Recently in Green Lantern Category

If you are a DC Comics fan, today the Internet split in half and revealed a heavenly vision: all 12 of the variant White Lantern covers joined together.  And just as some thought, when pieced together, the image appears to be inspired a bit by the Sistine Chapel.  Instead of Bible Genesis, you have DC Universe Genesis, with the Ring-entities from Green Lantern providing the magic.

Let's look at this magnificent image from a few different angles.

Ryan Sook, along with Fernando Pasarin and Joel Gomez, knocked themselves out here.  If I had to pick my favorite single covers out of this set, it would be the Hawkman cover from Justice Society of America 42.  There is something I love about the regal pose (worthy of an Egyptian King) and the detail on those feathers.  When you join this together with Hawkwoman from the other cover, it is even more impressive. 

Here is the entire poster joined together, courtesy of DC Comics The Source blog.  I am sure this is a no-brainer to make this image into a poster.  I will buy it on place it up on the ceiling of my garage.  Whenever my wife speaks in the garage from that time forward, I will shout SILENCIO!  Just like the guards do at the Vatican.  And after I do that, I will be living in the garage for the rest of my adult life.

Here's one row of the White Lantern characters seated: J'onn J'onzz, Hawkwoman, Hawkman, Firestorm, and Hawk.  A lot of people are taking note of the entities behind each character, such as Blue for J'onn J'onnz and Red for Hawkwoman.  Does it really mean something?

I take more meaning from the fact that all these guys lined up are the heroes.

On the flip side, we have Maxwell Lord, Osiris, Professor Zoom Reverse Flash, Jade, and Captain Boomerang.  Clearly, all of these are real evil characters, except for Jade.  But if I had to guess, I would say that she could turn bad, too.  Her posture is very strange.

On the left side of the poster, we have Deadman, holding the White Ring in his fist, a really nice pose that Sook came up with for the character.  On top of Deadman there is the evil Guardian midget dude (sorry, haven't read this month's comics yet if his identity was revealed) who is stealing all the Ring entities.  It's pretty clear that he would love to steal the White Lantern entity, too.

On the opposite end from Deadman, we have Aquaman.  You have to dig a guy who can wear all that chain mail in the ocean.  Nekron, the villain of Blackest Day, hangs ominously over the Atlantean prince.

Marvel is usually the king of marketing and hype.  But today clearly is a day where DC Comics pwned Marvel and proved they've got more good stuff coming after Blackest Night.  As Hal Jordan himself said on the DC Source Blog:

"THIS JUST GAVE ME THE BIGGEST FANGASM OF MY LIFE! " 

Couldn't have said it better myself, buddy.  Nuff Said!

Link: AN EPIC PIECE OF BRIGHTEST DAY ART

See also:

White Lantern Professor Zoom variant cover by Ryan Sook

I though I had given up collecting monthly comics for good, but as Al Pacino (once said in Godfather III): "Every time I try to get out, they pull me back in."  Now I'm ordering comics through an online service and I've pretty much stopped reading digital stuff.  I'm getting Marvel and DC titles, including all of Geoff Johns work and Blackest Night.  Getting the monthlies isn't too bad--online services save a lot there.  The Blackest Night madness has triggered an addictive need to own every single issue of Green Lantern since Rebirth!

Sure, I could get the trades.  That would make very good sense, being cheaper and easier.  There's just something about the single issues I've got to have--maybe it's the thrill of the hunt.  From eBay to various comic stores in my area, I've managed to snag all GL issues except for #12 and #20.  Why is #12 (shown above with the Cyborg Superman cover) so hard to find?

Issue #20 is more understandable.  That's the first appearance of the blue, orange, red, and sapphire rings that have been featured during the past year in GL.  There's also a Tales of the Sinestro Corps story by Johns and Gibbons.  I think I was lucky to pickup issue #18 and #19 for a relatively cheap price--these issues also had Sinestro Corps backup stories.

This disease isn't contained to just the main title, no.  Of course, the Green Lantern Corps titles are in the back issue bins next to them.  First I started getting just the Corps issues tying into Sinestro Corps and Blackest Night.  Then I found a bunch of other Corps titles for a good price and now I have a near complete run of that as well.

Let this be a lesson to you kids.  Think you want to stop collecting comics?  You can try but they will eventually pull you back in.  It's cheaper to keep up your subscription plans.  Nuff said.

DC Comics has really reversed its creative slump during the last few months.  Wednesday Comics, Batman and Robin, Flash Rebirth are quality comics.  And of course, leading the way are Blackest Night and Green Lantern.

Green Lantern #45 veers away from Hal Jordan (while he is the spotlight in Blackest Night) to focus on Star Sapphire, Sinestro, and his fear-mongering corps on the Zamoran homeworld. 

This story really struck me as to how far Carol's character has grown.  In her early appearances as Star Sapphire, Carol was obsessed with Hal Jordan--to the point of battering down his resistance to becoming her mate!  The purple ring pretty much brainwashed Carol, who only reverted to her normal persona after being defeated in battle.  There's great subtext in all of this depending on which decade you read the stories.  In the 60s, it was about women's liberation and having the power to get what they wanted--only to have a man take it away!  Especially in the scene above (from Green Lantern 74, 1970) where Star Sapphire battles not only Green Lantern, but Sinestro as well.

Now in the current Green Lantern series, Geoff Johns has done a lot to explain why Carol has acted so crazy over the years.  The sapphire ring is so dominating to the bearer that they do become brainwashed.  Only Carol is able to resist the power, as she has had the most experience with it: "Stop trying to put me on autopilot."

As the cover promises, Carol throws down against Sinestro after he breaks free of the Zamoran purple prison.  I take some disagreement with Sinestro's statement ("I have never sought revenge against my former pupil through, you Carol...") because obviously he has done so.  But you have to think that Carol is terribly overmatched in this confrontation.  I had Bullseye/Elektra jitters all over again.

Fortunately, Carol's ring has a power more potent than creating purple constructs.  She traps Sinestro and causes him to remember his own lost love, who turns about to be the sister of Abin Sur!  Perhaps this has been established elsewhere, but it was the first time I knew who exactly he had married in the past.  With the recent revelation that Sinestro is the father of Soranik Natu in the Green Lantern Corps--Sinestro's story just keeps getting more wondrously complex.  We still don't know exactly how Arin Sur died...or at least I do not.  Was it from Sinestro's own hand, a la Darth Vader?

John Siuntres just speculated in a recent Word Balloon podcast that Sinestro might actually be "the greatest Green Lantern of them all" if somehow he turns around during the Blackest Night conflict.  It's possible, but I hope that Geoff Johns doesn't try to totally change Sinestro...he's just too much fun being evil.  Nuff said.

Here's the trailer for the next animated DC Universe direct to video film, Green Lantern: First Flight.

Looks like a must buy.  The release date is July 28, 2009.  Nuff said.

Green Lantern Volume Two--the one starring Hal Jordan--had a terrific run during the 1980s.  Len Wein, Dave Gibbons, and Steve Englehart worked on the series during this period.  John Stewart even became the lead character for a period of time.  But it started winding down and losing sales despite the array of talent.

Green Lantern #167 has Jordan with his finger raised as he stands among the Guardians of the Universe.  This cover epitomizes the greatest thing about Jordan's character.  He's a Galactic cop reporting to the ultimate authority, but Jordan's always been rebellious, never afraid to the Guardians when they've made a bonehead decision.

In this run of stories, the writers had discovered the mythology surrounding the GL Corps was a goldmine of material.  The series changed its title to "The Green Lantern Corps" with issue 201 in an effort to boost sales.

The GL Corps only lasted 24 issues.  It was fitting that Gil Kane, the man who worked on the first issue back in the 1960s, drew the final cover to GL Corps #224.  After an epic battle with Sinestro, the great power battery of the Corps was left "diminished but not extinguished" in the words of the lone surviving Guardian.  There was enough power left to equip Jordan with a ring.  The rest of the Corps were powerless and dispersed to live normal lives. 

This cover is a fitting tribute to the end of the series, with Jordan saluting the battery and his friends in a state of shock.  Nuff said.

DC Comics Final Night mini-series was published in 1996--which killed off Hal Jordan (as Parallax) in the concluding chapter.  As we all know, Hal Jordan never left the DC Universe, he was always around as the Spectre until Green Lantern: Rebirth.  As a memorial tribute to the hero they maligned, DC published a special "Green Lantern Gallery", loaded with pin-ups of the Silver Age Green Lantern.  This cover jam was a real treat, featuring three generations of Green Lanterns, drawn by the artists who created them!  Gil Kane on Hal Jordan, Marty Nodell on Alan Scott, and Daryl Banks on Kyle Rayner.  All of them topped off with inks by the great Kevin Nowlan.  What a cover, whoever owns this one is very lucky!  Nuff said.

This cover was for the special "Silver Age" mini-event in 2000.  I saved this image of the cover, sans the logo and captions, from one of the DC solicitations.  Kevin Nowlan inked this cover and many other jobs that Kane worked on during this period.  I really like the color scheme in this version--Sinestro in a blue haze raining down trouble on Hal Jordan, which the green circles focus your attention on.

Apparently someone at DC Comics did not like that color scheme.  Here's the actual published cover.  Perhaps the editorial change was to restore Sinestro's purplish skin color as it appears in the interiors.  However, they made a mistake with this new color scheme--Sinestro's ring is emitting green energy, not yellow!  Nuff said.

I saw Nathan Fillion twitter about the Green Lantern trailer that a fan named Jaron Pitts posted on YouTube a couple of days ago.  Pitts stitched together scenes from various movies and TV shows.

Awesome.  The trailer really captures the richness of the Green Lantern mythology.  It picks up on the key story beats that have to be in any GL origin: Abin Sur, Hal being chosen for the ring, OA, the Guardians, the giant power battery, the inter-galactic members of the GL corps (Kilowogg, Chip), and the GL oath.

Wonder if WB will use any ideas for their Green Lantern trailer?  Making the WB logo green seems like a no-brainer.  Jaron lives in Dallas and has made other fan videos.  This one must have taken a lot of effort to put together.  Nuff said.

Update: Popdose has an interview with Jaron Pitts about the making of the GL video.