If THE GL Replaced GLs

[Ωmega Man Guardian of the Universe Find all posts View Profile Close Ωmega Man]

Superman, Batman, and Wonder Woman were all created during the Golden Age of comics. All three have had their stories modernized, appeared in cartoons and expanded media etc. What if DC just brought some of those concepts into the modern era without completely wrecking them like in Earth2? What if instead of Hal and the GLC we got a 20-something Alan Scott working in the Gotham subways before eventually working for a broadcasting network after getting the ring? Aside from Alan what more could they bring into the modern era? Did Alan have much of a rogues gallery?

If Alan was the premiere GL again it would free up some room in the cosmos for DC to expand books without using GLC concepts. Omega Men, Captain Comet, Lobo, etc. could fill the cosmic void. We'd get a much more character driven story with only one central GL, and being based in Gotham sets up the obligatory Bat-crossover even better than random Batman appearances elsewhere. Alan could defend Gotham during the day, Batman at night, all the other random vigilantes can just deal with having another big gun around. Could also set up a crossover or two with a couple Bat-rogues. Alan vs the Scarecrow would certainly be entertaining. What could Alan fear? Maybe instead of Thorn being his enemy, what if Alan had Poison Ivy as a rogue/possible love interest?!?

Alan's love life was certainly entertaining not knowing he had kids with one enemy [Thorn] while eventually dating/marrying another reformed rogue [the Harlequin]. In a modern setting Doiby Dickles would definitely need some work though. Are there any other supporting cast members I'm not aware of? Would anybody like to see more of a supernatural twist return?

As far as rogues I think Alan had a few. Thorn, Harlequin, Solomon Grundy.... and was Blackbriar Thorn one of his? Plus there's the aforementioned idea of using a Bat rogue once in awhile. I'm not as familiar with some of the finer points in the Golden Age so maybe somebody like Dave could educate some of us with a few more gems.

Anyway, what say the rest of you? Could Alan be modernized a little closer to his original interpretation and still be as interesting and entertaining? Could DC even get rid of the Speed Force BS and let ol' Jay inhale some hard water and chemical fumes?! Superman and the rest of the Trinity are all pretty close to their Golden Age selves. So is Aquaman. Martian Manhunter I don't think came around till the Silver Age. Alan Scott and Jay Garrick were really the first two heroes to really get 'replaced' in the grande scheme of things in the DCU. Would things be better if everything was simpler and possibly more character driven, if we got rid of convoluted concepts like the GLC and the Speed Force?

~//V\\~

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

I don't exactly need it, but I'd read an Alan ongoing. He had enough villains (especially if you re-worked some of his Sentinel baddies).

[Ωmega Man Guardian of the Universe Find all posts View Profile Close Ωmega Man]

Who did he have that was introduced during his Sentinel days? Or do you mean when he was called Sentinel, old again, and part of the JSA?

I can only think of the bigger names: Harlequin, Solomon Grundy, Thorn, and later Blackbriar Thorn... oh and the golden age Icicle.

~//V\\~

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

Who did he have that was introduced during his Sentinel days? Or do you mean when he was called Sentinel, old again, and part of the JSA?

Yeah, but frankly that stuff is hazy in my memory. He must have been fighting someone as an old man and then again as a renewed young man. I'm sure it was more than just those three.

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

Oh man, I have wrestled with this question over the years. I LOVE Alan Scott. He is the first, the original, and a founding member of my all time favorite super hero...I mean mystery men, team. There are pros and cons to me to reverting the GL concept back to the original version. To me, GL is Hal, Alan, John and Guy.

On the pro side, you could do away with everything, and launch a series called Green Lantern starring a young again Alan Scott, based in Gotham City. He would need a new costume, and it could NOT be red green, yellow and purple. It was proven people would buy into a new costume when Alex Ross did it in Kingdom Come.

He would have his ring, lantern, oath, secret identity and job in the broadcasting business of a CNN/Fox type of company. Alan should still have his wife Molly around, but I'm not sure if they should be split up, meeting again for the first time, or still be married. I would make her young too.

His power is magic based, which a lot of people tend to forget. Using magic would be a big change for fans and look different artistically. Alan's power needs to look like green flames burning all over, not geometrically pleasing angular designs. He has Solomon Grundy, Harequin and Rose and Thorn to begin with fro villains, but they could also use JSA villains like Vandal Savage, Ultra Humanite and modern takes on others.

The con side? Pretty bad. Getting rid of the GLC mythos. Hal Jordan, Guy, and John. The timeless green, black and white color scheme to costumes The alien GLs. The sectors. Oa. The Guardians. The CPB. ALL of those mythose would have to be wiped away to return Alan to his former glory as DC's central Green Lantern. That's a LOT to ask for. In fact, it would be an act VERY similar to what Carlin, Dooley and company did back when they debuted Kyle Rayner. That was 10 years I went without the GL mythos, and I hated it.

I think for my memories of Kyle Rayner alone, the cons of doing this outweigh all of my mad love for Alan Scott, and temper any lingering desire I have in my fanboy head to see him reclaim the emerald throne.

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

Oh man, I have wrestled with this question over the years. I LOVE Alan Scott. He is the first, the original, and a founding member of my all time favorite super hero...I mean mystery men, team. There are pros and cons to me to reverting the GL concept back to the original version. To me, GL is Hal, Alan, John and Guy.

On the pro side, you could do away with everything, and launch a series called Green Lantern starring a young again Alan Scott, based in Gotham City. He would need a new costume, and it could NOT be red green, yellow and purple. It was proven people would buy into a new costume when Alex Ross did it in Kingdom Come.

He would have his ring, lantern, oath, secret identity and job in the broadcasting business of a CNN/Fox type of company. Alan should still have his wife Molly around, but I'm not sure if they should be split up, meeting again for the first time, or still be married. I would make her young too.

His power is magic based, which a lot of people tend to forget. Using magic would be a big change for fans and look different artistically. Alan's power needs to look like green flames burning all over, not geometrically pleasing angular designs. He has Solomon Grundy, Harequin and Rose and Thorn to begin with fro villains, but they could also use JSA villains like Vandal Savage, Ultra Humanite and modern takes on others.

The con side? Pretty bad. Getting rid of the GLC mythos. Hal Jordan, Guy, and John. The timeless green, black and white color scheme to costumes The alien GLs. The sectors. Oa. The Guardians. The CPB. ALL of those mythose would have to be wiped away to return Alan to his former glory as DC's central Green Lantern. That's a LOT to ask for. In fact, it would be an act VERY similar to what Carlin, Dooley and company did back when they debuted Kyle Rayner. That was 10 years I went without the GL mythos, and I hated it.

I think for my memories of Kyle Rayner alone, the cons of doing this outweigh all of my mad love for Alan Scott, and temper any lingering desire I have in my fanboy head to see him reclaim the emerald throne.

I used to hope they'd reboot GL, make Alan young and a member of the GLC, and find something else for Kyle to do. I think that would have been the ideal outcome, since Alan could have gotten an ongoing out of it. The best we'll get now is him in JSA, but that's better than nothing.

I wrote a sample story where Alan was the head of SNN (the Scott News Network) playing a Ted Turner type role, based in Metropolis. It was the first story in the series, and the villain was the Spectre. He killed Molly in it, but Alan and Raker sent him through Purgatory and expunged his evil nature.

Jenny, Todd, Derby Dickles and Percival Popp were in it.

My idea was to use almost exclusively Golden Age villains in the series.

That's the kind of stuff you could do with those great old characters. No wars, no extra Corps!

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

Whatever you added to a comic like that would be an accessory. It wouldn't take the whole thing over, like the additions that Geoff made to Green Lantern did.

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

I wanted to spin off a Spectre comic from that premise, with Jim Corrigan becoming a detective with the Metropolis police. The Spectre would be powered down enough to fit in the JSA.

Why Metropolis? Because too much stuff happens in Gotham City already, and I wanted Scott Communications to purchase the Daily Planet.

To make way for that I proposed an idea at CBR that Kyle, Baz, Cruz and John take on new non-Lantern roles working for the Guardians in a title called The Emissaries, in which they travel to unknown regions of space searching for sectors that need Green Lanterns. The team would have powers but not of the Green Lantern type. They would train new Lanterns, usually under difficult circumstances.

Hal and Alan would have been the Green Lanterns of Earth, with Hal in JLA and Alan in JSA. Guy would have gone into space and had adventures with the Corps.

That was a much better setup than the four titles that included The New Guardians and The Red Lanterns. And I don't know how else you could give Alan a viable comic.

But alas, we must eat what poor table scraps we can get, and be content with them!

[Star-Lantern Weaponer of Qward Find all posts View Profile Close Star-Lantern]

Would Green Lantern be better off if it just stuck with Alan Scott? That is a really good question that we will probably never know the answer to. Green Lantern is ridiculously convoluted with all these characters. With my own projects, I've vowed never to let something like that happen, largely because I've seen the ramifications of it with Green Lantern. The most broken fanbase I've ever seen. It would be really interesting to see Alan Scott properly modernized with his own series. Personally, I think the story with the Green Lantern Corps is more unique and creative than what Alan had going on. but it would still be really interesting to see a modern series done with Alan at the forefront.

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

Adding Kyle was a mistake, especially the way they did it. But if they'll put him in Titans or Teen Titans now, it'll be manageable.

Adding Baz and Cruz was a much bigger mistake, and keeping them as GLs is just not manageable. I think it reflects the company's overconfidence in Johns during his heyday. As in, "Hey, they're Geoff's characters. He'll make this work for sure, because he's just that good. And it'll be great because diversity."

If they had rebooted GL the way I wanted to, then a solo title with Alan might have clicked. Now though I don't think they would even attempt it. At least not till Baz and Cruz stop being Lanterns. But DC seems just as determined to push them as GLs as it once was about Kyle -- whether the market wants them or not.

Think about it though. Would you rather see a GL title that stars Baz and Cruz, or one that stars Alan? And by "Alan," of course, I don't mean the version from the Society comic.

[Ωmega Man Guardian of the Universe Find all posts View Profile Close Ωmega Man]

If I had to choose between ten more years of emotional spectrum shit or a down to Earth Alan solo title...? I'd definitely choose an Alan title.

I'm interested in hearing more about his other rogues and supporting characters.

~//V\\~

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

Alan isn't getting a comic. That's not going to happen now. Baz and Cruz ruined any chance of that.

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

Well, as much as I love Alan Scott, giving him a solo title is a bad idea anyway. It dillutes away from the main concept, which is infinitely more popular than he was. Alan was the prototype for a later version that worked and has for almost 60 years. Alan belongs with the JSA.

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

Well, as much as I love Alan Scott, giving him a solo title is a bad idea anyway. It dillutes away from the main concept, which is infinitely more popular than he was. Alan was the prototype for a later version that worked and has for almost 60 years. Alan belongs with the JSA.

If Kyle, Baz and Cruz would do something else, then an Alan comic wouldn't dilute the concept. But then if frogs has wings, they wouldn't bump their asses when they jump.

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

This thread keeps reminding me how much I liked the Kingdom Come version of Alan Scott Green Lantern.