So this is a real thing that will more than likely result in not buying my favorite character's comic for the first time in nine years.
Geoff Johns' run on writing Green Lantern for nine years was epic. Its viewed as the definitive take on Green Lantern. It rebooted the entire franchise, spawned inspiration for the short-lived animated series, and is the foundation of what a lot of people know about the Green Lanterns. So if you're a new writer in this world, what's the most logical step? Change everything!
That's a bit dramatic. They didn't change EVERYTHING, and I suppose some of the established mythology is still there. But the big change was in where the power of the rings comes from. In Johns' mythology, the power of the different lantern rings (will for green, rage for red, hope for blue... etc.) came from the universe itself. For example: when someone felt rage, that energy would spread out into the universe to be collected by the Red Lantern's main power battery, and then dispersed to each individual ring. In theory, so long as there were sentient beings in the universe, this power would always exist. Until now.
In a poorly explained twist on the mythology, Robert Venditti, Justin Jordan, Van Jensen and Charles Soule have written it so each emotion has its own power reservoir beyond the edge of the universe. Each time a ring-wielder uses a power ring, this reservoir gets depleted, damaging and eventually destroying the universe.
I understand putting the characters in the dilemma of, "what do we do if OUR power is destroying the universe?" And that may be all it is. But to me its a not so subtle nod to the times we live in reflecting the real world problem of depleting and destroying the Earth.
Look guys, if I want an environmental lesson, I'll go watch Captain Planet. I read comics to see super people do super things. The romanticism in Johns' original theory is completely lost in this one-dimensional, black and white story device.
All good things come to and end. I bet a comic fan said that.
-Gint
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