The 2014 holiday season is just about to begin and no doubt you might be worried about what to buy for the Green Lantern fan in your life or what to put on your Christmas list if you’re a member of the Corps. Green Lantern fans 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 gift 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! We’ve even taken care of some of the shopping for you by providing hot links when possible to where you can buy them online, but remember to support your local comic shop if you have one!
Shine Your Green Lantern’s Light
You can help the fan in your life show the universe how much Green Lantern rules pretty inexpensively this holiday season with things like t-shirts. This one is a pretty spectacular double sided shirt that looks like the upper half of Green Lantern’s uniform, but it may be a little hard to find. It appears to be a Walmart exclusive and they don’t offer it online, but if you can’t find it at one of your local stores it can be found on ebay for under $20. It’s currently my favorite but there are plenty of Green Lantern shirts to be had and no fan would turn their nose up at any of them.
That special someone have a car? Try giving him or her this really cool metal car emblem that can be stuck to their Lantern mobile. It’s 3.25 inches in diameter and attaches via a 3M foam adhesive which will stand the weather over time and has the willpower to survive your local car wash. At under $20 at Amazon it’s a great way to accessorize his or her ride.
Get Your Game On
Superheroes are everywhere and video games have become a favorite way for fans to enjoy their favorite characters. Green Lantern fans of any age will love the latest entry in the Lego video game series, Lego Batman 3: Beyond Gotham. It may have Batman in the title, but this game is Green Lantern centric as the plot revolves around Green Lantern mythology and a whole Corps of Green Lantern characters are playable in their Lego-ized glory including Lego versions of Green Lantern writer Geoff Johns and Daffy Duck as the Green Loontern! Best of all this game is available for nearly every video game platform as well as your home computer.
If the fan in your life is looking for something a little more serious then you can’t go wrong with 2013’s DC Comics fighting game, Injustice: Gods Among Us. You can read my review of the game here, but in a nutshell picture a world where Superman crosses the line and imposes his will on the Earth with heroes lining up on either side of the conflict. Green Lantern and Sinestro are both playable characters in this game, which is available for most game consoles, and there’s even downloadable content that will turn characters into their Black Lantern versions. There’s also a newer “ultimate” version of the game which includes a bunch of bonus content that you can find for around $20.
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 $65.
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. 2014 marks the tenth anniversary of this modern classic and deserves to be on every Green Lantern fan’s shelf.
Amazon sells this edition for around $56.
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 just under $73.
The biggest event in comicns 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 $95 – zombies and superheroes are a combination that’s sure to make the fan in your life happy.
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 $34 at Amazon he’s priced just right as something special that looks a little more dignified in your cubicle than your standard action figure.
You want something really special you say? Okay, this is one of the coolest Green Lantern items out there that I’m anxiously awaiting to add to my own personal collection and the price tag may make 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 1000 of these on the whole planet!” argument won the day. The Sideshow Collectibles Sinestro Premium Format Figure is absolutely jaw dropping and the perfect companion to anyone who already has the Hal Jordan version which came out last year. Standing at twenty five inches high this statue is still a preorder but any fan will be willing to wait to get this one! The well concealed activation button on the back triggers fear inducing yellow illumination in the base of the statue. Yeah, it’s $400 but damn is it nice!
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), violet (love), black (death) and white (life) are currently available.
Green Lantern: The Animated Series
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 fifteen dollars. The first part, dubbed “Rise of the Red Lanterns” contains the first thirteen episodes and can be found at Amazon.com for just $10.
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 $13 at Amazon.com. If you’re looking for the show in the best format possible, Amazon also sell the entire series in one bluray edition for $19 and change – and this is one show that looks spectacular in all its high definition glory!