Rant: Green Lantern’s Secret Origin

Ok. I’ll admit it. I liked issue 31. Definitely the best of the Secret Origin issues thus far (and oddly enough, the only one that doesn’t have direct ties to Blackest Night, outside of the sector 666 business). And of course, the writing is good. And Ivan Reis has always done good work penciling all those crazy aliens. That’s all well and good. Some nice moments, and it was a pretty light, breezy issue. Does this change my mind about the choice Johns made in writing this arc when he did? Nope. Did it at least make me order the last few issues of this arc? Nope. The edict in consumerism has always been simple: vote with your wallet. And that’s what I’m doing. I think though, that I need to be a little more specific about why this particular six issues of a superhero comic is rubbing me the wrong way, even though the individual issues so far have been pretty good.

Well, first of all, issue 29 was probably the weakest Green Lantern book I’ve read since I started collecting the title right around Sinestro Corps War, and have since read some of the back issues. That first issue didn’t really deviate at all from the Hal Jordan origin we all know, and because of that, it read very slow and uninteresting to me. The second issue was a lot better, as it was done from a perspective we’re not used to seeing. Now that’s the type of thing I would be looking for in a book that decided to run a Secret Origin arc. Something different. New angles on old ideas. That’s got some legs to it. There’s potential there. But when you start off an arc like that, in a way that is completely underwhelming and very not Geoff Johns like, ESPECIALLY coming right after the reveal of the Red Lantern at the end of Green Lantern 28, you’re setting yourself up for a fall. A bad first issue can sink an entire series, because as we all know, you can’t take back that first impression. It sure worked against me. I stopped ordering the issues from DCBS after that first one.

But here’s the funny thing. And I don’t know if this is necessarily accurate or not, but it just occurred to me. I think (oddly enough) that DC from an editorial standpoint might have actually made a mistake by announcing Blackest Night as early as they did. It’s obviously a good marketing move, as it will definitely help to keep on all the people who jumped on the GL books during Sinestro Corps War. So no argument there. And we all know that at the end of the day, the sales drive the books, so Dan DiDio and Paul Levitz really don’t care at all whether we like the books (don’t let DC Nation panels fool you) as long as they sell. But we as fans are separated from that, which technically is as much to do with the direct market being what it is than anything else. But I don’t want to get into a rant about Diamond now. That can come later.

Anyway, while the decision to announce Blackest Night early was most likely a boon for the sales of the GL books, it’s also had a side effect. We as readers know what’s coming. And considering the quality of Sinestro Corps War, we’re REALLY FUCKING EXCITED for Blackest Night. As well we should be. And we know thanks to GL 25 that at some point prior to Blackest Night, we’re going to see the formation of the rest of the Color Corps. But what that has done is created (at least in me, and seemingly in others based on the forum threads of our infamous vocal internet minority, of which I am proud to be a part) way too much anticipation. I think that’s why those Alpha Lantern issues were greeted with a bit of a tepid response. We wanted new Lantern Corps! And we wanted them yesterday! And while the Alpha Lanterns do fit into the puzzle that will eventually cause Blackest Night (i.e. the rewriting of the Book of Oa), it wasn’t what we expected. Then BAM! Red Lantern power battery. And the collective fandom starts drooling uncontrollably. And then we get hit with a Secret Origin that has (so far) barely anything to do with Blackest Night. What the fuck? When one considers that my biggest complaint with this arc so far is my opinion that it doesn’t seem like the best way to build toward Blackest Night because I know that it’s happening next year, things would definitely be different. Now, I contend that the move from Red Lantern reveal to Secret Origin is still the comics equivalent of blue balls, but I think if we weren’t on a time limit, it would be a lot easier to take.

So yeah, it’s basically a lose lose situation from my perspective. So I’m sitting the rest of this arc out and starting up fresh once they get back to the goods. And meanwhile, I will continue to enjoy Green Lantern Corps, which has been super fun recently.

Tags: DC Comics, Geoff Johns, Green Lantern, Ivan Reis