At the San Diego Comic Con earlier today they held a Green Lantern with a regular whose who of the GL line. Writers Geoff Johns, Peter J. Tomasi, Tony Bedard; editors Eddie Berganza and Adam Schlagman; as well as Red Lanterns artist Ed Benes, DC Senior Vice President Bob Wayne, and the always amazing Alan Burnett. They talked about a variety of topics including each of the four titles in the line, as well as the movie and upcoming animated series.
First up are some highlights of what Geoff Johns had to say about his run on Green Lantern as it prepares to begin again in September with a fresh number one, and an ousted Hal Jordan replaced by the newest Green Lantern…Sinestro.
- The first arc is about Sinestro and the fact that he’s wearing a Green Lantern ring that nobody can remove. He’s long been known as the renegade Green Lantern, a traitor to the Corps. Hell, he famously has his own Corps, the Sinestro Corps, which he’ll be facing off with in the opening issues. It may be a fair assumption that they might be changing their names.
- The second arc is going to move focus to the mysterious Indigo Tribe; which Sinestro will be drawn to. Johns promises that the arc will explain their history and just what exactly Abin Sur has to do with it.
- Then the third arc will be about the first Green Lantern, who happened to have been abandoned by the Guardians. Given that in the build up towards, and even during the War of the Green Lanterns, this is something Johns has already been hinting towards.
- He also noted that Sinestro: Secret Origin is in the works, though he didn’t disclose if it would be a story arc in the main title or a separate miniseries (come on miniseries!).
- When asked about how long he would remain with Green Lantern, Geoff clarified that he currently has another two to three years left of stories ready to go, but if he comes up with more ideas then he isn’t opposed to sticking around.
Next up we’ve got what Peter Tomasi had to say about his return to Green Lantern Corps this September.
- First off, he wants to put the Corps into the “Corps”, and make it feel more like a military unit. He even brought up Call of Duty as a reference point before talking about how the Corps will be going to war.
- Something else he plans to do in GLC is be the first writer to bother to explore the pocket universe where the Lanterns store their batteries, which is pretty original. It’s been around for how many decades without being more than an afterthought?
- With Mogo dead the Corps isn’t just down the heart and soul who figures out which ring goes where, but there’s also a giant planet sized GL ring that needs a new bearer. Tomasi promises that Mogo’s ring will find a new Lantern, but not whether or not it would be a planet.
- The Foundry, which we recently saw under Oa during the War of the GLs, will get some more focus. The place that housed a mysterious protector, as well as early versions of Manhunters and all kinds of long forgotten artifacts of the Corps.
- There will be focus put into the inner workings of Oa, including how the Guardians interact with the Corps. Given the recent status quo, and just how exactly the recent War of the GLs went, this is a biggie.
- After bringing him back during Emerald Warriors, Tomasi expressed that former Lantern Sodom Yat will be benched for the time being, and not to expect him.
- On the other hand, he did say that fans can expect to see former GLC regular Isamot Kol return to the pages of GLC!
Then Tony Bedard talked about The New Guardians, featuring Kyle Rayner and a host of other colored Lanterns.
- Kyle was chosen for this book as he’s been dubbed the ‘most emotional Lantern’, and I can see it. Kyle has always been the real guy on the Corps, not a soldier or anything like that, he’s a regular guy who got the ring. During Blackest Night he was generally seen with a wealth of emotions instead of just will. This makes him the perfect character to use to explore the various emotional spectrums of the other Corps.
- He’s been known to the Green Lantern Corps as the Torchbearer as he was the one who brought the Corps back from the brink of extinction, and apparently that’s why the other Corps want him. Everyone wants Kyle as their Torchbearer.
- The entities will next pop up in this book, which makes sense with the focus being on the various different colored Corps. But does this mean Kyle might be the host of one or more of them? Because that would be kinda cool.
- Larfleeze will be appearing in this title at some point and not just his construct Orange Lanterns.
- Black Hand and a White Lantern were both teased as possibly appearing.
- Johns said that New Guardians would be the book to read if you want to see Lanterns using multiple rings of various colors, which should make for some really interesting moments.
- There will be a new villain, at least one, with focus on the emotional spectrum as a whole.
- Lobo and his unworn Red Ring might be popping up here in the near future, which makes sense given that he was recently a regular in the unfortunately cancelled Tony Bedard written R.E.B.E.L.S.
- The Star Sapphires will be popping up here as well, with the identity of one of them being touted as a surprise.
Hal Jordan, the recently deposed Green Lantern of Sector 2814, was brought up as well.
- Hal without a ring hit patheticness relatively quickly. He’s jobless, homeless, and doesn’t even have a car.
- All of his time in space, and the fact that we haven’t seen him being plain old Hal Jordan and not Green Lantern for an extended period of time is going to biting him in the ass.
- He’ll be appearing in Green Lantern, by Johns, and Carol Ferris will also be showing up…though not wearing her Star Sapphire ring.
- There won’t be any Hal and Ollie road trips either, which Johns blames on Hal not having a car.
Unfortunately Burnett was only there to show a clip of the upcoming animated series and put over the recent Emerald Knights DVD (which was awesome).
Oh, and a Johns/Benes Dex-Starr Valentines Special is in the cards for this year too!
