Talkback: The Road to "The Blackest Night"

[JME2]

Heh, another addition to the War of Light playlist, eh?

There's also the band Disturbed's song "Indestructible" to consider, I submit.

Hmm. Has potential.

I am already dreading the sequence of events that will probably go like this:

1. Mongul defeats Arkillo
2. Mongul defeats Sodam Yat
3. Mongul tortures Sodam Yat
4. Sodam Yat barely defeats Mongul
5. Mongul escapes to fight another day

Probably. But I'm not sure about Mongul escaping. I'm still trying to figure out how he's going to play into TBN. In addition...
Spoiler

...upcoming solicitations seem to indicate that Sinestro remains on the lam in aftermath of "Rage of the Red Lanterns" and will at least be visiting Korugar to check up on his daughter. His next stop may well be Daxam; we already know from the ROTRL one-shot that he's well aware of Mongul's attempted coup and will deal with it in due course. If Mongul should survive and walk away from the fight, it's always possible he may hook up with the Orange Lanterns.

Sodam Yat's powers seem to be a problem for the writers. It seems like immediately after he appeared on the scene, they've devoted their efforts to depowering him. First, it was the lead poisoning, and now he's also limited by the red sun of Daxam. I wish they would let Sodam Yat really cut loose and let the readers really get a sense why he's the ultimate Green Lantern.

Agreed; Gibbons, Tomasi, and Johns really wrote themselves into a corner regarding Yat. While I'm curious as to what Ion will contribute to the War of Light, he's still ridiculously over-powered for his own good.

What has happened to Qward? It is the logical place for the SC to regroup, post-Battle of New Earth.

We learned in the "Alpha Lanterns" arc that a strike-team hit Qward shortly after the Battle of New Earth concluded. They wiped out and destroyed the remaining Sinestro Corps facilities and foundries, hence all surviving Corpsman going into hiding. Any smart Corpsman will stay the fuck away from Daxam; Mongul shooting the Parallax beacon into the sky like that is an invitation for, "Come kick my ass".

During the Battle of New Earth, Kilowog dropped an aircraft carrier on Arkillo and then cut off his power ring. Without a power ring, and with the destruction of the Central Battery, I assumed that Arkillo was taken into GLC custody.

The GLC Forum members were asking the same thing. No one's spotted any sign of Arkillo since the SCW in either book, so we have to assume he went AWOL during the final battle and managed to acquire a ring from a deceased Sinestro Corpsman before hightailing it off New Earth.

I'm excited for a showdown between Sinestro & Mongul. Especially after witnessing Sinestro completely own Hal Jordan when Hal was using multiple SC rings.

Yes, that should be fun...

[Crom]

Spoiler

...upcoming solicitations seem to indicate that Sinestro remains on the lam in aftermath of "Rage of the Red Lanterns" and will at least be visiting Korugar to check up on his daughter. His next stop may well be Daxam; we already know from the ROTRL one-shot that he's well aware of Mongul's attempted coup and will deal with it in due course. If Mongul should survive and walk away from the fight, it's always possible he may hook up with the Orange Lanterns.

Spoiler

Sinestro being on the lamb makes sense considering that the GLC will probably make his capture the highest priority. That, and the Red & Blue Lantern Corps both want him too. Even assuming he manages to hook up with his loyalist faction of the SC, he'll still be at a disadvantage.

Anyone else notice, by the way, that the Sinestro Corps soldiers seem to perform poorly when compared to any other Corps?

Agreed; Gibbons, Tomasi, and Johns really wrote themselves into a corner regarding Yat. While I'm curious as to what Ion will contribute to the War of Light, he's still ridiculously over-powered for his own good.

I almost want them to just take Sodam Yat out of play, rather than try and find a way to depower him. Have him training on Oa and have him only appear as a weapon of mass destruction. Shit, have him go kick it with Superman, or send him to the 31st Century to learn the ropes with Mon-El!

We learned in the "Alpha Lanterns" arc that a strike-team hit Qward shortly after the Battle of New Earth concluded. They wiped out and destroyed the remaining Sinestro Corps facilities and foundries, hence all surviving Corpsman going into hiding. Any smart Corpsman will stay the fuck away from Daxam; Mongul shooting the Parallax beacon into the sky like that is an invitation for, "Come kick my ass".

Funny, comments made in Ring Quest led me to believe that they hadn't taken out their production base at Qward. I'm surprised the Guardians did something smart. Thanks!

[JME2]

Funny, comments made in Ring Quest led me to believe that they hadn't taken out their production base at Qward. I'm surprised the Guardians did something smart. Thanks!

Well, "Ring Quest" appears to take place just before "Alpha Lanterns", so it's excusable (the absence of any Alpha Lanterns on Oa supports it). That or Tomasi and Johns failed to coordinate properly, in which case it's not the end of the world, though. Final Crisis on the other hand -- now there's a failure in coordination.

[Rawtooth]

I've been following these threads along for a while, and I finally picked up "Rebirth". I enjoyed it and was wondering what are the proper TBP's to continue with as I'm interested in just following this Green Lantern arc as the general mainstream DC books don't interest me.

Basically, what do I need to read to catch up to the rest of you?

[JME2]

I've been following these threads along for a while, and I finally picked up "Rebirth". I enjoyed it and was wondering what are the proper TBP's to continue with as I'm interested in just following this Green Lantern arc as the general mainstream DC books don't interest me.

Basically, what do I need to read to catch up to the rest of you?

The books can be divided into two separate categories: Essential and Optional. The Essential comprises books for Green Lantern and Green Lantern Corps which spin off from GLR:

Green Lantern
* No Fear
* Revenge of the Green Lanterns
* Wanted - Hal Jordan
* Tales of the Sinestro Corps
* Secret Origin
* Rage of the Red Lanterns (Summer Release).

Green Lantern Corps
* Recharge (Follows directly after Green Lantern: Rebirth)
* To be a Lantern
* The Dark Side of Green
* Ring Quest
* Sins of the Star Sapphires (Summer release)

The optional books are needed only for further clarification or to explain certain off-screen developments. It's not absolutely essential, though, that these be bought (that's what Wikipedia is for ). I'm just listing them regardless:

* Raan-Thanagar War (Continues plot threads from Recharge)
* Infinite Crisis (Affected the entire DC line, set up threads for SCW)
* Infinite Crisis Companion (Contains Raan-Thanagar War Special, which sets up Ion)
* Ion - The Torchbearer (Spin-off of RTW; focuses on Kyle Rayner)
* Ion - The Dying Flame (Ending leads directly into SCW prologue)

Hope this helps.

[JME2]

Whoops; I just realized I forgot to add "Sinestro Corps War -- Volumes 1 & 2" to the Green Lantern list; those are absolutely essential. Mein Gott, how could I have forgotten...

[JME2]

Well, the May Solicitations are out. No sign of Green Lantern (not too surprising as the book's schedule still fucked up thanks to Final Crisis), but the Green Lantern Corps continues with the penultimate chapter of "Emerald Eclipse". The release dates are also formally confirmed for the "Rage of the Red Lanterns" HC and the "Sins of the Star Sapphires" tpb. Yet, it's in the DC Direct section where things get...interesting...



As it comes out on October, I can guess what's going on everyone's Christmas list...

[mr friendly guy]

What are the power rings actually made off? They look kind of, well cheap. DC direct a few years ago had some power ring sets with GL's ring, Sinestro's ring, Powerring's ring, Alan Scott's ring and one other. That set was made from pewter and looked awesome.

This set still looks nice, but it looks like those cheap GL rings you can get off ebay.

On a plus side, I like how they put it in a container showing what each ring represents. The packaging reminds me of the kryptonite one where we had green, gold, red and blue kryptonite, which I managed to acquire off ebay.

[JME2]

What are the power rings actually made off? They look kind of, well cheap. DC direct a few years ago had some power ring sets with GL's ring, Sinestro's ring, Powerring's ring, Alan Scott's ring and one other. That set was made from pewter and looked awesome.

This set still looks nice, but it looks like those cheap GL rings you can get off ebay

The solicitations indicate that the rings are metal-plated (and indicate that they are replicas and not meant to be worn; I don't people are going to pay attention, though ). Keep in mind that what we're seeing is also the prototype; I have no doubt that the final product will be tweaked and slightly different come October (it's happened with DCD's figures before, for example).

[Superboy]

If those rings turn out to be good quality (they look like cheap plastic from the picture), I'll be getting a set as soon as they come out. That picture really looks horrible though, even the photoshopping looks rushed (they didn't even bother to flip the reflections for the rings).

Any news on when the next issue of Green Lantern comes out?

[JME2]

Any news on when the next issue of Green Lantern comes out?

Provided there aren't any more delays, Green Lantern # 38 will go on sale next week and conclude the long-delayed "Rage of the Red Lanterns" arc.

[mr friendly guy]

If those rings turn out to be good quality (they look like cheap plastic from the picture), I'll be getting a set as soon as they come out. That picture really looks horrible though, even the photoshopping looks rushed (they didn't even bother to flip the reflections for the rings).

If this is the prototype only, I will wait for the final product and then take a look. I have been outbid before on ebay for the old peweter Green Lantern rings, this time I think being cashed up and an economic crisis, I kind of have the advantage and I am not going to let these get away if they turn out to be much better than what is shown in the picture.

[JME2]

If those rings turn out to be good quality (they look like cheap plastic from the picture), I'll be getting a set as soon as they come out. That picture really looks horrible though, even the photoshopping looks rushed (they didn't even bother to flip the reflections for the rings).

If this is the prototype only, I will wait for the final product and then take a look. I have been outbid before on ebay for the old peweter Green Lantern rings, this time I think being cashed up and an economic crisis, I kind of have the advantage and I am not going to let these get away if they turn out to be much better than what is shown in the picture.

Agreed; that's a good strategy.

[JME2]

Okay, we have a major, breaking update courtesy of Newsarama. After months, if not more than a year's worth of speculation, it is confirmed that current Green Lanteren artist Ivan Reis will be penciling The Blackest Night. Here are the main nuggets from the interview:

***

* Reis will be contributing pages to TBN # 0, which as previously disclosed will hit stands during Free Comic Book Day. While he's unsure about penciling any tie-ins or one-shots, he is confident about the advance lead-time and meeting the deadlines for this massie event (I know I promised I wouldn't beat the dead horse again, but as the dead are rising anyway come July...J.G. Jones; I'm looking at you )

* The Black Lanterns are being designed by Ethan Van Sciver (which we already knew), Reis, and Joe Prado (who contributed a number of Lanterns and Sinestro Corpsman designs for the Secret Files back in 2007).

* Because of how it has now expanded into the big event of 2009, the scope will be bigger than it would have been had it remained in the GL title and bigger than SCW (However, on a sour side note, this is worryingly similar to Secret Invasion; I still wonder how it would have played differently if it had been kept in the Avengers books as BMB had wanted and not had Quesada force it to expand into the company event. Hopefully, Johns & Reis will avoid Bendis' mistakes and deliver the goods here).

* Green Lantern # 38, ie the conclusion to "Rage of the Red Lanterns", will be Reis' last issue for the main title before getting to work on the mini-series. Indeed, TBN will be the end of GL run (We know Phillip Tan of Final Crisis: Revelations will be penciling the "Agent Orange" arc, so it's possible he'll be taking over as the main artist not only during TBN, but for the aftermath). However, his next assignment for DC will be another collaboration with Geoff Johns.

***

So, my other thoughts:

Even though we knew it was coming, I'm disappointed that Ethan Van Sciver won't be contributing beyond covers and basic production design, as he's maintained in past interviews. That's the one negative aspect of The Flash: Rebirth (aside from Barry Allen coming back ), that the work on that prevents him from coming full circle and penciling the the conclusion to the storyline that he helped launch 5 years ago with Green Lantern: Rebirth.

On the other hand, Reis knocked not one, but several home-runs out of the ball park with SCW, especially the epilogue, so he's well suited to bringing the War of Light to life; TBN's in good hands (once again, I'm looking at you, Jones ). Even though we're losing him from Green Lantern after this, I'm very curious as to what this next project will be. Johns has stated that by the end of TBN, he'll be on 3 ongoing titles. We know that GL will be one of them, as will the relaunched Adventure Comics (though Francis Manapul is serving as its artist). That leaves the unknown third one, but given Johns' love of the Flash mythos and the certainty that The Flash will be relaunched in the aftermath of The Flash: Rebirth, it's a good bet that he'll be writing. If that's the case and he brings Reis with him, then I'd be damm curious to see Reis' renditions of the Scarlet Speedster and the Rogues...

[JME2]

One last update for tonight -- DC has posted a checklist for TBN on their main site and which will also be appearing in current books (it's a PDF, so dial-up users beware). It's noteworthy that it confirms that "Agent Orange" will be the final pre-TBN arc for Green Lantern and it will comprise Green Lantern # 39-42.

Also, as they did with the Heroes and Villains origins for 52 and Countdown to Final Crisis, DC has begun posting the "Origins and Omens" back-up features online. Thus far, the only relevant ones are the Brainiac and GLC entries, but it still gives an indication as to what direction aspects of the DCU will go in the next year.

[mr friendly guy]

I must say, I have never been much of a GL fan, even though I loved his oath. However the war of corps and blackest night just scream epic at me and I have to get the TPB along with the Legion of 3 Worlds. In fact I am so excited about Green Lantern I made these motivation posters (I will just post the link rather than clog up bandwidth and have them appear).

Green Lantern motivation poster
Sinestro Corps motivation poster
Red Lantern motivation poster

[JME2]

Very nice.

[JME2]

Okay, in our final update for the weekend, Ethan Van Sicver has responded to further TBN queries and dropped a few more nuggets:

* While he is primarily working on The Flash: Rebirth, Van Sciver has done undertaken scripting duties on a story involving Sinestro Corpsman Karu-Sil. It's possible that this story will pick up on that thread from the "Sins of the Star Sapphires" arc in GLC, ie Karu-Sil's current status as a prisoner of the Zamarons. It's equally possible it will set-up whatever role she will have in TBN (as she was in the War of Light spread back in the SCW epilogue).

* Van Sciver claims he does not know how or if Connor Kent will be involved in Johns' future GL stories (it's confusing as Johns has teased Connor's return as a Black Lantern and Adventure Comics # 0 all but confirmed it. It's possible, however, that he hasn't been in the loop in regards to that point).

* The Indigo Lanterns will have rings (before this post, there was speculation on the GLC forum that the staffs we saw in the War of Light spread are in fact their power batteries).

* He hints that we will see more Blue Lanterns in TBN and based on his response to the query, there may be a strong Knights Templar/medieval influence on their depiction.

* He confirms Dan 'Blowhard' Didio's comments that there are a finite number of Black Rings, but he wouldn't give an exact number.

* Alan Scott appears to have a role to play in TBN.

* While Van Sciver has set the basic design template for the Black Lanterns, he acknowledges that Reis, {Prado}, and others are adding their own distinct touches to the zombie heroes/villains.

[JME2]

Alright, as posted in the FC:ROTRL talkback, Green Lantern # 38, the long-awaited finale to the "Rage of the Red Lanterns" storyline will hit shelves tomorrow. Talkback, however, should probably be left to the RoTRL thread so we can close that up; any TBN developments will, of course, go here.

[Steve]

I had a thought today while slavering away at throwing away food left uneaten by convention-going real estate agents.

What if the Guardians have a point about the other corps? They might be going about it the wrong way, but maybe the other parts of the spectrum really shouldn't be tapped?

Think about it. We've been shown that the further you go into the spectrum the more overwhelming the associated emotion is to the wielder of the power. We've seen the Red Lanterns be consumed by their rage to the extent that it turns them into blood-drinking cannibals with the red light having destroyed their cardiovascular systems, the Purples/Star Sapphires already have a pretty nasty history concerning "love", and the Sinestro Corps, well, hell, they're almost entirely psychopaths, sociopaths, or otherwise deranged and usually dangerous individuals obsessed with fear. We've yet to meet agents, heh, of the Orange and Indigo to judge them, but I imagine they might not be much better.

Meanwhile Hope is enormously powerful, but also disruptive to at the very least green energy and has a weakness we're soon to discover. Hope as an emotion is also a potentially misleading thing (Just ask the Melians) and too much if it can lead someone to delusion about what's going on.

However, Willpower isn't an emotion. It's an act, or rather, a reservoir of potential action that varies from person to person due to their personality traits, upbringing, etc. So there's nothing to disrupt the natural thinking/feeling processes of Green Lanterns (though it arguably enhances their willpower).

The Guardians are still douchebags, of course, but I wonder if things may yet play out in this direction. We'll have to see starting this summer....

[JME2]

It makes sense. They tapped willpower as their power source because it was the most stable and focal point of the spectrum; they had to have experimented with the other 6 sources and realized they were no-go's. And don't forget that the power of the spectrum depends upon the prevalence of the emotion. Saint Walker and Saint Warth were able to reignite a dying sun by drawing on the hope of the entire planetary population. Parallax (and later, Sinestro) was prepared to increase its power by forcing the entire universe into chaos and warfare and self destruction. I'd damm well want to prevent anyone else from tapping into such power and creating such universal havoc to strengthen their power base/supply. Of course, however, the issue is compounded by the Oans' arrogance and perceived entitlement, as you pointed out.

[Steve]

For the War of Light playlist, the themes I'm getting from the Blue Lanterns, specifically their selflessness and potential knowing self-sacrifice in the end, makes me think of the Cruxshadows' "Sophia" as a good song for them, or at least the chorus (which IMHO is fitting because a WoW-playing friend introduced it to me as the "Paladin theme song", and the Blue Lanterns do strike me as being in that vein).

[JME2]

I'm still working on mine; here are the one's I'm completely happy with:

The Blue Lanterns
"The Holy Grail's Theme"; Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade).
Why: Again, the nobility and self-sacrifice gives them that Knights Templar/medieval vibe and Williams' motif for the Cup of Christ works well here.

The Black Lanterns
"The Ark of the Covenant's Theme"; Raiders of the Lost Ark.
Why: The Ark's theme, menacing, deathly, and powerful easily lends itself to the nigh-unstoppable legions of the undead, Scar, and their goals of wiping out all life.

The War of Light
"Tarawa"; Snow Falling on Cedars.
Why: This piece also plays during the Matrix Revolutions' trailer after Reloaded's credits). It's an epic piece that can easily sum up the massive war of the 8 Corps we will be treated to come July...

[JME2]

Alright, as posted in the FC:ROTRL talkback, Green Lantern # 38, the long-awaited finale to the "Rage of the Red Lanterns" storyline will hit shelves tomorrow. Talkback, however, should probably be left to the RoTRL thread so we can close that up; any TBN developments will, of course, go here.

As posted in the FCROTRL thread, the preview is up. Again, try to keep comments on the issue confined to that thread so we can close it out.

[The Grim Squeaker]

So, having read GL 38.
Spoiler

More Hal Wank (The Sea-Green lantern!).
Predictably, Carrol Ferris joins the Saphire Star Corps.
Weakness of the Blue Lanterns: It's useless without a green lantern around to produce willpower to be focused.
Blue Lanterns kick the utter crap even worse out of yellow lanterns than anyone else, it actively drains the yellow power rings.
The Orange Lantern has a connection to the Guardians.