The press run continues! The incoming Green Lantern and Green Lantern Corps (and Red Lanterns) writers Robert Venditti and Joshua Hale Fialkov spoke with CBR about taking over the books. No, they don’t reference the adorable header above but they do discuss quite a bit. Take a small glimpse into the the lantern universe future after the jump as I’ve collected some choice quotes.

New GLC writer Joshua Hale Fialkov on his history with GL:

 

I love Green Lantern. “Green Lantern” was one of the comics that I read when I was 11 or 12-years old. Specifically, I loved the Ron Marz stuff and I love the GLC stuff. I love the anthology nature of the old, original “Green Lantern Corps” series, where they’re literally telling different stories of the Green Lantern Corps.

GL writer Venditti on the same subject:

While I wasn’t all that familiar with Green Lantern from the comics, I did know who he was from the pop culture stuff, but I didn’t know the mythology or the history of the character. So once DC reached out to me about pitching for the series, I went and read about 200 issues of “Green Lantern.” [Laughs] I’ve read all of Geoff Johns’ run, plus a bunch of other stuff because I really wanted to know what made the character tick.

Fialkov and Venditti on what kind of books GL & GLC will be post-Johns era:

Fialkov: I’m a crime writer. I’ve been writing crime books for a decade, in one form or another, usually with a horror bent. But at the end of the day, they are all pure crime — “I, Vampire” aside. For me, the attraction was that I wanted to tell a crime story on a galactic level. That was my pitch to DC. Geoff and all of the other guys have done such an amazing job, prior to us, of telling those big, giant space operas. Now it’s time to narrow it down. Let’s do stories that almost fall into a different genre while still being in the Green Lantern universe.

 

Venditti: I try to do something different with every new project I take on. “Surrogates” was cyberpunk sci-fi, then I did “The Homeland Directive,” which was more political thriller. I adapted the “Percy Jackson” novels, which was more of an all-ages thing. I try do something different every time, so when DC came to me and asked about pitching for “Green Lantern,” I was excited because it is so unlike anything that I’ve done before — the police in space aspect of the book, but also the size and the scope and the grandeur of the mythology. There are so many characters and so many Lanterns in the Corps, it’s just really huge and really well fleshed out universe within the DC Universe. I’ve never worked on anything with that sort of scale before and I thought it would be great challenge to see if I could take something like that on and do it successfully. I guess that’s what I try to do with every project; I try to push myself outside my comfort zone and maybe learn to be a better writer in the process.

 

Venditti on exploring the Green Lantern universe Johns created:

I also want to take the book to what I think is the logical conclusion of what would come out of the end of Geoff’s run. I want to look at a lot of the things he’s done to the characters and think about how it would affect not only the book but the DC Universe as a whole. I guess, deal with the aftermath of what happens not only in ” Wrath of the First Lantern” but all of the great “Green Lantern” stories and large events and crossovers that have come before and, I hope, stay true and faithful to that and not contradict any of it but expand on it and take it new directions.

Fialkov on Red Lanterns:

I love “Red Lanterns,” but I feel like the book — up until now — has been outside the rest of the universe. It really feels like its own little corner, and the fact is, it shouldn’t be. The Red Lanterns are one of the biggest threats in the DC Universe. They are insane, incredibly powerful and they believe they are on a holy mission. Those are three incredibly dangerous things. [Laughs]

 

In terms of what I’m doing in “Corps” and “Red Lanterns,” it’s really about that. While the Green Lantern Corps has to police the universe, there is also their opposite number, who are, when it comes down to it, not necessarily wrong. Their methodology might be screwed up, but at the end of the day, what they stand for is justice — their idea of justice, which is to intercede before the fact, as opposed to the Green Lantern Corps, which is always kind of after the fact.

 

Writing “Red Lanterns” is so much fun. At the end of the day, they’re not wrong. Horrible things happen every day and the Green Lanterns only hear about it afterwards. The Red Lanterns can sense it. They can actually step in and stop it. That’s a great power to have. Does that make them villains if they do it and over react?

Venditti on Hal Jordan:

Hal Jordan is going to be the driver of “Green Lantern.” That’s borne out of, more than anything else, [the fact that] he’s the natural leader coming out of some of the things that are going to close out Geoff’s run. That’s the idea.

 

Fialkov and Venditti on the rosters for both books:

Fialkov: We’re keeping most of the same characters — and then we’re all introducing a ton of new characters. We really want to help expand the universe to really help tell the story. And you know, Geoff and company have really killed a lot of Green Lanterns. [Laughs] That makes one of our missions to start repopulating.

 

This is a group of people who have come to trust each other and rely on each other, and who’s left standing at the end is very much our core unit. So, what does that mean? In terms of, now we need to rebuild, now we need to learn to trust again when everything they’ve ever trusted has just crashed.

 

I know that’s something that Justin is exploring in “New Guardans,” too. Robert and I are both really excited about. We talk about it a lot.

 

Venditti: There is definitely going to be a bunch of new characters, new villains –- a lot of things that we’re introducing, plus new concepts. Working with Josh and Justin and sitting down and talking to them about what they’re doing is great. I’ve been a fan of their work for a long time. Not just to tell them what I’m thinking, but also to listen to what they’re saying and let it improve what I’m thinking.

We’ve got a lot of things that we want to do. Definitely the things Josh was mentioning, and a lot of other things.

Writers on how connected the lantern books will be:

Fialkov: As we’ve been talking about what the events are going to be and what these big things are, because we all know each other and know what each other are doing, there is a nice kind of dovetailing that’s happening. It’s not like something happens in “Green Lantern” and therefore “Green Lantern Corps” has to react to it. If something happens in the universe, it affects all of the books. There is a very nice feeling of brotherhood between all three of us. It’s a big opportunity for all of us, and it’s something that all three of us are excited about and passionate about, so we’re doing everything we can to make the most cohesive unit of books possible. Of course, we want people to buy all four books, but we want to make them so awesome and meaningful to each other that you want to read all four of them. Or all five of them, with “Larfleeze.”

 

Venditti: If we are doing our job right, it would be to write books that would stand on their own and each be individual stories that everybody can enjoy. But also if you read the Green Lantern books as a whole, you’re going to augment that and have the fun of connecting a lot of the dots.