InsaneJournal

Tweak says, "But I'm Le tired!"

blake_reitz (blake_reitz) wrote in scans_daily,
@ 2009-07-21 02:04:00

Entry tags:

creator: john cassaday, creator: warren ellis, publisher: wildstorm, title: planetary

Into the Blue
The Real First Blue Lantern (not St. Walker!)

It occurred to me that I've seen a Blue Lantern before, one who looks a little bit like this guy...

Just not in the DCU.

(The planet dying is a planet not unlike Krypton, with one a sole child being rocketed away.)

I think a lot of people here would prefer these guardians as oppose to the little blue guys, as they seem to be, well, good.

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jlroberson
2009-07-21 07:58 am UTC (link)

Well, it's becoming increasingly clearer with all the revelations about their history that (a)most of the problems Green Lanterns fix have to do with things the Guardians brought about themselves, one way or another, and (b) that ultimately, the GLC is in fact the Guardians' bodyguard army. Because there's a lot of people who want revenge.

I mean, though it's pretty fucked up with him now, I do not disagree with Atrocitus. The Guardians' mistakes killed an entire space sector.(which makes it now Black Lantern-ready) Why should he not want the Smurfs dead? And consider the Guardians gave over an entire system, Vega, to crime, enslavement and greed as politics, as an exchange with Larfleeze. And ultimately they fear emotion because it challenges their power. But what does that power stand for? Protecting themselves. Consider the Final Crisis: did they do anything really to help or to fix it? The Corps did. But the Guardians did not. They just watched, and isolated Earth, making Darkseid's job actually easier.

One could be forgiven for thinking it would be better were the Guardians dead. All Krona did was cause the multiverse. They've done much more damage since. Their presumption in claiming they have responsibility for the universe because of Krona is very self-serving: would it not be more accurate that they presume the universe, therefore, is theirs?

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	thandrak 2009-07-21 10:03 am UTC (link)
	This is only _entirely_ true since Johns, though. (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

jlroberson
2009-07-21 11:37 am UTC (link)

Perhaps, but it's also not contradicting what was already known, but rather fleshing it out. Personally, I fond it more interesting than just accepting the Guardians are good. This fits in better with our world now, which is multipolar; the Guardians were the product of a (excuse the expression) bipolar world, and this idea of one side being absolute good and the other being absolute evil(which, as I've mentioned a lot, is shot through DC's entire cosmology--think of any silver age JLA issue--and I think it's interesting Johns has been deconstructing that)is a dated concept that should be re-examined and be made more complex. Consider the war of light in light of either the breakdown of the Iron Curtain or the "War on Terror."

What the Guardians show is that those who think they're "good" and thus everything they do is "right" can cause far more damage sometimes than "evil." It's an idea that takes into account what that idea has caused in real life, all the way up to the neocons. It's this theme, examined even more closely in Tomasi's GLC, that keeps me reading the books.

My PERSONAL opinion is that the Guardians are tools. But regardless of what it makes you think of them, it's this theme and examination that has been Johns and Tomasi's greatest strength.

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	btravage.livejournal.com 2009-07-22 01:12 am UTC (link)
	Atrocitus doesn't exist! (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

	jlroberson 2009-07-22 01:37 am UTC (link)
	No, really? I had no idea. Okay, a needless addition: IN THE STORY, I agree with Atrocitus AS A CHARACTER. Cheez. (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

	btravage.livejournal.com 2009-07-22 02:19 am UTC (link)
	Let me rephrase that, Atrocitus has no right to exist! His origin completely shits upon Alan Moore's Tygers, and he needlessly complicates Hal's origin. What's wrong with Legion? (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

jlroberson
2009-07-22 02:46 am UTC (link)

I disagree that it shits upon it, though retconning him into Hal's origin is a bit much. But as far as his existence, we didn't see everyone that was imprisoned there. In that respect all Johns did was what Moore used to do back then, which is expand upon something just sitting there whose potential might not have been fully explored. I don't think it's wrong any more than dividing Swamp Thing from Alec Holland.

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btravage.livejournal.com
2009-07-22 06:11 pm UTC (link)

If Geoff had found a way to improve upon the original story (like Alan Moore did with Swamp Thing, IMO, and a billion other characters), I wouldn't mind. What he did do, however, completely strips the Empire of Tears of that atmosphere of foreboding terror that Moore crafted so meticulously. Now they are no different from the hundred other Green Lantern villains who could be described as nothing more than "guys who are pissed of at the Guardians".

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	(Anonymous) 2009-07-21 08:23 am UTC (link)
	I loved that issue. It's incredibly obvious in each of the three cases what superhero they're referencing, and it's so incredibly well done and you can imagine all the good and wonder they'll bring to the world... ... And then [[SPOILERS]]. (Reply to this)

	ian_karkull 2009-07-21 10:51 am UTC (link)
	Not too many comic book panels have been more depressing than the one that follows, in which (is it still a spoiler when this happened forever ago?) The Lantern is carelessly tosed aside along with Superman's Cape and Wonder Woman's Bacelets. Nice tugging at the heart strings there, Mr. Ellis. My hat goes off to you. (Reply to this) (Thread)

	jlroberson 2009-07-21 11:29 am UTC (link)
	I wouldn't exactly say "carelessly" considering how they get it. (Reply to this) (Parent)

	thanekos 2009-07-21 03:33 pm UTC (link)
	well, if it helps any, Dowling did mention he was going to sell the lantern to Henry Bendix. ... no, that doesn't help any. (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

	halloweenjack 2009-07-21 04:09 pm UTC (link)
	Yeah, that guy died in the same Stormwatch arc that introduced Apollo and the Midnighter, as did several other Justice League-wannabes. (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

	jlroberson 2009-07-22 11:14 am UTC (link)
	That's right: it was stolen tech from Dowling Bendix used. Funny thing about them is they were BOTH Reed analogues. (Reply to this) (Parent)

	nymphgalatea 2009-07-21 06:29 pm UTC (link)
	This issue is one of the very few that has ever managed to reduce me to embarassing sniffles. The loss of potential greatness, a world never even knowing what it might have had... Ellis. Making me care about fictional characters. What a bastard. (Reply to this) (Parent)

ex_stig213
2009-07-21 11:45 am UTC (link)

For that matter, I would not be surprised if Blackest Night ended with the Guardians all dead and Sodom Yat installed in their place.

I think Morrison's creation of Alpha Lanterns to serve the role of 'Space FBI' also reflects back on his continual message that terrifying or impressive figures of power - e.g. Darkseid, Magneto, the Sheeda Queen, the Monitors - turn out when you get closer to be nothing more than pathetic old people, unable to adapt to change; to that extent, the Guardians are also like a fearful Big Brother-type government.

Johns and Tomasi, of course, are also able to play with that idea; this will probably feature heavily in BL. I shouldn't be surpised to discover the big bad to be some sort of more primal Guardian shunned by the others, just as with Mandrakk and the Monitors.

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	johnzdrake 2009-07-21 01:14 pm UTC (link)
	DC kills off all the guardians every decade or so. It never takes. (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

	comicoz 2009-07-21 03:20 pm UTC (link)
	One hopeful note is that at least in Legion of Three Worlds (did that series ever finish?), the guardians are dead and only Sodam is still around. (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

	enerprime 2009-07-21 07:13 pm UTC (link)
	With an oath that includes part of the Sinestro Corps oath and a line about how 'no other corps shall shine their light', or something like that. Hopeful, indeed... (Reply to this) (Parent)

	bluefall 2009-07-21 10:26 pm UTC (link)
	Yeah, flash-forwards always get lived up to. (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

	comicoz 2009-07-21 11:59 pm UTC (link)
	I was trying to be optimistic =p (Reply to this) (Parent)

	kingrockwell 2009-07-22 02:36 am UTC (link)
	Well, both Sodam and the Guardians appear to be dead right now, so... :( (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

	comicoz 2009-07-22 12:38 pm UTC (link)
	True, he tossed himself into the sun, didn't he. Assuming the writers can remember back 2 weeks, he'll come back. (Reply to this) (Parent)

	jarodrussell 2009-07-21 03:02 pm UTC (link)
	Am I the only on concerned that by moving one letter "Sodom Yat" becomes the phrase "Sodomy at"? That seems a little creepy. (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

	hearthemvoices 2009-07-21 04:11 pm UTC (link)
	Well... *Sodam Yat. That's the proper spelling anyway. :3 (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

	jarodrussell 2009-07-21 04:22 pm UTC (link)
	Ooops. Thanks for correcting that. (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

	ashtoreth 2009-07-22 09:05 pm UTC (link)
	I always wind up thinking "So Damn Yat!" (Reply to this) (Parent)

	ex_stig213 2009-07-21 05:25 pm UTC (link)
	Ah, forgive me. I was using a different spelling of Sodam's name... ...Which Moore, curiously enough, used AFTER he'd created the character, for his "Twilight of the Superheroes" pitch. Hurm...Gay Green Lantern empire? Biblical allusion? General Mish-Mash? (Reply to this) (Parent)

	comicoz 2009-07-21 03:21 pm UTC (link)
	"Be the light in the blackest night" If this was somehow tied into Blackest Night, I'd really be pleased. (Reply to this)

	silverzeo 2009-07-21 04:56 pm UTC (link)
	Freaky. DIdn't marvel had a French Blue Light guy too? (Reply to this) (Thread)

	icon_uk 2009-07-21 05:32 pm UTC (link)
	Also the seminal British crime movie "The Blue Lamp" from 1950, referring to the blue lamp usually hung outside British Police stations. (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

	blake_reitz 2009-07-21 05:48 pm UTC (link)
	I suppose blue does make more sense for space police... (Reply to this) (Parent)

	nymphgalatea 2009-07-21 06:38 pm UTC (link)
	This is my perfect moment in comics. Those couple of little panels where the Guardian says what a Lantern should be are precisely why I love Green Lantern comics so much. "Be the light in blackest night". It's just wonderful. (Reply to this) (Thread)

	jlroberson 2009-07-22 11:16 am UTC (link)
	Of course, it begs this question: yes, that IS the sort of thing you should be protecting them from. So why didn't you? Obviously they had warning enough to be watching. (Reply to this) (Parent)

	werehawk 2009-07-21 10:04 pm UTC (link)
	Actually predating this, the first Blue Lantern was Arnold Schwarzenegger when he first became governor of CA. There was a strip in a Sacramento comic mocking Arnie where he was a Blue Lantern. I know I have a copy somewhere of one strip with him as Blue Lantern but I've searched and searched and can't find it. Anyone else? (Reply to this)