In retrospect... does anyone really care about the Red Lanterns?

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

Did the interest in them sort of come and then wane?

For me the big thing was the connection to the Empire of Tears... but they barely even did anything with that.

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

I kind of liked them. The first arc was pretty decent. Unlike the majority (I think) I actually liked Guy as an RL (at least when he was a thinking one). And for some reason, I really liked the Supergirl arc.

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

Guy Gardner as a Red Lantern was interesting at times because a good writer with a handle on all the characters was writing it, but I still can't say I ever liked the Red Lanterns or ever thought the idea of them was good.

If it wasn't for Geoff Johns protecting them, I think they would have been done away with by now. We even saw Cullen Bunn attempt this when he nearly killed them all off in his Lobo series. Johns, for as long as he's been a professional writer at DC, has not actually created that much stuff of real note, and his stupid Green Lantern villains, like Atrocitus and Larfleeze, are some of his more prominent creations that he can likely collect royalties from. As long as he occupies the high up position he has at DC, I think we can continue to expect to see characters like Atrocitus in video games and cartoons, whether people actually want that or not.

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

I liked them on the animated series. That's about it.

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

Wasn't the Red Lantern stuff one of the things EVS didn't get due credit for?

I thought they were okay at first like everyone, but over time when they decided to try and make them anti-heroes... it just didn't do it for me. Now I wish they'd kill the RLs and let Atrocitus go back to the Empire of Tears angle...

~//V\\~

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

The whole concept is hokey as f*ck. Rage powers your ring. You spit blood like liquid out of your mouth. You're a red copy of the GLC formula from top to bottom. Sounds like something an 8 year old came up with using crayons in elementary school. SOOOOO cheesy. It was so bad that I feel like DC was mocking us when they put it out there. Like they wanted to see JUST how stupid we were for getting such a trite idea over with us readers. They HAD to be laughing at us around the water cooler.

Adding established GLs and other characters to their roster was just salt in the wound.

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

The whole concept is hokey as f*ck. Rage powers your ring. You spit blood like liquid out of your mouth. You're a red copy of the GLC formula from top to bottom. Sounds like something an 8 year old came up with using crayons in elementary school. SOOOOO cheesy. It was so bad that I feel like DC was mocking us when they put it out there. Like they wanted to see JUST how stupid we were for getting such a trite idea over with us readers. They HAD to be laughing at us around the water cooler.

Adding established GLs and other characters to their roster was just salt in the wound.

This.

I said so on CBR when this travesty was announced, and of course got trolled wildly.

It was a great idea, they said. It'll be a big success, they said.

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

The series DID sell for 41 issues. Which is a lot longer than a good number of New52 titles... So I wouldn't call it a failure.

~//V\\~

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

People who are as consistently as wrong about stuff as the CBR fanboys are should learn a little humility from such experiences. But being proved wrong only puffs them up even more.

News bulletin: Just because your favorite writer is doing something new, the idea isn't necessarily gold.

The only thing that surprised was that it hung on for as long as it did, and that by the end it was outselling The New Guardians.

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

The only reason the series hung on as long as it did was because it was regularly being propped up by events like "Lights Out," "Godhead," and if you want to count it, a crossover with Supergirl. Aside from the momentary boosts in sales from the crossovers, the title allowed DC to tell their Green Lantern crossovers faster so they kept it around. But, I mean, practically the entire mainstream comics industry is being held together by bubblegum and toothpicks, so I don't know if pointing out that the only reason a series lasted so long is because of gimmicks and not because of its own merits really means much in this context.

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

Geoff likes stuff that he thinks is BADASS. Like puking blood and wearing a power ring that's fueled by rage. He thinks that's BADASS.

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

The people who defended the emotional spectrum with such zeal were exactly like the people who fought so vehemently against DC's bringing back Hal and the Corps. In fact they were the same people!

Being THAT wrong about something for THAT long had no effect whatsoever on their attitude. They just shrugged and moved on to defending the company's next bad move, and doing so just as confidently and stridently.

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

Atrocitus and Bleez are two of my favorite DC villains. I'll read any story with them, although I was only moderately excited about the RL ongoing series. I think I left off with issue 25 or 26 and I still haven't gone back to finish it. It would have been better as a 8 or 12-issue limited series.

I also liked Supergirl's inclusion in the RLC. When my favorite characters, hero or villains, become temporary Lanterns, I find that it provides them with a nice cathartic moment at the end of the arc. Kara was no exception.

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

You know what would be amusing to me? If DC did another GL event where every super hero and super villain in the current DCU gets a colored power ring, and then DC left it that way. 20 years from now, kids would be reading the adventures of Superman: Blue Lantern. Or Wonder Woman: Queen of the Indigo Tribe. The Joker and Darkseid would be wielding yellow and black rings together to plague the Justice Spectrum of America.

And just leave it that way forever. And ever. Because comic fans deserve it.

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

You know what would be amusing to me? If DC did another GL event where every super hero and super villain in the current DCU gets a colored power ring, and then DC left it that way. 20 years from now, kids would be reading the adventures of Superman: Blue Lantern. Or Wonder Woman: Queen of the Indigo Tribe. The Joker and Darkseid would be wielding yellow and black rings together to plague the Justice Spectrum of America.

And just leave it that way forever. And ever. Because comic fans deserve it.

That would sort of be the reverse of the time they told us that Superman would have gotten the ring except for a rules technicality, and Hal only got it because Clark picked him out of a group of like eight candidates, just because he had happened to interview Hal earlier.

Basically taking something from one comic and using it to override what makes another comic book character special.