New Green Lantern Family Creative Teams Announced

Comics News
New Green Lantern Family Creative Teams Announced
By Dan Horn
February 20, 2013 - 12:25

DC Comics

Billy Tan promotional art

If the comics community were to fabricate an effigy of everything wrong with comic book continuity, I'm certain it would have to resemble Geoff Johns. From explaining away Hal Jordan's humanity and dynamism with a space flu, to his inexplicable resurrection of Barry Allen, to the utterly hackneyed "Blackest Night" and the far more torpid "Brightest Day," writer Geoff Johns has committed to paper some of the most egregious continuity snafus in DC Comics history.

I've never been one to hide my dissatisfaction with Johns' more recent works, but I would be remiss if I did not at least lay most of the blame squarely on the shoulders of DC editorial. After all, it is their directives that necessitate these resurrections and resets without a clear idea of how to implement said directives.

In any case, I haven't read Green Lantern comics in quite some time, but with the end of Geoff Johns' long run on the Green Lantern title looming, DC has just announced the new creative teams for the Green Lantern family of books, and they sound very promising.

First, Johns and longtime GL artist Doug Mahnke will be replaced on Green Lantern by X-O Manowar writer Robert Venditti and Ultimates artist Billy Tan.

I, Vampire writer Josh Fialkov and DC Universe Presents: Deadman artist Bernard Chang will be taking the reigns of Green Lantern Corps.

The very talented and under-appreciated Mr. Fialkov will also takeover writing duties on the Red Lanterns series with Alessandro Vitti, artist of Secret Warriors.

Guardians of the Galaxy artist Brad Walker will be tackling a new set of intergalactic "guardians" in Green Lantern: New Guardians with Strange Talent of Luther Strode writer Justin Jordan.

Additionally, a series based on the Orange Lantern Larfleeze will be hitting stands, written by Keith Giffen with art by Scott Kolins.

The new creative lineup is tantalizing. While I've been itching to see Fialkov cut his teeth on a mainstream book, I've also been hoping to see Robert Vendetti break out of the niche. The artistic talent behind these books alone is enough to make me want to pick up GL for the first time in over a year, but as I've said before, it isn't necessarily the creators that make or break books like Green Lantern; it's DC editorial.

Fingers crossed they don't muck this up again.