If You Could Kill Off/Retire *ONE* Green Lantern Who Would You Choose?

[Redjack]

Keli gets my vote.

Sure, she's not technically a GL, but she was still shoehorned into the franchise and is currently a superfluous waste of space.

she's been powerless and in a coma for 7 months.

[SJNeal]

she's been powerless and in a coma for 7 months.

And a lovely 7 months it has been. When/if she wakes up she can go back to school and leave the grown ups to do the grown up things.



Sorry, I just don't like children.

[krazijoe]

Kyle, without a second thought.
and Jessica a close second.

[John Venus]

I'm saying that a lot of the anti-Barry sentiment is from people that perceive him as a threat to Wally's place in the comics.

Yeah, it's not like Wally fans had to deal with Wally getting sidelined after Barry came back, got thrown in limbo for years after a Crisis event then replaced by an OC both in the comics and on a tv show while classic Wally was unceremoniously killed off on his last cartoon appearance, Wally's arcs, personality and accomplishments being given given to Barry in adaptations to the point where the two became interchangeable, even his love interest given to Barry on that tv show, then classic Wally got brought back only to be turned into murderer so he could be sidelined again and it took wholesale firing of the top brass of DC comics that the character that he managed to get back on track.

No sir, no reason to be paranoid at all.

But to fair, most of us Wally fans don't hate Barry. We hate Johns, Didio and everybody involved in creating this mess.

The Flash franchise used to have the cleanest passing down of the mantle before Flash Rebirth (2011) and Rebirth happened.

I thought Geoff Johns created Baz because he himself is of Lebanese descent.

I could be misremembering though.

I know that. But that doesn't make it any better. Only tells me he's internalized some tired old stereotypes.

^ Pretty much this. The simple fact that some fans of the franchise don't want to accept is that Hal is still, by far, the Green Lantern who sells the most. The most successful Green Lantern run of all time was centered on...wait for it...Hal Jordan. If he really was as "cardboard" or "boring" as some on here are claiming, then that wouldn't be the case.

So, yeah, he's really not going anywhere guys.

There is also the fact that the others GL's has gotten mileage as well. Kyle was the GL during the 90's and was *the* GL for a while generation. John Stewart was the GL of JLU and he was *the* GL for a whole generation of people. The cartoon show was a hit and reached out to million of people, the viewer ship of a tv show dwarfs the number of copies of a comic book being sold.

Maybe instead of acting like there is only 'one ring to rule them all', maybe its time to accept that the GL franchise is an ensemble franchise and any GL could be the lead at any given time.

[Zero Hunter]

I would retire Kyle, Simon, and Jo.

[Timothy Hunter]

Have an Emerald Twilight 2 killing off all the Corps, leaving G'Nort as the sole Green Lantern.

[Johnny]

There is also the fact that the others GL's has gotten mileage as well. Kyle was the GL during the 90's and was *the* GL for a while generation. John Stewart was the GL of JLU and he was *the* GL for a whole generation of people. The cartoon show was a hit and reached out to million of people, the viewer ship of a tv show dwarfs the number of copies of a comic book being sold.

Maybe instead of acting like there is only 'one ring to rule them all', maybe its time to accept that the GL franchise is an ensemble franchise and any GL could be the lead at any given time.

The problem is most fans who grew up watched the cartoons not only don't buy comics but couldn't care less if DC closed its doors tomorrow. The established fanbase doesn't tend to increase because some people remember watching cartoons as kids. I watched all the DC shows growing up from Batman TAS and Superman TAS to Batman Beyond and JLU to Teen Titans, then forgot all about it and it wasn't until I was in college where I started paying more serious attention to DC and my interest didn't originate from the cartoons at all, it probably had more to do with Smallville that I believe was still on air at the time.

As far as the ensemble franchise, that's something that DC needs to understand not the fans, since they sure don't treat it like an ensemble franchise. And frankly they never have. As long as they keep promoting the brand as Green Lantern and not Green Lantern Corps, nothing is ever going to change. You'll have whoever the higher ups want to push as the main GL that you see everywhere and then you have a bunch of secondary Lanterns scattered around the DCU thrown some crumbs here and there. The current management doesn't seem different than the previous one in that regard at all. I've said this before, just because the franchise has so many GLs, doesn't mean it's structured in a way to support them all. It never has been. Which is pretty ironic given the entire concept is that it's about a bunch of different people and yet it can never sustain multiple characters in an even remotely equal fashion.

[John Venus]

The main barriers to new fans getting into comics have to do with accessibility (comics were very late getting to digital), price and gate keeping (which admittedly is not as bad today as it was in the 00's).

I got into DC thanks to the DCAU and while I was able to get into the Bat books just fine, when it came time to explore other heroes:

-Shayera was unceremoniously killed off in the Rann/Thanagar war and at the time I didn't really care about Kendra or Carter.

-Wally West's ongoing was cancelled so Barry could be brought back in Flash: Rebirth (literally, the first Flash comic I read was Wally's last).

-John Stewart was a background character during Johns era and whenever the spotlight was on him, he was moping about blowing up Xanshi. I didn't mind other GL's being in the spot light but the fact that John had no book of his own despite the franchise being able to support 3-4 books at the time and the fact that a big part of Johns run was absolving Hal of his sins via Parallax but John simply had to live with his, didn't sit right with me.

Not saying that the comics have to twist themselves into matching up with adaptations but I think DC can do better in creating access points for new readers. And if this is the trouble I had jumping into comics through the DCAU I can't imagine what it's like for someone trying to get into comics after watching any of the Arroweverse, DCAMU.

[Jim Kelly]

I wish more writers would embrace the idea of retirement rather than killing off characters. Some people should move on from their old jobs to find new jobs. They don't all have to stay in uniform for the rest of their lives.

With Charlie Vicker, I wanted him to have a returning home vet story arc--maybe in a limited series. He returns to Earth after going through horrors in his assigned sector. He's cashiered out of the Corps, yet his post-traumatic stress makes it impossible for him to get on with his life. In the series, we'd see him having flashbacks while trying to cope on Earth. No one can fully appreciate all that he's experienced, so he feels like he has no place in the world.

But they killed off Charlie, so I guess that's never going to happen.

[Refrax5]

[QUOTE=John Venus;6036732]Yeah, it's not like Wally fans had to deal with Wally getting sidelined after Barry came back, got thrown in limbo for years after a Crisis event then replaced by an OC both in the comics and on a tv show while classic Wally was unceremoniously killed off on his last cartoon appearance, Wally's arcs, personality and accomplishments being given given to Barry in adaptations to the point where the two became interchangeable, even his love interest given to Barry on that tv show, then classic Wally got brought back only to be turned into murderer so he could be sidelined again and it took wholesale firing of the top brass of DC comics that the character that he managed to get back on track.

No sir, no reason to be paranoid at all.

But to fair, most of us Wally fans don't hate Barry. We hate Johns, Didio and everybody involved in creating this mess.

Oh, people were complaining before the first issue of Rebirth even happened. And yes, a lot of Wally fans trash Barry every chance they get. And while I didn't start reading until the 90s, I'm sure Barry fans weren't thrilled Barry had his happy ending ruined with a pretty cruel and agonizing death before being treated as an archaic, outdated bore by editorial and Wally fans for over two decades. It goes both ways, I'm sure. I always liked Barry and felt it was unfair that he had to meet with a tragic end just for Wally to shine. But this is derailing the thread.

I would vote to retire Kyle or Simon. They're the least interesting and unique, although I don't think we need to kill off anybody. Every character is somebody's favorite and I kinda hate how nobody is allowed a happy ending in comics.

[Fire Angel]

I would retire many. The original premise was Hal being the only human and working with a bunch of aliens to protect the galaxy. Now there is a human cherry picked from every race who takes up the space of the alien green lanterns and makes them less and less relevant.

[SebastianS]

Why 'kill off/retire' a character exactly? It serves no other purpose but to alienate that character's fanbase.

In fact, for all intents and purposes, Morrison's run "retired" all the GLs except for Hal, and Thorne's run only kept John, Jo, Simon, and Kelli - with a brief appearance by Hal here and there.

While having multiple human GLs might be a problem, the real issue is the lack of content. As Thorne's latest run showed, you can have a book with 2 protagonists (John and Jo) and other GLs taking a secondary role (Simon and Kelli).

[king of hybrids]

As a matter of my anti-Johns principles I’d want Hal, Simon and Jess completely off the board for at least a generation. Probably Alan and Jade too just because

As a practical matter I’d want rid of Hal (preferably by revealing the entire spectrum thing was Parralax screwing with everyone) and retire Simon and Kyle.

If I thought DC could ever commit to a direction that wasn’t edge I’d say retire Guy and have him reopen warriors as the centrepiece of a new DC initiative about the shared nature of the universe

[Doctor Know]

Recently reminded of this clip from Justice League vs The Fatal Five from 2019.

Looking at the Hall of Lanterns in Legion HQ (from Starboy's memories) the main Lanterns to make it into history from the Timmverse were Hal, Guy, John, Kyle and Jessica. Hal and Guy never do anything in the Timm shows. Kyle was in one episode of Superman TAS. But Simon Baz predates Jessica's comic debut by 2 years and he was once again ignored. Damn. Can't catch a break, Simon Says.






Maybe 5 should be the limit. Retire all the others.

[BlackClaw]

Recently reminded of this clip from Justice League vs The Fatal Five from 2019.

Looking at the Hall of Lanterns in Legion HQ (from Starboy's memories) the main Lanterns to make it into history from the Timmverse were Hal, Guy, John, Kyle and Jessica. Hal and Guy never do anything in the Timm shows. Kyle was in one episode of Superman TAS. But Simon Baz predates Jessica's comic debut by 2 years and he was once again ignored. Damn. Can't catch a break, Simon Says.






Maybe 5 should be the limit. Retire all the others.

Yep. Or at the very least move the others to different corps.