I start my post with news, followed by speculation and trepidation.
When Brightest Day hits the DCU come May, one of the best titles in the entire line up is going through an unexpected change. As Tomasi goes to work on the Brightest Day (David’s note: Plus the new Guy Gardner starring Green Lantern: Emerald Warriors) title with Johns, GLC will be handed over to Tony Bedard. “What?” you ask. “Why?” Not sure. But in order to help give faith, check out the title REBELS. REBELS stars Vril Dox and has him lately battling against the might of Starro. Those that picked it up for Blackest Night know that it really is pretty good.
Here’s some stuff straight from DCU’s The Source blog:
Bedard’s not a newbie to the DCU’s sci-fi side, having blazed an impressive trail of chaos and drama with his epic work on R.E.B.E.L.S. He should feel right at home overseeing the adventures of the no. 1 interstellar police force in the universe. And his deft handling of the R.E.B.E.L.S. BLACKEST NIGHT tie-ins show he’s no stranger to all things Oa. But don’t take my word for it. Tony?
“This is far and away the most exciting gig of my career. When they called to offer me the job and Geoff literally said, ‘Welcome to the Green Lantern Corps’ I felt like I’d put on a power ring. Now I just have to play up to Pete Tomasi’s impossibly high standards—!“
Oh, and who’ll be starring in GREEN LANTERN CORPS? Well, some names you might be familiar with: John Stewart, Kyle Rayner and Green Lantern Ganthet. Yup. You read that correctly.
On the art side, we have Source “Artist to Watch” Ardian Syaf taking point on Tony’s first arc. His detailed style and dynamic camera angles are reminiscent of some of the biggest names in the industry. In less than a year, Syaf has put together a remarkable resume, including BLACKEST NIGHT: BATMAN, PHANTOM STRANGER and an arc on SUPERMAN/BATMAN. Not too shabby, eh?
But before you hit the panic button, let me calm your fears about the super-talented team stepping away from GREEN LANTERN CORPS – they’re not going very far. This is where the drumroll starts in my head.
We’re proud to announce that, starting in a few short months, there’ll be a new ongoing GREEN LANTERN series joining the shelves: GREEN LANTERN: EMERALD WARRIORS, starring everyone’s favorite ring-wielding hot head, Guy Gardner – with regular appearances from Kilowog. And who better to handle Guy’s adventures than Peter Tomasi, who’s knocked it out of the park on a monthly basis with his sharp dialogue and plotting on GREEN LANTERN CORPS? Hard to argue with that, I think.
On art duties we have Fernando Pasarin, who, like Ardian, has built a solid list of credits here in the DCU in a very short amount of time – from JUSTICE SOCIETY OF AMERICA to THE OUTSIDERS. Pasarin’s modern and kinetic style make him a perfect candidate to chronicle the new, monthly Guy Gardner series. We’ll have some snazzy Pasarin art right here in no time.
But enough from me. What’s Pete got to say about it all?
“I’m really excited to be working on this new series, expanding the mythology and franchise of the Green Lantern Universe.”
For my thoughts on the shift in the title, click behind the jump.
When I was e-mailed a link to the article, it was described to me as, “This seems excessive.” I agree. Green Lantern Corps has been better than Green Lantern throughout the entirety of Blackest Night, and is such an incredibly strong title. This is Peter Tomasi’s doing. Peter Tomasi has gone so far as to make us all care when a fly died. Remember Bzzt? Yeah. That’s how good of a writer he is. And I’m glad he is being referred to in such a high fashion by DC (because in all honesty, the man has talent – look at the Black Adam mini as well as The Mighty), but why take him off his best title? And then why give him a new one to focus on one character when he’s doing such a great job with the cast? I liked the REBELS tie-in, but I tried reading beyond the Blackest Night stuff and I couldn’t get into it. It read well, but I lost interest quickly in the overall story. Vril Dox was just such a great character and his handling of the Black Lanterns was bad ass.
So I’m not really for the change. I’ll give it an honest shot, but I can’t say any of it gets me really excited, nor does it inspire great faith in me about this change. I’ll miss Tomasi greatly on the title, no matter how good of a writer Bedard could turn out to be.
