10 Problems No One Wants To Admit About Green Lantern

5. His Comics Are Way Too Action-Heavy

First thing's first - Green Lantern has one of the coolest powers in comics history. He can create anything that comes to mind and use it as a weapon, mode of transport or whatever else springs to mind. The possibilities are boundless, and it enables artists to go wild with what's on page, with humans likely to create Earth-based constructs, and aliens more likely to factor what we perceive as the unknown into their arsenal.

With that in mind, it's only natural that a lot of GL's books have focused on action. Factor in how the series is basically DC's own version of Star Wars, and it would be fair to say that a GL comic without a big set-piece would seem lacklustre compared the one on stands that did.

In truth, the problem isn't even that there's action - it's more that it takes primacy over other, more interesting questions that could be asked of the Corps, and namely the kind of ones O'Neil asked in GL/GA back in the seventies.

Are the Corps are a police force, or a paramilitary organisation? What are the ethical quandaries of having galaxy-wide jurisdiction, and is there something to be asked about the role of an intergalactic space cop when police forces continue to be scrutinised for brutality, rights violations and institutionalised discrimination?

These questions have absolutely been broached in the past, but they've taken a back seat in more recent years. A more introspective story is called for, and it's one Grant Morrison and Liam Sharp have delivered in The Green Lantern, but it's the exception and not the rule.