If You Wrote Comics: Green Lantern

[The Dying Detective]

In light of the stagnation of the Green Lantern franchise and the shake up Green Lantern is receiving I decided to pull the trigger and make an If You Wrote Comics thread for the Emerald Knights themselves. As always just imagine if DC had given you full control over the them to do as you please. Everyone is welcome to express what they want and to give constructive criticism to any ideas that one maybe to fix the Green Lanterns, their supporting characters, and rogues gallery. And maybe find a new direction that may surpass even Geoff 'Golden Boy' Johns's run. And also I will be throwing Englentine's hat into this with his own video of what he would do to it and I encourage you all to check it. It has plenty of solid stuff. I also particularly liked his idea to turn the reason why there are so many Earth based Green Lanterns into a mystery on it's own. And the idea of space cops not superheroes with a TV cop show type focus. And for entire sectors to have more than one Lantern of different races patrolling it as it doesn't not make any sense because a sector in space is huge and I can't expect one or two Lanterns to do squat. And as always have fun.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wgnNaUeP3hA

[WillieMorgan]

It's a bit of an aside but one of the first things I'd do would be to resolve the plot points left dangling from the DC You era. One of them in particular bugs the hell out of me.

Even if I only did so in a brief run, maybe two or three issues, I'd explain what exactly the circumstances were surrounding the Corps' relocation to Relic's universe. And what Krona's connection to it was.

Only after I'd got that out of the way would I think about taking the series down a different path.

[The Dying Detective]

It's a bit of an aside but one of the first things I'd do would be to resolve the plot points left dangling from the DC You era. One of them in particular bugs the hell out of me.

Even if I only did so in a brief run, maybe two or three issues, I'd explain what exactly the circumstances were surrounding the Corps' relocation to Relic's universe. And what Krona's connection to it was.

Only after I'd got that out of the way would I think about taking the series down a different path.

What are these unresolved plot threads anyway?

[WillieMorgan]

What are these unresolved plot threads anyway?

At the start of the DC You period we got a brand new GLC series called Lost Army. It was written by Cullen Bunn and dealt with the entire Green Lantern Corps somehow being relocated back into Relic's universe. Two Lanterns escaped that fate. Hal Jordan, who was operating as a 'renegade' at the time and using Krona's Gauntlet, and Soranik Natu, who had her ring removed forcibly by Sinestro just before it disappeared too. Quite how Sinestro knew how to spare Soranik from the same fate was never explained. Sinestro seemed to be as in the dark as to the reasons for the Corps' disappearance as everyone else. He did, however, take advantage of this by using Natu as a front to replace the Green Lanterns as protectors with his own Sinestro Corps.

Anyway, Lost Army ended up only running for six issues, a fact that plainly took Bunn rather by surprise as he'd obviously been trying to establish a much longer saga than the one we got. The series saw the Corps unite with both a younger Relic, trying to halt the light-based entropy that was threatening the end of his reality, and Krona also. Why Krona was there, and what his ultimate role in the story was destined to be, was never explained. After six months the series was cancelled and replaced with another run called Edge Of Oblivion written by Tom Taylor. Taylor had previously inherited the Earth-2 series and immediately abandoned plotlines in that title that he didn't like or fancy. This was quite jarring for readers at the time.

On Edge Of Oblivion, Taylor did the same trick. The series ostensibly picked up the story months later, with the Corps still stuck in this doomed universe, but headed into a completely different plot and antagonists. Both Relic and Krona were gone completely and not even mentioned. It wasn't a bad read but left so many unanswered questions. What happened in the months between Lost Army and Edge Of Oblivion is something that I'd immediately clear up.

[Sodam Yat]

At the start of the DC You period we got a brand new GLC series called Lost Army. It was written by Cullen Bunn and dealt with the entire Green Lantern Corps somehow being relocated back into Relic's universe. Two Lanterns escaped that fate. Hal Jordan, who was operating as a 'renegade' at the time and using Krona's Gauntlet, and Soranik Natu, who had her ring removed forcibly by Sinestro just before it disappeared too. Quite how Sinestro knew how to spare Soranik from the same fate was never explained. Sinestro seemed to be as in the dark as to the reasons for the Corps' disappearance as everyone else. He did, however, take advantage of this by using Natu as a front to replace the Green Lanterns as protectors with his own Sinestro Corps.

Anyway, Lost Army ended up only running for six issues, a fact that plainly took Bunn rather by surprise as he'd obviously been trying to establish a much longer saga than the one we got. The series saw the Corps unite with both a younger Relic, trying to halt the light-based entropy that was threatening the end of his reality, and Krona also. Why Krona was there, and what his ultimate role in the story was destined to be, was never explained. After six months the series was cancelled and replaced with another run called Edge Of Oblivion written by Tom Taylor. Taylor had previously inherited the Earth-2 series and immediately abandoned plotlines in that title that he didn't like or fancy. This was quite jarring for readers at the time.

On Edge Of Oblivion, Taylor did the same trick. The series ostensibly picked up the story months later, with the Corps still stuck in this doomed universe, but headed into a completely different plot and antagonists. Both Relic and Krona were gone completely and not even mentioned. It wasn't a bad read but left so many unanswered questions. What happened in the months between Lost Army and Edge Of Oblivion is something that I'd immediately clear up.

Yep pretty much.

Ethan Van Sciver did say readers should look at Edge of Oblivion as a complete separate story that's not connected to Lost Army. Not having any connections to Lost Army (other than being in a universe that's not theirs) was intended.

Editorials really screwed up on this one.

[WillieMorgan]

Yep pretty much.

Ethan Van Sciver did say readers should look at Edge of Oblivion as a complete separate story that's not connected to Lost Army. Not having any connections to Lost Army (other than being in a universe that's not theirs) was intended.

Editorials really screwed up on this one.

Yeah, I remember reading those comments from EVS. That's the way that I approached Edge Of Oblivion when it debuted.

Although Lost Army was hardly a sales smash there were definitely titles out there that performed a lot worse. The stellar Omega Men series was allowed to last the full 12 months, which I'm eternally grateful for. I still maintain that the GL franchise would have benefitted from Lost Army being given the same leeway. Maybe something happened with Bunn behind the scenes. Who knows?

[Trey Strain]

Pretty simple.

Reboot it and eliminate everything that has made the Lanterns look bad.

Put John in Justice League as a Green Lantern.

Put Hal in an Earth-based comic.

Put Guy as a Green Lantern in a space comic roughly along the lines of Emerald Warriors.

Put Kyle as a Green Lantern in Titans or in the space comic with Guy.

Let Simon and Jessica play out their string and be canceled.

[The Dying Detective]

Pretty simple.

Reboot it and eliminate everything that has made the Lanterns look bad.

Put John in Justice League as a Green Lantern.

Put Hal in an Earth-based comic.

Put Guy as a Green Lantern in a space comic roughly along the lines of Emerald Warriors.

Put Kyle as a Green Lantern in Titans or in the space comic with Guy.

Let Simon and Jessica play out their string and be canceled.

Or there is another option by YouTuber Englentine to place Simon and Jessica on a book titled Green Lantern Case Files I think. With them under Kilowog's management.

[Trey Strain]

Or there is another option by YouTuber Englentine to place Simon and Jessica on a book titled Green Lantern Case Files I think. With them under Kilowog's management.

That might be OK.

[The Dying Detective]

That might be OK.

Didn't think you would think so since you seemed so intent on taking away their rings so this is well different.

[KC]

I would have one main book with Hal, Guy and Kyle as the main characters. They would be Honor Guard Lanterns that don't patrol a space sector. instead, they go out on important missions and deal with the biggest threats. I would also re-introduce the Blue Lanterns as a small group of 3 that join the Honor Guard. I would use space-fairing Green Lantern villains, the other Corps in the Emotional Spectrum and other space-faring villains like Brainiac and Cyborg Superman. I would also not make the characters go to Earth (a series about space police officers spending most of their time on Earth is dumb in my opinion).

[Shockingjustice]

I would have one main book with Hal, Guy and Kyle as the main characters. They would be Honor Guard Lanterns that don't patrol a space sector. instead, they go out on important missions and deal with the biggest threats. I would also re-introduce the Blue Lanterns as a small group of 3 that join the Honor Guard. I would use space-fairing Green Lantern villains, the other Corps in the Emotional Spectrum and other space-faring villains like Brainiac and Cyborg Superman. I would also not make the characters go to Earth (a series about space police officers spending most of their time on Earth is dumb in my opinion).

What about Jessica, Simon and John

[Restingvoice]

Well, first of all, more Carol.
Next, I have no idea what they're thinking making everyone who's been Green Lantern a Green Lantern again since there's already so many of them and they all have the same powers.
Ideally, I want only one earth Green Lantern because they all do the same thing, and that means Hal because let's face it, he'll always be the Green Lantern just like Bruce will always be Batman... however he's also known as the leader of the corps, so I want two at most. One to stay on earth as representative and one to head the corps in space. This could be either Hal or John.
The others will get different colors. So Kyle Rayner will wear white again and Guy red. Atrocitus can be a constant threat to Guy. Red Lanterns Civil War or something.
I don't know what to do with Simon and Jessica yet. Ideally, I want to give them different colors as well but I don't know what at the moment.

[protege]

Well, first of all, more Carol.
Next, I have no idea what they're thinking making everyone who's been Green Lantern a Green Lantern again since there's already so many of them and they all have the same powers.
Ideally, I want only one earth Green Lantern because they all do the same thing, and that means Hal because let's face it, he'll always be the Green Lantern just like Bruce will always be Batman... however he's also known as the leader of the corps, so I want two at most. One to stay on earth as representative and one to head the corps in space. This could be either Hal or John.
The others will get different colors. So Kyle Rayner will wear white again and Guy red. Atrocitus can be a constant threat to Guy. Red Lanterns Civil War or something.
I don't know what to do with Simon and Jessica yet. Ideally, I want to give them different colors as well but I don't know what at the moment.

Well, I like carol as a star sapphire/good guy, so that’s a big no from me. Also, I haven’t been following all the spectrum lanterns, so i’d Kind of like to know who they were before arbitrarily getting rid of them. For example, I seem to remember a space gorilla lantern from somewhere...🤔