Working together on the crossover, the two writers joined forces again to speak with Comic Book Resources about the impact of “Third Army” and “First Lantern” on their individual books, the horrors the First Lantern plans to unleash on the entire emotional spectrum and the many, many mistakes of the Guardians of Oa. Check out some choice quotes below, and as always beware of spoilers.
Tomasi & Bedard on how comfortable they are in the GL universe:
Tomasi: It was a lot of fun, actually, getting Tony into the GL stuff and just having him kind of dive in and do all the cool stuff he’s done in his book and back when he took over “Corps” from me and then obviously with all the “New Guardians” stuff. Honestly, it hasn’t been one of those, “Oh, it’s been a tough puzzle to fit into the GL universe.” Tony fit in really smoothly and grappled with the engine that is Geoff Johns like we all do and took the ride! [Laughs]
Bedard: Yeah, it really helps that we like what Geoff does so much! I mean, he’s already on a wavelength that matches with ours pretty well, so it’s never been a chore to try and follow his storylines or anything like that. He sets the bar pretty high in terms of quality, but that’s kind of cool. I’ve been a part of events and storylines where I haven’t particularly agreed with the creative direction but I just tried my best to get along. Green Lantern hasn’t been that way at all. I really like how [Geoff] just breathes new life in [Hal], who had always been one of my favorites, but I remember when I was an editor, Green Lantern couldn’t get arrested, he wasn’t seen as a viable character. Now it’s one of the strongest franchises.
On moving from Rise of the Third Army to Wrath of the First Lantern:
Tomasi: Now we’ll see, after the “GL Corps Annual,” the result of the Third Army and everything they’ve been putting together against the Corps and the universe itself. And then we’ll see where the First Lantern steps up to the plate and kicks it into high gear, and all the pain and suffering he’s going to put on the Guardians — it’s definitely going to be pouring out. It’s the title; it says pretty clearly “Wrath of the First Lantern.” He’s not a happy camper and it’s going to be a lot of pain that’s going to get taken out in a very big way on these characters and in very personal ways.
Bedard: Yeah, that actually gets at what I think is the coolest thing about it, which is the last few crossovers have been these giant wars between two armies or more than two armies sometimes, and there are two hundred characters on a page. The way that this thing has been set up it’s a lot more personal. They really delve into the characters. It’s not about the scope of it in terms of spectacle. It’s really more about what’s at the core of the characters and who they are emotionally. It’s an interesting place for a crossover.
The threat the First Lantern poses to GLC and New Guardians characters:
Bedard: …Let’s just say the First Lantern has a way of taking a look at you and seeing everything that led to who you are today. But he can kind of mess around with that, he can find key moments that shaped who these characters are and then twist them around so that you can see how they might have turned out differently. What that does, I think, is really ask the question “Who is this person?” They are very character defining stories in this arc.
Tomasi: Yeah, we peel back a lot of layers, the First Lantern peels back a lot of layers with the very distinct power that he has, and as we’re saying it really goes to the core of these characters and what makes them tick and what makes them happy, what makes them sad, all the different emotions. All the ranges of emotion is something the First Lantern is going to play off of.
Bedard: Right, the emotional spectrum has been part of the Green Lantern universe in the past few years and exploring what that means, and this is a villain that can manipulate that, the emotional core of things, in a way that we have not seen before.
Tomasi on John Stewart’s role in Wrath of the First Lantern:
Tomasi: Yeah, it’s a pretty good balance actually. We’re going to be putting the screws to both of them big time. I’ve been taking great pains, especially with Guy, to build a foundation back on Earth for him too, making sure I’m introducing the characters of his sister and his brother and his father. And some questions that I actually posed in the #0 issue will be answered in the “First Lantern” story. So it’s going to be pretty cool for the people who have been reading the New 52 launch, they’ll see some stuff I’ve seeded over the past year; the chickens are going to come home to roost now, we’re going to see some answers to some of the things that have been alluded to with Guy, and with John himself the same thing. There are things that have been planted along the way in John’s history and we’ll see the First Lantern is going to expose that and really just create raw nerves that will hopefully resonate with the readers as we pick apart Guy and John.
Tony Bedard on what’s coming for Kyle Rayner and Carol Ferris:
Bedard: Well, the thing I always liked about Kyle was how emotionally open he was. He’s a little different character than most of the other folks you see getting a power ring who are really heroic or not like us, not like normal people. Kyle was just an average guy. But his emotional openness as an artist was, I think, the key to him being a good Green Lantern and to mastering these other emotions. So by the time we get into the First Lantern storyline he’s got all seven powers under his belt, and that makes him a unique threat to the First Lantern, and also makes him, in a weird way, more vulnerable to the First Lantern and the type of power he has. Also, we’ve gotten Carol Ferris in the book in the past two months as sort of a co-lead and so we’ll examine her character a little more. Especially with the way the First Lantern operates, he’s going to look at what makes her tick. She’s always been kind of defined by her relationship with Hal Jordan, but she’s a formidable character in her own right and that’s something we want to get into as well. She’s not just about how she plays off of Hal. Without getting into specifics, those are the two big points in the “First Lantern” story.
On the Guardians mistakes:
Tomasi: …even though they don’t see it that way, the GL Corps is the best child they’ve produced, so to speak. It’s the one that’s done the most good and hasn’t caused the most grief and is just a humanistic face of the Guardians themselves. It’s a shame they haven’t been able to see just what good the Corps has been to them in their own perception of what the universe looks at the Guardians as and the Corps itself. It’s one of those things where they don’t see that one of their creations has just been an amazing force for good, and now they’re trying to get rid of it and implement something that’s going to once again be something that brings a lot of problems and terror and horror to the rest of the universe.
I think that even as a title itself, for the readers who have been with us for a while it’s a really great payoff and for readers who jumped on with the New 52 relaunch there will be a real sense of forward movement and moment in such a shot period of time. I think it’ll be really exciting and an exciting storyline that is going to set the table for so many new Green Lantern adventures coming up.
Are the Guardians of the Universe redeemable?
Tomasi: My opinion is they are sort of a lost cause at this point. If they can’t see the forest for the trees after, like Tony just said, thousands and thousands of years, it seems like they’re never going to! [Laughs] There’s a cool line Guy says in the Annual, he just sums it up in a nutshell, that by closing off their hearts they’ve destroyed themselves. It’s just one of those things that’s going to come back and bite them in the ass.
Bedard: On the other hand, Ganthet has been almost a father figure to Kyle and regardless of how bad things have gotten he can’t completely give up hope on these guys. There’s got to be some shred, some little nugget of humanity or goodness in them that they can reach. That’s a big central question in this, actually, whether or not they can get the Guardians can redeem themselves.