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Grant Morrison's Pitch for The Green Lantern – Not Trying to Compete With Geoff Johns

You may have learnt about Grant Morrison and Liam Sharp's upcoming series The Green Lantern in Bleeding Cool. But today's DC Nation has Grant's pitch for the series, reproduced below – albeit spoiler-free censored. Read more – and editor Brian Cunningham's notes – in DC Nation #3, out free today.

No one in the foreseeable future is likely to do as all-encompassing and thorough a job developing the Green Lantern mythos as Geoff Johns in his seminal (2004-2013) run.

We're not even going to try.

Here, the plan is to create a suite of stories that reads differently from the last decade or so of GL adventures, while still maintaining, even strengthening the feel of the core concept, and honoring the rich continuity of both Green Lantern and the DCU. To create this different feel, I'd like to [BLANK] to create a series of Green Lantern stories that will feel timeless and which, hopefully, can be read by anyone.

No more massive "endgame" stories that leave Oa in ruins, the Corps decimated, and the Guardians revealed as evil manipulators etc. etc., – no [BLANK] or [BLANK] No Hector Hammond. No Star Sapphire.

The days of apocalyptic, nihilistic epics are done. We survived the end times.[BLANK] We no longer have the luxury of Armageddon to occupy our time with its flamboyant demands! This is where the Green Lanterns get down to the daily grind of policing the universe. These are down and dirty cosmic procedurals and I'm approaching this more as a TV show (with unlimited effects budget) than a blockbuster summer movie.

To that end, this approach has more of a day-to-day feel, in the sense that this is the kind of thing that happens all the time on this scale of universal law enforcement.[BLANK]

We're starting with a new number #1, so I'd like to rename the book THE GREEN LANTERN, adding that all-important definite article.

I'd also love to have the words BEWARE MY POWER above the title! (Would make a great T-shirt. All we need is for Sheldon Cooper to wear one…)

As the above suggests, I think we should reemphasise the central idea of the Green Lantern Corps as an intergalactic police force. Generally, and quite and given the connotations of the word "Corps," the GLs are played as an army, but I'd prefer to lean more heavily into the cop angle for these stories.

Additionally, it would be good to use this book to map out and consolidate the DC "cosmic" universe – the so we'll have appearances by [BLANK] Star.[BLANK] or [BLANK] . And so on, weaving all of DC's space stuff into one vast, psychedelic tapestry. DC has a vast and sprawling backdrop of strange worlds and bizarre beings going back decades. All the various exotic planets that have come and gone since the Silver Age and never been revisited will find new homes here as they're woven together to create a consistent framework for our stories.

We'll also be drawing on real life cosmology and visiting the sort of planets which actually do exist in the real world –

Episode titles have a slightly retro post-modern pulp sci-fi feel to support this! The hypothetical "new reader" should be able to pick up any issue of Green Lantern and get a satisfying story in 22 pages – with enough enticing details of the larger season arc and its interlinking subplots, to bring her back for the next episode.

Using the television show template – a long-form universe-building approach nicked from comics in the first place – our Green Lantern run will be or into year-long "seasons" of 12 episodes.

These seasons will be comprised of one or two issue procedural adventures with running subplots which seamlessly flow and combine to flesh out a bigger "season arc" story, concluding in [BLANK]

Mid-season and season finale stories will be epic enough for "event" status but let's keep consequences [BLANK] and continuity for the time being. Unless someone has a great idea for a crossover!

Visually, this is a book about light, albeit mostly green light, so let's not forget that it's a lightshow – spectacular, dazzling, and colorful.

As mentioned, I'd love to capture and develop the feel of French graphic novels, the look of Valerian, Barbarella and The 5th Element and sci-fi cover from the Golden Age of Astounding Stories, Analog, Fantasy and Science Fiction and all the rest.

Exotic locales, wild-looking alien cultures. Pure pulp thrills with a strange, existential Buddhist Kerouac core.

Storylines will be fast-paced "super-compressed."

And, as ever, much of this may change as we progress and I get into the rhythm of the stories.

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