Construct of the Week #27

Construct: Flying Surfboard

 

Generated by: Hal Jordan

 

Appeared in: Justice League of America #111, 1974

Who Turned the Lights Out?

As happens to us all from time to time, I recently found myself in the unfortunate position of having to cut down my comic book pull list while I divert my finances towards more practical requirements.  On the plus side this means I have ample opportunity to reacquaint myself with my back-issue collection, including a 5 year run of JLA.

 

 

All the talk recently of the up-coming 'Lights Out' storyline running across the Green Lantern titles reminded me of another time when the lights went out for GL.  Whereas in the excellent Green Lantern #23.1 featuring Relic it looks like the Lantern Corps power batteries are literally going to fade throughout the DCU, the incident I recall was a much more personal experience for Kyle Rayner.

The scene played out in JLA #43 & #44, in the 'Tower of Babel' storyline written by Mark Waid.  Unbeknownst to his fellow Justice Leaguers Batman had devised plans to neutralize each of them in the event that they went rogue or fell under the control of evil influences.  The problems began when Ra's Al Ghul used his resources to hack the Bat-Computer and steal the emergency plans so he could take down the League before initiating a nefarious scheme to wipe out mankind.

Superman obviously has his Kryptonite but Bats had to think a little differently to overcome the resident Green Lantern on the team.

Fans will know the thing that makes Kyle Rayner such a unique and talented Green Lantern is his background as an artist.  In the right hands a power ring will create anything its wearer can imagine which in Kyle's case is pretty much unlimited.  Whereas Hal Jordan spent years reusing the same tried and tested fist construct, his successor produced any number of fanciful creations.  From Manga characters to alien beasts we have been spoiled with a visual smorgasbord of the wild and wonderful.

What Batman realised was that Green Lantern's strength was also his weakness.  His ability to wield the ring relied on visualising the constructs he conjured up.  All Batman (or in this case Ra's) had to do to take Kyle out of the game was to rob him of his sight.  Not being able to see the world around him made the GL virtually powerless and easy prey for Ra's and his daughter, Talia.

For those who are curious as to how exactly Kyle was rendered blind in the first place and how his terrifying predicament was eventually reversed in true comic book style, you need look no further than the old post-hypnotic suggestion trope.  And I am very pleased to report some 13 years after the 'Tower of Babel' arc was originally released that our hero and his teammates where able to overcome their dastardly plight and save the Earth once again.

 

*** UPDATE *** THE COLOUR OF STEEL

Regular visitors to ‘Flodo’s Page’ will remember my interview with the very talented graphic illustrator, ColourOnly85.  In celebration of the release of Man of Steel, the artist set himself a daunting challenge to produce designs of the entire cast of DC Comics in the months before the movie hit our screens.  All the while he promised us the ultimate tribute to Zack Snyder’s much anticipated reworking of the Superman story with an original ColourOnly movie poster.

 

I recently had the pleasure of catching up with ColourOnly85 again to talk Man of Steel and, of course, a little bit of Green Lantern.

 

FP: Good to speak to you again, man.  Man of Steel has been out in cinemas for a few weeks now and you have completed your final piece for your MoS challenge.

 

The first thing I've got to ask, what did you think of the movie?!

 

CO85: It's great to be back!  Thanks again for having me.

 

I really enjoyed the film.  From news and trailers it was always pegged as being a much darker and more serious take on Superman, and I was happy that it delivered on that.  Things like seeing Superman brawling with Faora and the others the way they did was just what I had hoped for.  I also really liked the different approach to the Superman story, with the spotlight being put on Krypton - that was refreshing.  I appreciated Nolan before but this film has definitely put me on his fan list.  I can't wait for number two.

 

 

FP: Your Man of Steel movie print is awesome.  You must feel very proud.  How would you describe the process that went into producing that image?  A labour of love?

 

CO85: Thanks so much, I'm very grateful.  Haha, labour of love and labour of frustration probably sums it up best.  I probably went through more revisions on that design than any other.  During the design process I realised I wanted it to reflect the styling of the movie, so I had to keep modifying it until it felt 'right’.  I was definitely glad when it was finished that's for sure...

 

FP: So now you have crossed the finish line can you tell me, altogether, how many DC comic characters were lucky enough to receive a ColourOnly85 treatment?

 

CO85: The total was around 160.  It's a far cry from the total number of DC characters, but I’m glad to have accomplished the number I did.

 

 

FP: 160 characters is no mean feat!  And finally, I can't let you go without saying a few words about Kilowog.  You kept your promise and 'Wog is looking mighty fine.  Is this a case of the show isn't over until the fat lantern sings..?

CO85: Thanks so much.  It was a lot of fun doing ‘Wog, although I'm looking forward to doing him again during the second project where I can do him more justice.  Time caught up with me on this first project, so I'm looking forward to the second one where I have a bit more freedom.

It's definitely a case of 'it ain't over’.   I'll be launching a new project on 1st September called 'The 215 Project'.  The project will be similar to the first, so I'll be doing designs counting down to Man of Steel 2; however, I’ll be limiting the number of illustrations being done.  I really want to push the individual designs much further in terms of style and feel, something I wasn't able to do with the previous challenge due to the time restraint.  I will also be doing things a little differently in terms of the characters being illustrated.  I'll be announcing more news of that on my Instagram shortly.

FP: We’ll all be looking out for that one!  If you’re taking suggestions for the ‘The 215 Project’ I’d love to see what you could do with the current star of Green Lantern Corps and my favourite GL, John Stewart.  In the meantime, thanks again for sparing time to share a few words with ‘Flodo’s Page’ and congratulations on producing a spectacular homage to Man of Steel.

LIGHT UP ROOKIES, WELCOME TO THE CORPS

 I’ve been approaching my Green Lantern comics with cautious optimism over the last couple of months.  Five Lantern titles hit the stands in July and although only one of them bore a #1 on its cover they might as well have all been brand new.  Every writer and most of the art teams were starting out on their respective book for the very first time.  In fact, with the exception Alex Sinclair’s irreproachable brilliance colouring constructs in the main title and a showing from old hands Keith Giffen and J.M. Dematteis, I didn’t know very much about the creators involved.  Having just said goodbye to the previous generation of stalwarts I didn’t have a clue what to expect from this new bunch.  Word on the street, or more accurately the internet, was that they were all pretty reliable so I tried to convince myself that I didn’t have any real cause for alarm.

What I did have were questions running around my brain about the future of the franchise.  Will it carry on along similar lines to the event laden stories of the last few years?  Or will it feel fresh?  Will the new teams introduce original concepts and directions?  Will the roster of characters remain largely unchanged?

So now that I’ve read the first two issues from each of the new teams I have to say that for the most part I’m impressed, and maybe a little bit relieved.  This is unashamedly a new beginning for the GL universe but it nods respectfully to the history that has come before it.  It seems to me that Larfleeze sits apart in its own world, perhaps choosing to remain outside continuity or in a different timeframe, but the other four books come together well to kick off the next chapter in our favourite ring-slingers’ lives.  They contain enough shared elements to achieve cohesion while putting their own stamp on the world being created (or should that be recreated?).  Each book has a very definite sense of style about it.  They each offer a tone that felt very suitable for that particular title without being a carbon copy of the preceding 20 issues.  There was a danger that the writers would struggle to move past implications of the First Lantern event and become bogged down in the past.  Instead they use this event as a springboard to produce great starting points for some exciting new storylines.  And they give me faith that they will successfully take charge of the Green Lantern mythos.

In the first issues (the #21s) the overarching theme of all four titles is reconstructing the Corps.  Losses are high and its reputation is in tatters.  Their base of operations on the planet Oa lies in rubble.  There seems to be an acceptance that the Templar Guardians would take over from their fallen brethren as leaders and advisors to the GLC but the Guardians want to educate themselves to the ways of the universe for a while before they take on the duty of protecting it.  I don’t know if I’d automatically want to place my trust in this unknown quantity just because they share heritage with the previous lot.  I mean, look at how those guys turned out.

  

Hal Jordan is chosen to shoulder the responsibility of command in the Templar Guardians absence.  He immediately is pulled in all directions and quickly realises his usual ‘fly by the seat of your pants’ attitude isn’t going to cut it.  He has to find and train new recruits and rebuild the citadel.  At the same time he has to protect his Corpsmen from the Red Lanterns, and he doesn’t trust his new bosses much either.  He relies on his closest allies, the Earth Lanterns, to handle the dangers for him.  This is the premise of Green Lantern: New Guardians (which has never been more aptly named by the way). Kyle Rayner is enlisted to guide and where necessary contain the new Guardians!  Get it?  Acting as Hal’s other man-at-arms, Guy Gardner is sent to fill the even less appealing role of an undercover spy in the Red Lantern Corps.  That he ends up defeating Atrocitus in combat and leading that Corps instead is on the one hand ‘sooo Guy’, and on the other a mind-boggling new angle that excites and surprises.  If all this weren’t enough, Larfleeze unleashes a brutal attack on Oa and all troops are called on to defend the planet.  A busy first day on the job.

John Stewart’s place in the shared world of Green Lantern is going to be very interesting in the coming months.  He will be the main focus of Green Lantern Corps.  Perhaps more so than Hal even, John feels that it is his responsibility to ensure the new recruits receive the training they need to represent the Corps honourably and, more importantly, live to tell the tale.  While Hal leads from the front, John is in among the rookies showing them how it’s done.  His new purpose is best described with his own words in Green Lantern Corps #22, “Lesson four, Rookie: never leave a lantern behind!”.

I have always appreciated that the Green Lantern titles exist in a shared universe, something that happens in one book impacts on the next.  Some readers find this daunting.  They would rather have a comic that tells its own story in isolation.  To those people I would say it is perfectly possible to pick up any of the four issue #21s and read it by itself without having to worry about missing something.  I would then advise them not to!  The four books weave together naturally to create a fixed point of reference before kick-starting their own adventures.  I very much look forward to them all coming together again down the road.  The creative teams have obviously put quite a bit of thought into making sure no book could be considered less relevant.  The much publicised new ‘Big Bad’ of the GLU is first introduced in Green Lantern: New Guardians thereby giving it equal weighting to its more famous sister titles.  Elsewhere some as yet unknown force is affecting the ring energies of all the coloured Corps and this is picked up through unrelated incidences in more than one book.  And having laid a strong foundation in #21, each title strikes out confidently with its own exciting storytelling in #22.

There is more than enough in each of these books to satisfy both old and new readers.  While the new creators have undoubtedly given the world we were familiar with a shake-up, they haven’t thrown away everything long-time fans hold dear.  One of the first things Hal does as leader is to send out the hundreds of rings belonging to his fallen companions so that they can seek out new Lanterns.  There are new faces to get to know in both Green Lantern and Green Lantern Corps.  But alongside them we get to spend time with fan favourites like Salaak and Kilowog who have to cope with massive changes to their lives following the fall of the Guardians.  The new writers did their research well and succeed in ensuring the personalities of our much loved characters continue to ring true.  I was particularly pleased to see Sinestro’s daughter, Lantern Soranik Natu, make her first significant appearance since DC Comics’ ‘New 52’ reboot began back in 2011.

In case anybody reading this blog is trying to decide whether or not to pick up one or all of the Lantern titles for the first time, or after a spell away, I will briefly relate my impression of each.  Even for a dedicated fan like myself the Green Lantern books have been quite a slog over the last several months, not because the writing wasn’t good (except possibly Red Lanterns where I have to admit it wasn’t) but because the books have been heavily entrenched in bringing to bear the huge concepts Geoff Johns had been working towards for a number of years.  They were not books that you could just pick up randomly at your comic book store and have any real hope understanding what was going on.  I enjoyed everything the ‘Wrath of the First Lantern’ crossover had to offer but it has been a breath of fresh air in the last two months to see my favourite characters roll up their sleeves and get back to focusing on the Corps again and having a few swashbuckling space adventures to boot!

Green Lantern #21 & #22 – As the flagship title of the collection and formerly penned by Johns for the best part of a decade all eyes are going to be on this book.  Robert Venditti has made a really interesting choice by placing responsibility for the Corps squarely at Hal Jordan’s door.  It gives us a chance to explore the character with fresh eyes which I think is important for any new writer taking on a book after his predecessor has been so long at the helm.  The last thing I want to read is a poor imitation of what has come before.  Issue #21 pitches straight into the action with a flashforward to a battle with Relic that we will do no doubt see more of soon.  The scene setting that follows is necessary but does not feel obligatory.  Before long we are taken back into the thick of battle as Larfleeze shows up to attack Oa knowing the Corps is at its weakest.  With constructs aplenty and new recruits having to learn their trade in the heat of battle there is lots for any GL fan to sink their teeth into.  I was particularly interested in the sub-plot of the unrepentant criminal who escapes her sciencell prison with the aid of a Star Sapphire ring.  Again, there is plenty to suggest that Venditti intends to tells stories unlike anything we have read before.  Like all of the new artists on these books, Billy Tan is still finding his feet but there is enough quality in there to give me confidence that he will be competing with the best of them on Green Lantern in no time at all.

Green Lantern Corps #21 & #22 – This book is a little different to the others in that it is the only one where the main character, John Stewart, does not start out on Oa.  Instead we find him on a mission with the Star Sapphire Fatality to save a planet from unidentified thieves whose miscreant actions are about to cause nuclear disaster.  In all honesty, despite my professed favouritism for Stewart over the other Earth Lanterns, Green Lantern Corps #21 didn’t work for me as much as I had hoped.  I put my misgivings down to two main factors: 1) Van Jensen is still finding his way with the book and his lead character’s voice – suffice to say by #22 this was no longer a problem and I was completely sold on the writer and the direction he and co-plotter Venditti are taking; and 2) Bernard Chang’s art felt ‘off’ to me – I put this purely down to the fact I have been spoiled by Fernando Pasarin’s outstanding contribution on GLC over the last couple of years.  Art is a matter of preference and often takes longer to adjust to than writing style so I fully expect to be singing Chang’s praises from the rooftops before very long at all.

The main thing a long time reader should be aware of with the switch in writers is that, thematically speaking, Green Lantern Corps has a new agenda (or seems to at any rate).  This title was primarily a war book under Tomasi’s guidance.  The Corps was an army marching into battle or dealing with the fallout from a previous skirmish.  John Stewart’s most significant contribution was his military court martial.  Under Van Jensen the book is much more about what makes people tick.  John’s complicated relationship with Fatality is put under the microscope.  Salaak’s reaction to the betrayal of the Guardians, and his fellow Corps members’ distrust of him as their closest associate are all put under scrutiny too.  And even more interesting are the new recruits that show up in this book.  While the rookies in Green Lantern are initially viewed through Hal’s eyes, Green Lantern Corps takes time to understand that each recruit has come from somewhere and has a past that makes them unique.  It poses the question of how a diverse group with different motivations and influences can work together to achieve a common goal.

With all of this high-brow soul searching you’d be forgiven for thinking the book might be short on the action department but not a bit of it.  Major run-ins with Khunds and Durlans in these two issues mean the book isn’t short on the blood and guts either.  All that and the first sight of the Emotional Entities in the New 52 make this a comic book with a whole lot of promise.  I am intrigued to discover if it can deliver.

 Green Lantern: New Guardians #21 & #22 - This is another title that is being rebuilt from the ground up by the new creative team of Justin Jordan and Brad Walker.  I imagine that Kyle Rayner, the lead figure of the title, could be a very difficult character to write these days.  From the very beginning of the New 52 he has been a man apart from the Green Lantern Corps, a renegade on the run from the evil manipulations of the Guardians of the Universe.  More recently, with the extraordinary abilities of the White Lantern at his command, there is a real danger that Kyle could suffer from the same foibles as many less than successful Superman stories over the years, namely that he is so powerful there is nothing of interest to challenge him.  Luckily this does not seem to be the case.  That he is the first Lantern to face off against Relic is not insignificant itself but, more to the point, Justin Jordan gets Kyle.  He knows who the man is and what he’s been through.  And he manages to write a story that is both a huge cosmic tapestry, very much complimented by Walker’s art, and an intimate personal tail sharing the hallmarks of a well written soap opera (if there is such a thing!).

Kyle feels a weight of responsibility on his shoulders surpassing even his own great gifts and when Hal asks him to accompany the Templar Guardians on their mission of learning he turns the new Green Lantern leader down flat.  The last thing he needs is to waste his time on a baby-sitting job when there is so much good he could be doing in the universe.  It is only when Hal points out that the Guardians are too powerful for anyone else to deal with if they stray onto the path of their evil predecessors that Kyle relents.

Something that caught my attention in GL:NG was Kyle’s “connection” with Carol Ferris, a fact neither hero seems to be consciously aware of.  The book doesn’t go into to detail on what this might mean yet but I get the feeling that the Star Sapphire is going to be a regular feature in the book and I can’t be alone in speculating that Hal Jordan might have a little competition on his hands on the relationship front.  With a track record of being unlucky in love these two look to be a great fit for one another at the moment.  If giant space sharks and villains from another universe aren’t enough to grab your attention then surely the possibility of a little bit of romantic tension is going to bring you back for more.

Red Lanterns #21 & #22 - Truth be told these issues were going to be make or break for me.  Peter Milligan's run was not ticking my boxes at all and since I am no longer doing regular weekly reviews here on Flodo's Page there was really nothing to keep me on the book except a masochistic Lantern completism.  What it also meant, however, was that this was the switch up I was feeling most positive about.

 As it is, all this positivity came crashing down around me when I opened issue #21 and was greeting with a maudlin Atrocitus spouting the same old theatrical nonsense he had for the previous 20 issues.  Luckily, it transpired this was just Charles Soule attempting to bridge the gap between old and new.  Red Lanterns continues to have its faults; the art is a little shaky and if I were to nitpick I could wonder why Dex-Starr has the ability to create construct bubbles in the same issue the Reds make it clear only Rankorr possesses this ability.  But I will not nitpick.  Instead I will tell you to go out and buy this book.  NOW.

 Soule has managed to capture the voice of Guy Gardner at his most, well ...’Guy-like’.  While the premise is that Guy is undercover in the Red Lantern Corps, it’s not long before we wonder if this isn’t where the angry man of the Greens should be in the first place.  There certainly weren't any complaints coming from this corner when he deposed Atrocitus and beat him to within an inch of his wretched life.  Guy brings a moral code to the RLs that they were missing previously but a question for the reader is how long will it be before the deliciously unfettered and unrepentant thirst for revenge overcomes him completely, and will anyone care?  We are only two issues in but already Red Lanterns is shaping up to be the no holds barred action thriller we had all hoped for way back in issue #1.

Larfleeze #21 & #22 – I haven’t a whole lot to say about these books really.  If you were a fan of Keith Giffen and J.M Dematteis’ run on Justice League International or in the mini-series Formerly Known as the Justice League you’ll like Larfleeze.  If you are into comic books that are tongue-in-cheek or kooky you’ll like Larfleeze.  If you like your humor falling firmly in the realm of purile and pushing on the boundaries of good taste you will like Larfleeze.  And to be fair I like all of those things.  This is a funny book.  But if you want to read a Lantern book that has any consideration for previous continuity or has a bearing on the future of the GL universe Larfleeze is NOT the book for you.  In issue #21 the keeper of the light of avarice gives a version of his own back-story and even he admits it’s not exactly accurate!  So until DC Comics confirm any different I will take it that this title sits outside of the New 52 DCU.  I prefer to think of it as a bawdy romp for the sake of rompery all alone in its own little world.  And isn’t that how Larfleeze would want it in any case?

If you’re hoping to read a version of Larfleeze that pays its dues to Geoff Johns’ original ‘Agent Orange’ storyline you are better off sticking with Green Lantern #21 and #22 and leaving the revelry to somebody with a bit less nerd in their DNA…

So there you have it.  The rookies have landed and bar none they have made their mark on Green Lantern in one way or another.  And although there may be a few teething problems while writers and artists get to know their subjects in the same depth as many of us have had the pleasure of for a good many years, I think it is safe to say that the that the legacy of Green Lantern is in a safe hands. Big, green safe hands.   

Construct of the Week #26

Remember back when Red Lanterns were scary?!

 

Generated by: Atrocitus

Construct: Mera, Queen of Atlantis

 

Appeared in: Green Lantern #54 (vol.4), 2010

 

 

THE MASTER OF MONSTERS

Any Green Lantern fan worth a lick of salt knows the important debt of gratitude we owe to Gil Kane.  Gil was the artist on virtually every Green Lantern comic book throughout the first 10 years of our favourite ring-slingers' existence.  He is responsible for laying the foundations on which the GL universe was built.  Much like the constructs formed by our heroes' power rings, the weird and wonderful world Hal Jordan and his fellow Corpsmen explore is limited only by  Gil's imagination.

Of course, Green Lantern Corps recruits come in every shape and size but what does a legendary picturesmith do when he needs a break from drawing six armed aliens and eyes on stalks?  Well... monsters of course!

Here are five fearsome beasties who escaped from the mind of the monster master:


 1. Raarrr! Does this belt make me look scary or what?!

Green Lantern vol.2 #8 (1961)



2. Would you believe me if I said I was vegetarian?

 

Green Lantern vol.2 #34 (1965)

 

3. Shape-shifters - because one monster is never enough. 



Green Lantern vol.2 #38 (1965)

 

4. Nothing says evil like a brain on a stick... 



Green Lantern vol.2 #55 (1967)

 

5. Tentacles of Doom! 'Nuff said! 



 Green Lantern vol.2 #70 (1969)

 

 

The most powerful weapon in the universe?!

We all know the legend.  The Green Lantern Corps.  An intergalactic police force armed with the most powerful weapon in the universe.  A ring with abilities limited only by the will of its wearer. 

If only life was that easy…

 

It is all well and good having command over solid light, conjuring into existence anything you can possibly think of.  It would be nice if somebody told the constructs that this was the plan too!

 

 

 

And what happens when the bad guys use that green energy against you?  Do they teach that one in rookie school?

 

This isn’t the only problem, of course.  A power ring has a limited charge.  A charge with a nasty habit of running out at the least convenient of moments…

 

 

Might seem like bad news when you are face down in the dirt.  But it’s nothing compared to how you’re going to feel if the tank runs dry mid-flight.

 

And imagine doing that in front of the girl you’re trying to impress – it’s not a good look!

 

 

So just have a little think on it when the Corps come calling.
 

 

 Do you still fancy your chances wielding the most powerful weapon in the universe?

 

 

 

 

Construct of the Week #25

 

Construct: Magic Proof Energy Globe

 

"I thought I had the monopoly on heat vision?!"
 

  

 

 

 

 

Generated by:
Hal Jordan

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Appeared in:
World's Finest Comics #201, 1971

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A Fan's Tale: My Journey with Green Lantern #20

 Well, that was a hell of a week in comics!  On a personal note Flodo’s Page celebrated its first birthday… Yaay!   I started the blog a year ago to share my love of the Green Lantern mythos.  It stuns me on a regular basis when I think about the scale of the universe that has been created over the years by the likes of Broome and Kane, Jones, Staton, Adams, O’Neil, Moore and so many other great writers and artists.  Storytellers who revelled in tales of a man with a magic ring and a bright green lantern.  The adventures of the Green Lantern Corps were spun by the some of the biggest names in comic book history.  They were woven together, shaped and reshaped.  They passed across generations of creators, reimagined in the hands of Marz, Banks and their ilk before finally settling like a muse of legend in the mind of Geoff Johns.  And if you think that sounds a bit whimsical, think again.  The continuity, long though it is, is only the tip of the ice-berg in my appreciation of Green Lantern.  The vastness of this fictional universe is itself almost unique in comics.  The account of the DCU begins with “Billions years ago the Guardians of the Universe…”, or words to that effect.  Moreover, Green Lantern is not just one individual hero, it is a Corps comprising of thousands of heroes covering every sector of the known universe.  The potential for new stories is virtually limitless.  This is recognised in the imagery and language associated the comic book.  As I coined myself a moment ago, we were often presented with a ‘Tale’ from the annals of the Corps.  The idea if realised on panel through the Book of Oa, a giant tome recording every memorable moment of the GLC.  Over the last year on Flodo’s Page I’ve applauded the inspiration that has been given over to Green Lantern by professionals and fans alike.  And judging from the feedback I’ve had on the blog I’m not alone in my admiration.

So that was the birthday moment.  But suffice to say it isn’t anywhere near the biggest Green Lantern happening in comic books last week.  The week had started pretty miserably for me.  I was stung more than I’d care to admit by the news that James Robinson will shortly be replaced on the DC published Earth 2.  This is a wonderful book where Robinson has had free reign to rewrite the pasts of many golden age legacy characters including the original Green Lantern himself, Alan Scott.  It was much reported when Robinson took the brave step of presenting Alan as gay.  The world he created, while not quite on the scale of the GLC, is huge and requires an incredible ability to produce long-form storytelling.  Readers have been jubilantly buoyed along by promises in interviews and press articles of the huge things still to come under Robinson’s careful guidance.   Weirdly the news was more disappointing than the announcement a few weeks earlier that Johns, Tomasi and all of the other creative teams were calling it a day on the Green Lantern titles.  Geoff Johns has written almost a decade of GL stories.  He has had ample opportunity to make his mark on that world and he has blessed us with some truly unforgettable stories.  As I tweeted to a fellow enthusiast the other day, “He deserves a break!”  By comparison Robinson was only getting started on Earth 2.

So that wasn’t good.  There was also downheartedness among a section of fandom around the final issue of Firestorm which was published last Wednesday.  I feel sympathy for these hard-core match heads.  It’s never good to have your favourite title cancelled.

But none of this was enough to quash the excitement that I had for ‘New Comic Book Day’.  As you all know fine rightly or you wouldn’t even be reading this blog.  The day saw the publication of three lantern titles including the epic conclusion to the crossover event ‘Wrath of the First Lantern’.  As if this wasn’t enough, Green Lantern #20 was an oversized action packed issue featuring Geoff Johns as writer for the very last time.  All the way from Green Lantern: Rebirth in 2004 until now Johns has expertly crafted the title at every turn and I was in no doubt that his departing gift to the mythos was going to be unmissable.  Johns has taken the universe to unbelievable heights with the likes of the Sinestro Corps War and the subsequent war of light.  The DCU wide event Blackest Night, with Green Lantern front and centre, is honestly the most enjoyable episode I have read in comics.  The seven hardcover collections sit on my bedside and are dipped into constantly.

A funny thing happened in the run-up to the release of GL#20.  The book was delayed for 2 weeks, presumably because it took so long to make it completely awesome.  In the meantime Green Lantern Corps was printed and distributed on its scheduled release date.  The book was bannered as the Epilogue to the ‘Wrath of the First Lantern’ but it ended up coming out the week before the Conclusion to the same event.  And inevitably it was chock full of spoilers for the main title.  This was an epic FAIL on the part of DC Comics and I feel particularly sorry for Peter J. Tomasi who has worked alongside Johns since the beginning of his run, first as an editor and then as a writer.  This was to be his swansong and due to some calamitous oversight on the part of DC editorial the wind was somewhat stolen from his sails.   Thank the Guardians for Twitter, that is all I can say.  I didn’t notice the word Epilogue on the cover at all but before I opened the book somebody tweeted out a warning for Fanterns to tread carefully.  So I dutifully put the issue on my shelf and began to count the days (14 of them) until Green Lantern #20 was finally released.  It wasn’t easy, I can tell you.  An unread GL book is anathema to.  I was sorely tempted more than a few times.  In hindsight I am mightily glad that I waited.

So on to the main event.  It could be said that this was the moment that the last 10 years of Geoff Johns’ career had been building up to.  It was certainly his last chance to put words in the mouths of the whole slew of characters he created (for now!).  Rather than review Green Lantern #20 at this juncture I’m going to tell you what it was like to read it instead.  For this is more than a comic book to be read.  It is a thing to be experienced.  Holding the book in my hands, with its cardboard wraparound cover and glued spine I was hard pressed to begrudge DC the unusually high price tag.  Colours bounced in front of eyes.  Alex Sinclair was clearly on a mission to use every tint on his palate.
 

Page 1 grabbed me by the gut straight away.  As I’ve mentioned on more than one occasion, I find reciting the Green Lantern oath to be one of the most stirring rituals in comics.  Geoff was pulling out the big guns from the get go.  And then, immediately, I was confused.  Who is saying the oath? I didn’t recognise any of the Lantern’s in front of me.  And more importantly – what happened from the cliff hanger from the last issue?  I had a feeling of dread in the pit of my stomach that I’d missed something, despite having followed every moment in the GL library for a very long time now.  And that includes more copies of Red Lanterns than I honestly care to remember.

Luckily my cruel despair was momentary.  These were Lanterns of the future and they were about to tell a story.  Page 1, if you’ll permit me the risk of redundancy, was a page-turner.  Page 2… BOOM! A full page spread of the Book of Oa.  They really know how to play to the nerd in me.  The book was looking a little more battered than I’d seen before, “like it had been through the wars” I said to myself with a knowing smile.  The following pages gave us a brief account of the Hal Jordan’s history as it was told by Johns picking out all the major beats but focusing particularly on a recap of the last few months.  For some reason I was overly pleased to spot one panel referencing an very early issue on the run where Hal charges his ring in mid-air on the capitated head of a Manhunter android.  I also cynically noted that the recent Third Army event did not rate so much as a mention.

After that the pages started to roll by as I was sucked into a veritable who’s who of GL supporting cast (Go Gnort!) joining forces to defeat the powerful First Lantern.  Part of me wanted to stop and savour each panel in detail.  I wanted to ask questions, to test the continuity.  To name each character and catalogue each reference but I couldn’t.  I was being dragged through story at an insatiable pace.

There are quite a few splash panels making full luxury of the increased page count.  Hal gets his fair share obviously, one of which is a double page spread of him returning from the Dead Zone as the leader of a Black Lantern horde.  But there is another character who steals a page or two. In fact, where the first half of this book really makes its mark is in its depiction of Thal Sinestro.  It’s pretty obvious, even to a brand new reader, that Geoff Johns loves writing Sinestro.  In that instant what many conceive to be the single worse choice made by any writer on a Green Lantern title becomes its greatest victory.  The yellow Lantern finally fulfils his ultimate wish in bonding with the fear entity, Parallax.  Even as I’m reading I pay silent tribute to the character that Johns has championed over the course of his long tenure.  It’s no accident that Sinestro has been borne from the dubious status of arch-villain to become one of the best loved anti-heroes in DC Comics today.  It’s great to see Sinestro as Parallax .  Unlike all of our favourite GLs from Earth, most infamously Hal Jordan himself, the entity does not possess his latest host.  Sinestro is able to control the power of Parallax while retaining his own persona.  This reminded me of Ion in the Green Lantern lore.  Both Kyle and Sodam Yat absorbed the will entity without being enthralled by it.  This perfectly captures the notion of characters being in tune with one element of the emotional spectrum.  I would suppose that there are only a few people that can safely bond with each of the emotional entities.

Interspersed throughout the issue are pages of tributes and testimonials thanking Geoff Johns for his long service.  The great and good of comic books and its associated media grace these pages.  Each one is picked out in a different colour and carries a Lantern representing that colour, a bright purple sheet with Indigo-1 in the corner for example.  The words appearing there are heartfelt and often poetic.  Dazzling nuggets celebrating one legendary writer’s journey.  Well… I’ve got to be honest with you.  After the first one I skipped them all.  In fact, I didn’t actually pause to take in any of them until my third read-through.  The story is that good.  Nothing was getting between me and the end of this book.

If I can take a segue on that topic for a moment, I have to commend the editorial team on their arrangement of Green Lantern #20.  The only advertisements in the issue are for other Lantern titles, pointedly the all new creative teams appearing on the shelves next month and the much talked  about offering from Keith Giffen and Scott Kolins who will launch their interpretation of Larfleeze from the pages of the Threshold anthology into his very own solo book.  The first ad doesn’t appear until almost the end of the story.   In this sense the book is spoiler free.  None of the forthcoming plotlines are thrown in to break the spell that Johns and Doug Manhke have cast over us in the first 50 or so pages.  Of course, I’ve long known that there are changes just around the corner.  How could there not be?  But while I was submerged in that narrative for the first time my thoughts were not wondering at some distant future.  I could barely contain my excitement over what would appear on the very next panel.

At my core I felt for the first time in years that I was reading a comic book of the same quality as I hold Blackest Night to be.  I’d never turned away from Green Lantern in the intervening years but neither was I fool enough to consider that all of the writing had been equal quality.  It was exactly this thought that was going through my mind when Nekron popped up in all his splendid scythe wielding glory.  “No, Geoff… you haven’t!”  He only bloody well did, ladies and gentlemen. “Mind officially blown.”

I’m not even going to try and talk about the art in any great detail.  I may be in danger of repeating myself here but, for me, panel after panel, image after image, reference after reference was jaw dropping.  In fact, I tweeted as much to Geoff Johns.  I said “… @GeoffJohns That was the sound of my jaw hitting the floor! #GreenLantern” And Geoff tweeted me back in a private DM, “ :) ”.  Now this might not seem like very much to the rest of the world but let me tell you as Green Lantern uber-geek, to know that I made Geoff Johns laugh (even digitally) on ‘Geoff Johns Day’ was a special moment for me.  He was very quiet on his public feed that afternoon but I like to think he was logged in and following some of the many reactions that were bubbling across social networks that ‘New Comic Book Day’.  I’m never going to wash this Twitter account again…

That the First Lantern would be defeated was inevitable, of course, and he was dispatched in rip-roaring fashion.  What I finally understood in its full complexity was the psychological battle that was being played out in this arc.  Up until now I had looked at the First Lantern’s mind games as a literary device to underpin the action.  All of a sudden it hit me like the proverbial 10 ton truck.  The underlying goal of ‘Wrath…’ was to heal Hal Jordan’s one remaining scar, the childhood trauma of his father’s death.  I wasn’t quite moved to tears when the GL comforted his younger self but I was hugely taken aback by the powerful impact the scene had on me.

And after all that the Green Lanterns won the day.  “As if there was any doubt, folks…”

One thing I was glad to have resolved, although I am undecided of my genuine reaction towards, is the demise of the Guardians of the Universe - or their well-deserved comeuppance you might say.  The Guardians were executed by Sinestro.  It doesn’t come as much surprise.  They had basically become irredeemable over the last year or two and if anybody was going to finally off them it would be Sinestro.  Appearing last August for the first time, the Templar Guardians were the heralds of their brethren’s doom, for they were the obvious morally stout replacement for the corrupted immortals.  Even so, it was nice to have any lingering doubts dispelled.

And with that all is right with the world once more.  The narrative jumps back to the future Lanterns and that is the end of the story… except it isn’t.  And by the same token it wasn’t for me that day.  Geoff and his many artistic cohorts had banded together to keep the story going.  He refused to let go the reins and we kept on riding together.

If everything up to this point had been Blackest Night, what came next was different, something special.  Something befitting the end of an era.  In my time as a comic book fan I can only think of one suitable comparison, ‘Whatever Happened to the Man of Tomorrow?’  In brief for those who don’t know, ‘Whatever happened…’ was a two issue story from Alan Moore giving a kiss good-bye to the Silver Age of Comics before John Byrnes issued in a new era for Superman in 1986.  These last few pages have that same feel.  Geoff Johns allows us to travel with him into the twilight of our heroes lives to find out what became of them.  I didn’t know how I felt about this.  If this is how the story ends what freedom do other writers have to take the ‘Tales of the Green Lantern Corps’ in their own direction?    My concerns were fairly short-lived, however, because the story itself was a thing of beauty.  Each of our Earth Lanterns got his own happy ending.  This is how I resolved it in my mind.  Like the Superman adventure I just mentioned, I see this as an ending that might happen, and could happen.  That doesn’t mean it will happen in our continuity but it is the ending each of these ‘hard traveling’ heroes deserve.  And it is the ending Geoff Johns deserves too.

There was one last thing to share with you on the book (besides Johns’ own letter to the fans that I completely missed first time around).  I was just getting to the very last page of the issue.  The keeper of the Book of Oa was sharing his ‘Jerry’s final thought' with his young audience, “Hal Jordan, The Greatest of all the Green Lanterns.  The inspiration he left behind continues to burn bright.”  And then I turned the page and disaster struck.  The leaves were coming out of my book.  The binding glue that I had been so proud of half an hour earlier was tormenting me with its shoddiness.   A collectable heirloom was destroyed before for want of a metal staple.  I looked again.  I felt the edge of the page.  I ran my nail along it gently.  It was then I realised the paper was hinged on the wrong side and it sprung open at my touch.  And with that moment my own journey was complete.  I had opened Ethan Van Sciver’s glorious 4 page gatefold crammed with just about every coloured Lantern ever to grace the pages of a comic.  I didn’t need the words in the lantern shaped logo in the corner to tell me this really was “The End”.  And what a fabulous way to go.

Epilogue:

Actually, it wasn’t the end.  There was another three books I still had to read that day; Green Lantern Corps #20, Green Lantern: New Guardians # 20 and Red Lanterns #20.  Each one dealt with the fallout from their namesake title in its own way.  I had to laugh when I reached the final page of each book and was confronted with a similar lantern shaped logo to the one that I described above but this time the words that appeared read “Never The End”.

Yaayy!!

For all I said earlier, Peter J.Tomasi does manage to say a fond farewell to John Stewart and his favoured charge, Guy Gardner.  By the end of the issue I think Guy is a character that most fans could forgive for his infamous smug demeanour.  I read GLC #20 and then, quite by chance, I took a decision that made my day complete.  I decided to read Red Lanterns next and leave New Guardians until last.  RL #20 was ok.  Peter Milligan has tidied up his run nicely and left it in a position to tell the sort of stories that I, personally, always wanted from the book but rarely got.  Going forward I’d like to see less introspection from this title and more rage-fuelled cosmic punishment squad.

But it was New Guardians that was really the final piece in the jigsaw of my comic book week.  This issue tells the story of Kyle through the eye’s of Ganthet and Sayd. …Spoiler Alert!  Ganthet and Sayd are both alive.  Sinestro let them live because they loved each other.  What an old softy he is really.  Here I nearly did shed a tear.  Tony Beddard shows us why Kyle is the most powerful Lantern of all.  How he can harness all of the emotions in the spectrum and use them, even fear, for the good of everybody.  Kyle is the lantern that I began my own Green Lantern journey with in earnest.  It was through his story that I came to know Ganthet, his father figure.  I found myself thinking that Geoff Johns could have written both of them out of existence 10 years earlier with the quick flurry of a penstroke.  It is a fitting tribute to the writer’s legacy that Kyle was allowed to remain and to flourish after Hal Jordan was reinstated as the lead role in main GL title.  Where Green Lantern #20 is John’s final gift to us, I thought in those closing panels that Green Lantern: New Guardians #20 is our thanks to him for taking a geeky little story about a man with a magic ring and a bright green lantern and turning it into the stuff of legend. 