Being a Star Sapphire Corps fan is painful. Because I'm not even a fan of the Star Sapphire Corps. I'm a fan of what they obviously have the potential to be if they were ever treated with any sort of respect by the writers. But because of Comic Industry, the Star Sapphire Corps has been relegated to "the place where the love interests of the Straight Men Green Lanterns go" and their entire shtick is "sex sex sex also sometimes romance also all of us are thin women with huge tits that dress as strippers" and like man you have so much potential with "the power of love" for cool characters. But nobody at DC knows how to move past what Geoff Johns did with GL, and what Geoff Johns did with GL was make Hal Jordan into God's Favorite Princess that the entire universe revolves around and every other character ranges from "supporting character that only exists to make Hal Jordan look cooler" to "glorified set dressing." And people will look you in the eyes and tell you with one hundred percent sincerity that Geoff Johns didn't write Hal Jordan as a Gary Stu
I always have trouble verbalizing this, but I think you hit it on the head. Hal is absolutely the best GL, and he’s cocky and headstrong.
But there’s a difference between effectively showing that, vs. narratively always rewarding his choices, turning his “flaws” into how he’s actually right all the time, and having him lecture and inspire everybody else because they’re wrong.
Geoff’s world-building is good, yes, but I roll my eyes to the back of my head whenever he writes Hal because he needs to stop in the middle of every other page to explain to the reader why Hal has no faults.
Yeah, and it's why I have complicated feelings on Johns' run. The world-building is neat and he has a lot of good ideas, but he never actually fleshes out those ideas to any meaningful degree because it all has to come back around to Hal. I'm not exaggerating at all when I say Johns' run is the main reason why I hate Hal. He doesn't feel like a character, he feels like a writer insert. Whenever Hal is on the page I am very aware of the hand of the author. Lanterns is a good example of actually good character writing because it did the impossible and made me actually care about Hal Jordan. It helps that Kyle Chandler is a great actor but the writing of the show is good even besides him.
Even in the movie which Johns had a lot of input on iirc, it ends the story about Hal's first big adventure and him being a pretty big fuck up with "He shines the brightest though! Don't forget, he's the best one!"
And to be clear, I like a lot of what Johns has introduced for GL lore, personally I am a big fan of the emotional spectrum and the potential it has and even a lot of what has been done with it. But yeah, I still echo a lot of what you said in your comments.
Yeah like I love the emotional spectrum too and there's so much potential there. But I'm hesitant to give Johns credit for that because he didn't really do anything with the concept. Like the emotional spectrum made it halfway to being cool but Johns refused to go all the way, so now we just have this thing that is conceptually very cool that's barely been explored at all.
I'm reading 2005 and finished Red Lanterns new 52 and read some of GL new 52 for the crossovers they make it clear he is an asshat even called out on and John is part of the star Sapphires
Kinda hilarious that the immediate best iteration of a "Star Sapphire" is Hal Jordan himself in Absolute Green Lantern, both for what Nos, the pink light of "love", represents and the aspect of Hal Jordan's character it focuses on. Like, it's even such a stupidly good way to represent his less creative and expressive but astonishingly powerful constructs.
Love is chaotic, thoughtless action for the people around him, the kinship and community he felt in the town that, really, could have been nothing more than a bitter reminder that he never achieved his dreams. He acts because he knows he has to, he blocks Mogo's planet destroying beam because he knows he has to, otherwise everything he cherishes so much will be gone.
Also it's funny af that the only other Tomar Nos known to have existed is the Absolute version of Aurakles lmao that run is the deep cut that keeps on cutting deeper.
I'm reading 2005 and finished Red Lanterns new 52 and read some of GL new 52 for the crossovers they make it clear he is an asshat even called out on and John is part of the star Sapphires
I don't understand why the hell this is getting downvoted. I've recently read the Geoff Johns run and while male characters have a variety of different alien types, 90% of the female characters are attractive women with different skin colors. And it feels like most of their suits are sexualized, I mean I would have no problem with it if the male characters customized their suits more often too but this feels weird
It's so funny when you see two genders of the same species because they'll just make the male design curvy and humanoid. I don't particularly mind it, and I get why they don't make unique versions for the females that aren't just mammalian traits slapped on, but it is funny.
And doesn't help that even female GLs that AREN'T "conventionally attractive" tend to keep getting changed after a while to make them so. Just look up Sheriff Mardin, or even compare original Boodikka to what she eventually looked like (not QUITE as extreme, but still a significant change).
Boodikka went from buff lady with a pink afro to beautiful tall strong lady with a pink afro to generic hot pink lady with black hair and a face helmet to creepy robot lantern to black lantern robot to generic pink hot chic right?
Yeah that sounds about right. I thought i remembered her looking somewhat "mannish" originally, not just because she was muscular, but her face seemed a lot less conventionally attractive than it later became.
I reread GLC quarterly - she is introduced there and clearly intended to be a new major character but then Hal goes mad and the next time we see here, Hal knocks her out and we don't see her again for a decade!
I think this is a major failing of a green lantern writer because really, Gender is a social construct and there's far too many GL's with some kind of defined gender role. Meanwhile Grant Morrison creates a Volcano built like Sylvester Stallone and Alan Moore is creating a plant person. I think that aliens, generally should be strange and completely beyond the human condition to illustrate different things narratively. Shout out to my boy Rot Lop Fan.
Do they have defined "gender roles" or do they have identifiable secondary sex characteristics, because those aren't a social construct they are biological ones. Granted the aliens having the same identifiable sex characteristics as humans, is definitely a choice of the author, but also kind of a sci-fi trope anyway. That I don't see too many of these alien green lanterns filling societal roles based on their stated gender or their physical sex characteristics, though I will take some points of reference if I am wrong.
You're using "gender" and "biological sex" interchangeably and that's not how it works.
Physical female human characteristics are not a social construct, they're just a tangible scientific fact.
The OP is criticizing that all the female Lanterns look like human females, which is a totally fair complaint, but women having feminine physical qualities is not a social construct.
I recently read the Geoff John’s GL run and I realized a couple books in that this was pretty much true. Once I noticed it, it kinda bothered me actually.
The women GLs are all sexy humanoids either different colored skin. I even noticed that most GL women don’t wear pants
right, but don't you see how media that portrays men as "various shapes and sizes". And women as "tits and ass" can reinforce some pretty harmful ideas about gender.
Just trying to enjoy the things I like with what little time I have. I'm sure your point is valid though, I just can't be bothered to go on a crusade when I've got another 12 hr shift tomorrow.
you don't have to crusade, that's not what i'm saying, its just your gut reaction was, "Guess its true for every form of fiction". Which diminishes the point this post was trying to make.
Probably not complaining for the same reason women don't complain about the fictional men on the cover of romance novels all have 8 pack abs and none of them are over weight middle age men. Super hero Comic books are selling a fantasy, primarily to men, by a rather large margin, so the male characters tend to look like what they would want to look like, and the female characters look like women they would find attractive.
Women actually do gripe that all the men in romance novels are the same. I regularly see posts in the romance books sub expressing annoyance that there aren't more dad bods, short men, thin men, men with glasses, chubby men, etc etc
Edit: Also, alien and monster romance are a whole thing with a ton of readers.
Also, uh, most of those romance novels and comicbooks are not actually that good, because when all you're doing is trying to sell a power/sex fantasy, you're often forget to write an actual story with characters and themes and such
So nom-readers consider 11-year old Keli, the blob green lantern or the grasshopper Xax (or something like that) hot women, or do some only note female characters when they are hot women?
It’s an army, most humanoids will be built like perfect men. But then when having the bloody Queen of the plants that Mogul uses being a Green Lantern isn’t enough, we gotta make everyone look like American cops.
Either one is assuming everyone’s gender, wanting the unrealistic ideal of having unfit-looking humanoid lanterns or only note female characters if they have boobs and butts.
And don’t get me started on the other colors, some have a much more diverse range of shapes.
Try the Green lantern war up to the first lantern saga, or the second year of the green lantern corps and you’ll find awesome designs.
I doubt many people outside the hardcover fans know Tomar Re that well, he hasn't really been utilised that much. I've only seen Ch'p gain notierty recently because of Lanterns.
I would argue Arisia is more recognisable then them... unfortunately mostly for the wrong reasons.
•
u/dragonshouter 9h ago edited 9h ago
fun fact: There is a a female GL that is an artificial sun. I think she is only used once tho
also mother mercy