Writer: JM DeMatteis
Artist: Seth Fisher
Colourist: Chris Chuckry
Letterer: Tom Orzechowski
Inker: Seth Fisher
Price: $17.95
Publisher: DC Comics
ISBN: 1-56389-993-0

Hal Jordan is the most maligned character in the history of the DC Universe. He wasn't the first major character to be killed off by the editorial staff of DC Comics. Lightening Lad died and came back and then turned out to be a Protean. Superman died, but returned in time for a television development deal (LOIS AND CLARK). Entire worlds were destroyed during the CRISIS ON INFINITE EARTHS. Death has never been a stranger to comics, and there's nothing more pure than when a character is given a heroic death.

Maybe it was the general outrage in the comic community at Hal Jordan's development that led to him being killed off, but it was most likely a general weariness in the collective comics unconsciousness that allowed his mercy killing. He was given one last chance to prove his character, and Hal Jordan chose to reignite the sun at the cost of his life. Right at the very end, he became a hero once more. But it was just sad, man. It was like taking Old Yeller out back and shooting him. You were a good puppy once, Hal.

Since his death, comic creators have been examining the source of Hal Jordan's appeal. One thing that's since been shown is that Hal Jordan provided a vehicle for some great science fiction stories. His powers are cosmic and infinite. Through the strength of his will power, Green Lantern can create machinations to overcome any obstacle. He patrolled the universe as an interstellar policeman. In brightest day... In blackest night. No evil shall escape my sight. It's great stuff.

Sure, there are other Green Lanterns to craft stories around. There's an entire Green Lantern Corps to choose from. But Hal Jordan was the first and also the best. He was a test pilot and a wanderer, an unlikely hero who was also an alcoholic when he became the Green Lantern of Section 2814. And he's also quite dead. Killed off because he was made to forget everything that he stood for.

This brings us to WILLWORLD by JM DeMatteis, the author of MOONSHADOW, with art by HAPPYDALE's Seth Fisher. In WILLWORLD, Hal Jordan finds himself in a surrealist fantasyland called the Land of Odd. The Land of Odd is reminiscent of the George Herriman's shifting and esoteric landscapes in KRAZY KAT by way of the paranoid delusions of Philip K Dick, populated by an assortment of comic book aliens ranging from tiny, Japanese egg-people to giant heads that patrol the skies of The Land of Odd with all the subtlety of the weather balloons in THE PRISONER.

The story opens with Hal Jordan dressed as a cowboy (complete with Green Lantern mask and ring, natch) riding on the back of a purple horse-like thing. He has no idea where he is or who he is, or of much else for that matter. Jordan patrols the land in a thickheaded fog searching for a being known only as the Mairwand. He meets a bicycle cab driver named Mu-Fon who resembles Blue the eyeless Chirpa from Evan Dorkin's HECTIC PLANET. Except instead of dressing in Ska attire, Mu-Fon wears a purple turtleneck and black beret. He guides Jordan through the terrain of The Land of Odd, sympathetic to Jordan's plight.

All the while, Jordan discovers glimpses of his self. Each time he sorts through a square of The Land of Odd, he regains knowledge of his power.

Despite outbursts of power, Jordan is incapable of recovering his self until he's discerned the purpose of his visit to The Land of Odd. To this end, Jordan journeys through a city that is as dizzying as the ghost city from Hayao Miyazaki's SPIRITED AWAY. Throughout the story, however, there are clues that this story is more than just a whimsical interlude, but rather, a story about self-realisation.

At times, WILLWORLD feels intentionally obtuse, and it's uncertain whether or not the payoff will be strong enough once its mysteries are revealed. Utilising childhood toys and characters from children's books to influence an imaginary terrain is a theme that's been explored in comics before, most notably in THE SANDMAN: A GAME OF YOU by Neil Gaiman and Shawn McManus. Certainly the Mairwand comes from the same ideaspace as the Cuckoo that SANDMAN's Barbie goes in search of. In comparison, A GAME OF YOU is a more sophisticated work, as it carries the story and its consequences back into the 'real' world, whereas what Jordan learns at the end of his travails is simply what we the readers already know - that he will one day become a great hero.

What carries the story is DeMatteis's knowledge of comic book plot structure, and Fisher's artistic range. In fact, WILLWORLD is essentially an excuse to let Fisher's imagination soar. The artist relies very little on exaggerated stylisations and has no elegant cartooning shortcut for rendering a human form with just one uninterrupted line. Rather, he digs in and renders every last billboard, every pimple, and every crack on the street. His work is visually stimulating; gourmet eye-candy seemingly influenced by Geof Darrow by way of Hergé.

Unlike John Rozum's THE FLASH: TIME FLIES, which again features art by Fisher, but which suffered from a muddled and lightweight plot, DeMatteis relies on the imaginary story sci-fi meme to explore Hal Jordan's id. What emerges is a meditation on the power of the childhood imagination and its effect on the will. And also, a great excuse to explore the facets of Hal Jordan's character, which made him so compelling in the first place.

WILLWORLD is a story that might not have been told had Jordan not been so unceremoniously killed off. While a casual comics reader doesn't need to know the unwieldy back-story to enjoy this tale, a regular reader can appreciate the telling of a new Hal Jordan story. WILLWORLD is what can happen when a comic book character is given life.

Frank Smith is a freelance writer living in Brooklyn, New York.

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