Ever since DC Comics went through their cleaning house stage back in 1985 with Crisis, fans have been obsessed with seeing defunct characters return to the DCUniverse. We've seen stories about Barry Allen a couple times over the past 5 years, and new variations of old characters are continually popping up.
When DC decided that a new Green Lantern should take over the title, most fans didn't think it was a very good idea, and began screaming for the return of Hal Jordan. Well, Hal Jordan has been in about half of the 50 issues of the Kyle Rainer Green Lantern series, and Emerald Knights is the topper.
The story begins in GL 98, when GL goes time hopping into the 30th century and meets up with the Legion of Super-Heroes, after a fun adventure, he's sent back to his own time, only the over shot and sent him back a little further, into a time of a new to Green Lanterning Hal Jordan. When Jordan brings Rainer to the Guardians of the Universe, there's soon trouble with Sinestro, and Rainer and Jordan are both sent back into modern time. (both sent back?!?!?! Time travel storys are always hell with tense shifts).
So, the basic story thread of Emerald Knights, and the Green Arrow crossover is the basic reaction of various DC Universe characters (the JLA, Guy Gardner, the former Green Lanterns) to having a young, inexperienced Hal Jordan Green Lanter "return from the dead", as well as how Kyle deals with "having some competition" (now he knows what Guy Gardner felt like when Jordan got his ring back). Through it all there are some adventures, as Hal runs into Kalibak, Kyle has a heart-to-heart with Batman (really!), Hal finds out about his destiny as Parallax, Kyle has a heart-to-heart with Jade, Hal has a run in with Connor Hawke (in the Greener Pastures cross-over), and finally the Parallax from Zero Hour comes to destroy both his younger self and Kyle (as more time travel insanity ensues).
A very interesting, egaging story, on both Kyle and Hal's part, the meeting of Hal and Connor being a great story as well (although the action was a bit weak), and Ron Marz must be given credit for keeping the readers on their toes, as well as their minds sharp with this one. While not a perpetual GL collector, Marz does manage to pull out the stops once every two years and get me reading (for a little bit, anyway). The art, switching bi-weekly between Paul Pelletier and a mix of others (including Jeff Johnson, Anthony Williams, and Scot Eaton) was solidly rendered and always effective (especially with the amount of "surprise" facial expressions needed).
A very good tale sure to be in trade-paperback soon, so make sure you get it.