Posted in: Comics | Tagged: Comics, dan didio, dc, dc comics, dc rebirth, dccomicsrebirth, entertainment, geoff johns, jim lee, rebirth

"Green Lantern Has Shrunk" – Ethan Van Sciver On Making It Big Again #DCRebirth

There has been some disquiet on the John Stewart Green Lantern Appreciation Thread on CBR's message boards, to the extent that Ethan Van Sciver popped by to calm the situation.

First he promised

I ain't goin' NOWHERE, Desh. I'll be on GREEN LANTERN for a loooooooooooooooooooooong time.

Before following up with

First and foremost, I LOVE GREEN LANTERN.

I jumpstarted this franchise with Geoff 12 years ago, created a lot of concepts and characters and put a lot of things in motion, and then left. We made it HUGE. At one point Green Lantern was second only to Batman. I came back here and there to do an annual or a fill in, but I mostly watched from the sidelines, unhappily, while other creators worked on this book and these characters.

GREEN LANTERN should be an endless fountain of spin off books for DC Comics. It really should. Hal Jordan should always be at the heart, in my opinion, because he's the Silver Age start of the title. But there really SHOULD be a John Stewart solo book. There really should be a Guy Gardner spin off book. There should be a Kyle book.

I think we'll get there. At the moment, HAL JORDAN AND THE GREEN LANTERN CORPS, a lengthy title I will rue having to type all of the time, is the classic GREEN LANTERN title. It's Hal-centric. All other Lanterns will appear there in, but as his partners. My hope is that if we do a fantastic book, and win back readers again, the franchise will grow once more. As it stands, I'm shocked at it's position on the top 300 charts. I can list a hundred different reasons why I believe this has happened. But I want to keep things positive, restore what works, and create new stuff to expand and enrich.

If you are a fan of GREEN LANTERN, you'll join us! I promise you it'll be great. If you're just an isolated fan of one Green Lantern character, hopefully we'll make you happy. But further, hopefully we'll get things back to where they should be and a John Stewart title will be forthcoming.

Not everyone was happy but he kept fighting the good fight.

People aren't wearing "Geoff Johns" t-shirts. They're wearing Green, Blue, Red, Yellow and Orange Lantern shirts. (Not so much Indigo or Violet though. Hm.) GREEN LANTERN has fans, but they can only be expected to support the book when it's good. With Geoff, it was great. And I think it can be great again.

Desh thinks Geoff and I are "holding GL back" and should leave GREEN LANTERN.

WE DID. We did leave.

So we're back. He's creating this GREEN LANTERNS title, and I think it'll be great. I'm excited about drawing that REBIRTH issue.

And I'm drawing HAL JORDAN AND THE GREEN LANTERN CORPS, working with Robert Venditti. I'm looking forward to talking to him and getting his pumped and motivated to do great things.

All of these DC characters are great, they just need to be put in the proper creative hands. GREEN LANTERN will never match BATMAN, (nothing will) but it did really, really well in the last decade. There's definitely room to build and grow.

So let's rock it!

And it appears the title of the new book comes directly from Ethan.

No, there's absolutely no reason whatsoever. Before I knew about REBIRTH, I was working up the conditions of my exclusive contract with DC, and one of the things I asked for was my own Green Lantern title called HAL JORDAN AND THE GREEN LANTERN CORPS. I just wanted my own playground, like Dave Finch got with Batman: The Dark Knight. I wanted it to be along the lines of the classic 1980's GREEN LANTERN book that Joe Staton drew. I'd get to draw all of the Lanterns, and Hal, (who I'm sorry, is my favorite) would be the lead. And I'd choose my own writer.

I was told "nah." No to that title being created for me. I can only speculate as to why, but it probably had to do with plans already in motion with REBIRTH.

Suddenly, I am invited to join this event. What do I want to draw? And I just said, "Green Lantern, Green Lantern, Green Lantern." At which time, I was told that there was a book being planned with the title HAL JORDAN AND THE GREEN LANTERN CORPS (guess they liked it) and that if I wanted in, I could have it.

My feeling is that GREEN LANTERN has shrunk. There's blame to go around, but look, we've got a progressive new GREEN LANTERNS title with a fresh approach, and then a classic title with the flavor of the Joe Staton run. Those are the two book we have to build from. I think we can do great things, but we need fan support.

I hope you'll cheer us on. I do hear you. Believe me. I only care about telling great Green Lantern stories to the widest possible audience. So I'm listening.

He is! And replying as well!

You know, they could probably do with someone over on the Cyborg thread as well.

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