Newsarama: New Guardians' Writer Talks Kyle's Godlike Powers and that Shocking Kiss

[SXVA]

Uh, because we expect the writers to write the things we see in the comics in a common sense manner, as if it were actually happening in real life. In other words, we expect them to pull it off realistically and believably. And, I'm sorry, but to a lot of us, the whole Carol/Kyle thing wasn't really pulled off in a realistic manner. It basically felt like Carol decided she wanted to be with Kyle, like, two weeks after she broke it off in Hal. If that happened in real life, it would be more than likely that Kyle was just a rebound.

People expect fantasy to be real life?

This is what holds everything back and why so many Movies, TV series and other creations are so average. Expected to be contained in such a small little box. That... minds can't be separated from what the reality they know defines.

Nothing that annoys me more, as far as complaints go.... is, "that couldn't happen in real life".

This mindset is a main factor in why so many things are average and small, and then... when it's average people complain that it's average and say it sucks.

/Facepalm. SMH.

[LoneNecromancer]

People expect fantasy to be real life?

This is what holds everything back and why so many Movies, TV series and other creations are so average. Expected to be contained in such a small little box. That... minds can't be separated from what the reality they know defines.

Nothing that annoys me more, as far as complaints go.... is, "that couldn't happen in real life".

This mindset is a main factor in why so many things are average and small, and then... when it's average people complain that it's average and say it sucks.

/Facepalm. SMH.

Wow.

He's talking about common sense. He's not complaining about there being fantasy or sci-fi or glowy rings that let you create anything. He's saying that we expect people in fiction to behave like people. If someone dies, you see people who loved them grieve, for example. That's how people behave. That's his complaint. That they're not behaving the way people ought to behave in those circumstances. That's something you expect in stories featuring human people from Earth.

What exactly did you think he said?

[Green Goblin of Sector 2814]

The Relic arc is good, but the arc itself seems more of a non canon type of story to be honest. There's no reason (my opinion of course) for the new creative team to extend the history of the emotional spectrum about universe can't exist without it, rings increasing chances of causing the universe's destruction, etc. On Johns finale on the green lantern mythos, he already had important parts about the emotional spectrum explained. Without the Relic story, other major changes wouldn't have been introduced such as some of the other entities (that Johns created) making a sacrifice to refill the reservoir, destroying OA, destroyed the Blue Lantern Corps. Lots of these changes seemingly going against Johns previous work.

One of the main reasons Carol wanted Kyle to learn to harness the entire emotional spectrum for his power levels to increase in the search of Hal Jordan. Many things changed since the new creative writers took over the green lantern franchise. Almost as if some parts felt a bit.....you know..contradicting.

I personally don't think they're trying extending Johns concepts, but undoing some of them. Maybe that's just me.

Much of what's been added on to the emotional spectrum concept can easily be reconciled. Johns made it so that the entities were born when living beings first felt the emotions of the spectrum. However, there is no reason to preclude that there also existed a reservoir of this energy that simply manifested itself in the entities upon the emergence of living creatures.

The point is that nothing really has been written in the pages of the comics that undermines any of the endings that Johns wrote. DC would be stupid to outright ignore them anyway. They all made such sense for the characters and being that Johns' run was the best selling Green Lantern run ever, it really wouldn't be smart to piss off fans of that run, especially when sales have already been in such a decline after Johns' departure.

And why would it appear as if they're "undoing" Johns' concepts when so many are still being utilized? Parallax, White Lanterns, The Sinestro Corps, etc. are all still being used, and I must say in some cases, being used well. The only one that's been offed are the entities, but those can easily be brought back. It just seems to be the characterization of the characters themselves that feels off.

[Green Goblin of Sector 2814]

Wow.

He's talking about common sense. He's not complaining about there being fantasy or sci-fi or glowy rings that let you create anything. He's saying that we expect people in fiction to behave like people. If someone dies, you see people who loved them grieve, for example. That's how people behave. That's his complaint. That they're not behaving the way people ought to behave in those circumstances. That's something you expect in stories featuring human people from Earth.

What exactly did you think he said?

Yup. Exactly. Couldn't have said it better myself, LoneNecromancer. Thank you!

[SXVA]

Wow.

He's talking about common sense. He's not complaining about there being fantasy or sci-fi or glowy rings that let you create anything. He's saying that we expect people in fiction to behave like people. If someone dies, you see people who loved them grieve, for example. That's how people behave. That's his complaint. That they're not behaving the way people ought to behave in those circumstances. That's something you expect in stories featuring human people from Earth.

What exactly did you think he said?

Did you see the bold? And the following "people"... i wasn't referring to anyone in specific. It's using something as a starting point toward my own commentary.

Even though, i do disagree with both posts, however... that's not a part of the commentary directly but rather a general observation, especially on the IMDB forums... more than anywhere.

(It's all fantasy in my view, not just the glowy stuff... to put that out there)

[Desh]

The point is that nothing really has been written in the pages of the comics that undermines any of the endings that Johns wrote. DC would be stupid to outright ignore them anyway. They all made such sense for the characters and being that Johns' run was the best selling Green Lantern run ever, it really wouldn't be smart to piss off fans of that run, especially when sales have already been in such a decline after Johns' departure.

You do not know WB's overall plan for Green Lantern. WB attempted to have big, mainstream projects based primarily on what Johns did with Green Lantern, and they all flopped hard with the general audience. Perhaps they are getting away from that so they can do something different, which the general audience may respond to better. These days, there's often a lot more at stake than just some comic fans.

And why would it appear as if they're "undoing" Johns' concepts when so many are still being utilized? Parallax, White Lanterns, The Sinestro Corps, etc. are all still being used, and I must say in some cases, being used well. The only one that's been offed are the entities, but those can easily be brought back. It just seems to be the characterization of the characters themselves that feels off.

Johns wrote and directed about 9 years' worth of Green Lantern stories. Writers can't just suddenly ignore that if they want to tell a decent, continuing narrative. A writer like Venditti especially wouldn't. They've likely been putting things in play to get rid of what they don't want (entities, Blue Lanterns, Hal Jordan and Carol Ferris being together). That doesn't mean they're going to entirely disregard everything Johns did. Also, we'll see what they have in store for the Parallax entity. It's probably something special. *crosses fingers for Hal Jordan Parallax*



Oh, heck yes!

[Punisher007]

You do not know WB's overall plan for Green Lantern. WB attempted to have big, mainstream projects based primarily on what Johns did with Green Lantern, and they all flopped hard with the general audience. Perhaps they are getting away from that so they can do something different, which the general audience may respond to better. These days, there's often a lot more at stake than just some comic fans.



Johns wrote and directed about 9 years' worth of Green Lantern stories. Writers can't just suddenly ignore that if they want to tell a decent, continuing narrative. A writer like Venditti especially wouldn't. They've likely been putting things in play to get rid of what they don't want (entities, Blue Lanterns, Hal Jordan and Carol Ferris being together). That doesn't mean they're going to entirely disregard everything Johns did. Also, we'll see what they have in store for the Parallax entity. It's probably something special. *crosses fingers for Hal Jordan Parallax*



Oh, heck yes!

No, DC tried to have ONE movie LOOSELY based off of what Johns did. And then they screwed it up to the point that it ultimately bore little to no resemblance to Johns work.

[Punisher007]

Did you see the bold? And the following "people"... i wasn't referring to anyone in specific. It's using something as a starting point toward my own commentary.

Even though, i do disagree with both posts, however... that's not a part of the commentary directly but rather a general observation, especially on the IMDB forums... more than anywhere.

(It's all fantasy in my view, not just the glowy stuff... to put that out there)

No it's not. The weird stuff is acceptable because this world has long been established as having those things. However, Hal, Guy, Kyle, Carol, etc have been set up from the very beginning as being human beings from Earth, so they should act like actual human beings.

[Desh]

No, DC tried to have ONE movie LOOSELY based off of what Johns did. And then they screwed it up to the point that it ultimately bore little to no resemblance to Johns work.

No matter what excuses you conjure to divert blame, the point is undoing parts of and getting away from Geoff Johns Green Lantern is an extremely wise move, despite the whining of some comic book fans. That stuff was presented to audiences in DTV, feature film, and cartoon form, and ultimately, people just didn't buy into it. Who the heck cares about fans of Geoff Johns' comics when there is a way bigger audience to capture?

That's one reason why I tend not to like comic book fans, never related to them, never sympathized with them, and never considered myself one of them. They often fail to see the bigger picture and think their dinky stuff matters, holding it up on some holy pedestal when, in truth, no one else really cares. And it's catering to these types of people -who I tend not to like, never related to, never sympathized with, and never considered myself one of- that is largely what is holding the whole industry back, and thus, putting off many others from indulging in the hobby.

So, if some fans want to jump off board because they feel it dishonors Geoff Johns Green Lantern, in short, forget them! Sometimes growing requires growing pains. We've seen how far Johns' directed Green Lantern can go, and it culminated in a horrible movie, cancelled cartoon, and warehouses of unsold merchandise. Time to try a different take! We're clearly not getting any further with that one.

[king of hybrids]

except GL:TAS didn't fail because people hated hal/spectrum; it failed because of the A) the merchandise was crud, B) there was glut left over from the movie and C) because cartoon network has a really weird hate-on for action shows

unless your really going to tell me and TBAB and YJ failed because hal and guy were in them

and besides, the blues (At least saint walker) are coming back

[Nix Uotan]

I would perhaps agree with you if there was any proof of "John's concepts being responsible for the downfall for GL" was true or if there was any correlation for that. The movie had nothing to do with the Emotional Spectrum beyond the original Green and Yellow and tanked for different reasons. Its failure made the property toxic which was why the merchandise did not sell and the cartoon was cancelled for entirely different reasons. But regardless, it matters not what you or me or any fan thinks... its what DC thinks and the reaction fans have to the stuff. So, if GL starts tanking because of the Emotional Spectrum then writers is within their rights to remove it or if its doing well they can simply amp it up. Though I personally don't think there is any indication that the new creative team is looking to remove the Spectrum and various concepts.

[Green Goblin of Sector 2814]

You do not know WB's overall plan for Green Lantern. WB attempted to have big, mainstream projects based primarily on what Johns did with Green Lantern, and they all flopped hard with the general audience. Perhaps they are getting away from that so they can do something different, which the general audience may respond to better. These days, there's often a lot more at stake than just some comic fans.

Uh, except the Green Lantern movie hardly looked anything like Geoff Johns' work on Green Lantern. No matter how many times you try and twist things to make it look like Geoff Johns is to blame for the GL movie, it's not going to be true. The GL movie failed because it was Greg Berlanti writing the script and the horrible acting from Blake Lively and some of the other cast members. If they had actually had Johns write the script, it would have been 10X better. Was the failure of Batman & Robin in the 90s the fault of Doug Moench, Chuck Dixon, or any of the other Batman writers of the 90s? Uh, no.

Also, the entire reason why Green Lantern was even popular enough to be considered for a movie in the first place was Geoff Johns' run. So, uh, why would they need to search for something that works "better" with the general audience? They didn't even see the concepts that made Geoff Johns' run. Pissing off fans of that run is basically alienating the very fans that made the GL franchise into one of DC's cornerstones, as opposed to a fringe concept.

Plus, if you haven't noticed, sales have been doing nothing BUT declining since Geoff Johns left, and most of it is because of Venditti's botched characterization and dialing back of character development. The only reason I've stuck around this long is because I'm such a big fan of Green Lantern and Hal Jordan. So...I guess if DC wants to salvage Green Lantern, they'd better do something fast.

Johns wrote and directed about 9 years' worth of Green Lantern stories. Writers can't just suddenly ignore that if they want to tell a decent, continuing narrative. A writer like Venditti especially wouldn't. They've likely been putting things in play to get rid of what they don't want (entities, Blue Lanterns, Hal Jordan and Carol Ferris being together). That doesn't mean they're going to entirely disregard everything Johns did. Also, we'll see what they have in store for the Parallax entity. It's probably something special. *crosses fingers for Hal Jordan Parallax*



Oh, heck yes!

Uh, the Blue Lanterns are coming back, or at least Saint Walker is. The only reason they killed off the rest of the Blues was to be a test to Saint Walker's hope. Also, they probably would never bring back Hal Jordan Parallax. Not unless they wanna deal with the resurgence of H.E.A.T.

Plus, a cover doesn't give you anything. Hal Jordan has been possessed Parallax since coming back and has walked away just fine.

[Green Goblin of Sector 2814]

Next thing we know, Desh is going to try and say that Beware the Batman failed because of the toxicity of the Nolan Batman films or that YJ was tanked because Hal made an appearance in the Justice League. The truth is that Cartoon Network no longer cares about DC Comics cartoons.

[PwrdOn]

I enjoyed Johns' work on GL, but I must say that his major misstep was in expanding the mythos to such an absurd degree. Green Lantern, to most people, is just one guy who occasionally interacts with aliens in the same organization from time to time. While I think fans have always been interested in seeing the concept expanded on a bit more, creating an entire universe full of multi-colored ring wielders spread out over six ongoing titles is seriously overstretching the storytelling potential and I think readers are just fatigued from it all, and who can blame them?

[Damos40]

Next thing we know, Desh is going to try and say that Beware the Batman failed because of the toxicity of the Nolan Batman films or that YJ was tanked because Hal made an appearance in the Justice League. The truth is that Cartoon Network no longer cares about DC Comics cartoons.

They do, they just only care for show with humor in them, because that appeals to their target audience seven year old boys.