CBR comes through with a new interview with Green Lantern: New Guardians writer Tony Bedard. You can head over there for some Blue Beetle talk, but I’ve included the New Guardians centric stuff below.

 

Bedard starts off talking about the relationship between the two cosmic books he’s writing and how we won’t see a permanent connection with Blue Beetle. Though, he states BB readers will get some Third Army residue in their monthly reading.

“”We have enough cool stuff to focus on in the upcoming months, and it seemed a natural fit that two cosmic characters like Green Lantern and Blue Beetle might cross paths, but I’m not linking them permanently. That said, the events of the Third Army saga will be so far-reaching that they may spill over into some other titles,” Bedard said. “Stay tuned for details!”

In NG #10, we saw The Reach attack the Blue Lantern home planet of Odym, so of course Tony spoke about the increased numbers of the hope corps from the last time we saw them and Tyler Kirkham’s designs.

“I actually just called for new Blue Lanterns, and Tyler promptly knocked our socks off; I especially liked the Blue Lantern that looked like a giraffe! Ty’s terrific with these visual touches, like the way he turned Glomulus into a breakout character by shifting his form in fun ways as the little guy reacts to each new battle or challenge,”

“I’ve been very lucky to work with Ty for a couple of years now. He’s the best guy to hang out with in person, too.”

Bedard on New Guardians being so connected to the other lantern titles:

“From the start, ‘Green Lantern: New Guardians’ has been tied into the big events shaping the Lantern universe. The Guardians of the Universe have been steadily growing darker in their methods, including their ’emotional lobotomy’ of Kyle’s mentor Ganthet. That’s what has driven the whole ‘New Guardians’ storyline from the start, and when we finally reveal why all those different colored rings converged on Kyle in the first issue, you’ll see that ‘New Guardians’ has been part of the Green Lantern big picture all along.”

Tony then went on to focus on the upcoming used-to-be-an-event-but-not-quite-an-event story “The Third Army”.

“The Guardians definitely feel justified in everything they do. They’re not trying to be bad guys. They’re trying to fix the universe,” Bedard said. “But the road to Hell is paved with such intentions, and the Guardians have become for all intents and purposes the biggest villains of all.”

In September, we’ll get New Guardians #0 and here’s Tony on what we’ll be seeing and the new lineup that spins from that and the Ethan Van Sciver drawn GL Annual.

“Kyle won’t be taking [the Guardians] on in ‘New Guardians’ #0, but the path to their final showdown definitely begins there,”

“‘Third Army’ is something that will affect all of the Lantern books intensely. In fact, ‘New Guardians’ is going to be deeply affected, starting with a shuffle in the team line-up in ‘New Guardians’ #0. We’ll ‘trade up’ with some of the characters — Carol Ferris instead of Fatality, Atrocitus instead of Bleez, etc. — and we’ll see that Kyle might just be the last, best hope of stopping the Guardians and their Third Army.”

“I can’t give away too much, but it has to do with events in the ‘Green Lantern Annual’ that will affect the other Lantern books in a big way,”

“Carol’s not exactly crazy about being Star Sapphire, but these new events compel her to put that violet ring on and give Kyle a kick in the pants, speeding him on his path to become the Torchbearer for every Lantern Corps all in one.”

Finally, Tony says issue 0 will be a great jumping on point for new readers and that Kyle vs Carol for team leader is something we all should be looking forward to.

“It’s definitely a jumping-on point…The original Star Sapphire Carol Ferris comes into Kyle’s life with an urgent agenda that will see her competing with Kyle for the leadership of the New Guardians. We’ll also see Kyle embark on a quest to master all the colors of the Emotional Spectrum in a desperate attempt to stop the Guardians’ master plan.

“Things are about to get turned up to ’11,’ so do not miss the #0 issue!”