I'm not a huge fan of the current Green Lantern. I don't hate him, but I'm not terribly enthralled with him either. I pick up the odd issue of the Kyle Rainer GL series, but usually only when Hal Jordan or other former Green Laterns are popping up. And that's what the draw was to me for the Green Lantern 80-Page Giant, with stories starring Green Lanterns old and new. The sheer variety of stories and adherance to history (and continuity) make this the best 80-Pager yet.
In fact, the only weakness that the issue has is the poor, and unnessesary framing sequence (by Ron Marz, with typical quality art from Tom Mandrake). This sequence has John Stewart, Alan Scott and Guy Gardner meeting for drinks after hours at Guy's Warriors bar (drunken superheroes... that smells like trouble). Mentioned in a previous issue of Green Lantern, the trio usually meet with upstart GL Kyle to tell stories of the old days (yes, I know it's pretty lame, sad, and pathetic) and hope he learns something. Well, Kyle's off on a mission, so the three sit around and tell tall tails of their glory days to eachother, if for no other reason than they lead lonely, pathetic lives (who comes up with these things...?).
The first tale is a spectacular Golden Age Green Lantern story written by the king of the Golden Age James Robinson. Mike Mayhew (an unjustly overlooked talent) provides spectacular "retro-style" art for this story of how Alan Scott fell in love with Harlequin.
John Stewert tells a tale of his days as Green Lantern, challenging the authority of the Guardians of the Universe by helping free alien slaves from their oppressors. A poigniant tale by Dennis O'Neil with fantastic art and colours by Rodolfo Damaggio.
A typically humerous "lost" tale starring Guy Gardner reunites the former Guy Gardner team of Beau Smith, Mitch Byrd and Dan Davis. In this story, Guy is the current Green Lanter showing off his bravado for the natives of a primitive planet. When the monsterous overlords show up, Guy must use his wits to defeat them...because he forgot to charge his ring (how he got home, I don't know).
Dan Jurgens writes and draws a story of Hal Jordan's earliest days and one of his first alien encounters. A competent tale but not up to snuff compared to the rest in the issue.
Ben Raab and Josh Hood pit the still-in-high-school Kyle Rainer against the big macho bully. It's the fight of his young life. Not bad art and story, but out of place in this collection.
The coup-des-gras is one of those great "What Ever Happened To..." stories, this time, we learn where the loveable dopey Green Lantern space dog G'nort disappeared to when all the Green Lantern rings went boom. This tale has the dog chasing a cat... actually Batman villain Cat-Man. A humerous tail of g'rand proportions by Ty Templeton, Steve Ellis and John Lowe.
If you've been reading DC Comics for a while, and you want a bit of background on some of the Green Lantern supporting characters, this is well worth your while to pick up.