Has Green Lantern by Geoff Johns run it's course? Is it creatively bankrupt?

[Jabare]

I don't think so. I think there is a lot that could still be done, even with the Rainbow corpse.


However, I think in reference to Johns he is out of ideas at the moment. Similar to Bendis with the Avengers. Prior to AvX Bendis last Avengers arcs were terribly cliche and just rehashed older stories he had written.

[Doctor Voodoo]

However, I think in reference to Johns he is out of ideas at the moment. Similar to Bendis with the Avengers. Prior to AvX Bendis last Avengers arcs were terribly cliche and just rehashed older stories he had written.

He had a trilogy arc, it's not that the ideas have run out. He's just finishing the Space Opera he set-up since he began his run.

Part One:
- Rebirth
- Revenge of the Green Lanterns
- Wanted: Hal Jordan
- Sinestro Corps War
- Alpha Lanterns

Part Two:
- Secret Origin
- Rage of the Red Lanterns
- Agent Orange
- Blackest Night
- Brightest Day

Part Three:
- War of the Green Lanterns
- Sinesto
- Secret of the Indigo Tribe
- Revenge of Black Hand
- Third Army?

I've been enjoying Green Lantern and love where Johns is taking it. My favorite arcs would have to be everything in Part Two: but mostly Agent Orange. Really looking forward to where Bedard goes with Larfleeze in New Guardians arc: "Fall of the Blue Lanterns". Johns has made a great universe for the Green Lanterns and it's only beginning to be explored and utilized. He's building up the Sinestro/Jordan relationship because he's teased many times before that he wanted to do a Secret Origin II focusing on Sinestro, but I doubt we'll get that. With William Hand returning I expect Johns to focus more on Hal, the Guardians plot, First Lantern, and the Third Army.

Really great time to be a Lantern fan.

[nosocialize100]

I dropped the series after Blackest Night. Maybe my expectations were too high but that series did not end as well as I thought it should.

[Moriarty]

i still enjoy the main GL book but i can see why people think its not as good anymore. i quit reading all the other GL books.

[El Sombrero]

I think the new series has had fantastic execution, but yeah I agree that it feels like it's run its course and is getting old. I find it entertaining, I mean Johns has written a lot of fun scenes and Mahnke is just killing it, but ever since the end of Blackest Night it feels like Johns doesn't really have anywhere to go, so he's sort of recycling ideas or just adding more unnecessary backstory. But I have to reiterate that I feel like the new title is done really well for what it is.

The side titles suck though and I dislike how they are so based on what Johns is doing. GLC is tonally a lot like Johns' work and New Guardians and Red Lanterns are just bad titles that aren't really doing anything interesting with the concepts that Johns developed. I don't think the GL line would feel as stale as it does if the side titles were markedly better. They need to blow up the creative teams on those books and start over with new creatives and new ideas.

[Jaded Devil]

I haven't been a fan of Geoff's GL run from the second he took all personal responsibility away from Hal by blaming Parallax on a damn space-worm. That said, there have been some decent moments over the course of his run (and shifting focus onto Sinestro was a great touch), but overall there hasn't been enough for me to warrant any of the fervor its generated over the years, nor to continue letting it run into the ground. It needs fresh blood, and Geoff needs to stretch himself on a title/character people might not immediately associate his style with...something that will force him to shake it all up a bit.

[Zeeguy91]

Every comic fan I know still loves Johns' Green Lantern and I do too. I really don't think there's a writer that is more of a fit for the title than Johns. I've especially been loving these past few issues and I think Geoff still has the ability to tell stories that excite and surprise me. So, no, I think the title is far from creatively bankrupt.

But, since you've started this thread, you've opened a Pandora's Box and unleashed the throng of anti-Johns fans that will come out just to bash him for no real reason...Hooray...

[Schnitzy Pretzelpants]

I think the main problem with him right now – and this is in general, not just GL – is that he’s doing too much, and the quality of his work is suffering.

What used to be classic and taught decompressed storytelling has become underwritten and padded, and where he used to write solid and well-rounded characters, he’s instead writing caricatures too often.

Maybe it’s a DC mandate, or maybe it’s his decision but I also feel he isn’t big on character evolution and progression so much. He’ll write events that shift status quo with a character, but seems really disinclined to show a character evolve over the course of a series.

Clearly he knows how to show that progression over time, because he did so in the past – JSA and Flash (Wally) – had many examples of a character or characters progressing over the course of his writing.

Hal is the first character he started writing where I noticed this wasn’t really happening, and it’s what had me – who had been clamouring for Hal’s return - drop GL within the first 12 issues, only occasionally returning here and there, to see what’s going on.

With Justice League, he hit a real low for me. From this point on, I am waiting to hear/read some solid praise before I buy anything with his name on it now.

[bdk91939]

Guys I'm sorry. I didn't think that my initial subject was negative. But now looking at it the following day, that it can come across as negative. That was not my intent.

I am still loving the Geoff Johns stories in the Green Lantern universe. However, what I was trying to put across is that, for some reason, I may have been spoiled by The Rebirth, The Sinestro Corps War, and the lead up to Blackest Night. It just had such an epic scope a very epic feel to the whole Green Lantern Universe at the time. 2007 was super fantastic.

But now, it is still solid, but it's like it doesn't feel epic in scope. It's like it needs an injection of new ideas from other talents.

Perhaps I am still expecting, or more like wanting a kind of Sinestro Corps War feel of the titles. The feeling of getting blown away by each month's stories.

[MajorHoy]

Every comic fan I know still loves Johns' Green Lantern and I do too.

You must have a very small social circle.

[pietran30]

Yea I'm seeing this as more of a "coming full circle" rather than rehashing ideas...

[turtlefood]

I think its getting good again, could have ended after blackest night though,really didn't like wotgl

[bdk91939]

I think its getting good again, could have ended after blackest night though,really didn't like wotgl

I have to agree. It seems everything has to be a war. But the worst part I think was the destruction of Mogo. I rather liked Mogo as a planetary Green Lantern, where Green Lanterns go to get healed, and where new rings are fashioned.

[paulski]

But, since you've started this thread, you've opened a Pandora's Box and unleashed the throng of anti-Johns fans that will come out just to bash him for no real reason...Hooray...

You got it.

Just need a couple more of the usual suspects to turn up and it's a party.

[The Black Guardian]

Not even close.

Though I've had enough Sinestro for at least a decade.