Continuing the press run he deserves, new Green Lantern writer Robert Venditti has spoken to Newsarama about his plans for the book, what happened with Constantine, and even how he got the job. Read some choice quotes below.

 

Robert Venditti on how he got the Green Lantern gig:

 

Yeah, what happened was that I had been asked to do a limited run on Demon Knights, and then I was going to move off and do Constantine while I was doing X-O Manowar. But when DC started reading the scripts from Demon Knights, they decided they wanted to try to keep me on the book longer.

 

So because I was already doing that, and I was already working with all the other people involved with that project — and I had pitched Green Lantern during that time period as well — it became a situation where it was an opportunity for me to do all those books.

 

But I didn’t feel comfortable doing four books a month. I mean, it’s possible I could have made it work, but I didn’t want to find out by not being able to do it. You know?

So we all sat down and decided that Constantine would be the best choice for me to move off, especially since Jeff Lemire and Ray Fawkes were already in a pretty good position to come onto that book. Those guys are obviously very talented in their own right. So yeah, Constantine made the most sense for me to back away from.

Venditti on what character his GL run will focus on:

 

Venditti: Hal’s going to be the focus of the book.

 

Nrama: At the risk of perhaps spoiling the “First Lantern” event and the possible outcome for the other characters, why is Hal the focus?

 

Venditti: Knowing what the events are that lead up to the end of Geoff’s run, and then when Billy and I step on, it makes the most sense that Hal would be the character that would be in a position to transition out of some of these things, to open up the new chapter for the story.

 

It will be Hal’s book, and it will be looking at the aspects of Hal’s character that make him unique from every other character in comics. We’ll highlight that uniqueness, how he deals with them in a good way, or how he deals with them in a bad way.

Venditti on Hal Jordan:

 

The thing that I like about him, that I find really compelling, is that he’s a character that does not want to be a leader. He wants to be the kind of guy that cuts his own path. He’s a fighter pilot who flies alone in the cockpit. So he’s very much the kind of guy who wants to do his own thing.

 

But people are just naturally drawn to him as a leader anyway. And so, I think that’s a nice dichotomy to have in his character. At some point, if people are following you, you’re going to have to lead them whether you want to or not, just out of responsibility to the people around you.

 

So I think that’s a nice thing to play off with the character, and it’s something I want to hone in on as we start our run.

 

And as you said, we’re also coming out of some of these large events, and things are going to unfold in this “Wrath of the First Lantern” storyline.

On balancing personal stories with “epic” stories:

 

Ideally, I will do both. What I’m trying to do is a large, overarching story that’s going to have very profound effects, not just for the New 52, but the wider cosmic universe as well, and use that as a way to focus in on a character who’s at the center of this entire thing.

 

Ideally, it’s not an either/or. I think you can focus in very strongly on this character while also having this very large, sort of sweeping, epic story. And that’s definitely what we’re trying to go for.

On artist Billy Tan:

Yeah, we’re introducing some new characters and villains over the next several months after we’re starting on the title. We’re pretty early in the process, but we have seen a pretty good amount of pages from Billy, as well as some character designs and concepts and things. He’s really been surprising me. You’d think I’d be able to expect what he’s sending in, since I wrote this stuff. But he has this great capacity to take the script that I wrote and then turn around and send me pages, and when I read them, I’m surprised. I mean, that’s the best compliment, because it’s a pretty difficult thing for an artist to do to a writer. It’s almost like when I see his pages, I’m seeing the story for the first time as well. So it’s really exciting to work with him. He’s a super nice guy and obviously very talented. I’m really excited to see what he’s going to bring to the book, and we’re very excited to get the stuff out there so everybody can see it.

Crossing the lantern titles together:

I think if we execute the way we want to, it will be the type of situation where the books stand on their own and are complete, but also, if you read them all together, you get this enhanced reading experience of all these things that are going on and working together, if that makes sense.