The Green Lantern Season Two #4 *Preview/Spoilers*

[Hypo Lil' Leaguer Find all posts View Profile Close Hypo]

The Green Lantern Season Two #4 Preview
Writer: Grant Morrison
Artist: Liam Sharp

[Hypo Lil' Leaguer Find all posts View Profile Close Hypo]

The way Morrison writes alien dialogue is really starting to grate on me.

[Mister Ed Horse of a Different Color Find all posts View Profile Close Mister Ed]

Yeah, that was annoying. I shouldn't have to work that hard to figure out what a character is saying, unless it isn't important that I know. Here, we clearly were supposed to be able to parse what they were saying, Hal's dialogue assumed it. If Hal can clearly understand what they are saying, the reader should be able to as well. (If it is clear that Hal can't understand, either, then there's no problem with making their language as opaque as you want.)

[Space Cop The Dandy Find all posts View Profile Close Space Cop]

Anyone who was hoping we'd get a more clear-cut story this issue will be disappointed.

Nice to see Olivia, but I really feel like I have very little idea what's going on.

[Big Daddy Dave Skywalker Moisture Farmer Find all posts View Profile Close Big Daddy Dave Skywalker]

I went ro.my.local comic shop to pick this and The Question #3 up, but they were closed so I'll try again tomorrow.

[Trey Strain Guardian of the Universe Find all posts View Profile Close Trey Strain]

Why aren't people more excited that Grant Morrison is writing Green Lantern?

I think the answer is that funny-looking aliens passed their peak during Geoff's tenure on the comic.

Nobody is impressed any longer that a writer and an artist can come up with more and more funny-looking aliens to regale them with.

Hal needs to get back to Earth.

[Big Blue Lantern Corps Honor Guard Find all posts View Profile Close Big Blue Lantern]

Why aren't people more excited that Grant Morrison is writing Green Lantern?

I think the answer is that funny-looking aliens passed their peak during Geoff's tenure on the comic.

Nobody is impressed any longer that a writer and an artist can come up with more and more funny-looking aliens to regale them with.

Hal needs to get back to Earth.

Morrison is one of those writers who has gotten so notable that it's impossible for him to avoid controversy at this point, much like Johns. For those who don't like his style, the criticism that I hear the most his "student of history" approach is laborious. He interweaves so many minor characters and obscure plot points into his work that new/casual readers sometimes don't have the same reaction as veteran readers do.

As far as what fans want right now that they're not getting, the setting doesn't seem to be the issue as much as having just one GL title without a companion book. With Denny O'Neil's passing, now would be the perfect time to revisit the HTH concept with Hal & Ollie on an Earth mission as a tribute. However, there are fans who have watched a 1.5 years go by with some favorite characters being absent. While Morrison's seasons have been satisfying to older readers like me, I'm getting the definite sense that it's time to open up the GL narrative again to see what's going on outside of Hal's scope.

[Mister Ed Horse of a Different Color Find all posts View Profile Close Mister Ed]

As a veteran reader, while I do enjoy seeing nods to GLs long, intricate history, I'm not really getting much out of Morrison's brand of "nostalgia". The stuff he's dredging up is just not anything I'm excited to revisit in most cases. I could have happily gone without any reference to Olivia Reynold's U-mind crap ever being mentioned again, for instance. The last time that stuff came up was when it was dug up to hang a lousy plotline on immediately before TPTB decided that Emerald Twilight was the way to go. If he brings back the Predator at some point, I'll almost be convinced that he's TRYING to focus on some of the worst garbage from GL's past. Maybe he wants the challenge of trying to redeem some of this stuff, trying to make it into something better than it was. If so, though, he isn't succeeding from my perspective.

[Trey Strain Guardian of the Universe Find all posts View Profile Close Trey Strain]

Ultimately, fiction needs to be about people. Your audience will dump you if you don't recognize that. You can put a few aliens in your stories, but if you do, make them look like this.

https://www.deviantart.com/raphtor/a...urus-753061901

[Trey Strain Guardian of the Universe Find all posts View Profile Close Trey Strain]

Or maybe make them look impressive, like the Silver Surfer. But don't make them look goofy or silly, unless it's a comedic character like Ch'p or Gnort.

[Trey Strain Guardian of the Universe Find all posts View Profile Close Trey Strain]

As a veteran reader, while I do enjoy seeing nods to GLs long, intricate history, I'm not really getting much out of Morrison's brand of "nostalgia". The stuff he's dredging up is just not anything I'm excited to revisit in most cases. I could have happily gone without any reference to Olivia Reynold's U-mind crap ever being mentioned again, for instance. The last time that stuff came up was when it was dug up to hang a lousy plotline on immediately before TPTB decided that Emerald Twilight was the way to go. If he brings back the Predator at some point, I'll almost be convinced that he's TRYING to focus on some of the worst garbage from GL's past. Maybe he wants the challenge of trying to redeem some of this stuff, trying to make it into something better than it was. If so, though, he isn't succeeding from my perspective.

I think that's what he's doing. But a lot of stuff just can't be rehabilitated.

The comic needs to be THOUGHTFULLY and CAREFULLY rebooted.

[Space Cop The Dandy Find all posts View Profile Close Space Cop]

As a veteran reader, while I do enjoy seeing nods to GLs long, intricate history, I'm not really getting much out of Morrison's brand of "nostalgia". The stuff he's dredging up is just not anything I'm excited to revisit in most cases. I could have happily gone without any reference to Olivia Reynold's U-mind crap ever being mentioned again, for instance. The last time that stuff came up was when it was dug up to hang a lousy plotline on immediately before TPTB decided that Emerald Twilight was the way to go. If he brings back the Predator at some point, I'll almost be convinced that he's TRYING to focus on some of the worst garbage from GL's past. Maybe he wants the challenge of trying to redeem some of this stuff, trying to make it into something better than it was. If so, though, he isn't succeeding from my perspective.

I'm a fairly veteran reader too (though I seem to forget a lot more of it than you) and while I enjoy the art in the series and like a lot of the references, I find Morrison's stuff difficult to read. It always feels like I came in half way in a really complicated story. I like comics as a quick diversion (literally keep the new comics in the bathroom), but reading Morrison is like reading the comics equivalent of James Joyce or TS Eliot.

[Mister Ed Horse of a Different Color Find all posts View Profile Close Mister Ed]

Yeah, Morrison often seems to go out of his way to make stuff difficult to understand, as if there is some intrinsic merit to forcing the reader to put in extra effort to figure out what is going on. I don't mind complex plots (well, sometimes I do, but not as a rule), but obscure references, plot points that require that you "read between the lines", or weirdly formatted dialog just add effort for effort's sake, and add very little to the quality of the story, IMHO.

[Big Blue Lantern Corps Honor Guard Find all posts View Profile Close Big Blue Lantern]

Yeah, Morrison often seems to go out of his way to make stuff difficult to understand, as if there is some intrinsic merit to forcing the reader to put in extra effort to figure out what is going on. I don't mind complex plots (well, sometimes I do, but not as a rule), but obscure references, plot points that require that you "read between the lines", or weirdly formatted dialog just add effort for effort's sake, and add very little to the quality of the story, IMHO.

I have liked Morrison's run, but it's not the best jumping on point, or for a casual reader to reacquaint himself/herself with GL. It's a deep dive, and not everyone wants that from a comic title. However, if I'm not mistaken, DC hasn't done much in the way of connecting this to their current continuity. Whoever takes over for Morrison after this won't have too much baggage with which to deal.

[Andrew NDB Shot Caller Find all posts View Profile Close Andrew NDB]

I think it's a variety of things. Morrison's "weirdness" is a big factor of course... just sort of doing whatever cosmic stuff he feels like. That's kind of the bigger problem, really... that he's just kind of fucking around. He should be showrunning all of Green Lantern for DC the way Johns used to (now, not creatively DOING what Johns was doing, but in that role) and taking the reins... instead of just hiding over here in a corner writing a single book that isn't really growing things or doing anything meaningful. Creatively he also needs to bring it way more back down to Earth and scale it way back and let us get to know Hal as a person again before we're going to care about any of this stuff. At least, for me.

Like, the way he's been doing it, he shouldn't be writing Green Lantern... he should be writing Green Lantern Corps.