Play on! The sandbox is open to all.

You’re right: Lanterns were originally supposed to be utterly without fear. Happily, Peter David finally wrote a story exposing that for the insanity it was. (Alan Moore wrote another, from a different direction.) Now it’s all about “overcoming great fear”; indeed, one positive aspect of the new GL Corps stories is that courage — recognizing fear and overcoming it — is stressed.

If I remember right, the Corps was outlawed from the space occupied by the Legion of Superheroes, for a reason that was given but unknown to me. Even so, you’d think the Guardians themselves should not only have been able to handle the Great Darkness, but should’ve been able to prevent the Apokolips crowd from ever becoming a problem. On the other hand, Kirby’s “New Gods” of Apokolips and New Genesis were gods, suggesting that the Guardians had met their match. (Perhaps Kirby was being pluralistic. Or Taoistic: one must have balance, dontchaknow.)

Hal’s Dark Phoenix time, “Emerald Twilight” — man, the one (count ‘em, one) instance in which I can be grateful for retconning. Gad. It’s appalling what a company will haul out of the closet in an effort to raise sales. On the other hand, as he did with the issue of fear, Geoff Johns took the Parallax business and turned it around into something positive. Kudos to him. Even if the idea of a psychological color spectrum seems unusual at first glance — so that the power ring energies are green because that color represents will power at its purest — it makes for an interesting image, and it’s an original explanation for why the color yellow had been a problem, and for rookie GLs still is. Indeed, Johns has given us a new explanation for why we’ve often referred to the cowardly as “yellow.”

Very good point about “who the hell are you to tell us you’re protecting us? And who made you our messiah?” Not the kind of question one wants to hear, without the credentials to back up the answer. Indeed, the whole Green Lantern scheme is a kind of secular messianism. But I have yet to see a Guardian offering to be crucified.

I still have fun with the series anyway. Talk about one’s boyish fantasies … As grown-ups we can recognize that that’s all they are, but now we can enjoy them consciously.

Thanks for looking in. Brave Men Rocks!

Now, as for the GL Corps…

It’s said that you can tell the decade a science fiction story / movie / television show / comic book was created because it reflects the morality and culture of that time. So it is with the GL Corps, originally conceived way the heck back in the mists of the… fifties? Forties?

I dunno, and I’m not checking. But you get what I’m saying. Superman doesn’t still fight for the American Way, does he??? If so, why isn’t the war over with, already?

If we look at the GL Corps as if it were real, well, then, we have a severely screwed up interstellar culture. One that probably operates under a specter of fear.

Why?

Well. You’ve got 7,200 troops flying around space, each with a weapon that works miracles.

Has there ever been a species that said, “Fly away, GL; we don’t need no space-pig up in our bizniz!” If not, there’s a gift for the comics writers. All I want is an “Inspired by…” in the credits.

They haven’t done that because they’re terrified of the consequences. Terrified to not be protected against the local definition of evil, and terrified of the protectors, too. Let’s not forget Hal Jordan’s Dark Phoenix stage… even if all is forgiven these days. (Stupid continuity! Toss it out!)

I realize that the mythos has been updated to include something about upholding the laws / ethics of that local sector of space (a ridiculous concept, as you pointed out.) That might make things a little easier for the host species to swallow… IF they had anything to say about who actually got to wear the green super-weapon.

But they don’t, do they? The Guardians do. I might not remember this correctly, but wasn’t Hal Jordan chosen because he was fearless?

Hm. So the Guardians choose individuals who lack a critical self-preservation instinct. What else are they lacking? Could they be… psychopaths, too?

Gee, maybe I need to submit a GL script myself.

I guess my point is that the GL Corps *don’t make sense,* no matter how much revision is done to keep up with the times, because the initial concept is flawed. It paints a picture of a galaxy under the thumb of a quasi-benevolent, nearly omnipotent (I know that’s a non sequitur) police force — a police force overseen by immortal beings who are acting out of guilt for something one individual did aeons ago????

By the way, where is the GL Corps in the era of the Legion of Superheroes? Do they exist? If so, where were they during the Great Darkness Saga?

For that matter, why haven’t they got together and wiped out Darkseid altogether? Is he a force of nature, like Galactus is in the other guys’ milieu? I don’t recall my New Gods stuff… but I don’t think so.

The GL Corps don’t make sense in the same way sparks and smoke falling from Buck Roger’s ship doesn’t make sense. In the same way that the Federation has been able to make food out of elementary particles… and yet the darn yeoman takes notes on a clipboard and the computer sounds like a kid’s toy.

I’m running out of steam, here. Thanks for letting me play!