The 2013 holiday season is upon us and with less than two weeks to go the pressure is mounting on what to buy for the Green Lantern fan in your life. We know our readers of The Blog of Oa deserve the very best, so we spared no expense and risk of personal injury in sneaking into Larfleeze’s lair to take a gander of what’s on the top of his mile long Christmas list this year. And if you don’t know who Larfleeze is and why his list is so long have no fear – you don’t need to know any of that to be able to get something great for the ring slinger in your life!
Green Lantern: The Animated Series goodies!
Listen, if you’re a Green Lantern fan and you haven’t seen what is one of the best superhero animated shows ever – turn your power battery in, Poozer! The show has been collected in two different DVD releases and both are available for under twenty dollars. The first part, dubbed “Rise of the Red Lanterns” contains the first thirteen episodes and can be found at Amazon.com for just $14.
The second half of the season, “Manhunter Menace”, contains the final thirteen episodes on two DVD’s. These episodes bring the saga of Hal Jordan and the crew of the Interceptor to a dramatic conclusion as they face off against the arrival of the Anti-Monitor and the dark turn of one of their own. This set will only set you back $15 at Amazon.com.
Let’s not forget some higher end collectibles that were spawned by the animated show. DC Comics released three statues based on the character designs used for Hal Jordan, Atrocitus and Saint Walker. They range in price from $65-$124 depending on where you find them. Amazon.com sells them as does DC Comics online store – in fact you can find a ton of DC Comics merchandise in their store. LaLa Land Records also sells CD’s of the Annie Award nominated soundtrack for both halves of the season on their site – they are great to listen to while reading comics!
DC Comics Absolute Editions
Outside of DC Comics regular ongoing series and their subsequent hardcover and paperback collected editions, there is the revered Absolute Edition of comic book stories which hold a special significance. These editions are over-sized hardcover behemoths that come gorgeously slip-covered. The Absolute Editions’ size format really puts a spotlight on the beautiful artwork that made these stories landmark books for the publisher and often these highly prized books contain supplemental material which adds to the reading experience. There are four Absolute Editions that have Green Lantern in the forefront:
Absolute DC: The New Frontier is a critically acclaimed miniseries which takes the Cold-War paranoia of the fifties and the wild eyed optimism of the Kennedy era and uses it as a backdrop to tell the origins of DC’s “Silver Age” renaissance and the formation of the Justice League. Green Lantern features prominently in the story and this beautiful book includes new story pages and an extensive library of material that includes sketches and detailed annotations from writer Darwyn Cooke that show how much thought he put into this seminal work.
This edition originally sold for over one hundred dollars, but Amazon currently sells it for just under $68.
Absolute Green Lantern: Rebirth is the dawn of the Geoff Johns’ era and this event is often regarded as the one that established him as one of today’s greatest writers. Out of the ashes Hal Jordan emerges when the truth is uncovered about his fall from grace. The story adds new layers to the Green Lantern mythology and revived the franchise, turning the character into a top tier hero in the DC Universe. Green Lantern’s rise to pop culture status, the movie and tv series all begins here.
Amazon sells this edition for under $60.
If Green Lantern: Rebirth were Star Wars, then the Sinestro Corps War is The Empire Strikes Back. A self contained magnus opus from the creative teams on the Green Lantern books, the Sinestro Corps War caught fans by surprise in a self-contained event that kept fans on the edge of their seats during the summer of 2007. No longer content to fight the Green Lanterns alone, the renegade Sinestro recruits his own army and sets the universe diving for cover in fear as he and his band of intergalactic terrorists set their sites on Earth. Only the Green Lantern Corps and the Justice League stand in the way between the fear mongers and innocent lives. Many fans consider this story to be the greatest Green Lantern story ever written. Amazon sells this 368 page knockout for $90.
The biggest event in comics in 2009 was the disturbing rise of the dead in Absolute Green Lantern: Blackest Night. That summer you couldn’t enter a comic shop and not feel the impact that this story had. Fans everywhere donned the free promotional power rings as they read about Nekron’s return to the land of the living with plans to extinguish all life. This edition contains the main story as it unfolded in the Blackest Night mini series and the main Green Lantern title, containing 576 pages and weighing in at over seven pounds! Amazon sells the book for about $85, a third of the original price.
Statues and Action Figures
Hey, we all need stuff for our respective Lantern Caves, and while you favorite Green Lantern fan might have a treasure trove of plastic heroes and statues, he or she might not have these yet.
The Hal Jordan Kotobukiya ArtFX+ Statue is imported from Japan and while he is the height of an action figure he’s actually a 1/10th scale statue. The sculpt on this figure is pretty cool and the figure has magnets molded into the base of his boots which allows you to stand him pretty securely anywhere you want on the included base. For $35 at Amazon he’s priced just right as something special that looks a little more dignified in your cubicle than your standard action figure.
The Hal Jordan figure is just one in a whole Justice League of statues from Kotobukiya, so if s/he likes this one, your Valentine’s Day shopping just got easier!
Simon Baz is not your every day Green Lantern. Created by writer Geoff Johns to challenge readers’ preconceived notion of what a hero is, Simon Baz struggles to overcome both Muslim sterotypes and the poor decisions of his past to become the newest Earth Green Lantern. DC Comics released this new action figure to herald his arrival in the Green Lantern universe which is available at many comic shops or online for around $20.
Looking for something a little more…..unique? You likely won’t find a Green Lantern collectible more different that this Domo Green Lantern figure, well except for maybe the Alfred E. Neuman Mad Magazine Green Lantern figure. At under ten dollars he’s a cute take on the pop culture Japanese character with a Justice League twist.
You want something really special you say? Okay, this is the coolest Green Lantern item in my own personal collection and the price tag will may you question your devotion to the fan in your life – I know my spouse questioned my sanity what she saw the price tag. But in the end the “but, Honey, there are only 1500 of these on the whole planet!” argument won the day. The Sideshow Collectibles Hal Jordan Premium Format Figure is absolutely jaw dropping. Standing at twenty one inches high this is the crown jewel of my collection. The well concealed activation button on the back triggers the awesome green illumination of the rock formation, the power battery and Hal’s power ring. Yeah, it’s $350 but damn is it nice! What’s better – a similarly sized Sinestro statue comes out in 2014….and my wife just fainted!
Power Batteries!
What’s a Green Lantern without a ring and a power battery?! No matter what emotion in the spectrum the fan in your life embraces there’s a battery and ring for it. DC has been releasing a steady stream of life sized power batteries that light up using the power ring they bundle with it, and best of all no aliens have to die so your Green Lantern fan can wield the most powerful weapon in the universe! And compared the figure above, the $200 price tags doesn’t sound so bad, does it!? Well, does it!? Right now only green (will), yellow (fear) and orange (avarice) are available, but blue (hope) will ship on December 18th and the rest of them are releasing over the next year.