Am I crazy or are GL fans completely irrational about this???

[Trey Strain]

Pretty much this.
It was a noble experiment in its way, but the absolute wrong place to put a new character at the time. If Simon had been brought in as the new Airwave or something brand new, he might not have had name recognition, but he wouldn't have been so utterly redundant

Geoff couldn't help himself. He had brought in eight new CORPS, or however many it was, and he wasn't about to stop there. I think it was a cry for help -- "Stop me before I create again!"

And then of course there was the imperative of political correctness. We have a gay Lantern, a half-Latino Lantern and a black Lantern, and now we need a Muslim Lantern too, the thinking went.

[Claude]

Wow, that's shocking. Although I knew that DC's trying to make a Green Lantern into something besides a Green Lantern for the zillionth time would fail, just as all the previous attempts have failed, I'm amazed that it happened that fast and that emphatically.

Well, in so far as all the advertising was claiming, the thing they were turning a Green Lantern to was "a corpse"!

"Omega Men" isn't a low-selling title because people are rejecting a new direction for Kyle Rayner. It's selling badly because it's "Omega Men" - a book about an almost totally unknown bunch of spacefarers with no real connection to any other title, and an appeal - such as it is - to the kind of reader more likely to buy digital.

[Trey Strain]

Well, in so far as all the advertising was claiming, the thing they were turning a Green Lantern to was "a corpse"!

"Omega Men" isn't a low-selling title because people are rejecting a new direction for Kyle Rayner. It's selling badly because it's "Omega Men" - a book about an almost totally unknown bunch of spacefarers with no real connection to any other title, and an appeal - such as it is - to the kind of reader more likely to buy digital.

That's probably true, but a couple of points remain. First, Kyle wasn't able to pull any Kyle Rayner fans into the book, and second, one more attempt to sell a Green Lantern as something else has failed, regardless of exactly why it happened.

[MajorHoy]

Wow, that's shocking. Although I knew that DC's trying to make a Green Lantern into something besides a Green Lantern for the zillionth time would fail, just as all the previous attempts have failed, I'm amazed that it happened that fast and that emphatically.

Don't forget, that was based on what comic book shops ordered, not necessarily what customers bought. Stores may have over-anticipated interest in the first issue and then may not have ordered as much of the second issue as they probably would. (And are any people / any stores not buying some DC titles because they're buying so many Secret Wars-related books?)

[Agent Z]

Geoff couldn't help himself. He had brought in eight new CORPS, or however many it was, and he wasn't about to stop there. I think it was a cry for help -- "Stop me before I create again!"

And then of course there was the imperative of political correctness. We have a gay Lantern, a half-Latino Lantern and a black Lantern, and now we need a Muslim Lantern too.

These are not the worst things that could be done with the franchise. Not even close.

[MrHashasheen]

Question:

Is Simon Baz anybody's favorite? Or is he a best forgotten experiment DC tried for 3 years, and gave up on?

I like Simon, even if I felt he was superflous and a cheap gimmick. Same for Power Ring.

DC's attempts at rebooting aliases with new characters hasn't really worked out much, I think. And even when it does, they don't double down and go with it, because nostalgia and stasis are king. They had four Green Lanterns going into the New 52. Why they didn't just put two on Earth (Justice League, Green Lantern or Justice League International) and two in Space (Green Lantern Corps, a new name title, New Guardians, etc...) and leave it at that unless a swap around happened is beyond me.

But then, I like the light spectrum but think having seven complete different corps is overkill and stupid, so what do I know?

[Trey Strain]

These are not the worst things that could be done with the franchise. Not even close.

Four Earth Lanterns were already a tough job to handle. If you haven't noticed, DC keeps trying and failing again and again to turn its Green Lanterns into something else because it doesn't know what to do with them all. A fifth Earth Lantern was a bad idea on its face, regardless of why they did it.

[Trey Strain]

I like Simon, even if I felt he was superflous and a cheap gimmick. Same for Power Ring.

DC's attempts at rebooting aliases with new characters hasn't really worked out much, I think. And even when it does, they don't double down and go with it, because nostalgia and stasis are king. They had four Green Lanterns going into the New 52. Why they didn't just put two on Earth (Justice League, Green Lantern or Justice League International) and two in Space (Green Lantern Corps, a new name title, New Guardians, etc...) and leave it at that unless a swap around happened is beyond me.

But then, I like the light spectrum but think having seven complete different corps is overkill and stupid, so what do I know?

I think John and Guy belong in space, and Hal and Kyle belong on Earth.

[nightrider]

I just think that John fans are the ones who complained the most in the forum. My personal opinion.

[joybeans]

Question:

Is Simon Baz anybody's favorite? Or is he a best forgotten experiment DC tried for 3 years, and gave up on?

He was a character with a good origin story. And more importantly, he was a character that brand new readers who jumped in with the New 52 could latch onto. Hal, John, Guy, and Kyle were all heavily defined by their pre-Flashpoint history, because Green Lantern line didn't get a proper reboot. For a lot of readers, Simon's story was the first time they got to see "YOU HAVE THE POWER TO OVERCOME GREAT FEAR" on page. He was a character that could have found a role as an audience surrogate in one of the many GL books at the time. However, after Johns finished his saga, interest in the franchise dropped off, and no one under Venditti's group really knew what to do. Soule wrote a few decent interactions between him and Guy Gardner, but Baz just became a forgotten asset in a collapsing franchise.

[Trey Strain]

I just think that John fans are the ones who complained the most in the forum. My personal opinion.

I think you're right nowadays. But historically, Kyle's fans have seemed to be the main ones who want their boy to be the one and only.

[Claude]

I just think that John fans are the ones who complained the most in the forum. My personal opinion.

He's probably my least favourite of the four - although I still like him - but, in fairness, John fans also have the most reason to complain these days!

[DrNewGod]

Simon was another case where DC bungled the reboot by trying to cherry pick stuff to keep from the old world (as with Batman's legion of sidekicks). It was an ideal time to completely start over, and Simon was as good a way as any, but DC wanted to attempt appeasement of all fans and succeeded only keeping them arguing. Further, as with Morrison on the Batman, Johns was in the middle of his multichromatic opera, and nobody was interrupting him just because the whole universe was starting over.

[joybeans]

Simon was another case where DC bungled the reboot by trying to cherry pick stuff to keep from the old world (as with Batman's legion of sidekicks). It was an ideal time to completely start over, and Simon was as good a way as any, but DC wanted to attempt appeasement of all fans and succeeded only keeping them arguing. Further, as with Morrison on the Batman, Johns was in the middle of his multichromatic opera, and nobody was interrupting him just because the whole universe was starting over.

That actually would have been a terrible idea. Under Johns's run, the Green Lantern brand sold, and thus justified having several spinoff titles. Same goes with Batman. A complete reboot means taking away so many viable characters that could sell their own title. It also means that you lose a safety net to fall back on when your first run fails. Look at the Teen Titans franchise. Lobdell tried to create a team from scratch with little or no association, and significantly altered characters to the point where the only things they shared in common with the previous iterations were their names. And it was received so poorly to the point where it needed a refresh, but had nothing to fall back on. In the past, whenever writers wanted to renew interest in the Titans, they would just revisit the old Wolfman team, or the Young Justice lineup. In the New 52, that option wasn't available. And now, DC's trying to repair the Teen Titans brand by using space and time shenanigans to re-introduce the original Titans back into continuity.

[Güicho]

Hi everyone! So I haven't been on this site long but its easy to see the divide in the GL fanbase between Hal, John, Kyle and Guy. And I understand that, everyone has their favorites and whatnot but here is my problem: I keep hearing people say that favorite version has been sidelined, and its usually John and Kyle fans. But that never made any sense to me. Its not a Flash situation where they bench whoever Barry or Wally whenever dc decides to push the other. All of those characters have had their own ongoing solo titles recently. And frankly Hal doesn't seem to be doing all that much better than them. Then again I've also heard people who theorized that Hal was getting sidelined at one point or another. So why does this complaint keep coming up?

Green Lantern fueled by the unique Corps concept, which implicitly allowed for multiple characters to share and/or swap the power and title, was able to buildup to a multi-character and book franchise.
With the Corps, then adding Guy, then John and eventually each with their own unique book.
All running concurrently.

The standard Corps book

The renegade Guy Gardner...


And the more cosmic "architect" the thinking-mans Green Lantern John Stewart & Mosaic.



In the 90s regular sales, and with it character was replaced by "eXtreme events!" that is any shocking death, crippling, or heel-turn eXtreme character revision and shocking new direction! Was the name of the game. So speculators would know what "shocking key-issues" to buy multiple copies of. And they did, in droves. (See the speculator boom!)

Green Lantern's eXtreme moment came when all the main characters were shockingly turned insane (Hal) , crippled (John), depowered and mutated (Guy) and the entire Corps killed! All to be replaced by Kyle.
Pretty much the new Scrappy-Doo (puppy powered) now only GL of the DCU.

This began the huge schism between fans.
Hal now an insane murderer, John crippled first in a wheel chair and then his mind, Guy striped of any connection to the ring. All so Kyle could be the only GL.

If you happen to grow up with Scrappy Doo, you probably thought he was the best! hence Kyle fans.
Everyone else was like, wtf is this garbage, what happened to the great Corps concept and the others?

Kyle became the only GL allowed in the main DCU, that is until:

Justice League Animated series. Who brazenly went against the publishers Kyle only rule, and used John Stewart. Unapologetically declaring, they needed diversity.

This sent the publishers into a shame panic, while on TV John was being shown as the legit champion of the Corps and the JL. In their comics, he was still being shown crippled physically, and mentally, so they could justify Kyle having the only ring.
Shamed into FINALLY bringing John back!
Who was quickly "fixed" and made GL of the Justice League.

With the Kyle only edict now broken, - this opened the floodgates, to bringing them all back, which they did! And led to the Rebirth Event, and now everyone wanting their GL as the lead.