Flight Of The Lanterns: Creative Shake-Ups In The Green Lantern Universe
You really have to ask: what would make YOU walk away from a sweeeeet gig writing two separate "Green Lantern" spinoff books?
According to the now former "Green Lantern Corps" and "Red Lanterns" writer Joshua Hale Fialkov on his personal blog, it was really quite simple:
"There were editorial decisions about the direction of the book that conflicted with the story I was hired to tell, and I felt that it was better to let DC tell their story the way they want."
We exclusively reported a month ago that Fialkov, along with a slate of other new writers, were going to bring in a "new era" for the many "Green Lantern" titles. But I guess with news via Twitter that writers Charles Soule and Van Jensen suddenly filling in for the prodigal Fialkov, we are going to get a new-new era for the GLs.
With all due respect to DC -- a publisher which I think has been doing a number of things right lately, such as starting a "Fan Family" initiative designed to bring in new readers -- how can I, as a reader, wrap my head around this level of fast changes? I nearly got whiplash trying to track down all the issues of that "War Of The Lanterns" arc a couple of years ago. I can't read interviews with Fialkov about the direction he's going to take these comics, after investing in the stories of the previous writers -- and then get excited one month later about how completely different writers are going to go in their directions.
Hey, I know that sometimes, $%#@ happens. People have creative diffrences. Hell, remember when there were two completely different versions of that "Exorcist" prequel shot and released (I watched both of 'em, because I'm kind of a horror nerd)?
But nothing says "these titles don't matter that much" than swapping out talent this fast. Nothing makes me less likely to try a new arc. This isn't idle snark; this is saying something obvious, like "water is wet."
And this has been happening a lot, on a number of DC's titles. I haven't even started on "Action Comics" and Andy Diggle -- the writer succinctly tweeting that he "decided to walk away from Action Comics for professional reasons." This happened on the same day as the Fialkov post. Aren't the "Ides of March" over?
My humble suggestion: it would be much better to get one or two fill-in done-in-one stories for the interim, featuring offbeat creative teams and "evergreen" stories. Then during that time you get a real "Green Lantern Conclave" going, and find the very best people for the job.
Then again, it is very possible that hardcore readers just see a "bat" or a "lantern" or a "S" on their comics and just buy them; that the characters mean more to fans than the creative teams. In which case, the various teams are rather interchangable.
What say you, fans?
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