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Larfleeze is Kinda, Sorta, Maybe Gonna Get His Own Series!
Larfleeze, the Orange Lantern, is one of my absolute favorite new comic book characters introduced in the past couple years. He’s crazy, in a fun way, and he rocks the color orange almost as well as Otto. He’s been kind of a stinker in the pages of Green Lantern: New Guardians in the New 52, so it seems that DC is going to give him his own series, written by space and joke master Keith Giffen!
Or actually, Larfleeze is going to get some back-up features in a new cosmic superhero comic entitled Threshold.
Reach harder, you lovable bastard!
Giffen is one of the geniuses that wrote Marvel’s Annihilation series, which was this huge space-based Marvel story that completely rewrote the entire Marvel space landscape. You know the Guardians of the Galaxy movie coming out in two years? That movie exists because of the work that Giffen did with Marvel’s space characters. So now that he’s working for DC, they’ve decided to let Giffen have similar fun with all of DC’s space characters. Could be a real blast.
But I’m mostly interested in the Larfleeze back up stories that are going to be a part of Threshold.
For those who don’t know, Larfleeze is the Orange Lantern; similar, of course, to the Green Lantern. A few years ago, writer Geoff Johns blew up the Green Lantern mythos, introducing some stellar new concepts and ideas that remain popular to this day. One of those is the idea that ‘Green’ is just one color in the entire Lantern spectrum, and that there are other groups out there, not just the Green Lantern Corps. There’s the Sinestro Corps, the Red Lantern Corps, the Star Sapphires, the Indigo Tribe…and then there is Larfleeze, the only Orange Lantern. The color orange represents greed in the emotional spectrum, and Larfleeze is an alien psychopath who is obsessed with his own power and owning stuff.
He’s comedic gold! And I’m very much looking forward to this series now.
Giffen had this to say about Larfleeze:
Yeah, there’s always going to be humor in everything I do, but with Larfleeze, he’s just such an outrageous character that you can do a lot with him. His first adventure is going to be dark humor, because he is, of course, greedy and self-centered and mean. So if you find that funny, then you’re going to find this story hilarious.
Sounds excellent to me! You can read the whole interview at Newsarama.
The New Justice League of America
Even though Justice League: International crashed and burned, DC Comics is going to try again with a brand new Justice League of America team. Apparently it’s going to run concurrent with the Justice League series that already exists. Because as the Marvel marketing department will tell you, why bother coming up with an original superhero team name when you can just re-use a name that is already a proven seller?
Behold the new team lineup!
Additional member: Catwoman’s cleavage
At the very least, this new team is spinning out of the ongoing story in Justice League. When Superman, Wonder Woman, Batman, Flash, Aquaman and the rest banded together into a team in the New 52, they did so on their own, with no government oversight or control. And there has been an ongoing story about how the U.S. government is a little skittish about the fact that this supremely powerful team of superheroes isn’t beholden to anyone.
So it looks like the government is putting together their own version of the Justice League.
The new line-up: Martian Manhunter, Catwoman, Green Arrow, Katana, Hawkman, Vibe, Steve Trevor, Stargirl and Baz, the new Arab-American Green Lantern.
Here’s what writer Geoff Johns had to say about the team:
The idea of why the JLA forms, and what it is, and what it’s in reaction to… It kind of spins out of Justice League #12; what happens in that, and then subsequent issues, because JLA comes out next year some time. But the book itself is a group of heroes that aren’t necessarily coming together because they want to be together… They’ve been selected specifically. They all want, or need something that Steve Trevor, and the other person behind the scenes that’s in charge of this team can provide.
The first arc is going to deal with something they learn is called The Secret Society of Super-Villains. It’s specific because its run by A.R.G.U.S. They have a team they feel they can now control. Whether or not that ends up being the case is up for debate.
You can read the full interview at Mtv Geek. Because when I think of geek culture, I think Mtv.
As for my personal opinion…I dunno. I think it’s too soon to be doing something like this. We’re barely more than a year into the New 52 reboot, and the Justice League title has barely had any time to settle itself. It’s a good enough comic, but I don’t think it’s as strong as it could be. Adding something like this for it to contend with is too much too soon. It’s like DC doesn’t think they have any time to let anything grow. They did this big reboot of their universe, and now they still have the modern day mentality that they’ve got to just push and push and push more stuff out the door to keep fans happy. They won’t let anything settle or simmer.
So I dunno. Maybe it’ll work, maybe it won’t. Justice League Dark is still selling. But Justice League International got cancelled. So we’ll see what happens when this new book comes out next year some time.
At the very least, the name is a little dumb. The names ‘Justice League’ and ‘Justice League of America’ are synonymous in the minds of the fans. Applying them to two different teams is going to get a little confusing.
6 Things I Want From a Justice League Movie
There will be a live action Justice League movie in my lifetime – but I don’t expect it to happen anytime soon. The news last week that Hollywood scribe Will Beall had been hired to write a Justice League script means about as much to me as Will Beall being hired to write a new script for the Real Housewives of Beverly Hills. It means nothing! Scripts are being written in Hollywood all the time, especially for superhero movies. And they routinely go nowhere. So until Warner Bros. actually begins real, physical production on a Justice League movie, I’m not going to care about the insider gossip.
Though I am going to speculate about what I’d like to see in a live action Justice League movie!
They’ll be in their trailers
What characters should appear? Who should they fight? Should it try to tie in any of the previous Batman or Superman films? These are burning questions in a fertile geek mind like my own. Now, there’s no way in the flaming halls of Hell that I’d ever be hired to pen a Justice League script, but I’m still a pretty awesome and creative guy. Plus I saw The Avengers twice in theaters, so I think I know a little something about superhero team movies. And here are 6 things I would like to see in a live action Justice League movie!
New Green Lantern? New Origin for Tim Drake?
Hi-dee-ho there, comic book fans! Your favorite blogger here bringing you some fascinating news out of DC Comics. Who is the new Green Lantern? And is DC going to change the origin for Tim Drake, the third Robin? We’re going to find out the answer to both questions in September!
In September, the one-year anniversary of the New 52 reboot, DC will be publishing a #0 issue for each of their titles. These will be flashback and prequel issues, revealing a bit of the new backstory that came with the reboot. This is a fantastic idea, because DC have told us very little about large swaths of the back story. You can check out the full solicitations here, if you’re so inclined.
But of the solicitations, two really stuck out to me: Green Lantern #0 and Teen Titans #0.
First, in the Green Lantern issue, we’re finally going to be introduced to the new human Green Lantern who made his first appearance in DC’s Free Comic Book Day issue. Only in that issue, he seemed to be an antagonist against the Justice League. Yeahbuwha?
I’m excited to see a new Green Lantern. I’ve never particularly cared for any of the four previous human Green Lanterns, and so new blood is just what that franchise needs. The ring can go to anyone, after all. And we haven’t had a new Green Lantern since the early 90s. This guy is apparently Arabic, based on the tattoo on his arm, so that’s cool. Diversity is always a good thing. But I am a little worried about that antagonist thing. Hopefully it’ll get sorted out.
My guess is that this guy, whose name we don’t yet know, will be getting Hal Jordan’s old ring. Prior to the reboot, Hal was kicked out of the Green Lantern Corps and stripped of his ring. Meanwhile, Sinestro had been inducted back into the Corps for reasons that remain mysterious. Since the reboot started, Sinestro has used his Power Ring to give Hal temporary Green Lantern powers so that they can go on adventures together. So that still leaves open the fate of Hal’s ring – which I think this new guy is going to get!
Meanwhile, we have Teen Titan #0.
The solicitation says that we’re going to take a look at how Tim Drake became Robin.
“Focusing on the origin of Tim Drake; how a would be Olympic star and computer genius went on to become Batman’s third Robin.”
So yeah, would-be Olympic star? Computer genius? Neither one was ever part of Tim’s original origin. Granted he’s always been good with computers, but he was never a computer genius. And also, Olympic athlete and computer genius? Do those even go together?
Tim’s original origin had him as a youthful detective who correctly deduced the identities of Batman and Robin using only his smarts and some good detective work. Then after Jason Todd dies, Tim notices that Batman has become a lot more reckless without a Robin. Tim tries to convince Dick Grayson to return as Robin, but Dick won’t go for it. Then when Batman is really in danger, Tim decides that he must do something brave and impulsive, and so he goes to aid him wearing the Robin costume. It’s only later that Bruce finally comes around and accepts Tim as a new Robin.
When it comes to the New 52 timeline, DC really shot themselves in the foot by declaring that superheroes have only really been around for about 5 years…yet they kept all four Robins. So Batman had four different Robins over a 5 year span? How does that even work? Especially considering that Damian Wayne, the current Robin, is 10 years old. That would mean Bruce Wayne has been Batman for at leas t10 years to have met Ras al Ghul and Talia…I dunno, it’s all very confusing.
But making Tim a would-be Olympic athlete would cut down on the time needed to train him to be Robin, making him easier to squeeze into that 5 year span. But does this also mean they’re going to change everything else out about his origin?
I sure hope not. The idea that Tim decided on his own that Batman needs a Robin is key to the character, and to the mantle of Robin. I plan to write a lot more on this someday, but it never works out whenever Batman choose who will be his next Robin. The new kid has to come to him naturally through the story. So I really hope DC doesn’t drastically alter Tim Drake’s origin.
Not that there’s anything I can do about it if they do…
The Gay DC Character is a Green Lantern That Nobody Knows and is Also From an Alternate Dimension
The superhero grandpa
The rebooted Alan Scott is gay.
Out of the five human Green Lanterns, the one who is least important, who has nothing at all to do with the recent movie or the current cartoon series, who isn’t even connected to the Green Lantern stories that have become so popular, is the character DC revealed as gay. Not only that, but Alan Scott only exists on Earth 2, an alternate dimension that is completely separate from the main DC Universe.
Why the hell was DC Comics making such a big deal out of this?
They couldn’t have picked a more complicated character to explain to the mainstream media. Alan Scott doesn’t have anything at all to do with the Green Lantern movie from just last year, and in fact has an entirely different backstory; plus he’s part of an alternate reality. If they were really looking for a positive gay role model character, they picked one of the absolutely least consequential characters possible.
I realize that the news initially broke because a fan asked DC a question at a comic-con panel, rather than a big DC press release, but then DC went and milked the reveal for all it was worth. And today they launched a huge media blitz revealing that one of their “iconic” superheroes was going to be rebooted as gay. Now that we know that Green Lantern Alan Scott is the gay character, I just think it reinforces how silly this publicity stunt was in the first place.
More after the jump.
