Whatever happened to Simon Baz?

[Buried Alien]

They can't kill Stewart, he's one of the few great black characters DC has. Even if they had killed him, he would have been back in less than six months. I'm talking about killing off someone for a bit longer.

Not a good idea. One faction or another will raise bloody hell over it.

Buried Alien (The Fastest Post Alive!)

[GlennSimpson]

They showed the re-structuring of the Corps in GL: Corps: Recharge. I believe the noror guards had more deciding power in its structure, and decided that Lanterns worked better alongside partners. But it's been a while since I've read it.

I guess it's just that, statistically speaking, after a zillion years, the chances of such a basic structural change taking place within the brief period of time we are observing in the history of the Corps seems unlikely.

[BohemiaDrinker]

I guess it's just that, statistically speaking, after a zillion years, the chances of such a basic structural change taking place within the brief period of time we are observing in the history of the Corps seems unlikely.

I disagree; the Corps were being rebuilt after it's most catastrophic period, the Guardians had just been resurrected by Kyle and spent some time as kids, the Parallax and Ion entities were now free after millenia. There were good reasons for a change in approach at that point, specially one that involved the most valued officers more.

To be honest, the fact that these structures remained the same after the Old Guardians went bananas and died, and the Templar Guardians took over, bothers me more than those changes back then. If you were following Kyle's run, and the start of returned Jordan's, it seemed like a pretty organic development. Now, it looks like they were just winging it; but I think that's natural since the plan was to get to Renegade Jordan and lost Corps.

[Claude]

I think they should divide up the lanterns - why does Earth (or Earth's sector) need so many lanterns? (Granted, these days, they don't always stick around Earth.

Would love to see a book where Baz gets assigned to a new sector and learns to deal with problems on other planets.

At this point, killing off or retiring any one of the Earth based Lanterns will upset a certain group of the fan base (granted, that is always the case; you can't please everyone). I suppose they should just retire/kill the character(s) that have the smallest fan base (I hope they don't do that to Baz).

It just seems odd that they don't take advantage of the relatively inexperienced Baz to tell some "rookie Green Lantern learns to be a superhero on Earth" stories. I mean, for a while there, not only were all the other Lanterns involved in their own "space" books - they were literally forbidden from returning to Earth. Baz was allowed to operate under a special exemption - why wasn't there a story in that?

His own title, back-ups in Justice League/the main GL title.... Something.

[Frontier]

It just seems odd that they don't take advantage of the relatively inexperienced Baz to tell some "rookie Green Lantern learns to be a superhero on Earth" stories. I mean, for a while there, not only were all the other Lanterns involved in their own "space" books - they were literally forbidden from returning to Earth. Baz was allowed to operate under a special exemption - why wasn't there a story in that?

His own title, back-ups in Justice League/the main GL title.... Something.

That's the thing...there was a lot of potential with Simon that they just wasted. He was a rookie, he was the only GL who was actually on Earth and working 2814, and could've been the chance for more earthbound GL stories. Johns even gave him a prime supporting cast with his family, B'dg, and Agent Fed.

He also should've been on a League, either the main one or the JLU, and he deserves a team spot more than Captain Cold does. Not that Snart actually does have membership, but with his prominence in Justice League at the moment he may as well .

Johns even kind of sabotaged him by creating Jessica, who's enough of a GL analogue as Power Ring that she serves the team in the same way that Simon could have but with more conflict and drama because of her powers. I'm happy to have Hal back and mentoring her, but at least having Simon do it, as Green Lantern #20 predicted, would give him something to do and a reason to stick around .

[vartox]

It just seems odd that they don't take advantage of the relatively inexperienced Baz to tell some "rookie Green Lantern learns to be a superhero on Earth" stories. I mean, for a while there, not only were all the other Lanterns involved in their own "space" books - they were literally forbidden from returning to Earth. Baz was allowed to operate under a special exemption - why wasn't there a story in that?

His own title, back-ups in Justice League/the main GL title.... Something.

Yeah, it does seem weird that Baz was the ONLY GL on earth... and nobody did anything with it. The Lantern books all happened in space so he had no place there but no other book used him either, and now he's just kind of in limbo. If he's not in Lost Army then he's the only actual GL left in the regular universe and writers will probably continue to not do anything with that. If he IS in Lost Army then he's competing with John, Guy and Kilowog for page space and he's probably not going to get much to do there either.

I can do without more rookie GL stories though. There's been enough of that with John and Kyle.

[New Order]

He was in Johns and Finch's Justice League of America as short lived and forgettable as it was. Since then he's only had cameos in Venditti's Green Lantern. I'd like to see some stories involving him though. An idea could be to have alternating arcs on GL; some focusing on "renegade" Hal, some on Baz back on Earth. Or something to that effect.

[Flash Gordon]

I thought he had potential, hope he shows up again.

[Desh]

He was in Johns and Finch's Justice League of America as short lived and forgettable as it was. Since then he's only had cameos in Venditti's Green Lantern. I'd like to see some stories involving him though. An idea could be to have alternating arcs on GL; some focusing on "renegade" Hal, some on Baz back on Earth. Or something to that effect.

I'm almost certain many Hal Jordan fans would complain about that. As I mentioned before, many in the fanbase are so protective of their favorites getting spotlight that I don't see much room for Baz to grow much of a fanbase of his own. There's not enough spotlight in the Green Lantern books to go around.

[WillieMorgan]

I'm almost certain many Hal Jordan fans would complain about that. As I mentioned before, many in the fanbase are so protective of their favorites getting spotlight that I don't see much room for Baz to grow much of a fanbase of his own. There's not enough spotlight in the Green Lantern books to go around.

I did mention this recently on another thread but my preference/wishlist in regards to Simon Baz would be a back-up strip in the main GL title. Similar to the Shazam run from New52 Justice League. It would revolve around Baz being an Earth-bound rookie and dealing with some of the franchises neglected villains (Sonar etc). You could have B'dg in there too as the mentor figure. I can't see there being room for the character in any other scenario. It's just a dream that though...

I don't think killing any of the Lanterns off is the best way forward. And it would be a shame to just waste Simon Baz's potential.

[GlennSimpson]

Again, why does the fact that a character doesn't need to be used mean they need to kill them off? Can't somebody just retire happily?

[New Order]

I did mention this recently on another thread but my preference/wishlist in regards to Simon Baz would be a back-up strip in the main GL title. Similar to the Shazam run from New52 Justice League. It would revolve around Baz being an Earth-bound rookie and dealing with some of the franchises neglected villains (Sonar etc).

A back-up strip would work too. In fact, I'd love to see that.

[Sodam Yat]

The only writer that seems interested in him is his creator. Geoff Johns did say that there's going to be plans for him in JL Darkseid War. But other than that, he seems to be MIA in other titles.

I don't think Simon should be killed off. It may be best for him to either retire or get a new superhero identity.

[Joe Kalicki]

The thing is, with a universe as vast as ours is, with billions of alien races, our mudball gets to have 5 or 6 GLs, and in a planet of billions, with hundreds of countries, they all coincidentlly hail from the same freaking country? I'm sorry, but it's not being creative, and it does get a bit hard to swallow.

Peace

Because the comic books are published in America so it makes sense to have American lead characters.

[joybeans]

Again, why does the fact that a character doesn't need to be used mean they need to kill them off? Can't somebody just retire happily?

Because everyone has their favorite Green Lantern, and having a favorite Green Lantern means that all other Green Lanterns must be killed off.