Green Lantern #31 Batman'66 Style Variant Cover

Hal Takes in Mogo's Beauty In GREEN LANTERN #30 Preview

From Newsarama

Check out Newsarama for there exclusive preview of  Green Lantern #30 here.

Venditti Makes Hal Jordan Leadership Material In Green Lantern

From CBR

By Robert Venditti's count, Hal Jordan has saved the universe numerous, numerous times. According to Merriam-Webster, "numerous" means scores -- plural. And "scores" means a group of 20, so you do the math. The fearless pilot turned ring bearer has been pretty busy since his debut in 1959.

But the writer of "Green Lantern" felt he had to push the former fearless test pilot to his uppermost limit by making him the leader of the Green Lantern Corps. No longer responsible for only his own safety, Hal must now protect the universe while leading 7,200 men, women and a living planet into battle.

Last week, DC Comics "Green Lantern" #29, written by Venditti and illustrated by Billy Tan, and CBR News reached out to speak with the writer about the powerful story titled, "Shipping Out."

Venditti, recently announced as the new co-writer of "The Flash," shared insight into what Hal has been dealing with since taking the reins of the Corps, the expanding role Saint Walker will play in the series moving forward and why it was important for the greatest Green Lantern of them all to have the backing of Kilowog, Salaak and Two-Six before confronting the shapeshifting Durlans in war.

CBR News: Before we dive into "Green Lantern" #29, I wanted to ask you about "Green Lantern" #28, which was a flipbook with "Red Lanterns" #28. It made for an awesome reading experience. Did you enjoy the project?

Robert Venditti: It was a lot of fun to work on. It was really neat. I hadn't really done anything like that before. Essentially, it was a two-issue crossover but we put it all in one book. I love working with Charles [Soule]. Charles and Van [Jensen] and Justin [Jordan] and Cullen [Bunn] are a great group of guys to work with in the writer's room. I've been friends with Van for a very long time but I didn't know the other guys on that level before this. Now I consider all of them my friends and they are really strong writers and great guys to work with.

It was really fun to have Charles and me write these two issues and have them play off each other and at the same time advance all of our storylines. The other nice thing about it is there are a lot of storylines going on in "Green Lantern" and "Red Lanterns" so having it being a flipbook, where the whole story was in one spot, means you didn't have to recap for the readers or remind readers what they read three weeks earlier in "Green Lantern" #28. It allowed us more space to put in even more story. I feel like we were able to really pack that issue with a lot of content.

CBR News: You've been writing Hal Jordan for nearly a year and over that time have pushed him into a leadership role with the Green Lantern Corps. Hal's beyond his first 100 days but how do you think that he is adjusting to his new role?

Robert Venditti: Hal is an interesting character. He's obviously a very successful superhero and since he became a Green Lantern, he has saved the world numerous, numerous times. He's often referred to in the context of his stories as "the greatest Green Lantern of them all." I thought it would be an interesting thing to take a guy that has lived his entire life, really, acting on gut instinct, and push him into a leadership role.

Whether as a test pilot or as Green Lantern, he has always been one of those guys that just charges into the fray out of sheer bravery. He always has the will to overcome any circumstance. It's great and obviously very admirable but when you're the head of an organization, you're not always in a fist fight. There is a lot more to being a leader on a larger scale as opposed to being a leader in a fist fight.

That's the path Hal's been on until now -- acting on instinct in the thick of the battle -- but when you are a leading a large group, there has to be more planning. The opportunity to put him up against a conflict that he really hasn't faced before and some unique challenges is a lot of fun and we also get to see how he grows as a leader. He still saved the day a few times since he became leader of the Corps but he's also made some missteps.

In "Green Lantern" #29, which just came out [last] week, Hal really hit that rock bottom moment and realized that as a leader, he has to make some changes. That's what we see in this past issue and where we go from here is see what kind of leader Hal becomes from here on out.

CBR News: I don't know if I would call Hal cocky, but he's certainly brash. In this issue, he sits down with Kilowog, Salaak and Two-Six and asks for help. Was that hard for him, asking for help?

Robert Venditti: I think you hit it right on the head. He's not cocky but he is brash. And it's that brashness that has got him through the most difficult circumstances. I think when you have had a career like Hal, beating all the universe-spanning threats that he's beaten, even beating death on more than one occasion and being referred to as "the greatest Green Lantern of them all," I think that it would only be natural for you to start to think that the decisions that you make are right based on the virtue that you thought of them. I think that's where he's been for the past few months since taking over the leadership but now he realizes after making some pretty serious missteps -- with the final straw being this situation where he had to give control of Sector 2814 to the Red Lanterns, which is, of course, home sector to Earth -- there has to be another way to do this.

It's like he's realized, "I've always done so much by myself and always charged into the fray with the responsibility on me but this is a job that used to be done by a group of immortal guardians. And now I'm just by myself." [Laughs] For him to sit down and ask for that kind of assistance from his peers, like you said, is not something that we've seen him do before in the past but I do think it does show him growing as a leader. The most important thing you can have as a leader is know what your strengths are and what your weaknesses are. To help you lead, you need to overcome the latter of those. That's what we see him doing now.

CBR News: No major surprises with the braintrust that he's chosen -- Kilowog, Salaak and Two-Six -- but can you go around the horn and talk about what each one brings to the leadership team?

Robert Venditti: Not only is Kilowog one of my personal favorites and also a good friend of Hal, he has trained a whole generation of Lanterns and he has a ton of respect amongst the Corps.

Salaak has really been down working in the nuts and bolts of the Corps, serving as protocol officer for such a long time under the Guardians. He really knows the Corps from an administrative perspective.

And Two-Six is a new recruit that has distinguished herself from a lot of new recruits in the wake of the events told in "Rise of the Third Army" and "Wrath of the First Lantern" and she's really represents the voice of this new generation of Lanterns.

As we've seen from all three of these characters over the past few months, they are all characters that challenge authority. They don't just take orders and go about them without any sort of thought. Hal has challenged Kilowog on a lot of the decisions that he has made. Two-Six challenged John Stewart in the "Lights Out" storyline. These are Lanterns that Hal knows will tell him their thoughts, which is what he needs as a leader right now. He doesn't want a bunch of yes men around him.

CBR News: Hal went to these three for help and they readily accepted the challenge. Not the case with Saint Walker.

Robert Venditti: Saint Walker is going to be a big part of the series in the coming months. This is another subplot to the series but there are no more Blue Lanterns. He's the last one left but he's also lost his hope. He's unable to wear his ring right now. It follows him around waiting for him to put it on. We have a long-term story in place for Saint Walker. I don't know how much I can give away beyond that because I don't want to give anything away but again, he's another character that we're putting up against conflicts that they haven't had to face before like the realization of the emotional spectrum and what it means. He's also dealing with the loss of Kyle Rayner, who was the only hope for refilling the reservoir and now everybody thinks he's dead. That puts Saint Walker in a situation where he's having a real crisis of conscience of whether or not he can wield his ring as a Blue Lantern. Because of the way it can supercharge rings, it can also be seen as the greatest consumer of emotional energy of them all.

CBR News: DC Comics is always looking for new series to keep the title count at 52. I would love to see a Saint Walker/Mogo buddy cop book like "Rush Hour."

Robert Venditti: [Laughs] Yes. Saint Walker needed a new friend so he struck up a friendship with Mogo and I think they play off each other really well.

CBR News: Speaking of new friendships, Hal shares a few panels with Simon Baz in this issue, which is a character that he hasn't spent a lot of time with 'on-screen.'

Robert Venditti: As I mentioned, while the Red Lanterns now have control of Sector 2814, the one stipulation that Hal was able to get out of Guy for that was that one Green Lantern has to be able to stay on Earth just to watch over things. He can't patrol the rest of the sector but he gets to protect Earth. And Guy agreed to that and that's Simon Baz. He's in charge of keeping planet Earth safe.

Hal brings Simon to introduce him to his brother Jim and his nephew and his niece and says, "You have to keep an eye on these people because I'm going off to war." The title of the issue is 'Shipping Out' and it's a real shipping out kind of moment. Hal has to say goodbye to his family and leave for the war and Mogo has to relocate to the war zone. But where that's going to go with Simon Baz watching over the family and where that leads to, again we have a very long-term plan in place for that.

CBR News: And the war Hal and the Lanterns are heading toward is against the Durlans -- a race of shapeshifters. And what's shown in this issue, and long suspected by Hal, is that there is a Durlan amongst the Lanterns. There is a spy.

Robert Venditti: Yes. In "Green Lantern" #27, there is a Durlan revealed that is an impostor among the Corps on Mogo and he's posing as a cook. And he helped this other warring faction that the Green Lanterns were butting heads with, which is a sort of criminal gang. He helped them dynamite the command center. And that villain is still on the loose on Mogo. That's the character that we saw again at the end of "Green Lantern" #29. What that develops into, you're going to see in #30 and #31.

This war is going to be the Green Lanterns fighting for the future of the Corps. And they're fighting to regain their reputation, which has become understandably tarnished over the ending of the previous Guardians' leadership of the Corps, which brought about the Third Army and the wrath of the First Lantern. The universe doesn't know if it really trusts the Green Lanterns to be police anymore. And since Hal's taken over the leadership -- through some of his own fault and how he's been framed by the Durlans -- the Green Lantern Corps' reputation has been diminished even further. The universe is really rising up against them and that's the war that the Green Lanterns are facing.

How do you fight these enemies and also protect the universe that doesn't necessarily want your protection anymore because they no longer trust you? It's the future of the Corps and the future of its standing in the universe that's at stake. And, of course, without the Corps, the universe falls apart because there is nothing to protect it, which is what the Durlans want.

Robert Venditti Explains Green Lantern's Bad Decision-Making Skills

From IGN

In this week's Green Lantern #29, Hal Jordan does the unthinkable: he asks for help.

He has been struggling with his role as the leader of the Green Lantern Corps, making snap decisions without thinking of the long-term consequences. Green Lantern writer Robert Venditti explains why Hal created a council to assist him as leader, as well as how translating expressions with the ring works and whether Saint Walker and Mogo are "just friends."

IGN Comics: Are we seeing Hal create a new structure for the Green Lantern Corps instead of just doing everything by himself? Is this council of his the new Guardians (not to confuse them with the other Templar New Guardians)?

GL_Cv29_dsRobert Venditti: Sure, yeah. I think what we're seeing is him creating a council. Kilowog, Salaak, and Two-Six can help him and inform him in making his decisions, because he's realizing, like all leaders, you can't go it alone, which is kind of what his career has been like in a lot of ways. Whether or not that becomes a permanent part of the structure of the Corps remains to be seen, but certainly in regards to Kilowog and Salaak, they've always traditionally been and continue to be in somewhat of a governing role in this context. Kilowog has been trained a generation of Lanterns, things like that.

IGN: Do you see this as more of a democratic process? The Guardians were like, "What we say goes." They were rewriting Corps laws left and right. If this is the structure that Hal sticks with, is this a more fair-minded way to run the Corps?

Venditti: I don't know that we know exactly what the future of the Corps' structure is going to be. The Templar Guardians are still in charge of the Corps; they're just off on some of their own missions with Kyle, which Hal doesn't know that Kyle is alive.

But certainly in terms of Hal's leadership, for him individually, Salaak, Kilowog and Two-Six are there to help him make decisions. He's still in charge. He's still Corps leader. What he says still goes, in that regard. But just as the troubles anyone else would have, Hal has his advisors around him. That's what these characters now represent. Being a test pilot is a lot different than being the leader of a large organization.

IGN: Since Hal has been in charge, he has made a lot of bad decisions. And a lot of them have come back to bite him. Could you elaborate on Hal's decision-making process?

Venditti: In terms of Hal's decision-making, yeah, he has been making decisions that have not gone his way in the aftermath, but it's been in keeping with the character of being someone who acts on his gut. Historically, he's been somebody who charges in and acts on his instincts. Again, this goes back to him being a test pilot. You can't really think. You have to have reflexes and act fast in quick situations, otherwise you'd never get anything.

That's always worked out great for him as a Lantern, but now as the leader of a group, this is a much larger scope and scale. So if he makes a gut reaction, if he's bringing in the entire Corps, bringing in Mogo, whatever, to fight some battle, that's going to have a lot of ramifications that wouldn't really be the case if he were making this decision for a battle he's fighting by himself.

So he's made decisions that are in keeping with him as a character in the sense that he's trying to keep people safe. He's trying to bare the brunt of the danger and everything on himself, but him doing so just ripples out into larger aftereffects that he's never encountered before or even thought about anticipating.

That's what makes him I think grow as a leader and the character he is now. People have referred to him as the greatest Green Lantern of them all. He's cheated death twice, right? He's literally died and come back twice. So this gut instinct has worked out for him every single time, and I think it's understandable that it would take him one more stumble to realize that he needs to do a course correction.

Issue #29 is that moment where he realizes, "Okay, my gut instinct isn't working out here, and I need to come up with another way of doing this." He grabs people to put around him that have spoken up and are willing to speak their minds and not just be Yes-Men, so he can have someone to check him, and they can make decisions together, the group, and move forward, just slow things down a little bit. Like I said, I think #29 represents that moment for him.

IGN: Recently in the story, a Durlan shape-shifted into Hal Jordan and pretty much aired all of his dirty laundry. What I found interesting was that he didn't say anything that wasn't true.

Venditti: As far as the Durlans, I think what will be more of an eye-opener for a guy like Hal, if the villains are able to discredit you without even having to make anything up, you know?

IGN: [Laughs]

Venditti: So yeah, they're painting him in a different light, and they're making it look like these are mistakes Hal made intentionally, that he didn't care, whatever -- but they are still the mistakes that he made. So I think that represents part of that rockbottom moment for him. For now, he has made these mistakes.

Instead of it being just him, he'll have to pay the price, which would be the case in a test pilot situation, right? If he makes a mistake, the plane crashes, that's on him, and that's the end of it. Now, instead of it just being an aftereffect that is a problem for him, it's a problem for the entire Corps. Now the Corps has become even further damaged than it was under the entire leadership of the old Guardians who were in a lot of ways acting almost intentionally evil, you might say.

So for Hal to have that reputation and make it even worse through his decisions, again, it's a rockbottom situation to realize he needs to start learning a better way. That's how we get him growing as a character.

Let's also remember that the Green Lantern rings are driven on willpower. So these are literally the most willful people that you're going to encounter in the entire universe. That's why the rings chose them. So that I think compounds a character's decision to not necessarily change, right? They're willful, and they're set in their ways in that sense. That willpower has gotten through time and time again. Always acting the way he's acted, I think it would be even more of a reason for him to have to learn a lesson really hard before he makes a dramatic change in his character.

IGN: I don't want this question to come off nitpicky, because I really do want to know the answer, but I want to know what are the rules on using an expression? Because the ring translates everything you say, so what are the rules of using an expression that's translated by the ring? For example, Hal used the expression "like a 9 to 5 job," and that seemed to have gotten successfully translated to who he was talking to. But when he said, "What would Jesus do?" that didn't get translated. In Van Jensen's Green Lantern Corps book, which I believe you were co-writer on, Jruk didn't understand what "peace" meant. So does the ring translate expressions and colloquialisms? Does DC have rules for this sort of thing?

Venditti: I think it would translate to a local colloquialism, if there is a colloquialism for that language, right? So for example, to use the case of Jruk in Green Lantern Corps, his people literally have no word for "peace," so there was nothing for the ring to translate it into because that word doesn't exist where he comes from, and I guess that was kind of the joke.

With something like that aside, if that gets translated across a new culture -- for instance, that culture might not say "9 to 5," but there are probably day jobs where you work shifts or whatever happens; so it translates into whatever that colloquial version of "9 to 5" would be. Does that make sense?

IGN: Yes, it totally does. I appreciate you taking the time to answer that. I've actually seen a lot of debate on it in the comments so it's nice to have you settle it. So moving on, also in Issue #29, former Blue Lantern Saint Walker has become a larger part of the story. I loved the "I'm no longer a saint, I'm a walker." That was a great line. I also enjoy him interacting with Mogo a lot. Are we seeing a romance, or are they just friends?

Venditti: [Laughs] Just friends. Friends who come from completely different versions of existence. One is a humanoid that lives a normal life, and the other one is a planet, which will live a much longer life. They think about life and death in much different terms, and we're going to continue to see that develop. But they both come from this sort of philosophical style of thought, so I think that's where their friendship is going to come from.

IGN: It's nice to see Simon Baz pop back up. Was that just a quick cameo to address what he's up to and show that he's not been forgotten, or does he have a bigger role planned? He's actually the only Earth Green Lantern without a book of his own.

Venditti: Yeah, Baz is not only part of the Green Lanterns but also the DC Universe. In terms of what the plans are for that character, I don't think I'm allowed to say. I probably shouldn't say. But there is a longterm approach to what we'll be doing with Baz. The Green Lantern, the main title, is still going to remain primarily Hal's book, but there is a future for Baz as a character. Yeah, I can't say.

Preview: Green Lantern #29

Preview: Green Lantern/Red Lanterns #28

Preview: Green Lantern/Red Lanterns #28

SATURDAY SHOWCASE Green Lantern Artwork By Victor Bartlett From deviantART

Check out his deviantART page here.

Preview : Green Lantern #27

Soule And Vendetti Join Force In Green Lanterns/Red Lanterns

From CBR

The various Lantern Corps of the DC Universe have been having a rough 2013.

Under the pens of the current Green Lantern creative teams, the Corps fought, and were nearly destroyed, in the "Lights Out" event, which introduced the villain Relic and the idea that there is a finite amount of emotional energy in the universe. Suffering in the aftermath of Relic's threat, a situation exasperated by the poor decisions of the now-deposed Guardians of Oa, the Green and Red Lanterns receive another shock in February as Atrocitus and brand new Red Lantern Supergirl threaten the balance of Sector 2814.

Joining forces to discuss their giant-sized collaboration on "Green Lantern/Red Lanterns" issue #28, writer Robert Venditti and writer Charles Soule spoke with CBR about the flip issue, why they decided to make Supergirl a Red Lantern -- and the correct pronunciation of "Atrocitus."

CBR News: There's a lot of stuff going on in both books at the moment, so who was it that had the initial idea to do a flip-book combining the two issues in #28 into one large issue, rather than do a regular crossover or other tie-in or event?

Robert Venditti: Want me to take this one, Charles?

Charles Soule: You should do it, because it was your idea and you should take full credit for it -- whether it ends up being a terrible disaster or not, it was all your idea! [Laughter]

Venditti: We really all came up with the idea together for how the Red Lanterns would end up getting Sector 2814 and the story behind it. In the first storyline, Charles had started out by having this idea that the Red Lanterns should get their own sector; we just started talking about it and had a very cool creative moment where we came to the same exact conclusion together: "Wouldn't it be cool if they got 2814?" We had this story we thought would be really fun, and now it's just a matter of getting people to read it!

I think the important thing is the content was there first, and then we [thought] of a way to get it into as many people's hands as possible. The idea of doing it as a flip book rather than doing it as two issues, separated by three weeks -- we just were trying to give everyone the story at once at a great price. They're getting twenty pages for free, because they are getting both "Red Lanterns" and "Green Lantern" for $2.99, and it really showcases what both books are about -- and brings more attention to "Red Lanterns," because Charles is doing such a fantastic job over there. We thought this would give retailers a tool to hopefully expand the readership on "Red Lanterns" and "Green Lantern" in general -- and have some fun with it! I talked to DC about that, there was a huge presentation we did with print costs and everything! [Laughs]

At the end, they decided to take a shot on it; we're pretty psyched about it, and hopefully fans will like the story!

Click here for the full interview.

GREEN & RED LANTERNS Writers Talk Sector 2814 & Status Quo Changes Pt. 2

From Newsarama

For Green Lantern fans, the name "Sector 2814" represents that part of space that includes Earth — and it's the space sector protected by Earth's Green Lanterns.

But that's all changing now that Guy Gardner is the leader of the Red Lanterns. As the result of a deal he made during the Green Lantern event "Lights Out," the Red Lanterns are now the protectors of Sector 2814.

That means Red Lanterns will be visiting Earth quite a bit — and it opens up all kinds of story possibilities for the title, as the Red Lanterns can theoretically "police" most of the heroes and villains of the DC Universe.

Writer Charles Soule is hoping that means his critically acclaimed book will get a few new readers on board, and he's getting some help with that goal from Green Lantern writer Robert Venditti. The two comics — Red Lanterns #28 and Green Lantern #28 in February — are crossing-over, and DC is releasing them both in one comic: a 40-page flipbook for the price of one single issue.

In the second installment of our interview with Venditti and Soule [read part one here ], we talked to them about what it means to the DC Universe to have the Red Lanterns in charge of Sector 2814, and how the status quo of both comics are changed by the events of the next few months.

Newsarama: Charles, we talked earlier about how the Red Lanterns are now policing Sector 2814. What can you tell us about that new status quo and how it leads to the story you and Robert are telling in the Red Lanterns/Green Lantern flip book?

Charles Soule: There are basically two plot lines running through Red Lanterns right now. One is that Guy Gardner, who has traditionally been the kind of "hot-headed" member of the Green Lantern Corps, finally realized that his true calling may not be to be Green Lantern, but might be to be a Red Lantern, which are more focused on anger and being a little more hot-headed themselves. So Guy has left the Greens, and he's joined the Reds, and they're being styled more as kind of a space motorcycle gang, where they go out and have their turf, and they patrol their turf, and you're in trouble if you do anything bad on their turf.

The basic rule they have is that you can do whatever you want in their sector, as long as it doesn't hurt anybody else. But if does hurt somebody else, the Reds are going to come calling.

Though Guy has kept it really loose, he's applying that same rule to the Reds themselves. There are like five or six of them. And they have cool adventures.

So that's one side of it. And the tone is like a Sons of Anarchy or The Shield or something like that.

But the other burgeoning plot, that's been growing since I took over, is that when Guy came onto the team, he essentially killed Atrocitus, who ran the Red Lanterns at that time as more of a cult or religious figure. And Guy killed Atrocitus in this big, huge, epic beatdown. Guy lost control, and then Atrocitus was killed, and so it was kind of like, "Whoops."

But comics being comics, it turns out that Atrocitus is not actually dead. And he has been wandering out in space with his alien rage space cat, Dex-Starr — or rather, Dex-Starr's not an alien; he's an actual cat — but they've been out in space, trying to find a way to get enough power to come back and destroy Guy Gardner and the other Reds who betrayed them.

Guy's not even aware that Atrocitus survived, so there's this spinning thread — when is Guy going to find out? What's Atrocitus going to do? How are those two sides going to clash? And it's going to be epic, and huge, and really fun and cool when they do.

So that's what's going on in Red Lanterns these days.

Nrama: And the Red Lanterns are now the "protectors" of Earth.

Soule: Yeah. Sort of. In their angry way. So there are a lot of fun stories that will be coming out of that.

Nrama: Does that mean the Red Lanterns will conflict with other DC heroes and villains? '

Soule: Absolutely. That was one of the things I was most excited about having Red Lanterns have Earth as part of their jurisdiction.

I mean, the first thing to realize is that Sector 2814 is pretty big. There are a lot of different planets in it. And so, they are cleaning it up and getting rid of bad guys in their sector.

But they will certainly go to Earth. And we've seen the Greens interact with Earth's heroes tons of times, but we haven't seen Reds do it that much.

So for me, it was a very appealing idea that I could have them go up against… well, I guess you'll see that — some of that starts as early as issue #27, and we see some in #28, and then it just goes from there.

Robert Venditti: And the idea of the Reds taking over 2814 has such huge ramifications, not just in terms of Red Lanterns as a book, or the Green Lantern group. It's really affecting the DCU as a whole. I mean, this is a fantastic engine of conflict.

It's also a chance to flesh out what Sector 2814 is — what doe that neighborhood look like? We've gone to far-off parts of the universe, but we don't look at Earth's back yard very much. And having the Red Lanterns go to Earth and deal with heroes and villains from the DCU is all going to be exciting stuff.

Nrama: And that's the main engine, then, that brings together the crossover? You and I recently talked about how the Green Lanterns are now concerned about the future of the universe, and are policing use of the light. Does that help lead up to issue #27? Can you talk about what drives the story toward the confrontation with the Red Lanterns?

Venditti: There are going to be some pretty significant events that happen in Green Lantern #27, which you got a hint of in Green Lantern #26. Hal has been going up against this criminal, and at the end of Green Lantern #26, it's revealed that there's another alien race presence as well. All the different threads that we've been weaving through the story of the Green Lantern Corps up to now are going to come to a head in #27.

So when issue #28 comes around, and as you say, Hal is policing light, it's revealed to him that there are suddenly new Red Lantern recruits out there. And so now, on top of everything he's trying to deal with — with these adversaries that have just revealed themselves in #27, and trying to police the light — now, he thinks that Guy is sending out rings and getting new Red Lantern recruits, which just compounds his problem.

Now he's got to go talk to Guy and see how they can straighten this out. And how can they all get on the same page here, so they're not just causing more problems for each other?

All this is going to be precipitated by the arrival of a Red Lantern that's going to cause a lot of — what's the word I would use? — turmoil and complications.

Nrama: I want to come back to something Rob said, about how this flip book, and the idea of the Red Lanterns policing Sector 2814, has ramifications beyond just one or two titles. Can you speak to the significance of this meeting we're going to see in issue #28 in the flipbook?

Soule: As Rob said earlier, the main through-line of story in the flip book is that there's a new Red Lantern discovered in Green territory, and it's very surprising to Hal. He felt like he could trust Guy to do the right thing.

And the mystery of who that character is, how that character was created, and how both Guy and Hal deal with that character is really a big part of that story.

It ends up that Hal and Guy have a lot of unresolved issues about the how 2814 thing. Hal is not aware, necessarily, of how Guy has been sort of running with things. So that's got to be resolved. And they have a lot of other unresolved issues, and tension with each other.

So that's a big part of it.

But we also layer in existing plot lines in each of our respective books so that you'll come away with a nice status quo change for both books. You'll learn about a lot of things. And you'll be able to just keep reading the books and run with them.

Venditti: Yeah, there's the internal storyline that happens within the crossover — this clash between Hal and Guy and Green and Red. But there's also threaded or continued all of the plot lines that are going to carry forward into Red Lanterns and carry forward into Green Lantern. So it isn't even an interruption of the current story lines.

And I can stress this enough — that was a big part of the goal here. We didn't just want to write a little Green Lantern story that featured some Red Lanterns. We wanted to actually showcase what Red Lanterns is as a title.

This is an opportunity for retailers to basically get Red Lanterns for free this month, and let their customer base try it out.

However many copies of Green Lantern you get, you're going to get Red Lanterns for free. Those readers are going to read that. And then hopefully, going forward from that, readers will stick around and see what's going on in Red Lanterns.

It's a book that is extremely content-heavy. There's a lot of stuff that happens in these 40 pages. And it's going to have repercussions that last for a very long time, not just in the Green Lantern family, but in the entire DCU.

Soule: It's got great action. It's actually got some romance, believe it or not. It's got a lot of good jokes. It's got crazy aliens. It's really — there's a ton in there, and i think it's going to be a really fun read. And I hope it sells 500,000 copies.

Venditti: It's got a Red Lantern that looks like a ball, and a Green Lantern that looks like a box. I don't know what else you want.

Venditti Convinced DC On GREEN LANTERN / RED LANTERNS' Flipbook

From Newsarama

When DC Comics releases two issues for the price of one in February's Green Lantern/Red Lantern flipbook, readers can thank Robert Venditti for the deal.

The two Lantern comics will be combined into a 40-page, two-sided flipbook in February, as the crossover story depicts a conflict between the different colored Lanterns and their leaders, Hal Jordan and Guy Gardner. At the center of the conflict is the recent revelation that the Red Lanterns are now the protectors of Sector 2814 — the portion of space that contains Earth.

The flipbook is the brainchild of Green Lantern writer Venditti, who pitched the idea to DC after he and Red Lanterns writer Charles Soule came up with a story that combined their titles. According to Venditti, the flipbook will be the ideal jumping-on point for new readers of either series, and he's hoping to attract some new readers to other titles in the Green Lantern universe.

In the first installment of a two-part interview about the Green and Red Lanterns, Newsarama talked to Venditti and Soule about what readers can expect from the crossover story — and how Venditti convinced DC to take a risk and release them in a flipbook.

Newsarama: Robert and Charles, before we talk about the flipbook, what brought about the idea to crossover in the first place? Was this story driven?

Robert Venditti: Yeah. We were plotting out "Lights Out," and Charles had come up with this idea that the Red Lanterns would ask for a sector to be able to patrol as part of their deal of going to help Hal deal with Relic, since Hal needed them because there are certain abilities they have that other corps don't have.

And that idea was out there. And then Charles and I ended up being in New York together, and we were sitting down in one of the rooms at the DC offices, just kind of hanging out and talking to each other. And he was just sort of talking out loud about how we need to figure out what sector Guy is going to get.

And there was this moment where the two of us just looked at each other. It was like Charles had the peanut butter and I had the chocolate. We just realized it would make perfect sense for Guy to think he was asking about 2814, while Hal didn't really realize that's what the deal was. And for there to be this misunderstanding between them, and the conflict and all that just came from there.

From that point, it was really just figuring out how to get the story in as many people's hands as possible, and so with the marketing of it and doing the double issue, and the free content at the same price, it was just an effort of trying to not only tell the story in the best way possible, but also get more people to look at Red Lanterns, because Charles is writing such a great book. When you do a crossover, it doesn't guarantee that people will pick up both books. So the structure was just a way to insure that everybody would get the full story. They can't help but not read it, because it's all going to be in one spot.

Charles Soule: The other side of it, too, is that comics come out every month, and there's another one that comes out the next month, and it's easy to forget that they're there for something you're not already reading. But doing this is a way to get people to think about these titles again and think about, you know, that we're a pretty tightly knit writers group, and we like to do stuff like this.

There are a lot of exciting things happening in the Lantern group, so why not jump on board?

Nrama: So it's just one issue then? The entire crossover is contained in this flipbook?

Venditti: The two books crossing over is just going to happen in issue #28, so it's just one month.

And that's the one issue that's a Red Lanterns/Green Lantern flipbook. The story is 40 pages total, and it's going to tell the entire story of what this is. But it's also going to set up this long-standing status quo shift that's going to carry forward into Red Lanterns and Green Lantern.

We feel like all the Green Lantern titles are great right now — Green Lantern is great, Green Lantern Corps is great, New Guardians is great, and Red Lanterns is great. I enjoy reading them and I want more people to see them.

So getting DC to back the content in that way — and that they're willing to essentially give away 40 pages of comics at a 20-page comics price, and put it all in one spot and do this new and out-of-the-box model in presenting this story to readers… I think they're really putting themselves behind the story like that. It shows that they believe in the content, to the extent that they'll take these kinds of chances. So hopefully everybody will be happy to have all the story in one spot, and it'll compel them to pick up Green Lantern and Red Lanterns for months afterward.

Nrama: So am I understanding this right, that you guys came up with the idea and got DC to buy into it? Who came up with this idea?

Soule: It was Rob!

Venditti: Yeah, actually, it was my idea.

Nrama: Ah ha! It was the former publisher n in you, wasn't it? From Top Shelf?

Venditti: Yeah, I worked at Top Shelf for about 10 years. They're a comic book publisher, and they do small, independent stuff. And I worked on the publishing side for a very long time. And a lot of what I did, as my day-to-day, was talk to retailers and fulfill orders, you know, working in the warehouse, doing invoicing, and all those kind of things. And I got to know retailers pretty well.

I was just trying to think of a way — once Charles and I came up with the content together, and we were in that room, and there was just this moment… it was really a great moment. For me, that's what you live for as a writer. You have these moments of spontaneous coolness that happens with the story. And that was very much what happened when Charles and I were in the room, and the content hit us.

And now it was just a matter of, how do we get people to read this?

And to have one book come out one month, and another three weeks later? We knew we were going to lose people in the transition there.

So I was just trying to think of an idea that we could do. And it's no small thing.

Nrama: So how did you convince DC to do this? You're basically asking them to give up thousands of dollars, by essentially giving away a comic for free that month. Did you have to pitch it?

Venditti: Yeah, I went into [DC Co-Publisher] Dan [DiDio]'s office, and I made a presentation that involved printing costs, and distribution and all these kinds of things.

Soule: Vaneta, I was sitting next to him when he did it, and he had, like, the laptop out. It was very impressive. I didn't say a word. I just let him do it. It was great.

Venditti: I'm told I looked like a brush salesman. I don't know if that's accurate or not.

It was this whole presentation of, here's why we should do this. And yeah, you're taking a risk, but these are all the things we can do, and hopefully it will have results. I don't know. Dan was kind of laughing at me like, I don't know… it was a surreal conversation, I guess, for a publisher to have with one of the writers.

Soule: The things is, I don't think he was sold on it until you sold him on it. So congratulations to you. That's why we're on the phone today. Because of you.

Venditti: Hopefully it does well.

Nrama: It's great that you justified it enough for DC to take the risk.

Venditti: It's an easy thing for an artist to say, "Hey, why don't you sell 40 pages of content for a 20 pages price? Why don't you do that?" You know? I felt like if I just said that… I mean, that's not an insignificant thing to ask a publisher to do. That's a pretty significant hit.

So I really wanted to make a presentation, and I didn't know that they would say yes. And I wouldn't have blamed them if they said no. But I really wanted to make a presentation that showed that I had at least put some thought into it beyond just saying, "Hey, give away free stuff!"

I wanted there to actually be a method to it, and a hopeful upside to it that would last into the future of Red Lanterns going into the next story lines.

I wanted to really use it as a showcase for that book.

Like I said, to Dan and DC's credit, they listened to it, and at the end of the meeting, he said, "OK, you got your flip book. We'll do it."

Nrama: How have you approached it creatively? Is it the same as if it's two completely separate books? Or was there a difference in the way you found yourself putting it together?

Venditti: They're two separate issues, and they're drawn by the two different creative teams. But it was different from how we'd normally approach two separate issues.

Soule: Yeah, I did more drafts on this than I typically do on a comic. I did a bunch of drafts, and Rob did a bunch of drafts, and we really wanted to try to make it cohesive and cool and worthy of the fact that something special is being done with it.

And we obviously shared those drafts, and when all was said and done, we got on the phone together and read through both scripts at once. And we found even more ways that we could make it work. You know, like a line in Green Lantern that pays off in Red Lanterns. Or call back jokes. Or making sure the themes we were trying to explore are coming out more thoroughly.

Venditti: And the transition is different than you'd normally see. We could handle that differently. We could have a closer synergy between the two titles, because we didn't have to recap one at the beginning of the issue that comes out three weeks later. It's all in one spot.

I think it enabled us to put even more content into it.

Soule: I'm not saying it's going to reinvent comics, but it certainly is designed to be one really cool, big, long book that you pay for half the price you'd normally pay for that much.