power (that is the simple way of telling the story).

Hal joined the corps, but things got complicated and he became the vehicle for the incarnation of Fear itself. When the story began, Hal is back and dark times lie ahead.

Information This article will not be updated anymore. Since we have launched a blog dedicated to comic book reading orders, you can find an up-to-date version of this Green Lantern by Geoff Johns Reading Order here.

Green Lantern Reading Order:

First, you need to know that Geoff Johns didn’t write the Green Lantern Corps series, Peter Tomasi did and it was pretty good too. I personally read the two series, but if you only want Johns’s work, you’d have to skip most of the corps series (after Recharge), the ion one, etc. Just read Green Lantern.

Before jumping into the main story, it is often recommended to start with these two books: Green Lantern: Secret Origin (2008) and DC Universe by Alan Moore (2012). The first one is a retelling of Hal Jordan origin story, the second one gives key elements that will be useful later on.

  • Green Lantern: Rebirth – Collects Green Lantern: Rebirth #1-6.
  • Green Lantern: No Fear – Collects Green Lantern vol.4 #1-6 and Green Lantern Secret Files and Origins 2005: Flight.
  • Green Lantern Corps: Recharge – Collects Green Lantern Corps: Recharged #1-5.

  • Green Lantern: Revenge of the Green Lanterns – Collects Green Lantern vol.4 #7-13.
  • Green Lantern Corps: To be a Green Lantern – written by Dave Gibbons. Collects Green Lantern Corps vol.2 #1-6.
  • Green Lantern: Wanted – Hal Jordan – Collects Green Lantern vol.4 #14-20.
  • Green Lantern Corps: The Dark Side of Green – Written by Dave Gibbons. Collects Green Lantern Corps vol.2 #7-13.

  • Green Lantern: The Sinestro War Corps – Collects Green Lantern vol. 4 #21-25, Green Lantern Corps vol. 2 #14-19 and Green Lantern: Sinestro Corps Special.
  • Green Lantern Corps: Ring Quest – Written by Peter Tomasi. Collects Green Lantern Corps vol.2 #20-26.
  • Green Lantern: Rage of the Red Lanterns – Collects Green Lantern vol. 4 #26-28, 36-38 and Final Crisis: Rage of the Red Lanterns.

  • Green Lantern Corps: Sins of the Star Sapphire – Collects Green Lantern Corps (vol. 2) #27-32.
  • Green Lantern: Agent Orange – Collects Green Lantern vol.4 #39-42.
  • Green Lantern Corps: Emerald Eclipse – Written by Peter J. Tomasi. Collects Green Lantern Corps vol.2 #33-38.

That’s where things get complicated when you read the series in TPB form. Weirdly, DC Comics didn’t put all that in one omnibus. Instead, you have a TPB/series. That said, if you are reading Green Lantern AND Green Lantern Corps, you’ll have to start with an issue Blackest Night: Green Lantern, then an issue of the main Blackest Night series, and then an issue Blackest Night: Green Lantern Corps, then you go back to Blackest Night: Green Lantern, and so on… You can follow the reading order on Reddit for this event.

  • Blackest Night – Collects Blackest Night #0–8.
  • Blackest Night: Green Lantern – Collects Green Lantern vol. 4 #43–52.
  • Blackest Night: Green Lantern Corps – Written by Peter J. Tomasi. Collects Green Lantern Corps vol. 2 #39–47.
  • Blackest Night: Tales of the Corps – Collects Tales of the Corps #1–3 and stories from Green Lantern vol. 4 #49 and Adventure Comics vol. 2 #4–5.

The follow-up to Blackest night is Brightest Day, another big event that follows the previous one. There are multiple ways to read it. You can follow this reading order issue by issue or just read the Green Lantern issues by Johns. With the TPBs, you can follow this order:

  • Brightest Day Vol. 1 – Collects Brightest Day #0-7.
  • Brightest Day Vol. 2 – Collects Brightest Day #8-16.
  • Green Lantern Corps: Revolt of the Alpha Lanterns – Written by Tony Bedard. Collects Green Lantern Corps #21-22 & #48-52.

  • Brightest Day: Green Lantern – Collects Green Lantern #53-62.
  • Green Lantern: Emerald Warriors Vol. 1 – Written by Peter J. Tomasi. Collects Green Lantern: Emerald Warriors #1-7.
  • Brightest Day Vol. 3 – Collects Brightest Day #17-24.

  • Green Lantern Corps: The Weaponer – Written by Tony Bedard. Collects Green Lantern Corps vol.2 #53-57.
  • Green Lantern: War of the Green Lanterns – Collects Green Lantern: Emerald Warrior #8-10, Green Lantern vol.4 #63-67 and Green Lantern Corps vol.2 #58-60.
  • War of the Green Lanterns: Aftermath Collects Green Lantern Corps vol. 2 #61-63, Green Lantern: Emerald Warriors #11-13, and War of the Green Lantern: Aftermath #1-2.

This is the end of the volume 4 of Green Lantern.


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.

  • Flashpoint – Collects Flashpoint #1-5.
  • Green Lantern: Sinestro – Collects Green Lantern vol.5 #1-6.
  • Green Lantern Corps: Fearsome – Written by Peter J. Tomasi. Collects Green Lantern Corps #1-7.

  • Green Lantern: Revenge of the Black Hand – Collects Green Lantern vol.5 #7-12 and Green Lantern Annual #1.
  • Green Lantern Corps: Alpha War – Written by Peter J. Tomasi. Collects Green Lantern Corps #0, #8-14.
  • Green Lantern: The End – Collects Green Lantern vol.5 #0, #13-20.

The Omnibuses

If you really just want to read Geoff Johns work on Green Lantern, you can go with the omnibuses. They don’t collect most of the Green Lantern Corps, Flashpoint or other crossover tie-ins, just the main series.

  • Green Lantern omnibus by Geoff Johns Book 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 omnibus by Geoff Johns Book 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 omnibus by Geoff Johns Book 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 more Green Lantern, check out our Green Lantern by Grant Morrison Reading Order. Don’t hesitate to follow us on Twitter or Facebook to discover more book series.

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