What would be the state of the Green Lantern franchise right now if Morrison had led the revival?

[The S0/\/\@7ic Si/\/\[]Dl370n]

What if Grant had spearheaded the Green Lantern/GLC universe revival instead of Johns? What would be the differences in the characters, villains, stories and general direction of the franchise at this point? How successful would the franchise be, compared to the success it has now?

What characters would Grant have introduced? What stories would we have seen and what would the GL side of the universe, as well as the GL franchise as a whole look like as of now?

[megaharrison]

Morrison's story's are crazy and have their own appeal, but Johns is better at mainstream staying power. The GL universe Johns created has defined the franchise and its future, hes probably the most important GL writer ever. Had Morrison taken over I imagine we would have had our share of crazy stories involving weird-sounding aliens, the multiverse, and obscure silver age references, but ultimately when he left the GL franchise wouldn't have been in the kind of robust shape Johns built it up as. Johns created a self-contained universe and cast of characters within the DC universe (much like X-Men had before Marvel tore it down due to the movie wars) which can tremendously boost a comic franchise.

I'm not sure the GL revival could have been any more successful than what Johns did. It was one of DC's top non-Batman titles under Johns run, and before that had been wallowing and lagging in a state of semi-irrelevancy.

[The S0/\/\@7ic Si/\/\[]Dl370n]

Morrison's story's are crazy and have their own appeal, but Johns is better at mainstream staying power. The GL universe Johns created has defined the franchise and its future, hes probably the most important GL writer ever. Had Morrison taken over I imagine we would have had our share of crazy stories involving weird-sounding aliens, the multiverse, and obscure silver age references, but ultimately when he left the GL franchise wouldn't have been in the kind of robust shape Johns built it up as. Johns created a self-contained universe and cast of characters within the DC universe (much like X-Men had before Marvel tore it down due to the movie wars) which can tremendously boost a comic franchise.

I'm not sure the GL revival could have been any more successful than what Johns did. It was one of DC's top non-Batman titles under Johns run, and before that had been wallowing and lagging in a state of semi-irrelevancy.

What exactly would have prevented Morrison's take from lasting?

[Sirzechs]

The Alan moore bits that Johns added to Sinestro Corps war probably would have still been used, but GL would probably be really weird now, He'd probably upgrade them to Multiversal officers instead of just Space cops.

[Pharozonk]

It imagine it would be more character driven and less big flashy event driven.

[Judge Dredd]

I think Johns ideas will last longer then if Morrison had written the book. He has a lot of large ideas and would be great for the time being but I do not think his ideas would be used as much as Johns will. I would love to have him on the Green Lantern Corps book now and have some good stories but do not know if he would be the best to reboot the book.

[megaharrison]

What exactly would have prevented Morrison's take from lasting?

Morrison's stories and characters are very self-contained and really only properly utilized by Morrison himself. I doubt Zhur-Varr the Space Judge of Earth 23 with his bubble-ship of imagination would have appeared in many GL stories after Morrison left. Johns meanwhile created the Emotional Spectrum as we know it, and it was pretty simple/straightforward with lots of possibilities for future use by any writer. As a result, GL stories still utilize it.

I'm not bashing Morrison mind you, but Morrison does his own crazy thing whereas Johns is much more mainstream.

[Den]

Morrison has some really odd, really GREAT ideas, but sometimes it feels like others have trouble with the toys he leaves behind. Not saying Johns stuff can't be botched by others (Any writer might drop a ball with another writer's work) but his does seem more 'new user friendly' to me.

EDIT: Or what Megaharrison said

[The S0/\/\@7ic Si/\/\[]Dl370n]

The Alan moore bits that Johns added to Sinestro Corps war probably would have still been used, but GL would probably be really weird now, He'd probably upgrade them to Multiversal officers instead of just Space cops.

I think Johns ideas will last longer then if Morrison had written the book. He has a lot of large ideas and would be great for the time being but I do not think his ideas would be used as much as Johns will. I would love to have him on the Green Lantern Corps book now and have some good stories but do not know if he would be the best to reboot the book.

Morrison's stories and characters are very self-contained and really only properly utilized by Morrison himself. I doubt Zhur-Varr the Space Judge of Earth 23 with his bubble-ship of imagination would have appeared in many GL stories after Morrison left. Johns meanwhile created the Emotional Spectrum as we know it, and it was pretty simple/straightforward with lots of possibilities for future use by any writer. As a result, GL stories still utilize it.

I'm not bashing Morrison mind you, but Morrison does his own crazy thing whereas Johns is much more mainstream.

Morrison has some really odd, really GREAT ideas, but sometimes it feels like others have trouble with the toys he leaves behind. Not saying Johns stuff can't be botched by others (Any writer might drop a ball with another writer's work) but his does seem more 'new user friendly' to me.

EDIT: Or what Megaharrison said

Well, in that case, what are the concepts and characters/extraterrestrial races Morrison would have come up with, as opposed to Larfleeze, Emotional Spectrum/Rainbow Corps, etc.?

Also, how would Morrison specifically have utilized the GL concept as opposed to how Johns utilized it?

[Jim Kelly]

It's six of one, half a dozen of the other.

I really hate the emotional spectrum concept, but if Morrison had done it, he would have made it sound way cooler. I don't think Geoff Johns or Grant Morrison could pass a course in science, but Morrison can make dumb ideas sound smart.

[Deniz Camp]

I certainly would have enjoyed it more.

But beyond that, I suspect it'd be in similar shape as it is now. Johns created what I thought was a very applicable base -- but then used up his own concepts pretty thoroughly over the course of his run. He stayed on for 9 years, after all, so it's to be expected. By the time he was done, I think most fans were ready to see someone go in a different direction, even if the emotional spectrum was to be present.

Whatever else Johns did, you can't say that he successfully pinned it to the top of the DC line. We're seeing the slow decline of the line before us, not qualitatively (overall the line is stronger now than it was during the Johns era, I think) but economically. It's only a matter of time before we shrink down to 3 books, and we'll probably bottom out at 2 (GL, GLC).

I think if Morrison had come on we'd have had less opportunities for obvious expansions, because Morrison's work is all very self contained and self referential. What he creates or revives or brings in, he uses as an integral part of his narrative, a la Chekov's gun. That isn't to say he uses it up, or ends them (although he often does), but you don't get to do other stuff in the interim because he's got ideas, things in mind.

Less so with Johns, who more often throws things out there. There were a lot of natural books to spin out. That said, I have to believe that the spin off books would have been forced to generate more dedicated fanbases had they come out of Morrison's work, because Morrison just doesn't play with others that way, where as the satellite books were all very subservient to the work Johns was doing on the main title. I can't imagine anyone became a fan of Kyle over the course of Bedard or Tomasi's runs. Guy was around but didn't develop depth, in my opinion, until Soule came on, and the current New Guardians book has been more Kyle than any book since Marz did the Ion mini.

Anyway, I think we would have had a better, more timeless story, less opportunity for line expansion, and probably GL would be as popular (or unpopular) as it is now, with fewer books but books with more stable numbers at this point.

[Güicho]

I think his John Stewart would be more the creative Architect / high concept GL, not the boring military grunt we have now from the cartoon.
And that's Architect in all senses of the word, conceptually pushing the boundaries of what a GL can do mentally and physically. Creating architectural shapes and concepts that transcend space and time - mandalas, mazes, impossible geometries etc...
More the Mosaic GL taking it to the next conceptual level, actually more the role they robed from John, and gave to Kyle.

His Hal Jordan would probably be more the classic right-stuff, brave, honest, test pilot. Inspiring pioneer spirit, pushing the raw limits of their own fear-defying will, towards breaking any and all boundaries of the unknown.
That's the strong will the ring recognized and chose.
Not the punchy douchebag created by Johns.

We saw Morrison's hint's of these takes in Final Crisis.


As for the "Emotional Spectrum", I can see Morrison having embraced that. There was hints in the Silver Age (which he loved to mine) that Yellow(the impurity) was fear - being overcome by free Will.
Once you establish yellow as fear, it's a reasonable extension that all the other driving base emotions/instincts would correspond to other colors. With will-power(Green) in the middle, being the way by which you navigate/control them all.
And the absence of them being death.

[Dispenser Of Truth]

We actually got a brief (VERY brief) idea of what he would have done with the franchise, as what little he's said of his Hypercrisis pitch includes a proposal for reviving the then-defunct GLC as the Green Lanterns of the Multiverse. Also, the Alpha Lanterns were his idea.

Much as I hate to admit it, I suspect it wouldn't be in quite as great a place. Regardless of what he is now, Johns had wide potential appeal that was unleashed on Rebirth and Sinestro Corps War, while Morrison's always been more divisive. It would have been a better run, and I think it would have raised Lantern's recognition compared to what it was prior to Rebirth, but I don't think he'd be the arguable biggest hero after Superman and Batman the way Johns made him.

[FishboneX]

Sure, I would like to think Morrisons take would also have been embraced by the fans. But Johns run WAS embraced by the fans, and for good reason. These are my 2 favorite writers, and I would love to believe others would also dig it.

[Green Goblin of Sector 2814]

Uh, no thanks. Honestly, I think Morrison is completely overrated. Sure, he can write some good stories and has some great work under his belt. A lot of writers do. However, every time I read one of his comics, it sounds like he is just throwing 6-syllable-words together just to convince his readers he has a higher IQ than he actually does.

Of course, I can't fully judge. I don't know him personally, but that's just what his comics seem to be.