So Green Lantern #21 finally arrived this Wednesday, bringing in new writer and artist Robert Venditti and Billy Tan along. Speaking with CBR, Venditti had a few more things to say about his start on the series, including talk on September’s “Forever Evil”, Hal Jordan’s personality clashing with his duties and more.

Venditti on whether new villain Relic will have a future beyond this initial story:

The story I have in mind for him right now is pretty finite. But the DC Universe is a big place. Who knows what happens down the road? I tend to think in terms of stories that have beginnings, middles and ends and subplots will link those stories together into a larger tapestry, but when it comes to conflict it’s a win or lose and then you move on sort of thing. So for right now it’s a finite story.

Making Relic a sympathetic character:

He is very much a sympathetic villain and somebody who I was thinking of when I made that statement. I hope the reader will be able to understand where he’s coming from and why he’s doing what he’s doing, which again will pose another challenge for the Corps. His message may be bad but his intent isn’t too far off the mark.

On designing new characters with artist Billy Tan:

He’s great to work with! I love what he’s able to do, the amount of detail he brings to the art the way he’s really able to handle the emotion of the characters. He’s really great with design; Relic being an example, but also all the new Lanterns. He got exactly what I wanted to people to get out of those Lanterns, that they’re young kids who don’t want to be there. That’s pretty much the description I gave Billy and then he came up with those designs. He really excels at these things and every time I get pages from him it’s just great to see what he’s doing with the script.

Venditti on Hal Jordan’s next logical step post-Johns:

So I just looked at Hal as a character and tried to determine, given his history and the type of guy he is and the type of hero he is, what is it about his personality that makes him different from other heroes? What are the conflicts that would come along to force him to confront those sorts of things? One of them is, though designated by others and it’s sort of imposed upon him, to saddle him with the job of being the leader for the Green Lantern Corps in the wake of these huge events that have taken place. The toll that they’ve taken on the Corps ranks, not just in terms of Lanterns that have been killed but the Corps’ credibility as a police force throughout the universe, they were undermined a lot by the actions of the previous leadership, the old Guardians. So really through no fault of their own the Green Lantern Corps is feared and a lot of people are angry at them, even though they were trying to fight against the Guardians. The universe at large doesn’t recognize that.

 

So I wanted to play up on those things and also look at Hal as the kind of guy — I mean he’s a test pilot. He’s not a platoon sergeant, he does a lot of risky things but it’s always just him whose life is on the line and he’s comfortable with that. Now he’s in a position where his leadership will put other lives on the line as well. How does that affect his behavior? How does that make him different? I would say he’s the kind of guy for whatever reason, even though he doesn’t want to be a leader, he is a very charismatic individual and people are just prone to want to follow him anyways. So at some point he has to assume that leadership. These people are following him around like little ducklings; at some point he’s got to be momma duck and take care of them because they are going to follow whether he wants them to or not. Those are a few of the things put into the mix.

 

…Yeah — I mean it is definitely Hal’s book and he is still going to be the main character. But I think a lot of that other stuff, seeing him interacting with the Corps and being on Oa and the citadel and all these other things, are a byproduct of this conflict I wanted him to have where he is going to be in a leadership role. What we’re going to see in coming months is Hal trying to be same old Hal but realizing that’s not going to work now [that] he’s leader. Specifically, we’ll get to a scenario like that in #23, which will be the August issue.