Absolute Green Lantern #1 (2025)

Hal Jordan walks through the desert along a highway heading for the California state line. He whispers to himself to "be without fear", but when he closes his eyes he sees a vision of a ring of swirling light in a black void and hears a voice in his head. He quickly opens his eyes again, terrified. A police car pulls up next to him and the cop asks what he is doing alone in the middle of nowhere in the blazing heat. Hal tries to give an evasive answer and the cop notices that Hal is holding his left hand firmly in his jacket pocket. Immediately suspicious, the cop asks Hal what he has in his pocket but Hal refuses to answer and just starts weeping. The cop pulls out his gun and orders Hal to take his hand out of his pocket. Hal desperately tries to tell the cop that something happened to him but the cop just yells at Hal to show his hands or he will shoot him. Hal squeezes his eyes shut and takes his hand out. When he opens his eyes the cop is gone, with only his badge and a small crater in the road left behind. Hal resumes walking with his hand in his pocket, whispering "I'm sorry" over and over. Hal eventually reaches a small town and enters a diner called "Mae & Moe's", much to the confusion of the regular patrons as the town is remote and he has no vehicle. He orders water and the owner gives him a bottle. She starts asking him how he ended up there, but suddenly an emergency news broadcast comes on the TV. The report shows a giant green lantern which appears to have simply fallen out of the sky in the middle of Evergreen, Nevada; crushing multiple buildings. Suddenly the anchor is handed a note and says that they can't show any more footage and official statement is being prepared. The broadcast cuts off and the people in the diner wonder what happened in Evergreen. Five days ago in Evergreen, Hal and his friend John Stewart are having lunch with Jo Mullein, another friend of theirs who has recently moved back to town from Coast City after getting divorced. Hal asks her why she came back to Evergreen, a small town with almost no local economy which is just a waypoint on the road to California. She refuses to talk about her life in Coast City, saying it is in the rear view mirror, but Hal points out she is still wearing her wedding ring. Suddenly, a green dome falls around the block they are on and a biker riding down main street crashes into it, splattering against the bubble. Hal runs up to try to help the man but finds that he can't get through the force field. Jo comes up and tells him not to touch the wall as they don't know what it is. On the other side of the field they see some other bikers approaching, but they turn around and ride away, seemingly not noticing the bubble, the dead man or crash. John tries to call for help but can't get any reception. He then notices a gold ring lying in the middle of the road in font of him and picks it up. Jo looks up to the top of the dome and sees a the green lantern in the sky, with a giant alien floating in the centre of it. In the present day, Hal remembers out loud that the alien's name was Abin Sur. The people in the diner realise he was in Evergreen and ask if the lantern is a spaceship. Hal tearfully says that the destruction is all his fault because he wanted to be a hero and Abin Sur gave him a weapon. The diner owner reaches for a gun under the counter and a belligerent customer called Earl notices Hal's hand and asks what's in his pocket. Hal tries to leave but Earl grabs his arm, demanding to know what he did. He pulls Hal's hand out, revealing that it is solid black and has gobbets of darkness swirling around it. Tendrils of shadow whip out from the hand and destroy Earl, leaving only his necklace. Hal struggles to regain control of the hand, saying that it takes all his focus to hold it back from destroying people, but it responds to threats. The diner owner pulls out her gun and shoots him, and in response the hand hills everyone in the diner. Hal is horrified and hopes the gunshot will kill him, but a tendril extends from the hand into the bullet hole and heals him. In despair, Hal realises the hand will not let him die. Suddenly Jo, glowing with green light, enters the diner and asks what happened to him.