Now that you mention it, it DOES sound pretty lame. But then again, if you think about it, you can really make any superhero sound lame if you word it the right way. It’s in the storytelling that an idea and creator gets credence. That’s why Geoff Johns is given the backing to write pretty much whatever he wants.

Johns can write anything he wants because he’s an arrested development case writing comics for other arrested development cases who always wanted to follow up on the Creature Commandos’ Who’s Who entry themselves. Then in desperation to prove how kewl and wykkyd and definitively NOT FOR BABIES comics are he throws in a bunch of mutilations and gruesome deaths so the babymen who are still reading comics feel validated and kewl and wykkyd and definitively NOT arrested development cases.

I keep coming here expecting NERD RAGE~ in the comments, but it just isn’t happening. Has the economy got everyone down?

Internet snark at it’s…….finest?

Actually I think the Blue Lantern represent Hope. Violet represent Love.

Space opera that consists entirely of hordes of faceless characters butchering and murdering each other endlessly with a Skittles rainbow of power rings isn’t grand, it’s goofy.

This whole dumbass “rainbow corps” idea is why I’m dropping GL for the first time in ten years and only the second time in 30 of reading the book.
I dig Hal and the book has been pretty cool but this spectrum of emotions stuff is probably even stupider than Emerald Twilight was.
Thus, the last DC book that I buy has left my pull-list.

Huh. I wasn’t aware folks didn’t like Geoff Johns. I hear nothing but praise for his work most of the time.

Also, VIOLET is the love corps. Which you’ve all ready met, they’re called the Star Sapphires. The BLUE corps is powered by hope. Why this mistake keeps getting reported confuses me so.

“I think my favorite part was when Johns revealed that the leader of the Orange Lanterns was named AGENT ORANGE.

An endless fountain of creativity! How does he come up with it?”

In this case, apparently from an old Batman and the Outsiders comic with an historical reference that no doubt went over his head.

(Mark Engblom, I hear that sometimes people who talk about comics on teh intarwebs use the names of characters they like as screen names. I wouldn’t expect you to understand the difference between that and drooling over, say, Green Lanterns dismembering bad guys, or Superboy dismembering good guys, in a comic starring characters who appear in children’s cartoons.)

Look, we’re all comic fans here. Most of us like different kinds of stories; we all have different tastes. That doesn’t mean that a story which doesn’t speak to YOU is stupid. It just means that it doesn’t fit your tastes.

Right now at my retail store, Green Lantern sales are higher than they’ve EVER been (duly noted: our data only goes as far back as 2002). Now, complain as much as you want that the Rainbow Corps are ‘stupid’ ‘immature’ or even ‘kewl and wykkyd,’ but we haven’t seen a 100% increase in sales because the stories are ‘bad’ or because of any other qualitative difference. A lot of people REALLY like Johns’ run and the eventual build-up to the Corps War.

To me, this kind of argument amounts to a bunch of fanboy whining. If we told all of the same stories again and again, all of the characters we know and love would get stale. Revitalizing the industry requires the telling of new stories and the redirecting of familiar characters and ideas. Otherwise our current market will become/remain as pulp-schlock as its roots.

Typo. That should have said “rended”.

Actually, “rendered” works pretty good as well. In that context it can mean “To cook the fat and flesh off the bone” Oh Boy!

I don’t doubt I’ll enjoy Blackest Night, since Johns is a grreat writer. But I think we’re reaching the point where the way he’s tying to tie all the GL characters together is too much. He’s re-jiggering origins needlessly. I really don’t see how making the origin of Hector Hammond directly connected to Abin Sur’s ship makes him any better a character. Black Hand was a self-reliant criminal who invented his own weapon; now he’s a necrophiliac who just found it. At first reading, doesn’t sound like an improvement

Vaneta:

You’re completely out of line. Besides the fact that I can back up exactly what Johns said from the panel–which didn’t involve the word “violet” at any time, only the word “blue”, the website that hosts the “seemingly trustworthy source” carries a report by Matt Brady that makes the exact same mistake that you’re claiming is made here.

While I’ll certainly acknowledge the likely possibility, if not outright fact, that the Violet Lanterns are Love and Blue is Hope, the DC Nation panel and the writer of the comic are to be blamed for neither making that clear, nor, upon listening to the recording I made of the goddamn thing just to figure out if i’d made a mistake, using the word “Violet” at any point in the entire 90 minutes.

They did, however, use the word “Blue” whenever they talked about the Love corps. Did I make a leap in judgment that they were using the word blue because it was the color of the lantern corps that had to do with love? Sure did. Because that was the color they mentioned right before Geoff Johns started making jokes about how a love corps might be considered lame.

So, did I accurately cover the upcoming color of the love corps? Apparently not. But I did accurately cover the DC Nation panel.

And don’t worry. If i’m going to critique a comic, i’ll sure as hell read it. Of course–that’s not what I was critiquing. See, I was at a panel. That’s why, you know–I wrote about the fucking panel.

Nice attitude, Stone. You’ll win plenty of readers that way…

“…who are still reading comics feel validated and kewl and wykkyd and definitively NOT arrested development cases.”

Pray tell us, oh wise, advanced reader of comics, who still posts on newsarama, what sophisticated, challenging epics of comic-booky goodness are you reading, that gives you such ability to look down your goddamn nose at other people like this?

GQ, I was less clear than I should have been. Where I wrote “still reading comics,” I should have written, “still reading DC’s gruesome line of violent rape comics.” I love comics as a medium. I dislike bad comics. Geoff Johns writes bad comics that drag the rest of DC’s line down to his level. Ergo I dislike Geoff Johns’ comics. And if you read “Green Lanterns fight Yellow Lanterns and there’s like dudes getting their heads chopped off and blood everywhere and then they all start killing dudes and then there’s Red Lanterns and Orange Lanterns and Blue Lanters at the end” and think, why yes, this is a fine comic that advances the medium and ennobles the human condition, then I am perfectly comfortable looking down on your taste in comics, because your taste in comics really, really, really sucks.

“The repeated incorrect “blue is love” comment indicates the writer of these comments isn’t even reading the comic he’s critiquing, nor did he take the time to accurately report the panel he was covering. It’s disappointing how unprofessional comic book commentary on the internet has become, and even more disappointing that a seemingly trustworthy source like Blog@ would link to something like that.”

From the Newsarama report on the DC Nation panel, written by your boss, Matt Brady:

“Johns said that despite what readers may think, the various emotions represented won’t be demonstrated by the Lanterns in the way they may be thinking. ‘Pete and I talked a lot about the ‘love’ corps [the Blue Lanterns],’ Johns said. ‘We asked ourselves if that would that be lame, and realized that love can be scary as well.’”

I haven’t read the six pages of comments on Matt’s story, but I assume you left a similar comment over there about your disappointment in the “seemingly trustworthy source” that is the main Newsarama site.

“The repeated incorrect “blue is love” comment indicates the writer of these comments isn’t even reading the comic he’s critiquing, nor did he take the time to accurately report the panel he was covering.”

The writer must have misplaced his ‘Color Wheel of Ham-Handed Geoff Johns Symbolism’

“and think, why yes, this is a fine comic that advances the medium and ennobles the human condition”

Riiiiiight…. you don’t think that you might, perhaps, be missing the point here? No one is claiming the GL is EARTH’S BEST FICTION. It is not the pinnacle of human achievement. It is a monthly comic book about a man with a magical wishing ring and his wacky sci-fi adventures.

You expect too much of fiction in general and superhero comics in particular if you are reading them expecting to have the human condition enobled.

“DC’s gruesome line of violent rape comics.”
Please explain this comment. Is there a lot of rape in Blue Bettle? What about Superman? Batman, maybe?

I agree with David Uzumeri that our ideas can co-exist without all the enmity, although snark tends to invite snark in return. There are a lot of books that I think could be improved, but when someone talks negatively about one of the few you enjoy, then it’s easy to get defensive about it.

A different point: I remember reading a quote in Famous Monsters of Filmland where David Cronenberg said that he felt horror films weren’t escapist at all–they’re confrontational and allow you to confront fears in a safe environment. I feel that especially superhero comics are also similarly confrontational and not really escapist entertainment at all. At least, I think the “best” ones are.

“No one is claiming the GL is EARTH’S BEST FICTION.”

Speak for yourself.
Three words-”Indigo Lantern Corps”!!! How does the man do it?!