Green Lantern (Vol. 3) #275

Release Date: March 27, 2013
Cover Date: May 2013

Story: Ron Marz
Pencils: Darryl Banks
Inks: Terry Austin
Cover: Darryl Banks

After being hit by a massive energy blast in Earth orbit, Kyle Rayner finds himself stuck on a deserted space station on the edge of the galaxy. As the computers onboard start activating on their own, seemingly reacting to Kyle’s presence, he soon discovers that this station isn’t quite friendly to Green Lanterns. Worse, it turns out that he’s not truly alone: Parallax is trapped here with him! Kyle believes Hal Jordan may be responsible for this, but he’s mistaken. After a brief battle, the pair are nearly overwhelmed by the station’s internal defenses. As more weapon systems come online, the former and current Green Lanterns have no choice but to join forces against the ominous threat.

“Wait…what?! There’s no such thing as Green Lantern (Vol. 3) #275!”

Okay, eagle-eyed reader, you caught me. April Fools!

No, this issue does not actually exist, and I pulled that synopsis completely out of my ass. But that cover art is most certainly a real thing, although DC Comics had nothing to do with it. Instead, it was all my fault! Here’s the story…

I’d long wanted a sketch of my two favorite Green Lantern characters from the legendary Darryl Banks; it was a natural choice, since he designed the look of both of them. Last fall, I had a bit of extra cash, so I took the plunge and commissioned him for a classic Kyle Rayner and Parallax sketch. (No space bugs here!) As you can plainly see, he hasn’t lost his edge one bit; Kyle and Hal look just as amazing and powerful as they did in the 1990s! Banks was a pleasure to work with, and I highly recommend him for commissions. (For more information, visit his ComicArtFans page.)

I thought it would be cool to see what the piece looked like in full color, so the next step was hiring colorist Tom Chu to finish bringing the piece to life. His work on many Marvel Comics books in particular has been fantastic, and he’s also a friend of mine. He knocked out this Green Lantern job in no time, and look at how stunning the results are!

After seeing the finished piece, that was that…until I had the random idea to turn it into a fake comic book cover. What if Green Lantern (Vol. 3) kept that classic logo, and never got cancelled? What if Kyle kept his unique costume, and Parallax came back from the dead? What if Green Lantern in general didn’t go through the mess of costume changes, retcons, endless events, and other headaches that plague the modern books?

With that pipe dream in mind, the cover layout I could handle myself. The logo I rebuilt from scratch using Illustrator, and I recreated the other cover elements and text in Photoshop. The only stock art I grabbed online was the classic DC bullet.

As for the issue credits, I simply replicated the dream team of Green Lantern creators in the 1990s: Ron Marz’s writing, Banks’ pencils, and Terry Austin’s inks. Marz and Austin had nothing to do with this piece, of course, but given their history on the series, I felt it necessary to include their names on the cover.

That thumbnail image up top hardly does the piece justice, so here’s a closer look:

Here’s what the original art looked like before it was colored, and minus the cover elements:

Eventually, I want to make prints of this. I had Chu color it scaled up to 11″ x 17″, so that’ll look pretty good hanging on my office wall next the original art, which is 8½” x 11″.

I really can’t thank Banks and Chu enough for their absolutely stellar work. Listen up, DC Comics powers-that-be…don’t you think these guys belong on a monthly Green Lantern book?

Green Lantern: The Animated Series wrapup

All good things must come to an end, and sadly, that end came far too quickly for Green Lantern: The Animated Series. We can rage at Cartoon Network until we look like crappy Red Lantern knockoffs, but it changes nothing. The show’s over, and rather than complain about the future, let’s look back on what we have.

First things first, it was a treat to see our favorite Lantern heroes having solid adventures that weren’t mired in continuity. Sure, there were two big storyarcs threading the season together, but most episodes still worked as done-in-one tales; this is in stark contrast to any Green Lantern comic book published since about 2004 or so. This naturally makes it easier for the show’s target market of children to follow, but GLTAS wasn’t written in such a fashion that it would insult adults’ intelligence.

Speaking of breaking with the comics…one of the other neat things about GLTAS was that it very deliberately eschewed some aspects of the Green Lantern mythos in order to tell its own unique story. In fact, GLTAS practically went out of its way to avoid the countless problems that have made modern Green Lantern comics such a shitty mess.

The most obvious was the radically changed Red Lanterns; rather than the mindless ragebeasts of the comics, the GLTAS Red Lanterns had all of their mental faculties intact, and proved to be a much more potent threat as a result. Furthermore, the other colors were handled slightly differently. Blue Lanterns no longer need a Green Lantern around to function properly, and that’s a welcome relief. The yellow mineral known as orum saps green power rings and gives rise to paranoia, but it’s not due to any fear infusion or some such nonsense. It’s just a rock. The Star Sapphires and Larfleeze weren’t changed much, but there was no mention of the Indigo Tribe or any other colors…or of the emotional spectrum itself, for that matter. Rather than trying to cram all of that stuff down our throats at once like the comics did, the new color Corps were added organically as the story deemed necessary.

Hal Jordan was a great Green Lantern, but not perfect. His mistakes humanized him, and they had actual consequences within GLTAS. Kilowog trying to understand Hal’s human behavior was often hilarious, but it didn’t relegate him to comic relief status. The badass Green Lantern Corps drill sergeant we all know and love we on fully display during battle scenes, creating some serious heavy artillery in construct form (along with his favorite giant hammers). Even Lanterns we didn’t see all that often — like Guy Gardner, Salaak, Larvox, Chaselon, and B’dg — were created and animated with character, making it a thrill every time one of them popped up on screen. Thankfully, the GLTAS Guardians were just like the comic book Guardians of old, not the horrendous evil douchebags they are in modern stories. GLTAS had arrogant Guardians that may have seemed like jerks, but they were often correct; and when they weren’t, they admitted as such.

The Green Lanterns were cool and all, but Razer and Aya were arguably the best part of GLTAS. They were both characters created specifically for the show, so aside from the fact that we didn’t have to subconsciously compare them to any comic book counterpart, we were able to follow their development along with their peers within GLTAS itself. Razer’s journey from pissed-off Atrocitus lackey to renegade Red Lantern to Aya’s flame was great to watch, and Aya’s radically different story dovetailed with that of Razer in a convincing manner indeed. “Dark Matter” wrapped the series up perfectly; the only obvious story hook for what would’ve been the second season was Razer finally becoming a Blue Lantern.

So with all of this greatness…why did GLTAS get the axe? Ratings were decent, but that wasn’t quite enough to keep such an expensive show on the air. It’s become common knowledge that the primary reason that GLTAS was canceled was because there was no accompanying toyline to offset costs, and the reason for that is because the Green Lantern movie figures are still clogging up the clearance racks. The movie itself tanked, and the glut of figures just didn’t sell that well as a result. I see those things everywhere, from Big Lots to the dusty clearance aisle at Toys R Us…even at discount shops like Five Below! Seriously, if they can’t get rid of movie tie-in toys from two years ago…it’s a wonder GLTAS even got a chance. I’m sure there’s even more going on behind the scenes that contributed to GLTAS‘ cancellation, but we’ll never know for sure.

We can only hope we’ll get some kind of new animated Green Lantern adventures at some point in the future, like the past direct-to-video offerings. Given how badly the live-action film’s failure seems to have damaged the franchise, however, any new project is likely a long ways off. Still, hats off to GLTAS for providing some of the best — screw it, the best — Green Lantern stories in many, many years.

Leaving the Lantern Corps behind

In case you hadn’t heard, the writers of all four Green Lantern comics — Geoff Johns, Peter Tomasi, Peter Milligan, and Tony Bedard — are leaving their respective books after issue #20 ships in a few months, along with with all of the associated artists. This means that after “Wrath of the First Lantern” wraps up, we’ll be entering a brave new world of Green Lantern stories.

This is nothing short of spectacular news.

Geoff Johns wore out his welcome a long time ago. Now before you start shouting at me, listen for a moment: even the most diehard Johns defender can’t deny that the constant events, retconning of Green Lantern (and DC Universe!) history every few issues, telling the same story over and over again (villain tied to the emotional spectrum), and shoving Hal Jordan into the background of his own damned book ended up as a disaster. Green Lantern has needed a new driver at the wheel for many long years now, so this is welcome news indeed.

I understand that Johns brought Green Lantern to fantastic new heights of popularity and relevance, and that is most certainly to his credit. You can never take that away from him, and I’ll defend that shit to the last. But you also need to place it in perspective: just because something’s popular, that doesn’t mean it’s good. Case and point: Michael Bay made Transformers popular again. Johns’ treatment of Green Lantern was exactly the same, for better or for worse. There were some cool concepts and stories wedged in there, to be sure, but they were drowned by the flood of other crap.

As for the other three writers leaving, it’s a shame as some of them didn’t have as much as time as the others to tell their stories, but I doubt this was their choice. Considering that they’ve been creatively hamstrung by nonstop events and crossovers, especially since the “New 52″ launched, it’s probably for the best. I’ve got a feeling that they were forced out by Johns or other powers-that-be, as part of a “scorched earth” policy of sorts; I’m worried that the conclusion of “Wrath of the First Lantern” will be a massive clusterfuck that severely hinders future creativity. More on that later.

Furthermore, I believe that Red Lanterns or Green Lantern: New Guardians will likely be cancelled shortly after “Wrath of the First Lantern” is completed. The former book has been awful since day one, and as I much as I love the latter, it’s been mired in forced crossovers and events. The lower sales of both books, of course, are what really matters to the powers-that-be. To be honest, though, I think the Green Lantern mythos would work better as two monthly books again. We’ve got five goddamned Earth Lanterns alone; mix ‘em up in Green Lantern and Green Lantern Corps, use the other color Corps very sparingly, and your story potential is endless.

Now, there is a big caveat to all of this. Johns and Dan Didio still have the final word. Didio is Editor-in-Chief, and though Johns’ role as Chief Creative Officer is more related to pushing comics properties into other media, I seriously doubt either of them will let the new writers alter the groundwork they’ve laid. That’s why I think the other writers may have been forced to leave, too; they’d be the first ones to undo some of the damage wrought over the years. The first six to twelve months in particular will be tough, but we’ll just have to see where it goes. I’d love to see the Green Lantern series get stripped back down to just good self-contained storytelling instead of the same old rehashes and crossovers, but I have my reservations. Either way, this is a potentially exciting time. Let’s see what the future holds!

Hallmark 2012 Green Lantern Keepsake Ornament

I know, I know, I should’ve talked about this weeks ago…but it’s been a busy holiday season! Behold, Hallmark’s latest Green Lantern ornament:

This year, we’ve got the movie version of Hal Jordan. Pressing a button the side illuminates the figure with a green LED on the base, and Ryan Reynolds recites the Green Lantern Corps Oath. The light stays on until you hit the button again. The base is rather cheesy (with that overused Serpentine font), but the figure sculpt looks good, and it’s a classic pose of the Green Lantern charging his ring. Very cool!

It’s weird that we’re getting a movie Green Lantern this year, when the film came out last year. It even has the Green Lantern: Secret Origin on the website and box, but this an accidental error; last year’s ornament was meant to depict comic book Hal. You’d think that a movie version last year and perhaps a “New 52″ version this year would’ve made more sense! At any rate, this retails for $19.95, which isn’t bad for an ornament featuring light and sound.

Mine is proudly displayed on my family’s Christmas tree. Have you picked up yours yet? What other superhero ornaments are hanging on your tree?

“Lanterns” make little to no sense

“The Sinestro Corps War” revealed the Ion willpower entity, which has a lantern-like symbol on its body. Thus, it was retconned that the Guardians created the Green Lantern Corps simply based on the color and symbol for willpower, replacing its original status of being a shining light of justice in the vast galactic darkness. A stupid retcon, to be sure, but I guess it works; the Ion/willpower symbol does look a bit like a lantern.

With the other Corps, though, we run into problems. The other emotional entities also have symbols, and it is from there that the associated Corps take their emblems. However, those other symbols don’t look like lanterns at all. Lanterns were created from them, but that doesn’t change the original symbols. Instead, the other Corps’ power batteries are only very slightly modified copies of the Green Lantern models (with the exception of the Indigo Tribe’s staves). Why would you need an object shaped like the willpower symbol to harness a completely different type of emotional energy? Or even a power ring, for that matter? (I’m speaking in-universe, of course.) Krona didn’t need that nonsense, and neither did the entities or Kyle Rayner, just to name a few.

Things really go to shit when we consider the First Lantern. If he was meant to harness and use all emotions, then why is he a Lantern at all? He predates all of the Corps, and the lantern symbol only applies to one color: willpower. Therefore, his being a Lantern while being an “emotional sadist” being makes no sense.

The reasoning behind all of this will likely change a few more times within the next few years, if not sooner. Unfortunately, this is exactly what happens when inconsistent writing, constant retcons, and endless events completely derail a series’ mythos. Kinda makes you pine for the old days of more solid stories, doesn’t it?