In retrospect... does anyone really care about the Red Lanterns?

[Big Daddy Dave Skywalker Moisture Farmer Find all posts View Profile Close Big Daddy Dave Skywalker]

Basically taking something from one comic and using it to override what makes another comic book character special.

Exactly. That's how I feel any time they play musical chairs with the GLs and these gay little other colored rings. Or place other heroes and villains in the spectrum setting. I almost feel like DC should just do it all the way and leave it, because the majority of comic fans are such morons that they deserve it.

I can't decide what the worst rainbow brigade corps is, red or black. Probably red because it screams fanfic so loudly. RAAAAAAARRRR!!!!! should be the new oath.

[Trey Strain Guardian of the Universe Find all posts View Profile Close Trey Strain]

A hell of a lot of heroes and villains have had power rings for a while since Geoff started writing Green Lantern. And many fans just clapped and cheered every time it happened. What makes that especially bizarre is that these were the same people who at one time would flame you bitterly if you said that any other character than Kyle should have a ring.

[Andrew NDB Shot Caller Find all posts View Profile Close Andrew NDB]

and if you want to count it, a crossover with Supergirl.

That was probably more to help Supergirl than the other way around.

[Big Blue Lantern Corps Honor Guard Find all posts View Profile Close Big Blue Lantern]

Exactly. That's how I feel any time they play musical chairs with the GLs and these gay little other colored rings. Or place other heroes and villains in the spectrum setting. I almost feel like DC should just do it all the way and leave it, because the majority of comic fans are such morons that they deserve it.

I can't decide what the worst rainbow brigade corps is, red or black. Probably red because it screams fanfic so loudly. RAAAAAAARRRR!!!!! should be the new oath.

LOL, Dave. You're always so salty when it comes to the other Corps or variant rings. Did your wife have to use an AED on you during War of the Green Lanterns when the Big 4 GLs all had other colored rings?

A hell of a lot of heroes and villains have had power rings for a while since Geoff started writing Green Lantern. And many fans just clapped and cheered every time it happened.

I don't think it happened enough, or at least to the maximum effect. I like the concept of other light-wielders, but too many characters in those various corps are mere window-dressing. How much do we know about Sister Sercy or Slorg the Slayer? If the only purpose for a character is to flesh out a few pages in an annual or special, why not use a few previously existing minor characters who could benefit from a shot in the arm?

[Big Daddy Dave Skywalker Moisture Farmer Find all posts View Profile Close Big Daddy Dave Skywalker]

LOL, Dave. You're always so salty when it comes to the other Corps or variant rings. Did your wife have to use an AED on you during War of the Green Lanterns when the Big 4 GLs all had other colored rings?

I think she got tired of hearing me bitch about it. Actually, I learned NOT to whine about comics too much in her presence. She always hits me with the logic of why am I spending SO much money on a hobby that pisses me off.

To which I have no real defense. So I STFU, and sneak my little ebay packages in without her seeing...the way a real man does.

[Big Daddy Dave Skywalker Moisture Farmer Find all posts View Profile Close Big Daddy Dave Skywalker]

Actually, I have gotten rid of ALL of my Red Lantern toys from my GL collection. That shit is just GONE. I'm shrinking my bloated GL collection down to the stuff that actually makes me happy.

[Trey Strain Guardian of the Universe Find all posts View Profile Close Trey Strain]

Geoff's love of all things badass also explains why he gave ongoings to Sinestro and Larfleeze. So that's three GL ongoings, along with The New Guardians and Green Lanterns, that should never have happened. DC needs to recognize that Geoff ran out of ideas for this property long ago and should have nothing more to do with it.

It's just fundamental that a villain can't carry an ongoing comic. The fact that DC thought Geoff could somehow make that setup work shows how overconfident the company has been in his ideas. His bosses were equally overconfident in his ability to sell a Green Lantern ongoing that stars Jessica Cruz and Simon Baz, and one that was about his replacement for the classic concept of the Guardians. That's five GL ongoings that were Geoff's concepts and that have bombed.

Anyway, once you cast a villain or an anti-hero in a comic as its star, you have to water him down to make him palatable to the readers, and that makes the concept collapse quickly.

[Big Blue Lantern Corps Honor Guard Find all posts View Profile Close Big Blue Lantern]

I think she got tired of hearing me bitch about it. Actually, I learned NOT to whine about comics too much in her presence. She always hits me with the logic of why am I spending SO much money on a hobby that pisses me off.

To which I have no real defense. So I STFU, and sneak my little ebay packages in without her seeing...the way a real man does.

I'd laugh at you....if I didn't do the exact same thing.

[Space Cop The Dandy Find all posts View Profile Close Space Cop]

Geoff's love of all things badass also explains why he gave ongoings to Sinestro and Larfleeze. So that's three GL ongoings, along with The New Guardians and Green Lanterns, that should never have happened. DC needs to recognize that Geoff ran out of ideas for this property long ago and should have nothing more to do with it....

I don't think Johns has an active role in GL. It think it's more like the vast history/continuity of GL is a rubberband ball. Johns added a whole lot of rubber bands (some to cover broken ones, a lot just because he wanted to) and now when the creators and editors look at it, all they can think is "we have to add more rubber bands."

Or to be less obscure, I don't think anyone actually tells say Venditti "don't mess with Johns' stuff" so much as when he looks at GL, he assumes that's all part of it.

[Trey Strain Guardian of the Universe Find all posts View Profile Close Trey Strain]

Geoff says which ongoings will be published, who will star in them and what their premise will be. And while we're at it, we have to mention stuffing Hal, Guy, John and Kyle into one comic. That makes six flops in one franchise he has conceived.

If Green Lantern were baseball, Dan DiDio would walk to the mound and bring in a relief pitcher. Nothing against the guy, and not a suggestion that he's a fool. He just needs to come out of this game.

[Star-Lantern Weaponer of Qward Find all posts View Profile Close Star-Lantern]

I'm not privy to DC's inner workings, but I think that Geoff Johns is active in Green Lantern and many other DC properties (like Superman, where his buddy Tomasi writes one of the key titles), being president and all. Considering Green Lantern, I can't easily file it away to coincidence that during this Rebirth thing (which is certainly Geoff Johns' idea) Simon Baz and Jessica Cruz have their own comic book, and there is almost nothing but stories that rely extremely heavily on the Emotional Spectrum. I recall him also saying that he personally selected Sam Humphries to write Green Lanterns, and Johns even co-wrote the Rebirth Special issue of Green Lanterns. I believe Johns broadly set the directions for the Green Lantern titles, meaning what characters would be used and what characters would be focused on versus others, and what he wanted the stories to have, like what villains and such would be used.

[Trey Strain Guardian of the Universe Find all posts View Profile Close Trey Strain]

Oh, and Geoff created Jessica Cruz and Simon Baz, even though Green Lantern was already badly overpopulated with Earth Lanterns. That might be the best example of DC's overconfidence in his ideas about the franchise.

[JohnMc Senior Corps Member Find all posts View Profile Close JohnMc]

Oh, and Geoff created Jessica Cruz and Simon Baz, even though Green Lantern was already badly overpopulated with Earth Lanterns. That might be the best example of DC's overconfidence in his ideas about the franchise.

Creating Jessica Cruz and Simon Baz was just ego masturbation on Johns' part. He wanted his own characters and make them prominent [aka their own GL book and in the Justice League] to pretty much cement his legacy in the series.

[Trey Strain Guardian of the Universe Find all posts View Profile Close Trey Strain]

I don't think Geoff's ego had anything to do with it. The diversity imperative has trumped good business sense at DC and Marvel (especially the latter) and DC has had an inordinate confidence in Geoff's creative decisions where Green Lantern is concerned. Hence, the Green Lanterns comic that nobody but DC's management wanted is gracing the comics shops.

DC and Marvel need to face the fact that print comics are in the phase of their life cycle where they're managing decline. There are not any hordes of minority members who will run to stores to buy titles with members of their groups cast as the stars, and furthermore, by replacing the established characters with minority members, and by reducing the camera time of the established stars in favor of minority versions, they're chasing away their existing customers.

If anyone in DC's management reads this, I'm telling that you're doing exactly the wrong thing. You're running off your dwindling herd of horses so you can hunt bright shiny unicorns that aren't out there, and your virtue signaling isn't impressing anyone.

[Star-Lantern Weaponer of Qward Find all posts View Profile Close Star-Lantern]

Diversity is not bad business, because those 'different' people actually exist and want entertainment. The problem lies in the direct market system. The comic companies and retailers, in their shortsighted foolishness, destroyed the entry point for new fans.

I'm willing to go out on a limb and bet a good number of the people on this very forum got into comics because they saw them at some place they would go to, which was not a comic book shop. Maybe a drug store. Maybe a supermarket. Places many people of many diverse backgrounds regularly go to. This is why probably many people here started reading comics in the '80s, '90s (granted in parts of this period, the direct market enjoyed fad success that would not last), or maybe even sometime before then.

The direct market is meant to cater to the existing comic fan, most certainly not to reach out to a new reader. Because the products adapted to become the best to sell in that environment, they further alienate new people not only with their location, but their content (confusing crossovers, reboots, and the like.

The reason minorities won't rush to comic book shops is because during the time comics were easily accessible to new people, in a variety of ways, the publishers, for the most part, only focused on white heroes. Thus, a white customer base developed, and because comics greatly struggle to reach new customers of ANY background, that's all the mainstream comics have. The same customer base that developed decades ago, many of whom got into comics because they saw them in easily accessible places.

So, the point is that appealing to people of different backgrounds isn't bad. It can be done poorly. Rather than bringing that out as the problem, it is much more beneficial, intelligent, and honest to address the root problem, which is comics' stagnate and dwindling readership. That is what is REALLY the bad business. Not the diversity stuff. If comics could reach a large enough pool of people, and not have to rely on gimmicks that come to the detriment of the new and potential new fan, the companies wouldn't resort to turning Iron Man into a black woman, the prices wouldn't be so high for a single comic, these crossovers likely wouldn't be running amok like they do now, and so on.

No decent entry point for new readers (meaning new readers SEEING them and then finding them appealing) = hardly any new fans = a plethora of problems for comics. Appealing to the dwindling group of good ol' boys who ARE used to putting money on the table as opposed to the potential new fan is only putting a band-aid on the problem, and maybe delaying the inevitable a little while longer. BUT, I will admit this. As long as the direct market system is going to be the primary way to sell comics, it is wiser to appeal to the good ol' boy, because he's already used to it and spending his money there. But the important thing is looking at this with a big lens will show this system is broken.