Green Lantern #1 Discussion/Spoilers

[ERON]

I liked this first issue.

All the positives have been mentioned already.

But I had no issue with Spanglish.....and I do not understand the hate for Spanglish spoken by a Hispanic TEENAGER, not some uppity international corporate executive.

I don't have an issue with Spanglish in principle, but I teach at a high school with a 99% Hispanic student body, and literally none of them talk like Teen Lantern did in this issue.

[lemonpeace]

I liked this first issue.

All the positives have been mentioned already.

But I had no issue with Spanglish.....and I do not understand the hate for Spanglish spoken by a Hispanic TEENAGER, not some uppity international corporate executive.

I'm by no means a fluent spanish speaker (I can pick up a phrase here and there) but I've had a lot of friends over the years and currently who are bilingual spanish speakers and I don't think I've ever heard them "slip" into spanish. if they are speaking English they just speak English, if they need to speak Spanish they speak Spanish, they rarely if ever pepper in random spanish words and phrases while speaking perfect english to remind listeners they're hispanic; it's a language, not a verbal tic.

it doubly doesn't really make sense here because the GL technology should be auto-translating her speech anyway, the same way it's translating all the other alien languages. she didn't need the spanglish, and as the Spanish speakers here have pointed out, the Spanish wasn't even properly applied anyway. so if the writer doesn't know the language, and the setting allows for a workaround, it's just boils down to being wholly unnecessary use of this trope. I'm not sure what her being a teenager has to do with it.

it's not really a matter of "hate", there are simply better, less hokey/stereotypical, ways to illustrate a character is bilingual than this tired ass trope.

[sifighter]

I'm by no means a fluent spanish speaker (I can pick up a phrase here and there) but I've had a lot of friends over the years and currently who are bilingual spanish speakers and I don't think I've ever heard them "slip" into spanish. if they are speaking English they just speak English, if they need to speak Spanish they speak Spanish, they rarely if ever pepper in random spanish words and phrases while speaking perfect english to remind listeners they're hispanic; it's a language, not a verbal tic.

it doubly doesn't really make sense here because the GL technology should be auto-translating her speech anyway, the same way it's translating all the other alien languages. she didn't need the spanglish, and as the Spanish speakers here have pointed out, the Spanish wasn't even properly applied anyway. so if the writer doesn't know the language, and the setting allows for a workaround, it's just boils down to being wholly unnecessary use of this trope. I'm not sure what her being a teenager has to do with it.

it's not really a matter of "hate", there are simply better, less hokey/stereotypical, ways to illustrate a character is bilingual than this tired ass trope.

But her gauntlet is not green lantern tech, they specifically said its an imitation of Krona's gauntlet with no Oan connection that is not even drawing in on Green Lantern energy. So actually if you weirdly think about it seems like everyone is just being very nice and speaking English to Keli.

[lemonpeace]

But her gauntlet is not green lantern tech, they specifically said its an imitation of Krona's gauntlet with no Oan connection that is not even drawing in on Green Lantern energy. So actually if you weirdly think about it seems like everyone is just being very nice and speaking English to Keli.

the fact that all the other aliens at the United Planets that she speaks to, and even the alien she got the tech from in Bolivia, were speaking "English", it seems more likely that the auto-translate is still a function of this gauntlet.

the ren-fair elemental anarchist don't seem the type to speak Keli's language just to make her feel comfortable.

[Frontier]

Did Keli speak Spanish at all under Bendis' run YJ? Although I feel like this book would probably do a better job of making her come off more distinctive, character-wise.

Lyssa Drak wearing more clothes was...interesting.

[Jody Garland]

Yeah the Star heart thing is a bit weird, you would think the people of Gemworld would then just attack Alan Scott...but then again I guess the guardians are connected to it through Shenanigans so what do I know.

The Guardians were the ones that created the Starheart in their early days, according to Roy Thomas' All-Star Squadron. They rounded up all magic in the universe, or half according to this issue, and tried to banish it to make the universe more orderly. The Gemworld terrorists apparently resent them for that.

[Bored at 3:00AM]

The Guardians were the ones that created the Starheart in their early days, according to Roy Thomas' All-Star Squadron. They rounded up all magic in the universe, or half according to this issue, and tried to banish it to make the universe more orderly. The Gemworld terrorists apparently resent them for that.

Minor nitpick here. The Starheart was created by Denny O'Neil in the second GL/GA run in the late 70s, I believe. I'm sure Thomas referenced it, but the idea of the Guardians capturing all the wild magic of the universe inside the Starheart was created by O'Neil.

Alan Moore then linked the Starheart and the Oans' War on Magic with the Empire of Tears and their imprisonment on Ysmault.

Gerard Jones (along with Alan's co-created Martin Nodel) invented Yulan Gur, the alien dragon GL who died over ancient China, which was a bizarre attempt to retcon away the Starheart.

Then Ron Marz combined the two by explaining that the dying Yulan Gur collided with the Starheart and it was his spirt that was the voice of the mysterious Green Flame of Alan's lantern.

And, finally, Geoff Johns linked Ysmault to the Manhunter rebellion and the Red Lanterns.

Sorry, Nerd Brain gonna Nerd Brain. It's a sickness.

I can't believe I can remember all this useless detail, but I still can't remember the Chinese word for "door".

[Captain Nostalgia]

I found the writing a bit murky/bouncy at times (It's obvious were going to have a side story going with the teen)

Other than that good first issue, I like the whole United Nations theme going, it fits John Stewarts character well, I'm looking forward to seeing how the series unfolds.

Finally, Simon works well with John, and... I digged the robes.

[9th.]

I enjoyed this issue. It does seem like a GLC title but I'm assuming John is going to go on more solo adventures in future arcs so it does really bother me. I do like the writer is decided to develop Keli/Teen Later instead of letting her fade into obscurity. Characters like her need more stories under their belt, especially since she's a Bendis original.

[9th.]

Did Keli speak Spanish at all under Bendis' run YJ? Although I feel like this book would probably do a better job of making her come off more distinctive, character-wise.

Lyssa Drak wearing more clothes was...interesting.

She didn't in the issues I read but I stopped halfway in his YJ run so it might've happened.

[9th.]

That hawkgirl is going to be his love interest isn't it? I was getting future couple vibes from them two.

[maxwellmaniac]

The Starheart battle was a little confusing imo.

It being inside Oa and being called the Source of Peace was already referenced or it came up in this issue?

And did anybody understand why exactly powering down defeated it? That seemed a bit generic and lame to me.

[J. D. Guy]

I'm by no means a fluent spanish speaker (I can pick up a phrase here and there) but I've had a lot of friends over the years and currently who are bilingual spanish speakers and I don't think I've ever heard them "slip" into spanish. if they are speaking English they just speak English, if they need to speak Spanish they speak Spanish, they rarely if ever pepper in random spanish words and phrases while speaking perfect english to remind listeners they're hispanic; it's a language, not a verbal tic.

it doubly doesn't really make sense here because the GL technology should be auto-translating her speech anyway, the same way it's translating all the other alien languages. she didn't need the spanglish, and as the Spanish speakers here have pointed out, the Spanish wasn't even properly applied anyway. so if the writer doesn't know the language, and the setting allows for a workaround, it's just boils down to being wholly unnecessary use of this trope. I'm not sure what her being a teenager has to do with it.

it's not really a matter of "hate", there are simply better, less hokey/stereotypical, ways to illustrate a character is bilingual than this tired ass trope.

Over my time over the internet, I've heard contradictory things about this. From what I can recollect, it is those who don't speak fluent English who are more likely to pepper Spanish/whatever their first language is into their English speech.

[Avi]

The Starheart battle was a little confusing imo.

It being inside Oa and being called the Source of Peace was already referenced or it came up in this issue?

And did anybody understand why exactly powering down defeated it? That seemed a bit generic and lame to me.

I understood powering down as a show of will that appeased the Starheart. It wants "emotional" order, and if it gets that, then it doesn't attack.

The Guardians were the ones that created the Starheart in their early days, according to Roy Thomas' All-Star Squadron. They rounded up all magic in the universe, or half according to this issue, and tried to banish it to make the universe more orderly. The Gemworld terrorists apparently resent them for that.

Minor correction. The terrorists aren't from Gemworld, or at least it would be strange if they are. Gemworld is just one magic realm of Zerox, and they don't look like Gem population either. They just mentioned Gemworld because Keli said she has been there.

[Shimbo]

I'm 100% Colombian-American and fluent in both Spanish and English and I love meshing the languages together and it's pretty common, at least here in NYC.

So my gripe isn't with the Spanglish, but the execution. Reading redjack's explanation on the John Stewart appreciation thread, he's trying. Hard. I didn't quite get the andar a moler agua until he explained it as a more colloquial Bolivian thang, which I get now because Spanish speaking peoples use words slightly differently and have our own sayings or dichos depending what country we're from/geographic location. Agua Chica is def wrong and eres estupido is def strong af language, BUT

HE'S TRYING, GUYS! Yeah, maybe a little hokey and it needs some work, but respect to Redjack for trying and clearly open to discussion and improvement. This still feels and reads better than Tom King's Omega Men when Kyle becomes strongly Catholic because he's vaguely Latino...maybe from some arbitrary retcon in the 90s(?). It's the first issue and Redjack's got this. He has a great grasp on everyone's voices and is respectful of all Earth lanterns. He's just tryna do right by my girl Keli by peppering some aggravated, slightly off Spanish. It's culture, yall, chill.