Our Opinion of Today’s DC News

We heard some rumors via Bleeding Cool early on in the month but today Geoff Johns made official what the DC Rebirth initiative embodies, followed by news on the new titles.  Comic Book Resources dropped a video of Johns which makes several allusions to both Green Lantern: Rebirth and Flash: Rebirth and how they relate to the new initiative which stops short of calling itself a reboot, but is clearly a relaunch.  While I’m not going to reprint all the information that can be found on sites like Comic Book Resources, I’ll share my interpretation of the news and what I think it means for the Green Lantern universe.

For Green Lantern fans it means the loss of the fantastic Sinestro title, however included in the Rebirth news is that that there will be two twice monthly Green Lantern series, one called Green Lanterns and one called Hal Jordan and the Green Lantern Corps.  Creative teams will be announced on March 26th at WonderCon in Los Angeles, an event which will be live streamed for fans who want to witness the announcements but cannot attend the show.

One of the Bleeding Cool rumors was a Jessica Cruz led New Green Lantern book which proved false.  However the screen grab from the video shown below clearly shows a female Green Lantern which assume to be either Jessica or a “Rebirth-ed” Jade.  I lean towards it being the former and in looking at the picture I’m thinking that perhaps Cruz will be a part of the new Titan series which includes a new Kid Flash, possibly the return of the original Wally West.  Again, all just speculation on my part but I feel that perhaps it’s best to spread them out a bit with Cruz filling a GL spot on a new Titans book allowing her to develop as a character rather than competing with the other five ring bearers from Earth.

As for the two Green Lantern books I’m glad we’re getting four per month and while details are unknown at this point I do have some initial thoughts that I’ll share.  First of all the Green Lanterns book is interesting in its lack of a specific character name in the title.  Combined with the Corps being specifically connected to Hal’s series it implies to me that the book focuses on individual ring bearers.  Perhaps this is where Guy Gardner, John Stewart and/or Kyle Rayner will be found, or maybe it will be a long wanted anthology book showcasing different Green Lanterns.  Or maybe both of those ideas.  This would allow different creative teams to work on stories independent of each other to help deal with the pace of producing a twice monthly book.  Much like the old Green Lantern Corps Quarterly series never featured stories by just one creative team.

The Hal Jordan and the Green Lantern Corps series, despite its unwieldy title, is exactly what it says it is.  I do think that the twice monthly books are going to be a big challenge for creative teams.  For this book I’m thinking that either each issue will be split in half with one focusing on Hal and the other the Corps and then being one cohesive book when their paths cross.  Again it takes the pressure off a little bit.

Ethan Van Sciver is clearly involved in some capacity due to his inclusion in the DC Universe: Rebirth eighty page kickoff book.  Earlier today he mentioned on social media that he was redesigning a Green Lantern which could either be for this book or one of the Green Lantern books.  Could this be a new look for Kyle Rayner, or is he designing a new look for the female ring bearer in the previous picture?  Or is it someone else?

While there are a lot of questions over the course of the next month we’ll get the answers we all want to know, but one thing is for certain – it’s an exciting time to be a DC Comics fan!