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Van Jensen and Robert Venditti Talk ‘Godhead’ and Things to Come


on November 22, 2014

Venditti and Jensen talk Godhead

There’s been more publicity for the “Godhead” event, which also features signs of things to come. Van Jensen, writer of Green Lantern Corps, and Robert Venditti, writer of Green Lantern, answered some questions with Newsarama.Com, and also showed off an image from the upcoming Green Lantern Corps #37, seen above. As we can see in the image, John Stewart is back in his regular Green Lantern uniform, so I suppose his tenure as a Star Sapphire doesn’t last long at all. That’s actually a relief to me. A small part of me was afraid that DC would try to sabotage John by making him a Star Sapphire for an extended length of time. I knew that was highly unlikely, but I don’t put much past DC Editorial. On that note, here are some excerpts from the article:

The two writers, who also currently co-write The Flash, have invented new threats and thought-provoking personal challenges for the Lanterns while shaking up the team. And although some wild rumors about John Stewart dying have been proven false, the latest issue of Corps put him in a Star Sapphire ring.

What’s false is the truth of this statement. Previous Green Lantern Corps writer, Joshua Hale Fialkov, actually confirmed that DC Editorial’s John Stewart death mandate was true. What happened was the editors ultimately decided to not follow through with it once Fialkov left over the ridiculous decision and word got out as to why.

Anyway, moving on to the interview.

Jensen: There’s some very central stuff that goes on in Green Lantern Corps #37. I can’t really talk too much about it without spoiling the end of Act II.

In a big way, the final act [in December’s issues] is about the various Lanterns really taking the fight to the New Gods. We’ve been building the Lanterns up and seeing them trying to equip themselves mentally and physically with the kind of weapons that they need to take on an entire army of gods.

So that’s really central to the next issue of Green Lantern Corps.

And there’s some very, very big fights ahead.

I’m looking forward to seeing how the Green Lanterns deal with the seemingly unstoppable New Gods. When asked about what threat John and the Corps will face after “Godhead,” Jensen says:

Yeah, what’s coming up is not something that has to do with the Black Lanterns. It’s a different threat. And it’s something that’s going to emerge out of existing Green Lantern history, so this is not some totally new thing, but an exploration of something very, very old and very strange in the Lanterns’ history, but adding some new wrinkles to it.

The central idea we’re exploring is, with the Lanterns caught up in huge battle after huge battle, again and again and again, their mission of policing the universe — they really have not been able to do that.

So the universe, in the absence of Green Lanterns, has fallen into darkness. Like, if you’d imagine a city where the police have been caught up in some ongoing, massive situation in one part of town and the rest of the city, with no police whatsoever, would turn to chaos. And that’s what we’re seeing through a lot of the universe.

The Shadow Empire comes from something that has already been around in the Green Lantern mythology? I’m going to go out on a limb and guess that it has something to do with a story from an obscure 1980s “Tales of the Green Lantern Corps” backup. Or perhaps the Mad God Sector 3600. What I don’t like about the Shadow Empire from what I’ve read in the solicits is that they have some ancient grudge against the Green Lantern Corps. How many times have we seen that in recent memory? The Keepers (they actually had a grudge against the Guardians, but that’s not very different), the Durlans, and now the Shadow Empire. Well, we’ll see how it goes.

Venditti: Yeah, the Templar Guardians have been off with Kyle for, well, going on 20 issues now, familiarizing themselves with the universe after having been locked away for so long. And now they’re coming back home to become leaders. But they’re very different characters from the old Guardians. The old Guardians, I think, over time became dark and twisted and so focused on the end.

The Templar Guardians are a much different group of characters. They’re more whimsical. They’re more fun. They’re more good-hearted. So their style of leadership will be different.

But that doesn’t mean there aren’t still huge scale threats, believe it or not, even larger than the ones we’ve seen so far, including the New Gods, and they’re still on the horizon. Given everything that the Corps has been through in the past couple years.

As Van said, the Corps have left much of the universe unpoliced. And the universe at large has fallen out of favor, in terms of how they see the Corps.

There are a lot of challenges that need to be faced, and they’ll lead to some pretty drastic schisms that are going to happen. Some of these things will come to conclusion by issue #40. Some of them, we’ll see exactly how things are different after we come back from the two-month break.

Bigger threats than the New Gods? That sounds like the Anti-Monitor. You can read the rest of the interview at the link below:
GREEN LANTERN Writers Talk GODHEAD, Say ‘Things Will Be Different’ Post-CONVERGENCE

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  • Steve Rogers

    I enjoyed their interviews. I can’t wait for GLC in December with John and Sinestro!

    I’ve came across this video that’s an interview with Bruce Timm on promoting Green Lantern Emerald Nights. The interviewer asked Bruce why didn’t he go with John Stewart since he’s more popular among the demographic.

    It’s at 2:30.

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rz70cLAX0js

    It really shows you that Geoff Johns did everything he can to damage John.

    Let me know what you think about the video.

    It’s a bit worrisome that Bruce Timm may put Hal Jordan in Gods and Monsters, because of this.

    • Desh Derringer

      Thanks for posting that video. I hadn’t seen it before. I don’t hold that against Timm at all. I think that was the spiel that Johns and DC fed him. “Green Lantern revolves around Hal Jordan, and therefore, you must use Hal Jordan.” I don’t believe Timm had any decision in the matter.

      That was back in 2011 when WB had all their eggs in the Hal Jordan basket. I think by now, after all the failed Hal Jordan attempts, and a large portion of the audience asking “Where is John Stewart?” or “Why is he White?” they realize that isn’t the way to go. Geoff Johns and DC/WB’s thinking was entirely foolish and misguided. It was utterly backwards.

      You give the audience what they like, are accustomed to, and what has been proven to work with them. Not something that is entirely contradictory to all of that, just because your ancient, outdated comic books have something else.

      • Steve Rogers

        Don’t get me wrong Desh, I think Bruce Timm had to say things like that because Hal was being pushed. If you notice in the video, it seems that was a hard question for Timm to answer. Since God and Monsters is not tied to continuity, Bruce Timm can do anything he wants to. After your response, I do feel better now 🙂

        • Desh Derringer

          Yeah, I could tell that was a really, really awkward moment, and Timm seemed to be extra careful of what he said before he said it, and seemed to have some difficulty answering. I know he really loves John Stewart. One doesn’t work on a character as much as he did and do so well with him if they don’t. Bruce Timm largely created the modern day perception of John and put John Stewart on the map, and it was Timm’s choice to use John in the animated shows to begin with.

          No matter what came out of Timm’s mouth at that really awkward moment, I’m almost positive that John Stewart is Timm’s preferred Lantern. He did those Hal Jordan projects because I’m pretty sure he was mandated to. And I heard he stopped doing DC projects because he was tired of the mandates.

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