Right now, DC is currently publishing a “mega blockbuster event” called the War Of The Green Lanterns. In it, the three Green Lantern titles – Corps, Emerald Warriors, and GL regular – are all crossing over as Krona has inserted the Yellow entity Parallax back into the main green lantern on Oa and everyone is freaking out except those that have been possessed before. This means that Kyle, Hal, John, Kilowog and Guy are all trying to figure out how to save the corps while everyone else tries to kill them. Fun.
But as we know, this “changes everything.” Yes, comics have said that before, but that doesn’t make it any different here. And – supposedly – the story ends with a) only ONE Green Lantern from Earth (or, as they say, only one Lantern protecting Sector 2814 and b) a death. Supposedly, anyway. Now, technically, someone already died (and if you haven’t been keeping up, I won’t say who), but seeing as it wasn’t one of the four Green Lanterns we all know and love, let’s pretend that that is not the death we should be looking for, yes?
So since DC went ahead and announced an aftermath mini for the book, it’s time for us to put on our thinking caps and look at the information we have from solicits just like that time we figured out the end of “3” from Marvel.
Take a look behind the cut for some solicit analysis. As a note, this might be a spoiler. Then again, it might be bunk speculation in the dark. I’m putting both in bold so that those of you just scrolling around notice that. Either way, look past the cut for some thoughts on what may or may not happen.
The villainous nature of solicits is that, in all reality, they’re not explicitly designed for fans. Their original purpose was so that retailers could know what is coming out in order to make orders. However, this eventually turned into fans needing to look at them so they know what they want to order. The double edged nature of the solicit means that as much as we may not want to know what’s coming, we kinda sorta have to look so we can figure out what we want to read. And as things stand right now, we’ve currently seen two months worth of solicits post-War of the Green Lanterns. Hmm. Dangerous.
Let’s start with on to June 2011. The first thing to note here is the image I’ve used at the top of this article, which is the cover for Green Lantern #66. However, it’s not the regular cover for the issue, but rather the variant by Scott Clark and David Beaty. Just keep this thought in the back of your mind – look at Hal’s placement on the cover. Isn’t it a bit odd for a title that he leads? Isn’t it?
Got that thought in there? Ok, good.
Now: we have two obvious stand-out images.
First notable thing from this? Yeah, you get it: Kyle’s broken mask on the ground beneath John. This is perhaps the first clue that Kyle is not going to make it out the other end of – although this could admittedly be a red herring. The initial thought here is that hey, DC has burned a ton of legacy characters already, right? Kyle is a very noticeable one as his whole story was about rising out of the shadow of Hal Jordan, but as soon as Jordan came back Kyle was put on the back burner by Johns until the Corps got a title of it’s own. Killing him just seems… easy. Doesn’t it?
This is the second powerful image we got from June 2011’s solicits, which is also a variant cover for the issue. Guy was accidentally inducted into the Red Lantern Corps during the events of Blackest Night where Kyle “died” briefly and Guy went over the edge, fashioning himself a bad ass red lantern chainsaw and going berserk. Since then we’ve followed him in the pages of Emerald Warriors, where he has battled with his own rage. Now it looks like Gardener is going to have to decide which uniform to keep, given what’s going to happen in the pages of the War.
Continued below… or is he?
Let’s look at the July 2011 solicits.
The first thing kind of have to talk about is Tony Bedard’s role in the future of the Green Lantern Corps. Not only is he writing Green Lantern Corps #62, but he is also writing the Aftermath title for the story. Not Geoff Johns or Peter Tomasi, two of the biggest DC writers who have done the stories for Sinestro Corps War, Blackest Night and Brightest Day, but newcomer Tony Bedard. And what characters has Bedard mostly been writing so far? Kyle Rayner and John Stewart.
He hasn’t been on the book that long, but it seems that Bedard is officially in charge of the future of the entire Corps. The blood stained cover doesn’t bode well either for one of the members, and as we’ve maybe speculated earlier, Kyle. But here’s the thing – that’s not Kyle’s ring on the cover.
Let’s look at some images. First we have this, the promo cover for War of the Green Lanterns:
The second is this, from when Kyle had supposedly died in Blackest Night:
So, take a look again at the cover of Aftermath. That’s not Kyle’s ring. It would seem that Kyle might have a stay of execution. Maybe, anyway.
Let’s also make a note of this:
That’s the cover to Green Lantern Corps #62. John Stewart is still incredibly prevalent, is he not?
Then we have Green Lantern: Emerald Warriors #12. We saw Guy choosing between the Red and the Green in the last cover, but here he is in his familiar Green outfit. Hmm. The solicit is interesting as well. It reads: With the events of “War of the Green Lanterns” still heavy in his thoughts, Guy Gardner must serve a Corps that is no longer the same. And you know how Guy deals with great change: poorly. So… if Guy is still in the Green Corps for now, but still “heavy in thoughts” and dealing with change “poorly”, I think it’s safe to assume that Guy is ready to leave the Green Lantern Corps. Those reading his adventures will know that he has had a huge problem with how the Corps has been run, so if big changes are on the way from a violent outcome, it stands to reason Guy would be done with this.
Plus, there is a Red Lantern title on the way from Peter Milligan that has yet to be solicited. Maybe the justification for the book is Guy’s involvement in leagues with Atrocitus.
Meanwhile, in Green Lantern #67, we have – … waaaait a minute. … there is no Green Lantern issue solicited for July. Triple check me on this. Maybe I’m crazy, or blind. But from where I’m sitting here, reading the July 2011 solicitations for DC Comics, there is no Green Lantern issue. This seems odd to me. Does DC not have a Green Lantern movie coming out in June? Don’t they want to ride the obvious promotion of this title? Why wouldn’t Hal Jordan get his own title? Does Flashpoint really screw up his life so much that he wouldn’t get his own title anymore? It doesn’t seem implausible, but if that’s the case wouldn’t Geoff Johns be writing that title?
So let’s start to think about this and put some pieces together:
- John Stewart is on all of the covers for Green Lantern Corps post-war.
- Guy Gardner is very angry.
- Kyle Rayner and Hal Jordan are nowhere to be found.
- There is a death (maybe, assuming that the earlier death wasn’t “the” death)
- There is only one Green Lantern of Earth post-war
What does that mean? Let’s give it a go. Keep in mind, this is a “maybe” spoiler, as in it’s not technically a real spoiler but rather various bits of information put together to form a hypothesis that may or may not be the ending of the story.
Continued belowReady?
John Stewart is going to be the only Lantern in charge of Sector 2814.
Hal Jordan will not die, but will no longer want to just be a Green Lantern. This could mean that Hal will either just go home, or – the more likely scenario – the Guardians will be fully removed from power and Hal Jordan and the collected “New Guardians” will be fully in charge (why else would there be an arc fleshing out the whole New Guardian angle?). Or he will be dead.
Guy Gardner will leave the Green Lantern Corps due to his a) not getting along with the Guardians, b) not getting along with Hal Jordan, who is maybe now in charge, and c) being a secret Red Lantern in his heart.
And Kyle? Kyle will probably be dead. But again – that’s not something I think anyone wants to see happen. Hal Jordan dying? Extremely unlikely, but I suppose a “possibility” given the fact that there is no Green Lantern title for July.
What do you think, reader? Am I completely nutters? Am I on to something? What do you think is going to happen, given the various solicited information we’ve been given?
