St. PATRICK’S DAY DC GREEN SALE!

Top of the morning to you! Alright you don’t have to be Irish to celebrate St. Patrick’s Day but it helps. If you like comics today is indeed your lucky day as DC Digital and comiXology bring you over 200 digital comics for only $0.99 per issue. Check out some fresh helpings of Green Lantern, as well some classic issues of Green Arrow plus the entire run of Blackest Night.

It’s no blarney but you better act fast for St. Patrick’s Day comes but once a year and this time it’s really packing a punch; or at least a Boxing glove arrow or two! Download the issues today on the app and web store.   

Green Lantern: Emerald Warriors issue 2 – A man throws up snakes that then eat eyeballs

This week Green Lantern: Emerald Warriors issue 2 was released and I was pleased with what it contained. The cover is a little misleading, anime death angel Bleez only shows up at the end, but nonetheless the contents were definitely strong enough to merit a purchase. The series focuses on Guy Gardner, who’s a great character, but succeeds generally in it’s closer focus approach to the Green Lantern Corps and its mythos. Whereas Green Lantern is the superhero book and Corps is the team book, this book is about the space cop and his troubles. This theme is explored through the main character, who contemplates his legacy at the start, as well as other characters like Arisia and Kilowog, whose analyses of their stations in life were sorely needed. It even looks like we’ll get a greater focus on members of the other corps, something many fans have been calling for since their introduction.

I’d read some reservations about the book when it was announced and with the release of its first issue, but if things continue this way I can say confidently they were without merit. Green Lantern charges along, too quickly, adding to the mythology and GLC’s scope is too large to give us important face time with the characters. This book bridges that gap and in so doing pumps up the Green Lantern mythos and makes it come alive.

On a side note, this issue pointed me to a success of Johns’ restoration of the GL franchise I had never seen before. As referenced in the blog post’s title, this issue introduces a psychic villain who vomits up snakes that somehow by eating eyeballs allow him to take control of other psychics and form a psychic network with the aims of revenge on the Guardians for some previous wrongdoing. That’s just kooky comic villainy in its most delicious form. What I realized was that in creating (or putting a greater focus on) the concept of the mistakes of the guardians of the universe throughout time, Johns has given the Green Lantern a rich new well from which many villains can be born. Batman villains are all about mental illness. Now Green Lantern villains can be about sins of the past. This idea– that a policing or governing system can make mistakes and that these mistakes will come to haunt it– is iconic and fits perfectly with everything that the corps is about. One more reason why the Lantern’s dominance may be here to stay.

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The big two at the movies: Green Lantern 2

Earlier this week, Variety announced that Michael Goldenberg has been hired to pen “Green Lantern 2.”
My initial response was incredulity, but looking into it more deeply, I have some hope. The first “Green Lantern” had just wrapped production and it was only recently that I had seen images of Ryan Reynolds donning the emerald warrior’s costume. As it stands, “Green Lantern” is looking at a June 2011 theatrical release.

The preemptive move for the second film struck me as a brash contract on the part of DC Entertainment. Superheroes are natural franchise fodder. It seemed DC was so sure of the summer blockbuster model that they could already lock in talent for future moneymakers from the GL universe.

Taking a step back from an admittedly cynical stance on this, I realized there is an odd tension between blockbuster assuredness and franchise fidelity at the heart of the issue that demands a bit more exploration. Greg Berlanti, Michael Green and Marc Guggenheim scripted “Green Lantern” but Michael Goldenberg had done rewrites on it. His inclusion on the first project suggests, at the very least, a desire for continuity between the Green Lantern films. Ideally, we can take this as a commitment on the part of DC to a coherent, consistent franchise; a unified vision of the Green Lantern saga aided by a stable cast and crew. Constancy has been an issue for other major superhero properties. The Hulk is a banner example, running through constant rewrites, reboots and recasts over the last ten years.

The distrustful take on the announcement is contempt for the wash, rinse, repeat methodology of sequel-happy Hollywood that I mentioned above. My initial doubts led me to look up the credits for prolific screenwriter David S. Goyer, who was involved with the Nolan brothers in developing the story for “Batman Begins” and “The Dark Knight.” His rich host of superhero and science fiction scripts makes him a key representative for creative comic licensing at the movies. Goyer has an undeniable gift for bringing heroes to the screen but a quick glance at his prospective projects is somewhat alarming. He is attached as a writer to a full-length Magento film and a Superman re-launch. Additionally, he is involved in the development phase on a Ghost Rider sequel, as well as adaptations of “Y: The Last Man” and the Mike Mignola created “Baltimore, or The Steadfast Tin Soldier and the Vampire.

Bruce Wayne, Yorick, Clark Kent, Henry Baltimore. These characters run the gamut of heroism. Goyer is an expansive writer with the range and dramatic insight needed for such a variety of properties but his privileged spot in comics adaptation, particularly with DC characters, implies two things that should be carefully considered. On one hand, it shows an investment in quality. Goyer has been appreciated by audiences, critics, and, perhaps most importantly, producers so he’s entrusted with a great diversity of properties. The flip side of this is standard fare, big budget conservatism. As “The Dark Knight” makes clear, the guy fills seats. We can only read so far into the intentions of the people responsible for these comic book adaptations, but Goyer seems a safe bet. He’s able to keep a franchise healthy, making rich returns both critically and commercially. The obvious problem with this is that such a pragmatic approach to the business of adaptation is sorely limiting. The entire creative life of comics becomes reliant upon the imaginations of an elite staff of vetted writers.

The Goldenberg announcement is just one happening in a business of adaptation that is increasing with every summer. With the first “Green Lantern” only on the horizon, it’s difficult to judge the choice. What it offers us instead of critical insight is a reminder to remember the creators behind the films of this ever-expanding industry and to keep a watchful eye on the novel and dynastic choices steering these productions.