Author: Trafficblast

If you’re in the market for a new laptop, size is probably a major consideration, and for those who want more real estate for work, gaming, or both, a 17-inch machine is the way to go.

17-inch laptops give you a ton of screen real estate and horsepower to work with, while still being portable. We’ve rounded up what we consider to be the best 17-inch laptop right now, spanning a range of different needs.

TL;DR – These are the Best 17-inch Laptops:

• Alienware Area-51m
• HP Envy 17t
• HP ZBook 17 G5
• Razer Blade Pro
  
• MSI GT76 Titan
• LG Gram 17

1. Alienware Area-51m

Best 17-inch Gaming Laptop

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• See it on Walmart
• See it on Newegg

If you have the money, Alienware’s Area-51m is a gaming laptop of extraterrestrial proportions. It comes in both Intel Core i7 and i9 flavors, with up to 64GB of RAM depending on what your heart desires.

Meanwhile, you’ve got an Nvidia GeForce RTX 2080 with 8GB GDDR6 powering the show, with G-Sync to keep it all running smoothly. Both the CPU and GPU are also upgradeable, along with the RAM and storage, so you can consider yourself future-proofed. If you can move past the ostentatious design and the eye-watering price tag, this is a gamer’s dream.

2. HP Envy 17t

Best 17-inch laptop for those on a budget

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• See it on HP
• See it on Walmart
• See it on Newegg

With great size comes… usually a great big price tag. But not with the HP Envy 17t, a solid performer that won’t break the bank. If you can afford the Intel Core i7 we’d recommend it, and there’s up to 16GB of RAM on offer alongside the Nvidia GeForce MX250 GPU.

A stunning full HD 1080p display too, and for an extra cost, you can get it with a touchscreen. Don’t expect great performance for intense gaming or design work, but the Envy 17t delivers on value.

3. HP ZBook 17 G6

Best 17-inch work laptop

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• See it on HP
• See it on Walmart

If you like to work – and we mean really work – then look no further than the HP ZBook 17 G5, its powerful engine matched only by its eye-popping display. There’s plenty of customization here, but we’d recommend the Intel Core i9 if you can afford it, and there’s up to 128GB of RAM on offer. Graphics max out with the Nvidia Quadro P5200 GPU, netting you 16GB of video RAM.

But it’s the display we’re really gushing over: 4K IPS and absolutely stunning. If that’s more than you need, you can get the 1,600 x 900 display instead, but we’d recommend maxing out if you can. It’s just a shame about the sub-par battery, which will get you around 4 hours of use.

4. Razer Blade Pro

Best 17-inch laptop for video editing

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• See it on Razer
• See it on Adorama
• See it on Walmart

A strong performer with the beauty to match the brawn, the Razer Blade Pro impresses on all fronts. With an Intel Core i7 processor and Nvidia RTX 2060 Max-Q GPU (which can be brought up to an RTX 2080 if you’d prefer), this is a great machine if video editing or gaming is top of your priority list.

Meanwhile, the 17.3-inch full HD display runs at a silky smooth 144Hz, with 16GB of RAM that’s expandable to 64GB, and a 512GB SSD. Battery life is an average five to six hours, but expect to chop that in half if you’re gaming. It’s not cheap though, and the cost will run even higher if you want to soup up that graphics card.

5. MSI GT76 Titan DT

Best 17-inch desktop replacement

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Just because you’re taking your computing portable, why should you compromise for less? Enter the MSI GT76 Titan, which will soon make you forget you’re using a laptop at all. It’s a beast, in both specs and design, but the aluminum body manages to feel classy and sturdy.

Whether it’s gaming, work, or 3D modeling, the Titan can bear the load. Inside you’ll get an Intel Core i9 hex-core processor, 64GB of RAM, and an Nvidia GeForce RTX 2080 GPU with 8GB of video RAM. Talk about Phwoar!

You’ll also get a 1TB hard drive and 1TB of solid-state storage – plenty to work with – and did we mention the display? A 4K IPS screen, naturally. Battery life runs for up to five hours, which is respectable, but considering it weighs a whopping 10 lbs, it’s not a 17-inch laptop we’d recommend using on the go.

6. LG Gram 17

Most portable 17-inch laptop

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• See it on Adorama
• See it on Walmart
• See it on Best Buy

Look, 17 inches is a lot of space, but LG makes it feel considerably less with its Gram 17 laptop which measures just 2.95 pounds. The chassis is slight and LG wastes no space with the ultra-thin bezels.

But on top of that, the Gram 17 is a great performer behind a bright and gorgeous IPS display boasting a 2,560 x 1,600 resolution. There’s an Intel UHD 620 GPU and we recommend going with the Intel Core i7 processor for the best performance.

However, this isn’t a machine for heavy gaming. Rather, it’s an impressive all-rounder in an enticing design – the 12 hours of battery life is just the icing on the cake.

What to Look For in a 17-inch laptop

Buying a laptop of any sort requires detailed research, and we wouldn’t want you rushing into any decisions with foolish abandon. Here are some things to consider first.

Screen resolution: 17 inches means more screen real estate, but bigger also doesn’t necessarily mean better. We’d recommend that any laptop you buy has a resolution of at least 1080p (1,920 x 1,080) which is Full HD.

CPU: It’s easy to get tangled in numbers when comparing laptop specs, but when it comes to CPU (the processor) here’s what we recommend. First, don’t go lower than an Intel Core i5 processor if you must: this will give you enough power for all the essential tasking. Second, if you plan to use your machine for intense gaming, video editing, or other high-power productivity reasons, look for something with more cores, ideally a quad-core processor.

RAM: Again, the higher the number here, the more power you’re getting. Some laptops come with 4GB of RAM which is an acceptable baseline but won’t afford you much grunt. Really, you want 8GB at the very least and more if you plan to use your laptop for heavy tasks.

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Hugh Langley is a tech journalist who’s fascinated by wearables, health tech, the smart home, and more. You can find him tweeting (often nonsense) over at @hughlangley.

Activision Blizzard announced that it donated $2 million to help veterans find high-quality jobs through its Call of Duty Endowment program. Activision also released a new “Fearless” in-game content pack for Call of Duty: Modern Warfare with 100% of proceeds going towards the endowment.

The Call of Duty Endowment is Activision-Blizzard’s long-running program helping raise funds for veteran needs. The timing of this month’s donation is also part of National Military Appreciation Month and there’s a social media campaign asking for followers to post photos or names of veterans with the hashtag #CODEFearlessChallenge.

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“Military veterans need our support more than ever. With unemployment rates at all-time highs, we know from past experiences that veterans will be far more affected than ordinary citizens,” Activision-Blizzard CEO Bobby Kotick said in a statement. “With this donation to the Call of Duty Endowment, we hope to find jobs for at least 4,000 veterans.”

Unemployment has grown multi-fold since the outbreak of COVID-19 aka the novel coronavirus. As businesses close due to the ongoing shelter-in-place order and public spaces become restricted due to the highly contagious nature of the virus, employees have seen their work hours reduced or eliminated.

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“We’ve seen a huge increase in veterans asking our partners for assistance since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic,” said executive director of the Call of Duty Endowment Dan Goldenberg. “We’ve been committed to helping veterans find meaningful employment for over 10 years, but we’ve never seen anything like this.”

For more information on COVID-19 check out our guide on how to stay safe during the pandemic.

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Matt Kim is a reporter for IGN.

Even at the best of times, it can be hard to schedule games. You need to find one, and often more, like-minded people who want to play the same thing at the same time. No wonder a lot of games sit on shelves, seeing way less action than their owners would like. Being in the middle of a global health crisis is, of course, about the worst of times when it comes to scheduling games.

Given this issue, then, it’s lucky that designers and developers have come up with all sorts of ways to get your game on digitally. From live play with voice chat in dedicated software to sedate play-by-email games in your browser, there’s a huge array of options with a huge array of games. Many of them are free, too, or at least cheap.

Here’s a rundown of the biggest and best options for digital board gaming. Take your choice–or choices –and get back to gaming.

Tabletop Simulator

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• See it on Humble Store

This commercial Steam title does exactly what the title suggests: it’s a real-time sandbox for creating and playing all manner of tabletop games. New users may find the third-person view and real-world controls disorientating: you have to pick up dice and flick them with the mouse. But you get used to it, and together with text and voice chat, it makes it easy to simulate games of every kind. Pay once for the Steam title and there’s a dizzying library of free game modules to enjoy, plus a large, active community to play with. Tabletop Simulator does not enforce rules, so you’ll need to know how to play whatever you try.

Tabletopia

• Go to Tabletopia

Tabletopia also has a Steam version, and an app for mobile platforms too. But they’re free and you don’t need them as you can play directly in your browser. You can pay a subscription to upgrade your account to silver or gold, which gets you access to premium games and lets you have more games running at once. It’s focused on real-time games, which is unfortunate for users who want to play by email because the game interfaces are uniformly excellent, clean, and modern, while enforcing rules in-game.

Boardgamearena

• Go to Board Game Arena

Starting out as a place to play live games, Board Game Arena has added support for turn-based play by email and become very popular. It has a big list of games, it’s easy to find opponents, and the interfaces are often very good. To set up matches of some of the more recent titles like Sushi Go and Kingdomino, you’ll need to pay a small fee to get a premium account. That will also let you log on when the site is very busy, which it often is in the early evenings, European time. But you can join a match of any game without premium.

Yucata

• Go to Yucata

Yucata is one of the older board gaming websites around and it shows from the site design. It can be hard to create and find matches and invitations at first. But don’t let that fool you: it has a big library of play-by-email games that is still growing, and the in-game experience is often excellent. Use the “Games” menu, pick “Invitation List” and use the plethora of filters to find games waiting for players. You can find a list of all the titles available under “Games”, “Game Information”. There are some hidden gems to check out like Automobiles and A Few Acres of Snow.

Boiteajeux

• Go to Boiteajeux

This is a French site, but you can switch the language options with the flags in the top right. Among the options on offer are an impressive number of heavy strategy games including Tzol’kin and Alchemists. Like Yucata, the interfaces for a lot of these games are a bit dated, but they’re perfectly playable. You can join games waiting for players in the “waiting room” and there’s normally plenty to choose from.

Vassal

• Go to Vassal

You’ll need to put in a bit of effort to get Vassal up and running, but it’s worth it if you like longer strategy games, particularly military simulations. It’s a Java-based client so you’ll need to install the runtime then download Vassal itself, then download modules for the games you want to play. It doesn’t have a lobby as such, it’s more for arranging matches with friends, but you can play live or swap play by email files as you prefer.

BrettSpielWelt

• Go to BSW

If you’re happy installing Java for Vassal, you might also want to have a look at BSW. It’s a German-based service for playing live games online. Web-based play needs Java, but you can avoid it by downloading and installing a client from the site instead. It’s also quite confusing to get set up and playing, all the more so because everything is in German. If you can make the effort, though, it has a huge library of games, including some excellent titles like Imperial that you won’t find anywhere else. It also has a fun community leveling and “township” system.

Custom Apps

A lot of publishers have made digital versions of their games available, often on multiple platforms, both desktop and mobile. You have to buy them, of course, but for the money, you often get the best, smoothest play experience possible. Rules are enforced, tutorials show you how to play and there are solid solo and AI-based options to enjoy.

There are too many of these to list individually, so instead here are a few of our favorites. Galaxy Trucker ought not to work on digital at all but is brilliant with a solo campaign and a whole new game mode unique to this version. Jaipur also boasts a solitaire campaign and is brilliant for bursts of two-player fun. Crossover classic Ticket to Ride works really well online, with fast, exciting matches. Finally, newcomer Sagrada is a delightful dice-drafting game with a beautiful stained glass aesthetic.

Others

There are a very large number of smaller or more niche services you can check out if you want to play particular games. Happy Meeple has a slew of two-player titles to enjoy and makes it easy to get up and running. Spiel By Web is an old-school site for turn-based play with some games not found elsewhere, such as Wallenstein. For military game fans, Wargameroom offers custom-built, bare-bones clients for real-time play of a bunch of card-driven wargames. Board Space is an app-based service with a lot of abstracts, including the entire GIPF project. There are many others just a Google away, but they tend to have smaller collections and weak interfaces.

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Disclosure: Humble Bundle is owned by Ziff Davis, the parent company of IGN. Humble Bundle and IGN operate completely independently, and no special consideration is given to Humble Bundle announcements or promotions for coverage.

Clone High is available to stream on MTV’s website and can also be purchased on sites like Amazon, iTunes and Google Play.

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“Remember when MTV used to be good?” That’s a common refrain for a lot of ’80s and ’90s kids who still yearn for the days when the cable network was about more than just trashy reality TV. You can argue about the exact point at which MTV fully crossed over the the dark side, but the network definitely hit the point of no return when it canceled Clone High. That series ranks among the best animated sitcoms of the early 21st century, even if far too few people discovered it during its short life.

Binge It! The Venture Bros. Is a Smorgasbord of Pop Culture Hilarity

The premise of Clone High is pretty simple and aptly summed up by the show’s catchy theme song – “Way, way back in the 1980s, secret government employees dug up famous guys and ladies and made amusing genetic copies. Now their clones are sexy teens. Now they’re gonna make it if they try.” Basically, it’s your textbook high school comedy, if said high school were home to clones of dead historical figures and secretly run by a sinister government organization bent on harnessing their military potential. Oh, and the principal is a power-mad supervillain with a cardigan-clad, robotic assistant named Mr. Butlertron.

Clone High brilliantly mashes up all the expected teen comedy/drama tropes with your favorite historical figures. Abe Lincoln (Will Forte) is a lanky, awkward everyman who’s best friends with hyperactive party animal Mahatma Gandhi (Michael McDonald) and moody Goth loner Joan of Arc (Nicole Sullivan). Abe pines after the lovely Cleopatra Smith (Christa Miller) while failing to acknowledge Joan’s unrequited love. JFK (Christopher Miller), whose accent is apparently genetically inherited, is the school’s designated handsome but brain-dead jock. Over the course of the show’s single 13-episode season, these teens deal with everything from school elections to standardized test prep to a seemingly endless series of proms, all while struggling to live up to the impossible standards set by their genetic predecessors.

In addition to having a really great premise and easy hook, the series benefits from being overseen by a real comedy dream team. Clone High was created by future LEGO Movie/21 Jump Street masterminds Phil Lord and Christopher Miller and Scrubs creator Bill Lawrence (hence why most of the show’s incidental characters are voiced by Scrubs alums like Donald Faison and Neil Flynn). If you’ll pardon the pun, you can really sense the DNA of Clone High in Lord and Miller’s later work – that same emphasis on pushing a simple idea to the most comedically extreme places.

That’s where the show’s brilliance lies. Even when the show tackles a tried and true concept, like an election for class president, it winds up with a ridiculous scenario where Abe becomes the unwitting spokesman for predatory junk food peddler X-Stream Blu (mad-packed with all nine essential nutramites to fortify your X-Zone!) and Marilyn Manson steps in to sing about the importance of the Food Pyramid. Later episodes feature everything from a rock opera spawned by a new raisin-smoking craze to Gandhi and George Washington Carver teaming up for a buddy cop movie called Brown & Tan. The show is ridiculous in the best way, yet it’s just earnest enough that the character drama still carries weight.

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Clone High’s one great flaw is that it never got a proper conclusion. MTV canceled the series after one season, robbing fans of any resolution to the show’s cliffhanger ending. The cancellation came in part because many Indians were less than thrilled with Gandhi’s depiction. But in a time when networks and streaming services are constantly hunting for more content and everything from Invader Zim to Star Wars: The Clone Wars has been given a new lease on life, maybe there’s still hope for a Clone High revival. Hilariously dated celebrity cameos aside, that one season still feels as fresh in 2020 as it did in 2002.

More From Binge It!…

• Darkplace Is the Medical-Procedural/Occult-Action-Thriller-Doc You Need
• The Deuce Is a Perfect Chaser for Fans of The Wire
• Netflix’s You Is the Insane Erotic Thriller You Need to Watch
• The Imagineering Story Is the Disney Parks Tale That’s Both Riveting and True
• The Venture Bros. Is a Smorgasbord of Pop Culture Hilarity

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Binge It! is IGN’s recommendation series. Movies, TV shows, books, comics, music… if you can binge it, we’re here to talk about it. In each installment of Binge It!, we’ll discuss a piece of content we’re passionate about — and why you should check it out.

The open-world survival horror game Deadly Premonition has garnered a cult following since its release in 2010; now, exactly 10 years later, it’s finally getting a sequel. Deadly Premonition 2: A Blessing in Disguise releases on Nintendo Switch July 10, and pre-orders for the game are available now. Even if you’re not a fan of Deadly Premonition, please look at and appreciate this box art for Deadly Premonition 2–it’s incredibly striking.

Like the first game, Deadly Premonition 2 is an open-world, single-player adventure and follows FBI agent Francis York Morgan as he investigates a mysterious serial murder case in the fictional town of Le Carré within New Orleans. You’ll be able to travel freely by foot or by skateboard, as in the first game, and there will also be various mini-games like bowling, bayou rides, and skateboard challenges. You’ll also be able to customize your character and skateboard.

Deadly Premonition 2 is up for pre-order–thankfully, it’s a little cheaper than the standard new Switch release, selling for $50. You can pre-order now at select retailers to get a physical copy by release day; of course, you can always pre-order directly from the Eshop too.

If you never played through the first game and want to check out where the story began, the first game is available as Deadly Premonition Origins on Nintendo Switch, and you can snag it on sale for cheap right now. Normally $30, Deadly Premonition Origins is currently $15 on the Switch Eshop. If you want a physical copy to have alongside your copy of Deadly Premonition 2, the standard edition is on sale for $34.93 at Amazon.

A Collector’s Edition of Deadly Premonition Origins is also available. The Collector’s Edition includes a set of six metal pin badges in a collectible case and two collectible postcards of original artwork from director Hidetaka Suehiro’s concept notebook. It’s also a few bucks off at Amazon right now, where you can grab it for $46.93.

The original Deadly Premonition was an extremely divisive game in terms of reviews, but it earned a 7/10 in GameSpot’s Deadly Premonition review for its bizarre and entertaining story, memorable cast, and surprising twists despite its poor visuals and terrible sound effects. “The foibles and frailties quickly fade when you realize that Deadly Premonition possesses one of video gaming’s most treasured traits: unpredictability,” wrote Kevin VanOrd. “And just as the story and gameplay cover remarkably varied ground, so too will your emotions waver, tossed about by funny characterizations, shocking twists, and touching revelations that will affect all but the most jaded players. In most games, Deadly Premonition’s archaic gameplay mechanics and narrative quirks would be laughable, if not pitiable. But in context, they combine to create a truly unique experience that cribs from various sources but resembles none of them.”

PC copies of Streets of Rage 4 purchased from GOG.com do not support online multiplayer, despite being priced the same as the Steam version that does feature online capabilities.

The GOG store page for Streets of Rage 4 has a disclaimer stating: “Please note that at this time, the DRM-Free version supports local co-op only with up to 4 players. The 2-player online mode is not available.”

Hello, unfortunately the GOG version of the game won’t be supporting online features.

— Lizardcube #SOR4DAY Out Now! (@lizardcube) April 29, 2020

While that note claims there is no online mode “at this time”, a tweet from developer Lizardcube suggests that online won’t be coming to the GOG version of the game. “Unfortunately the GOG version of the game won’t be supporting online features,” the studio said in response to a fan asking about cross-play with Steam users.

Both the Steam and GOG.com versions of the game are priced at $27.99/£22.49 (currently with a 10% discount), but the Steam version allows players to team up online for PvP Battle Mode fights or co-op play. Multiplayer is available in the GOG version, but only locally.

We’ve reached out to Lizardcube for further clarification.

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Streets of Rage 4 is also available on console without these issues, should you be looking for a more straightforward approach to multiplayer. Our Streets of Rage 4 review says it’s worth checking out, too, even if it prioritises nostalgia over modern advancements.

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Matt Purslow is IGN’s UK News and Entertainment Writer. You can follow him on Twitter. 

Warning: Spoilers follow for various TV finales from years past…

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There have been many series finales that have split fandom over the years, whether they involved visits to the Iron Throne, the afterlife, or even Holsten’s (and maybe the afterlife too in that case?). It’s often clear when it comes to ending a favorite TV series that it’s hard to keep everyone happy, and frequently viewers are left steaming even if some others are satisfied.

So let’s take a look at some of the more outrageous, divisive series finales in TV history. These aren’t bad finales, just ones that made bold creative choices that didn’t sit right with a large portion of the audience. Read on for the full list…

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Game of Thrones: “The Iron Throne”

After the penultimate episode, “The Bells,” left so many fans furious, leading to an online petition to “remake” Season 8, “The Iron Throne” had one hell of an uphill climb. Not only to win people back, but also end the entire 10-year story.

In the end, many felt let down by the fates of most characters, along with the nice and neat epilogue that crowned a new ruler of the realm. Even those who didn’t hate the finale would readily admit it wasn’t exactly the best ending possible. Yes, this particular Song of Ice and Fire saga split the kingdoms and sent Westeros to war one final time.

Lost: “The End”

Lost chose to deliver an emotional finale – based more on the feelings, desires, and ultimate happiness of the characters – over one that answered lingering questions fans had stockpiled over the years. Many liked the focus on the heartstrings while others were frustrated with the lack of specifics.

And no, they weren’t “dead the whole time.” Well, except for those in the flash-sideways scenes during the final season. They were in a type of purgatory. But the others weren’t. Some lived on after the island and died from natural causes. It was then that they all joined up in the limbo church for a final farewell. The fact that none of this was abundantly clear though probably means the episode, and season, didn’t do a bang up job exactly.

Battlestar Galactica: “Daybreak”

BSG’s three-part mega close-out also wrapped things up with quiet emotion, as the notes from “All Along the Watchtower” created coordinates that led our heroes to a habitable planet filled with primitive humans. Our Earth.

Sure, the stripping away of all technology rubbed a few fans the wrong way, but it was the crazy 150,000-year time jump, and the “humanity is doomed to make machines too sentient again” messaging, that split the viewers. It’s always going to be risky to leap that far ahead, to the point where every character you cared about is a fossil, for a moral that many fans already understood.

The Sopranos: “Made in America”

Like the BSG closer, The Sopranos’ finale really lost people right at the very end. Right when the music stopped and the screen turned to black and a lot of fans thought their TVs went out.

The creative swerve got a ton of flak at the time, though now, years later, many fans and critics have come around on it as one of the more daring examples of “different” done right. And it certainly hasn’t hurt The Sopranos in the annals of TV history as it’s still considered one of the best series of all time.

Seinfeld: “The Finale”

Yes, it became abundantly clear over the years that Jerry, George, Elaine, and Kramer weren’t great people. In fact, once the show leaned into their shallowness, it hit its creative stride. But sending the guys to prison? Because they weren’t great people? It was just a bit too much for many Seinfeld loyalists.

None of this stopped the episode from being a ratings juggernaut though, or the series itself from going out as the number one show on TV. Like The Sopranos, the finale didn’t make a dent in the show’s legacy. What can we say? Sometimes it’s the journey and sometimes it’s the end.

St. Elsewhere: “The Last One”

What if there was a popular, long-running, acclaimed ’80s medical drama that, right at the very end, told the audience that nothing they’d seen for 137 episodes was even real. And then that weird ending became the show’s overall legacy, spoofed for decades by other shows.

This is the case of St. Elsewhere, which closed things out with the reveal that the entire hospital was inside the snow globe of an autistic boy named Tommy. Tommy had been dreaming that his father was the hospital’s medical director when, in fact, as revealed in the final scene, he worked in construction. I guess the title St. Elsewhere should have clued people in, right? Anyhow, this final beat left many fans bewildered and belligerent.

Star Trek Enterprise: “These Are the Voyages…”

Though Star Trek Enterprise isn’t really considered one of the top tier Trek series, it still had a ton of fans. Some of whom were left stunningly cold after the show’s finale jumped six years into the future and split the narrative between the regular cast and a holodeck adventure featuring TNG’s Will Riker and Deanna Troi.

This “valentine for the fans,” that was meant to connect Enterprise to TNG, fell flat for many as Captain Archer’s story wound up feeling like second-billing and under-rug-swept.

Felicity: “Back to the Future”

If you had to guess which TV show suddenly dove deep into time travel for its final installment, not many would have guessed “late ’90s college love triangle dramedy” Felicity. Unless you thought it was possible for all J.J. Abrams shows.

Actually, the time travel stuff started a few episodes earlier (after the show had planned out its final episode and the WB Network ordered five more) and viewers got to experience an alternate timeline in which Keri Russell’s Felicity got to go back (thanks to a spell from her goth roommate) and make different choices.

Regardless, many said the show just didn’t feel like the show anymore by the time it ended. Including the cast. And that might be a recurring element here when it comes to divisive finales — when, for whatever reason (pacing, tone, freakin’ impromptu time travel), the story no longer feels like the one you’ve been following for years.

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Which TV finales did you find to be the most outrageous and divisive? Discuss in the comments!

Note: This story originally ran in May of 2019.

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Matt Fowler is a writer for IGN and a member of the Television Critics Association (TCA). Follow him on Twitter at @TheMattFowler and Facebook at Facebook.com/MattBFowler.

With digital comics platform ComiXology offering a 60-day free trial period for its ComiXology Unlimited monthly subscription service, we’re here to point out the best comics worth reading from the 25,000+ titles available. This article is focusing on DC’s very own Emerald Warrior, the Green Lantern, so we’ll be pointing out the best comics and graphic novels about the heroes of the Green Lantern Corps.

Most of the Green Lantern comics available on ComiXology Unlimited come from the long-running, critically acclaimed run by writer Geoff Johns. While the entire run isn’t available on the service, there are still some story arcs worth checking out, so we’ll give you the context you need to hop right in.

But if you’re looking for something a little different that falls outside of Johns’ run, then worry not, because there are some other excellent Green Lantern comics you should definitely read.

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You can view our list as a slideshow by flipping through the gallery below, or keep scrolling to read it as an article.

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Green Lantern: Secret Origin

If you are just getting into Green Lantern, then this is the comic for you. Secret Origin tells the definitive origin story for the modern Green Lantern franchise. It tells the familiar story of how Hal Jordan received the Green Lantern ring and his training with verteran Green Lantern Sinestro, but it also weaves in other characters and concepts that will become more important down the line.

This story can be found in Green Lantern #29-35.

Green Lantern: No Fear

So you already know the basics of Green Lantern and want to jump right into the adventure? Then No Fear is the place to start. It’s the proper beginning to Geoff John’s epic run, and it starts small by showing Hal Jordan returning to his home of Coast City and taking up the duties of the Green Lantern once more. Many Green Lantern stories take place among the stars, but this one grounds everything on Earth, giving you a look at Hal Jordan’s civilian life and pitting him against some rather brutal Earthbound foes.

This story can be read in Green Lantern: No Fear, which collects Green Lantern #1-6 and Green Lantern: Secret Files #1. If you like it, you can keep reading the next six issues (#7-12) on ComiXology Unlimited.

Green Lantern: The Sinestro Corps War

The Sinestro Corps War is like the Empire Strikes Back of Geoff Johns’ Green Lantern saga in that it’s the middle chapter of a grand cosmic epic and it’d widely considered to be the best story arc of the modern Green Lantern era. Hal Jordan’s mentor-turned-enemy Sinestro has started his own Corps of Yellow Lanterns and recruited some of the most fearsome and powerful baddies in the entire DC Universe to help him destroy the Green Lanterns and rule the galaxy through fear. It’s a thrilling cosmic war story that expands on the mythology of the rings while testing its large cast of heroes like never before.

This volume collects Green Lantern #21-25, Green Lantern Corps #14-19 and Sinestro Corps Special #1.

Green Lantern: War of the Green Lanterns

Green Lanterns sure do love to get into wars, don’t they? This story sees a mysterious force taint the power of the Green Lanterns and cause the Green Lanterns to turn on each other, sparking a war between a small squad of Earth-based Lanterns and the rest of the Corps. With the Green Lantern power no longer safe to use, this is the story where we finally get to see each Earth Lantern wear a new ring from a different color on the Emotional Spectrum, which shows a different side to Hal Jordan, Guy Gardner, Kyle Rayner, and John Stewart that we haven’t seen before.

This volume collects Green Lantern #63-67, Green Lantern Corps #58-60 and Green Lantern: Emerald Warriors #8-10.

Learn About the Emotional Spectrum

If you want to read more of Geoff Johns’ Green Lantern run in order to learn all about the different colored powers of the Emotional Spectrum, there are even more story arcs that are available to read in single issue form. Note that these stories take place after the Sinestro Corps War and before the War of the Green Lanterns.

Green Lantern: Rage of the Red Lanterns

The fan-favorite Red Lanterns are consumed by hatred, making them one of the deadliest and most volatile threats in the Green Lantern mythos. So naturally we get to see what happens when Hal Jordan gets infected and transforms into one of them.

This story takes place across Green Lantern #36-38.

Green Lantern: Agent Orange

The new colors of the Emotional Spectrum keep popping up as we meet the one and only Orange Lantern known as Larfleeze. He is unique as he is powerful, and his personality proves to be one of the more interesting and silly in recent memory.

This story takes place across Green Lantern #39-42.

Green Lantern: Blackest Night

This is where everything concerning the different colored Lanterns comes to a head. These issues tie into the main Blackest Night event comic (not available on ComiXology Unlimited) and show what’s going on in between the big beats of the main story. Still, it’s full of revelatory character work and plenty of disgusting Black Lantern zombie action, so it’s definitely worth a read.

This story takes place across Green Lantern #43-52.

Green Lantern: Brightest Day

On the other side of Blackest Night is none other than Brightest Day. But don’t confuse this with the actual Brightest Day series by Geoff Johns that explores how the larger DC Universe reacts to the events of Blackest Night (also not available on ComiXology Unlimited). This story that takes place in the main Green Lantern series shows how the Lanterns respond to it. Whereas the different colored Lanterns were largely opposed to one another before, the leaders of each faction must now find a way to work together to bring about a better future for all of them.

This story takes place across Green Lantern #53-58.

Green Lanterns

Looking for something outside that Green Lantern run? You’re in luck. Green Lanterns is a fresh approach to the franchise that follows two rookie Green Lanterns, Jessica Cruz and Simon Baz, as they battle their personal demons while trying to figure out how to be interstellar space cops. It’s an incredibly heartfelt, human, and humorous run that nevertheless challenges its heroes with next-level threats they have no business dealing with.

Curiously, all five volumes of Green Lanterns are on ComiXology Unlimited except for Volume 2, for reasons we do not know.

Star Trek/Green Lantern

This charming Star Trek/Green Lantern story is a light-hearted piece of popcorn fun. The iconic heroes and villains from both franchises clash and we get to enjoy the show as the sparks fly. The best part about Star Trek/Green Lantern is how they explore each other’s sci-fi elements and bring them together in the most ridiculous-yet-fun ways possible.

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For info on how to use ComiXology, check out how to download ComiXology comics to every device. Want even more out of your ComiXology Unlimited subscription? Check out this list of the best bingeable comics available on the service:

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Joshua is Senior Features Editor at IGN. 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.