Monday, December 17, 2007

Why Don't I Like Green Lantern More?

MehThat's a question I find myself asking a lot lately. Pretty much everyone out there loves the Sinestro War story line, so I hopped on board. And for the umpteenth time, my reaction was, "Meh."

Not necessarily to that particular story line, but Green Lantern in general. And not just Hal Jordan (although that whole get out jail free card on mass murder bit still ticks the living hell out of me). I find I can't warm up to Guy Gardner or Jon Stewart or Gnort or Kilowog or Alan Scott or Kyle Rayner or any of them.

And I'm not sure why. I mean, I would think Green Lantern would be right up my wheelhouse. At least when the Silver Age version started up, it was the most science fiction-y of any strip; he was a charter member of the Justice League; he had a great costume and a visually dynamic power; and damn, that oath was cool.

And yet, whenever I try to come on for a few issues, I find myself bored and dropping it. And again, this is no reaction to recent story lines...it's been that way for my 30+ year comic life.

Maybe it's just a chocolate/vanilla thing.

I'll ponder this, and maybe run some theories by you guys later this week.

2 comments:

Khairul H. said...

The only GLs I like are G'nort, Kilowog and Mogo. Are any of them dead now? I'm a 'wait-for-the-trade' kinda guy so it'll be a few months before I get to read the Sinestro Corps War or whatever it was called.

Anonymous said...

In my case, I've always loved the concept of the Green Lantern Corps over the execution of the actual stories themselves. Does that make sense? With the latest series, that's not really the case (I'm really enjoying the Sinestro Corps thing), but in past series, I couldn't hang on for more than a handful of issues before I, like you, got bored.

Part of that was DC's incoherent presentation of Hal Jordan himself, who's personality (and occupation) would change with every writer. I think the absolutel low point came in the 1970's when Hal Jordan was reduced to becoming a traveling toy salesman...a sure sign that things had gotten badly off track.