Green Lantern: Earth One reinvents Hal Jordan and the Green Lantern in a modern world where there’s no such thing as Batman, Wonder Woman, or Superman and alien life hasn’t been discovered yet. Jordan seeks the thrill of adventuring through space but is stuck in a dull job mining asteroids for a private contractor, Ferris Galactic. That is, until he finds a powerful green relic from the long-extinct Green Lantern Corps and he’s confronted by the very villains that destroyed them, the Manhunters.

Green Lantern: Earth One, Vol. 1 Preview 6 IMAGES

DC Comics’ Earth One graphic novels re-imagine individual heroes (or teams like Teen Titans) to tell standalone stories unconnected to the greater DC Universe or even other Earth One stories. That was the appeal for co-writers Gabriel Hardman and Corinna Bechko (Star Wars: Legacy, Invisible Republic), who saw this as an opportunity to cut to the core of Hal Jordan and the Green Lantern mythos. Talking to us at New York Comic Con, the pair spoke about how they’re taking a gritty sci-fi approach akin to Alien.“[In Alien,] Ripley and Harry Dean Stanton and Yaphet Kotto are essentially space truckers, and they have a practical world that they live in, and it just has different circumstances than what we’re used to. That’s something that we’ve gone back to a lot in defining the tone of [Green Lantern: Earth One]. Because, there’s many suggestions in that movie, the first Alien particularly, that there are arcane, crazy things that have happened in the past, and whatever, these xenomorphs are, and the Space Jockey and all that, ignoring the Prometheus of it all, and all that stuff. And, showing, giving you a little bit of a peek into a much wider world, defined the way that we approached it,” Hardman said.Bechko also added on, “A more upbeat example might be [Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home], with the giant probe that comes to Earth, and they don’t know what it is. I don’t think it’s giving too much away to say that, in the beginning of our book, we’re dealing with an Earth that does not even know if there are aliens. They don’t know if there’s other life in the universe. So we’re starting from a very basic place, that’s not a whole lot different from where we are. We assume there’s other stuff, but there’s no proof. And then to be thrown into a suddenly teeming universe is a harsh surprise.”Fans know the Green Lantern Corps employs a vast number of alien species from all 3600 sectors of the universe, and to join their ranks is like enlisting in the army, complete with drill instructor Killowog to train up the newbies. Forget all of that, because this story focuses squarely on Jordan as he first learns about the larger universe and tries to figure out what his newly discovered green ring is all about.“There’s a lot to be said for setting your story in a place where things are not settled. And where progress needs to be made. So, if you think about most of the big, epic stories - Lord of the Rings or Game of Thrones or anything else - if those started in a place of comfort, there’s no place to go. So, I think that a lot of it is about giving the characters room to achieve something, too, because if you’re starting from the basics, we want to be able to grow the universe along with the characters,” Bechko said.The ring is getting a revamp, too. It no longer zips about space, honing in on those deemed fearless enough to serve in the Corps. The ring is simply a tool that anyone can use, if they know how. They’re still capable of creating constructs out of energy, but there’s no restriction on who can wield one, so whether it’s used for good or as a destructive weapon depends entirely on who’s wearing it.“It’s a lot about the personal responsibility,” Hardman explained. “It’s not that the people given these rings are just intrinsically perfect people, and they go off and they do the right thing. It’s what humans actually have to face. You have to make a decision to be a decent person. It’s about making a decision to be a decent person, and making a decision to be a hero.”The Green Lantern battery, the power source that charges up the ring, is also getting revamped, but the pair were mum on just what the changes would be, explaining that learning how everything works would be a part of Jordan’s journey throughout the story.“Hal Jordan is being thrown out into the middle of it, he’s in a completely foreign world. Nothing is spelled out for him. He doesn’t necessarily have help all the time. It’s a lot about the perils of being out in space, and not the comfort of having this big structure that’s still in place,” Hardman said.The Green Lantern franchise is home to not only Jordan but several other characters who have held the mantle of Earth’s Green Lantern protector -- John Stewart, Kyle Rayner, Guy Gardner, Simon Baz, and Jessica Cruz -- and a heap of aliens, from Corps administrator Salaak to the squirrel-like Ch’p. Hardman and Bechko did say they will be including some familiar faces, but they’ll be giving them new spins while trying to stay true to the core of each character.Green Lantern: Earth One, Vol. 1, co-written by Hardman and Bechko with art by Jordan Boyd, releases on March 20, 2018.

Joshua is IGN’s Comics Editor. If Pokemon, Green Lantern, or Game of Thrones are frequently used words in your vocabulary, you’ll want to follow him on Twitter @JoshuaYehl and IGN