u/tiago231018

Guy is also pretty happy with the "permission" their bosses gave them.

From Green Lantern (2005) #11.

From Green Lantern (2005) #41.

Before being forcibly involved in the War of Light and the Blackest Night, Larfleeze lived undisturbed in a temple hidden in the jungles of Okaara, dominated by the Orange Lantern, taking everything he wanted and turning every being who came too close to him into his Orange Lanterns.

In his origin story, he tells us that, during his gang's robbery of Oa, billions of years ago, they found a map that belonged to Krona that led to the planet Okaara, in the Vega System.

While trekking through the jungles of the planet, they were dragged into a hidden temple, where the Orange Battery lay hidden. "It spoke to me", he said. After a confrontation with the Guardians and the Manhunters, this became his home.

The problem is... Who built that temple and put the Orange Battery there? It can't have been Larfleeze, as the temple already existed.

Possibility 1: Krona. The map proves he was aware of the existence of the Orange light of Avarice - as we would learn in Brightest Day/War of the Green Lanterns, he always had a fierce interest in the Emotional Spectrum and its applications (especially for warfare, as his gauntlet indicates).

However, nothing says that he actually wielded the Orange light back in those days... With one exception. In the same issue, Larfleeze mentions that the Guardians already knew that the Orange light existed and were afraid of it. So much so that they concluded it was better to leave Larfleeze alone with it, and turn the whole Vega system around Okaara into a forbidden zone.

Maybe the Guardians and their Manhunters chased Krona to Okaara, where he was trying to find the Orange battery in order to have a device to battle his Oan brothers. He found it and was so consumed by greed that he ordered the locals to build a temple to worship him.

When the Guardians found him, they discovered that Krona, with the Orange light, was such a formidable adversary that it "scared" the Guardians (to the point that beings with their emotions literally removed from their bodies) into thinking the Orange Avarice was too dangerous.

But, if so, how did Krona manage to break free from the Ophidian's influence? Why didn't he become a new Larfleeze, one even more terrifying than the original, who killed the Guardians and came to possess everything and everyone in the universe?

I personally don't think this individual was Krona...

Possibility 2: A local member of a long, dead species that lived in Okaara (whom Krona researched before he got kicked out of Oa because of his experiment).

Now, there isn't actually anything in canon to back this up. Just a theory, based on what is said and inferred to us.

Still, what may have transpired was that, an unknown number of years before Larfleeze found Okaara, the planet was inhabited by an unknown species. A member of such species found the Orange light and built the battery to harness the orange power, like Atrocitus would do with the blood of the Inversions in Ysmault, the Zamarons would with the deceased Adam and Eve in Zamaron, Ganthet and Sayd in Odym, etc.

Consumed by Avarice, he demanded more and more treasures and tributes from his people, who weren't able to find an individual wielding by themself an entire color of the Emotional Spectrum (like Larfleeze would).

This was probably how Krona, who was interested in the Spectrum and its powers, found out about the Orange light and created his map.

When Krona was banned from the Oan society, the Guardians and the Manhunters came to investigate such disturbances in Okaara that drew Krona's attention. They found out this old, unknown Okaaran civilization extinct, and the individual who found the Orange light ruling alone, like a proto-Larfleeze. However, such was this individual's greed that they wanted to go beyond Okaara to possess more and more things.

The Guardians and Manhunters fought a fierce battle that ended when the Orange Battery wielder was killed. Probably a lot of Oans perished in the battle as well, which would explain why they were so terrified of it when Larfleeze and his gang found it.

They knew that, if they killed Larfleeze, someone else would find the Orange battery and the nightmare would begin. It was a problem that couldn't be destroyed, just contained... Which was exactly what they decided, keeping the Orange Battery contained to Okaara, and the Vega system becoming one of the worst places in the Universe (ruled by the Citadel, gangs and criminals running amok, etc).

Again, nothing in the canon states that any of these things happened, so we can only make conjectures. But it's interesting to think about.

From Green Lantern (2005) #41.

One of the coolest introductions a new GL villain got. I miss when Larfleeze was actually threatening, and not just a clown.

Source of the picture: Instagram

Before the project fell apart thanks to the poor reception of Batman v Superman and the DCEU Justice League, as well as Affleck's personal struggles, he was set to direct a Batman movie that he was co-writing, alongside Chris Terrio and Geoff Johns. Matt Reeves came in, discarded the script and decided to do his own thing (which, ironically, took inspiration from Johns' own Earth One comic).

The script, unfortunately, never leaked. However, a recent report by Slash Film compiled some stuff about the movie. And it looked very promising!

Here's what the movie could've been:

-> Deathstroke, played by Joe Manganiello, was going to be the main villain.

-> Slade wanted revenge against Affleck's Batman because of the death of his son. Jesse Einsenberg's Lex Luthor revealed to him that Batman was Bruce Way in Zack Snyder's Justice League, so Deathstroke would use this knowledge to ruin Bruce's life, Knightfall-style.

-> Manganiello compared the script with David Fincher's 1997 movie The Game. The movie tells the story of a financier who gets everything taken from him. Like that movie, Deathstroke would have "systematically [dismantled] Bruce's life and murdering all the people in it, and [destroy] his finances and just basically [paint] him into a corner".

-> Veteran cinematographer Robert Richardson (who shot Affleck's Live By Night and Air, as well as movies for Martin Scorsese and Quentin Tarantino) was picked by Affleck for The Batman.

-> Richardson said the movie would've been set at least partially in Arkham Asylum. It would've explored Batman's "insanity aspects" and "darker side".

-> When discussing the script in a podcast, Matt Reeves described it as "action-driven", "filled with a lot of set pieces" and like a James Bond movie.

-> Reeves also said, to Esquire, that Affleck's "Batman" script "was very deeply connected to the DCEU, with other major characters from other movies and other comics popping up."

-> Jay Oliva, director for DC Animated movies, told Inverse that Affleck's "The Batman" would've pulled together 80 years of Batman comic stories.

-> Speaking of comic accuracy, there were rumors that the Gotham City from Affleck's movie would be the most comic accurate of all Batman movies so far: dark, brooding, but also filled with eccentric supervillains.

TLDR: The Batman, as conceived by Affleck, Geoff Johns and Chris Terrio, would've been about Deathstroke learning from Luthor Batman's secret identity to get revenge on him for the death of his son. Deathstroke would've dismantled Bruce's life, and he'd have to fight back. It was a very action-packed movie, almost like James Bond, and it was at least partially set in Arkham Asylum, where Bruce would be confronted with his own insanity. Many other characters from the DCEU and the comics were set to appear, and it was supposed to be the most comic accurate Batman movie ever produced, taking inspiration from 8 decades of comics history.

Source: https://www.slashfilm.com/2168220/ben-affleck-the-batman-best-superhero-movies-never-made/

From Green Lantern Vol. 2 #111.

At the time, Alan belonged to Earth 2 alongside the other Golden Age heroes, while Hal and other Silver Age characters were from Earth 1.

The context of it is that Hal (and Ollie) had to deal with a magic-based enemy, so they called Alan from Earth 2 to help. A Guardian used their power to bring Alan to Earth 1, where he could assist the other heroes. Before the battle, both recharged their rings at the Central Power Battery.

Alan's oath while recharging his ring is pretty cool!

Compared to almost every major creator who worked for DC Comics, Geoff Johns wasn't that interested in writing Batman.

While most writers would sell their mom to write a Batman story or a run, Johns never pursued a gig with the Bat.

Of course, he did write Batman plenty of times, whether it was in big events like Infinite Crisis or Flashpoint, in his New 52 Justice League run, or in celebrations like Detective Comics #1000 (alongside every other major DC writer at the time).

But even at the height of his powers at DC, where he could write any character he wanted to, Johns didn't chase a run in the main Batman book, or Detective Comics, or any of the numerous Bat-books that DC pumps out every month.

When doing major runs, Johns seemed more interested in taking lesser-known characters, those that no writer would want to touch (especially if they could do Batman instead) and elevating them to A-listers: the JSA, Green Lantern, Hawkman, Shazam, Booster Gold... His Aquaman run is credited with bringing many new fans to Arthur Curry, who might otherwise have been turned off by the ridiculous bullying against him (like that hideous sitcom that I won't name).

He also enjoyed writing the characters he loved growing up: Superman and The Flash.

Either way, the select few opportunities where he wrote a Batman-centric story are:

Earth One - An alternate universe take on the Batman mythos, showcasing a different view of Bruce and his side characters.

Three Jokers - A story that was born out of the Darkseid War saga from his Justice League run, even though, unfortunately, it came out too late (5 years after Darkseid War) and it was too unsure about whether it wanted to be canon or not.

What do you think about Johns' Batman books? Do you wish he wrote more Batman stories (set in Gotham, not with the Justice League or in a big event), or does his style doesn't fit Bruce Wayne?

All pictures taken from the DC Wikia.

In this case, consider Kyle with a regular GL ring, not as Ion nor White Lantern. Same goes for Guy, John and Hal: no other rings aside from green, no power-ups like Godstorm, god of light, etc.

One of Geoff's greatest stories, Infinite Crisis, is getting a new Absolute edition on November 3rd, 2026, a decade after the first Absolute and two decades after the original publication. The press release reads:

>This oversized, slipcased edition collect the entire INFINITE CRISIS series along with the initial series proposal, the script and art breakdowns for issue #1, and more!

Personally, I wish it included all the "Countdown to Infinite Crisis" miniseries, as IC is pretty confusing without them, but then it would make it an Omnibus rather than an Absolute... But it's a cool Christmas gift!

As far as I know, the solicitations for September 2026 haven't been divulged by DC yet, but League of Comic Geeks is indicating that a new edition of Green Lantern: Secret Origin is due for release on September 22.

Seems to be the same cover and content as the old trade, released way back in 2010, but still a nice release for new fans who don't need to hunt for the older editions.

As I posted here, DC will release a new edition of Green Lantern Corps: Recharge on August 18, 2026. This will be two days after the first episode of Lanterns, so perfectly timed to the premiere of the show.

If, like with most HBO shows, we get a new episode of Lanterns every Sunday, then this new edition of Secret Origin will be timed with the sixth episode (out of 8 in total) of the show:

• Aug 16 - Episode 1 (new edition of GLC: Recharge releases two days after);
• Aug 23 - Episode 2;
• Aug 30 - Episode 3;
• Sep 6 - Episode 4;
• Sep 13 - Episode 5;
• Sep 20 - Episode 6 (new edition of Secret Origin releases two days after);
• Sep 27 - Episode 7;
• Oct 8 - Episode 8;

Will episode 6 be about Hal's origin? I'm not sure - and, I mean, the human protagonists of Recharge are Kyle and Guy rather than Hal and John like in the show, so I wouldn't read too much into it.

But I'm glad to see these wonderful stories getting new editions timed to the very anticipated show. Hopefully, it gets more new fans for the comic books.

Recently, Lanterns showrunner Chris Mundy gave an interview to Entertainment Weekly, which you can read here:

https://ew.com/lanterns-dc-space-cops-drama-dueling-timelines-exclusive-11971022

He says a bunch of interesting stuff, so I thought it'd be cool to unpack what he says in terms of what (if any) comic lore they're taking as an inspiration, what that could mean for the plot of the show, etc.

The first thing he says is:

>“It's the power of creativity to a certain extent. You're thinking on the fly,” Chris Mundy, the showrunner behind HBO and DC Studios’ upcoming Lanterns drama, tells Entertainment Weekly. “It's the power of whatever your brain decides will solve the thing in front of you. So we try to have fun with that. There are times where we use it as a funny thing in the middle of a situation and then there are times where we use it [practically].”

I like how he described the power of the Green Lantern ring, and it seems like they'll do some interesting stuff with it.

But this part caught my attention: "There are times where we use it as a funny thing in the middle of a situation and then there are times where we use it [practically].”

The first part means that we'll probably see the GLs using their rings during mundane situations, and the "funny thing" aspect would be non-GLs reacting to it. For the second part, he's probably talking about when GLs actually need to use their rings, in combat or dangerous situations. I don't think "practically" means "practical effects"...

>“We wanted to tell an on-the-ground story, and that has a couple of different mysteries inside of it,” Mundy explains. “What we have going for us is that it's a Green Lantern story. They can conjure anything from the ring. They do go off the planet. There's all these other powers that they have. We wanna use everything that's great about the mythology of the Green Lanterns, but at the same time, we wanted it to feel like an upscale mystery, a very emotionally tangible story about these people that are in it.”

Yeah yeah, you guys are respecting the comics and doing an actual Green Lantern story, but also wanted to ground it on Earth to get an emotionally tangible tale, etc... A bit of trying to have their cake ("we want to do a gritty cop drama") and eat it too ("we want to tell the story of the Green Lanterns"), but that's just my opinion based on what we have seen.

The interesting part here is the "couple of different mysteries". Keep that in mind.

>That story begins in 2016, when a shooting occurs in the small rural town of Rushville, Neb. Hal Jordan, who has been keeping tabs on the town from afar for quite a while, is convinced it's an alien incident. However, the local authority, Sheriff Kerry (Kelly Macdonald), finds no evidence to support that assertion.

"There's a familiar tension just in terms of jurisdiction," Mundy describes. "It's not like F.B.I. and locals. It's the Lantern Corps. and a local sheriff. That's our entry into that town and into the mystery."

That's interesting. If a GL came to a small town and told the FBI and the local police that they're on the case because they're part of an intergalactic police force commanded by blue aliens billions of years old, the actual police officers wouldn't be happy. They'd argue that no one knows what the heck this Green Lantern Corps is, that no one knew they were under the authority of blue aliens and that this is all nonsense.

We never see that thing happen in the comics because DCU (the actual comic book DC Universe, not James Gunn's franchise, henceforth referred to as the Gunnverse) citizens and the FBI know that Green Lantern is a superhero who is part of the Justice League, who hangs around with Superman, Wonder Woman and the others fighting powerful enemies, so they know superheroes and villains are a thing. The police is just glad that a Justice Leaguer came to their rescue ("Green Lantern! It's nice that you are here. Can you help us with that big space monster tearing downtown apart?").

But Kyle Chandler's Hal is NOT in the beginning of his career... Is he? Did he spend most of his time in outer space and rarely came to Earth? Wasn't he known to the regular citizens of the Gunnverse as a superhero and a defender of Earth?

Sure, he may have tagged along with whatever other superhero existed in the Gunnverse Earth, but maybe the police is uncomfortable because this superhero is trying to do police work in the name of an intergalactic police force commanded by old, tiny blue aliens that they didn't even know existed? From their POV, Green Lantern is like your run-of-the-mill superhero and not an actual representative of a police force with effin' intergalactic jurisdiction.

Personally, I think it might be a combination of the two. See, both James Gunn and Damon Lindelof are Grant Morrison fans, and in Morrison's The Green Lantern, we see exactly that: Hal is a "loser" on Earth, he is never quite comfortable here, with the limitations of life on Earth. Hal is always eager to take it to the stars, where he's not a loser but an actual, respected police officer, living the craziest adventures that make Earthly life seem mundane, uninteresting.

The Hal we'll see on the show has spent a lot of time in space, probably years, but had to return to investigate this potentially dangerous Nebraska mystery. Then, he goes back, and the FBI sees this superhero whom they remembered seeing on TV decades before, declaring he's not just like a regular masked guy, but rather an officer of an intergalactic police force, setting the stage for conflict.

>Hal is forced to bring along John Stewart, the new Earth-bound Lantern recruit he still reluctantly mentors two months in. John remains a constant source of ire for Hal due to the fact that he is an anomaly.

Man, the writer of this article (who I imagine hasn't read any Green Lantern comics before) was NOT nice to Hal here. To the unsuspecting readers, he made Hal look bitchy and jealous of John.

But the "due to the fact that he's an anomaly" is an interesting detail that we'll talk about a little more.

>In the history of the Corps., the ring always chooses the Lantern. Those are the rules. It's how Hal got the job in the first place. There was never meant to be a Green Lantern of Earth, Mundy says, but after one of their members, Abin Sur, fatally crash landed on the planet, the alien's ring was drawn to this former pilot to be its new bearer.

Ever since Hal's first appearance, it has been like this: the ring chooses the new Lantern when the old one dies (or was about to die, as, in every version of his origin story, he managed to chat a bit with Abin Sure before he died). I don't think the show will say that the ring is guided by a living planet, that would scare the audience who's just looking for a detective show lol.

I bolded the most interesting part, though. Yes, in every version of the story, Hal has always been the first Earth member of the Green Lantern Corps. No, Alan doesn't count because he's not a member of the Corps, so to you Alan Scott fans, don't worry: I don't think they're saying that Alan won't appear in the Gunnverse lmao.

During Blackest Night, we find out that the Guardians tried to stay away from Earth because it was Earth, and not Oa, the center of the universe, and that life itself originated there. It's where the Entity of Life resides. Sinestro accuses them of doing this to sustain their self-imposed authority over the universe; Ganthet defends his species, saying it was to protect Earth from the universe's dangers, given its importance in the cosmic context.

Mundy specifically says "There was never meant to be a Green Lantern of Earth", so there's a reason in the show, which will probably play into the larger mystery, over why, before Hal, no human was supposed to be chosen as a Green Lantern.

Was it the Guardians? Was it to protect the Life Entity? Are we heading towards Blackest Night? Or maybe they'll do the Sinestro Corps War/Final Crisis thing of that Earth being crucial for the Multiverse?

Or maybe they just thought human beings were a retrograde society, unworthy of the ring?

>John's recruitment, however, marks the first time the Guardians of the Universe, the very founders of the Corps. itself, intervened to self-anoint a member of their order. They felt they had just cause.

[...]

The main worry being that Hal is now forced to train his own replacement. John is the backup Lantern in the event anything happens to Hal. It’s “the old guard and the heir apparent,” Mundy notes. "We lean into that tension quite a bit in that early time period.”

In the comics, John was chosen by the Oans after proving his worth as the "replacement" for Hal (his second replacement, actually, the first one was Guy Gardner), should he get injured. Seems to be what they're going for here.

However, at the time, at the time, there was only one GL per sector. He only became a full-time GL after Hal gave up on his ring, following a very difficult period balancing his personal life with Green Lantern duties. This was a little before the first Crisis.

In this show, John was chosen to be full-time Green Lantern BY the Guardians WHILE Hal is still alive. We don't know yet if, in the Gunnverse, there is just one or two Lanterns per sector (during Johns' run, when the Guardians allowed two GLs per Sector, Hal and John were the official Lanterns of Sector 2814, with Kyle and Guy as honor guards).

But what I am getting here is that, for Hal, this means that the Guardians are already trying to replace him. Either because he's "unstable" and "a troublemaker", because of his prior connection with Sinestro (more on that later), because he may die soon (uh oh), or maybe something related to the mystery they're investigating.

Hal, however, is not having any of that. He's not ready to retire yet. Heck, if my theory about Morrison's The Green Lantern being one of their sources for inspiration is correct, then of course Hal (a wandering drifter on Earth, not comfortable here, can't wait to go back to the stars for more crazy space adventures) would be upset that John being his replacement is because his GL career is about to end.

But why did the Guardians bypass their own protocol for Lantern recruitment and choose John themselves? In his origin story, it was because he was proven worthy of the ring after a conflict involving a racist politician. Here, we'll see.

>Back when Hal was a recruit, he was mentored by a veteran Lantern named Thaal Sinestro. Fans know the character's story well from the pages of DC comics: The once-storied member of the Corps. went rogue and became consumed by the more corrupt yellow energy of fear. Ulrich Thomsen portrays Sinestro on the HBO drama, but Mundy plays coy about whether he is the big bad of season 1.

"Obviously in the canon, Sinestro's the big bad," he prefaces. "The thing that interests us is this idea [that] Hal was trained by Sinestro, Hal is training John. In the coaching tree, we're very interested in what gets passed on, what doesn't, how much is human nature. We talked a lot about programming and parenting and training...What did Hal take away from Sinestro that was good or bad? It brings up a lot of interesting worries."

There seems to be some Secret Origin influence here in Hal and Sinestro's relationship.

When Sinestro went on to train Hal (with the actual goal of finding out what happened with his own mentor and brother-in-law, Abin Sur, under the orders of Ganthet and not the Guardians at large), they had a difficult start.

But later, they bonded when Sinestro understood the personal pain Hal was going through at the moment and helped him through it (in one of the rare instances where Thaal actually acknowledged someone else's feelings and wasn't just being egotistical, manipulative or self-centered).

Sinestro seemed overly harsh and disciplined to the rebellious, "no superior authority is trustworthy" Hal, but he later revealed himself to be as much of a "free thinker" as Jordan is. And that he also didn't agree and wouldn't blindly follow the Guardians' gospel, as there could be some fishy stuff in there.

Sinestro, of course, was as much of a tyrant as the Guardians. The Korugarian and the Oans both believed they should be the ones holding all the power, as they were the only ones able and with enough knowledge to save everyone else.

But what interests us here is that, despite his atrocities, Hal sensed that, deep down, what Sinestro was saying wasn't entirely supervillain bullshit... He seemed to be right about a few things. Are the Guardians really reliable? Are they telling the truth? Is the GLC doing everything it can to protect the universe? Are those on your side really with the best interests of everyone else in mind?

This is what I think the show is pulling from. Sinestro is a monster, a cruel, vicious tyrant, yet he wasn't totally wrong... Was he? Can Hal trust the Guardians? Can he trust them despite their intention to replace him and take away his ring?

If what he learned came from a disgraced renegade Lantern who made the Green Lantern symbol the equivalent of a swastika in his home planet, can he really teach John anything? And should John listen to him?

>There are two timelines in season 1 of Lanterns. The drama unfolds between the 2016 setting involving the shooting in Rushville and 10 years later “to something else” in 2026, the showrunner teases.

"That becomes a second mystery that we know is down the road for us,” he continues. “So eventually two different mysteries get worked out over the course of the show."

Going back to the True Detective reference, Mundy explains how the dueling timelines of Lanterns “create emotional mysteries.” Referring to that Matthew McConaughey and Woody Harrelson season, in particular, he says, "It was less of a whodunnit as much as like, what happened and why? We think of this as a relationship show between John and Hal, and there's a lot to unpack over the course of the eight episodes."

Within the 10-year gap between the timelines are the events of last summer's Superman movie, which introduced Guy Gardner (Nathan Fillion) as the Green Lantern of Earth's sector. Mundy confirms Guy, whom he describes as "fabulously obnoxious," will "be in the show a few different times."

They weren't kidding about the "True Detective-inspired" thing, huh? Even down to the story unfolding in two different timelines... Sigh.

Either way, it confirms that the Hal and John scenes we see are set in 2016. That would be 9 years before the events of James Gunn's Superman.

The opening crawl of that movie tells us that Superman introduced himself to the world 3 years ago. In other words, Clark only started his Superman career in 2022, six years after the events of the first time period in Lanterns.

Why is that interesting? Because of Guy Gardner. Was he already a Lantern in 2016? In which capacity?

My theory: in the comics, Guy Gardner was kidnapped by Sinestro and taken to the Antimatter Universe of Qward. Hal rescues him and defeats his adversary, but Guy is left in a comatose vegetative state that he would not come out of for several years. That paved the way for John being chosen as the new GL once Hal gave up the ring.

What if here they reversed the roles? Hal and John confront Sinestro, and John goes into a coma for a decade. This makes the Guardians choose, much to their chagrin, Guy as the replacement for Hal, which is why we see them using the ring in Superman. That means that Guy was a little earlier in his career, though he was already acquainted with the heroic community on Earth.

Then, in the 2026 portion of the show, John comes back from his coma to reclaim the ring.

>"There are a bunch of other people from the mythology, from the canon, but not the other Lanterns," he notes. "We talk about them at different times, but they're not gonna interact with them in the course of this season."

So, for Green Lanterns, just John, Hal and Guy then. If you were expecting Ch'p, Kilowog, Tomar-Re, Soranik Natu, etc., then don't. We'll probably not even gonna see Oa, as it would be crowded with Lanterns.

But Mundy did say Lanterns, and not GREEN Lanterns, though. Of course, since he wasn't familiar with the source material before being invited to work on the show, in his head the two words might be the same thing.

But what if he was also trying to imply that we won't see other Lanterns in general, both from the GLC and from other Corps? Sinestro wouldn't count, as he isn't a GL anymore at the time of the show, and hasn't founded the Sinestro Corps yet.

Both things are likely true. While yes, he was talking about Green Lanterns specifically, I don't think we'll see Sinestro as a Yellow Lantern either. Or Atrocitus as a Red Lantern. You can also forget about Saint Walker, Larfleeze...

>But so far, the mashup of the cosmic with the Earthly is working out well, at least behind the scenes. According to Mundy, the visual effects will lean toward the "medium-to-low side," though "there's plenty in it." He says, "There are a couple episodes where they're incredibly heavy, but from the jump, it's a much more boots-on-the-ground approach."

So not much ring-slingin' in the first few episodes, but there might be a couple down the road that will have more of that. Okay then.

>One thing he makes clear: "It's a Green Lantern show, so there's green."

It's in reference to a so-called "controversy" that was blown out of proportion on the internet due to a general lack of green in the early marketing for Lanterns. After Lindelof addressed a past joke that was making the rounds, Mundy further helps level-set the matter.

"The aesthetic of the show — it's supposed to be very grounded and real, so we're shooting practically in places," he says. "We're not heavily green-screened. It's not like day glow in its presentation of anything. I think Green Lantern fans will not feel like we've somehow made a brown show of their green comic at all. It's very much 'we're in the world,' and then when we use the constructs, they're what people would expect them to be."

The "no green" nontroversy was so dumb to begin with, so phony and so annoying in how it was pushed to the center of the discussion, exaggerated and manipulated to dismiss any fair criticism the show was receiving from those who weren't buying what they're selling (it ended up saving their butts, with the help of a very friendly media ecossystem), so I won't waste any more of my time with it.

That's just the reality of 2026 internet: any potential discussion gets simplified down to a meme, an easily repeatable, digestible idea, ready to be shared on social media. It's bizarre that no one realizes how dangerous this dumbing down of society made possible by social media discourse is.

But, if he says they have respect for the source material and aren't the second coming of Todd Phillips' Joker, then sure. We'll see.

Anyway, what do you think? If I'm right about at least one of these things, then the next day I'm heading straight to the lottery.

That good? And here I was, ready to die...

From Green Lantern Corps (2006) #15, part of The Sinestro Corps War event.

I miss the days when we'd have whole issues with plenty of GLC members without a single human Lantern in sight.

Every reference to Geoff's career that I could find from his short story in Marvel/DC: Spider-Man/Superman #1:

Legion of Superheroes as Superman's childhood pals. Geoff loves the LSH and their friendship with Superman. It's likely he only wrote Secret Origin to re-insert them in Clark's youth.

Saturn Queen (LSH villain that was one of the antagonists in Legion of 3 worlds) and the Red Lantern, one of the Corps from the Emotional Spectrum from his GL run.

Stargirl, the hero created as a homage to Geoff's late sister. In this Amalgam Geoffverse, her stepdad helped Cap defeat Zemo in WWII. It wouldn't be a Geoff story without her!

Hal Jordan, whom he got to bring back to life in his GL run, referencing his encounters with Atrocitus and his Red Lanterns.

Superman drawn by Gary Frank with Christopher Reeve's likeness, exactly like in Secret Origin and Johns' Action Comics run. A constant in the Johns/Frank partnerships, not just as a reference to the classic Superman 1978 movie but also to its director Richard Donner, who was Johns' first mentor. Donner's vision for the character shaped how Johns sees Supes: he beats the Hulk not with his fists and super-strength but with his empathy.

Well, DC seems like they'll complete the Venditti era. After the two volumes containing the New 52 portion of his run, now they're doing two more for the Rebirth era, titled Hal Jordan and the Green Lantern Corps.

The most interesting thing is that both Lost Army and Edge of Oblivion will be collected here, as they're essential reading before Sinestro's Law, the first Rebirth arc.

Anyway, here's what they said about it:

Robert Venditti (X-O Manowar, Hawkman) launches a widescreen space epic where Hal Jordan must become a one-man army to reclaim the universe and rebuild the Green Lantern Corps from the ashes.

The Corps has fallen. Sinestro rules the stars. And in the darkest corner of space, one green light refuses to die.

Armed with a ring he forges from pure will, Hal declares war on Sinestro’s brutal new order and the fear-powered empire of Warworld. Across "Sinestro’s Law," "Bottled Light," "Quest for the Blue Lantern," "The Prism of Time," and "Fracture," the Green Lantern Corps returns, unites with their former enemies in the Sinestro Corps, and faces threats that span time itself—from Larfleeze and Starro to a mysterious Lantern from the future.

Spotlighting Hal, John, Guy, Kyle, and a re-forged Corps, this Omnibus delivers a cinematic tour of the emotional spectrum and the battles that decide who truly protects the cosmos.

Robert Venditti continues his epic tenure on Green Lantern with artists Rafa Sandoval and more!

This omnibus collects:

Green Lantern: Lost Army Sneak Peek; Green Lantern: Lost Army #1-6; Green Lantern Corps: Edge of Oblivion #1-6; Hal Jordan and the Green Lantern Corps #1-21; Hal Jordan and the Green Lantern Corps: Rebirth #1.

From Marvel/DC Spider-Man/Superman #1.

The final dialogue between the Thing and Superman got me thinking. Seems a bit like Johns' way of comparing the Marvel and DC universes, where he explains why he prefers the latter.

The Thing complains that he's always so angry and nervous. Superman tells him that people should talk more and fight less. On a superficial reading, it seems like a commentary on the real world and why people are always so angry, etc.

But given how most of Johns' career seems to be about superhero storytelling itself and the sometimes controversial and adversarial ways it is in relationship with itself (I wrote about it here), I wonder if this is some sort of commentary on Marvel heroes.

For me, it seems that the superhero community in the Marvel universe has a much more conflicted relationship than in the DCU. Sure, Batman always seems to be at odds with other superheroes (including Superman himself), but, in the end, the heroic community seems a lot more united.

In the Marvel universe, on the other hand, you constantly have stories of heroes butting heads. The X-Men, Inhumans, Fantastic Four, the Avengers, they're always in each other's throats. Wolverine's first appearance was fighting the Hulk, who has probably fought more heroes than villains, especially when he goes on a rampage.

In Marvel comics, numerous big events are just heroes vs heroes showdowns. Avengers vs X-Men, Inhumans vs X-Men, World War Hulk, no less than two Civil Wars, and probably a lot more that I'm forgetting.

With DC, the greatest equivalent to the Civil War was Injustice, a story that is not even set in the main continuity and was created to support a fighting game. In other words, they needed an excuse to put hero vs hero and a massive, war-starting rift in the Justice League, and that was only achieved with a lot of characters (Wonder Woman, the Flash, Hal Jordan) acting wildly out of character.

And why is that? In this short story, Johns argues that it's because the Marvel universe doesn't have a Superman. No, Sentry doesn't count, and Captain America, despite having his heart in the right place, is not as powerful as Superman, and thus can't act as the unifying figure preventing heroic factions from declaring war against each other.

In the DCU, everything revolves around Superman (which is exactly the point of Doomsday Clock), and he is this inspiring, almost mythical figure, a bastion of good that everyone looks after. He is the only one powerful enough to choose not to fight and instead just talk the enemy out of committing whatever he wanted to do. Instead of just brawling with the Hulk through the city (which is what everyone on the internet wants to see), he just calms him down with his innate empathy and ability to reach the others' inherent goodness.

I'm not saying DC is better than Marvel, or something like that. I'm more of a DC guy, sure, but I love the Marvel universe, its characters and classic stories. Still, I can't help but to be a little put off by how adversarial the Marvel heroes sometimes are against each other. They seem to lack guidance.

Captain America could be that person, but I believe that doesn't happen not because of him but rather because that Marvel, since the early days of Stan Lee, went for a more "mature" type of storytelling that often had flawed heroes who, rather than the more simple "let's team up and fight this bad guy!" adventures of the Golden Age where DC thrived, often had conflicts with each other. The Hulk wasn't a simple hero, he was a tragic monster who could do more harm than good. The X-Men weren't the Justice League but rather a marginalized minority fighting for survival.

And this is where Johns' commentary on the Marvel vs DC debate comes in. Without someone like Superman to unify and inspire the Marvel heroes, their relationship would often be conflicted because this was written into their very inception.

Or maybe I'm just reading too much into it and it's just him saying that people in real life are angry all the time and you should stop fighting with jerks on Twitter and Reddit and have more actual, meaningful conversations.

What do you think?

From Marvel/DC: Spider-Man/Superman #1.

It's always awesome to see Johns and Frank returning for more Supes, even if just for a short story (8 pages long). Either way, both of them are committed to the Ghost Machine project, so I don't think they should go back to the Big Two superhero stuff right now... Maybe in a few years? Because GM has the potential to be one of the greatest independent comic projects in decades.

Still, if they do a short story or two like that one once in a while, I won't complain lol.