And reveals what he thinks made it a hit with the fans.
IGN Comics: Let’s jump right into it. Where was Hal Jordan when you started your run on Green Lantern and how do you see him now that you’re done?
Geoff Johns: Wow, when we started he was so far away from who he was and who he used to be, wasn’t he? Looking back to the mindset of where he was, he had essentially been a supervillain. He had been corrupted, he had been acting very irrational, very insane, but in the context of the story, he was somebody who was still struggling with fear about both the people he cares about and himself and everything.
For me in Green Lantern #20, it was the scene where it’s him and himself that kinda closed that door for me and he seems to move on completely. It gives him what he needed in that moment and vice versa. Seeing himself gave him the strength and the will and the courage to move forward, so it was very full circle for me from Rebirth #1 to Green Lantern #20. I think Hal Jordan is somebody who has gone through so many different trials and recognizes who he is and why he does what he does. I use the term “self awareness” a lot and I think that’s something a lot of people struggle with to have, and I think Hal Jordan has definitely come full circle and has that.
IGN: In the same vein, Sinestro started in a very different place than where he ended. Could you speak to Sinestro’s arc, as well?
Johns: In Rebirth he had been thought dead, and he was a villain Hal fought a lot and obviously as a Green Lantern helped train him, but I think Sinestro ironically learned a new kind of heroism through his journey and ultimately took a role I think he had to, maybe reluctantly, or I think he lies to himself a little bit, saying this is an okay path for him, but I think he knows he’s gone way off the path.
His relationship with Hal Jordan is a personification of his relationship with heroism and the Green Lantern Corps. When he says at the end, “That’s the tragedy of all this, we’ll always be friends,” that’s him showing he has an emotional connection to Hal and the Corps. Whatever his original intention was, he’ll never be able to go back to it, it’ll never be what it was, he’ll never be able to heal the rift, he’ll never be able to be the hero he truly envisioned himself being. But that makes him so much more compelling to me. I think the character is just ultimately an incredibly complex, interesting character.
IGN: By the end of the series, can you really still call him a villain?
Johns: It’s hard. He killed the Guardians in cold blood.
IGN: Hal Jordan killed the Guardians and he made it back around to being a hero.
Johns: Absolutely, yeah, but he was also a supervillain.
IGN: [laughs] That’s true.
Johns: I think it’s tricky. I think you can argue about it, and that’s what makes him such a juicy character and interesting villain to me. You can argue that he’s still a hero in some way, and I think that’s correct.
IGN: By the end, the Guardians had become the antagonists of the series. Does that give him a break that he killed characters that were bad guys?
Johns: You understand why he does what he does. This is the single greatest threat the universe has ever faced and potentially could face again, and he wanted to prevent that. So he had to make the hard choice that no one else would make. There’s some heroism in the act, but it’s also murder and it’s a blurry, blurry line that Sinestro walks. Sometimes you root for him and sometimes he’s doing really awful things, but that’s who he is. He’s not afraid to cross the line because he defines the line for himself, and this was just, in his mind, justice.
You also have to understand that in his mind he’s emotionally blinded by grief. The destruction of Korugar is his ultimate failure. The one thing he set out to do is protect his planet and he failed at it. At the end of his journey, he actually failed at that. I think that’s why he opened up to Hal at the end. I think that’s why he’s so brutal with the Guardians. I think that’s why he decides to leave, to remove himself from the equation.
But he also shows some mercy on Ganthet and Sayd. I think one of the most surprising things for me when I was breaking out the story was -- when I got to the Ganthet and Sayd scene with Sinestro and Larfleeze -- Sinestro really giving Ganthet and Sayd a second chance, a chance I think he wished he had because, like he said, he knows what it’s like to lose it all and there’s a heartbeat in there somewhere. Obviously, Sinestro is an emotional guy and if he shows mercy with Ganthet and Sayd then there’s still hope that one day there’s a way to redeem himself. I don’t know if you read too close, but there’s a lot of hints about who that Bookkeeper is [in Green Lantern #20].
Johns: Yeah, it is.
IGN: [laughs] Okay, just making sure. And going on with Sinestro, he created the Sinestro Corps with yellow fear energy, which allowed all of the other colored Corps to come spinning out of Sinestro Corps War. That’s when the Green Lantern mythology really got cracked open. What was your original vision for the different colored Corps? And how did you approach making the “Rainbow Brigade” something that readers would get invested in and not think is cheesy?
Johns: On the surface the idea could be very silly, but what makes it work is that it’s based in something believable. It’s the concept that Green Lantern is a part of life and this light is representative of life and all the different emotions are represented. It’s not just about the different colors, it’s about emotion.
For me, the mythology really started when Parallax became the living yellow impurity that was trapped in the lantern and it was all about fear. Sinestro’s ring tied into that, and we mention the emotional spectrum in Rebirth #1 and Black Hand is there as a setup for the black, the antithesis of life. It all started right there. The seeds were right there and they grew with the Star Sapphire fitting in organically. It made sense for them to be pulled in and use their violet energy, so I targeted Carol, who is undeniably Hal Jordan’s true love. It grew out of there, and the key, I think, was doing it slowly. And letting Sinestro Corps be it’s own thing, and making the Indigo Tribe mysterious, giving them layers.
There’s a reason there’s so much history to [the Indigo Tribe] because I find compassion to be very complex and it can make people very cynical to try and embrace, but the Corps are all represented by how I view each emotion. The Green Lanterns are very forward and very courageous, very forceful. The Red Lanterns are out of control and they’re not in their right mind because when we’re angry or in rage, we say things and we do things we wouldn’t normally do. For me, compassion is elusive and it takes a lot of heart to feel compassion, and so I wanted that Corps to be representative of that and have layers of mystery and ask “What is compassion? What is it really? Is it a learned emotion? Or a born emotion?”
They all just kind of became their own personification of, again, my own viewpoint of the emotions. The characters are the ones I think that sold it, Larfleeze and Saint Walker and Indigo and Carol and Sinestro and Atrocitus -- those are the characters that really made it work. It’s not just the power but the character and the core of that character.
IGN: Did you ever imagine when you were creating these characters that they would take off like this? Red Lanterns has its own series. Larfleeze became so popular he’s getting his own series.
Johns: I never in my wildest imagination would have thought that it would spin-off this big. I think it’s five books now [Green Lantern, Green Lantern: New Guardians, Green Lantern Corps, Red Lanterns, and Larfleeze].
IGN: This is a nine year run, which is very epic for comic book readers. Since your run began, Green Lantern has had blockbuster sales success in comics, it’s had a movie, an animated series, and video games -- which is definitely not nothing. I know you’re known for being modest, but can you speak to what you brought to Green Lantern that allowed for all of this success?
Johns: I have to throw that back to all the people I’ve worked with and everyone that read the book because it takes so many people to make a comic book, especially if it grows into this universe. It’s people who talk about it and share it. For me, when I hear people at conventions tell their friends what their Blue Lantern shirt means and how they should check this book out, that’s where it came from. It came from discussion and being embraced by the readers.
I’m very happy, very proud of the run. I’m very, very fortunate to have something like that on my bookshelf that I worked on. The credit goes to [Patrick] Gleason and Doug [Mahnke] and Ivan [Reis] and Peter Tomasi and Dave Gibbons and everyone who worked on the book while I was on the book. And it’s thanks to all the readers who shared their experience with their friends and fellow comic readers that it took hold. It took a whole Corps to put this book out. I always talk about the camaraderie of the Corps and it takes it’s representation from the comic community itself, so it’s a pretty cool thing.
IGN: Excellent, great, that was the last question. Thank you so much, Geoff. And congratulations on behalf of me personally and IGN and all of our readers who love your book.
Johns: Thanks man, and thanks for all the kind words.
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