Temporary Hiatus...

Unfortunately I lost my job awhile back (before I started this blog actually) and it has affected my comic buying habits, as it rightly should. So, unless I come up with new theories based on older material, I have to postpone any other theory based blogs.

Until then, I plan on keeping the blog up in some form or another so this is as good a time as any to announce another function of my blog. I DO plan on having general comic talk type posts now and again. Be they news stories on comic publishers, comic reviews, announcements of new comics you should check out, etc. I don't wish to overload you on these types of stories so don't worry about me going nuts with it.

I hope I achieve gainful employment soon and get back to posting about the things I really enjoy within the industry. I also hope you'll bear with me as I go through this phase.

Return of...THE CORPSE!

So last blog I made mention of a storyline currently playing out in 'Green Lantern Corps' involving new willpower wielding enemies known as the 'Keepers'. Allow me to make one minor correction before proceeding, that storyline is NOT being written by Geoff Johns. Although I am unsure as to what role Geoff plays in the Lantern books he's NOT writing, it's necessary to be sure the writer Peter Tomasi gets the credit he deserves.

Anywho, in that storyline the 'Keepers' have been battling the Green Lanterns and by all appearances are currently winning. Last issue (that I read at least) we saw that John Stewart and a handful of other Lanterns were stranded in the middle of battle. Guy is intent on rescuing his buddy and, since I'm always trying to figure things out, I took a peak at the upcoming solicits for 'Green Lantern Corps' from DC's website.

It's a stretch I know, but based on this solicit I believe we're about to see the return of a Green Lantern concept introduced WAY back when the 'Green Lantern Corps' series got restarted after 'Rebirth'. I believe we're about to see the return of 'The Corpse'.

The Corpse, if you remember, is basically the HIGHLY secret black ops division within the Green Lantern Corps. Rather than using Green Lantern rings, the recruits of the Corpse use pills that provide the user with the same effects of the ring but for a limited amount of time.

Now I said this theory was a bit of a stretch and here's why. Guy once upon a time worked with the Corpse, but has no memory of it. The ONLY connection I'm making here comes from this line in the solicit above: "...and Guy's recruits are the nastiest Green Lanterns to ever put on a ring!". Now you may be asking, "Chad, I thought you just said they DON'T wear rings in the Corpse?" This is true, however in the storyline that introduced us to the Corpse, a Green Lantern was inducted into the Corpse following the success of their mission. So, in that way, I suppose they have "put on a ring" in the past.

Like I said, it's a stretch. When it says "nastiest" Green Lanterns I immediately made the leap to connecting that phrase with this page from the original Corpse storyline...

He clearly states, "You've just been inducted into the coldest, hardest, meanest division of the Green Lantern Corps...we live in the places that are too dark for the light of the Corps." I'll say it again, it's a leap, but I'm connecting the dots available to me. These 'Keepers' are CLEARLY getting the upper hand on the GL's and the situation would warrant calling in help from the division that THRIVES in the "places too dark for the light of the Corps".

So...it's my theory that Guy's "nasty recruits" means that the concept of the Corpse is returning for an encore.

Hey, not all my theories will be HUGE and story changing. Sometimes I like to switch it up with a simple one.

The Will to Power Themselves without the...

The holiday season is over and, having passed me by largely uneventful, I'm back for some more Lantern related theories. I promised you a doozy of a theory this time around and I hope I can deliver, for this particular theory could very well come to fruition within the next few months.

If you've been paying attention to the Green Lantern Corps series, you've noticed a new foe (known as the Keepers) who possess the capability to harness (and absorb) willpower. An effect which makes the Green Lantern Corps battle strategies largely ineffective. These 'Keepers' possess no batteries and no rings and yet wield and aspect of willpower just as effectively and the Green Lanterns themselves. My idea is that, while the nature of willpower is supposed to be neutral, it seems the Green Lanterns use willpower in a mostly positive way. Why not harness this same 'neutral' power in an opposing 'mostly negative' way? Thus canceling each other out (for the most part) like we see in the pages of 'Green Lantern Corps'.

However that's just the precursor to my newest theory. Think back to the history of the Green Lantern Corps. The Guardians of the Universe erected their central power battery which collects the raw willpower of every being throughout the universe and charges each individual Lantern's power battery which, in turn, charges their respective rings. Fast forward to the 'War of the Green Lanterns' storyline which reached an epic conclusion when Hal Jordan killed Krona (a guardian) with his power ring. An action which is SUPPOSEDLY not possible as the Guardians programed the ring to be unable to kill a Guardian.

And suddenly my theory takes shape.

It's not that Hal Jordans ring (being fueled by Guardian tech) killed Krona. I believe that Hal overrided his ring and used his OWN inherant willpower to kill Krona, using his ring simply as a funnel for accompishing his goal. This scared the Guardians, causing them to IMMEDIATELY strip Hal of his ring and ban him from the Corps because, as we all know, the Guardians do indeed feel emotion none more evident than fear. Especially when it comes to their survival instinct.

Now, suddenly, the Corps is faced with a formidable enemy who is capable of harnessing will WITHOUT the Guardians influence. Suddenly we see not only a single human capable of harnessing his own will, we are faced with an ARMY able to do the same thing. But that's not all.

When the Sinestro Corps War began, the very first opening pages showcased a VERY interesting concept. Sinestro....igniting his power ring with his OWN fear.

Then Geoff Johns took it a step further when we got our 'Tales of the Sinestro Corps' issues. Not only was Sinestro capable of doing this, each recruit into his self named Corps had to possess the ability to do the same thing...

Could you read that? If you couldn't,

Lyssa Drak: "You will be placed within a fear lodge and put into absolute darkness. Your ring will be drained of it's power and it will be up to YOU to charge it."

Amon Sur: "With a power battery?"

Lyssa Drak: "Without one this time. This is the secret of the rings Amon. The power batteries do not MAKE the yellow energy of fear, the COLLECT it from all sentient emotion. You are not capable of creating more than a spark."

So there you have it. Amon may not have been capable of creating more than a spark, but a spark is all the evidence you need. It IS possible to harness the 'emotion' for yourself. Not only that but later in the series we bear witness to another aspect of harnessing the emotions, this time by the Blue Lanterns.

Yep. The Blue Lanterns not only charge Green Lanterns, they can tap into the hope of the populace of the planet and COLLECT it, using it to fuel the change of the collapsing sun into a young blue star. So now we have witnessed MULTIPLE examples of individuals harnessing emotion for their own purposes, both their OWN emotion and the emotion of those nearby.

But with the numerous failures of both the Green Lanterns and the Guardians, why would the Guardians restrict the Corps from learning more effective ways to go about their tasks?

Yeah, Geoff Johns brings it back full circle. Take note, every storyline I've referenced, every panel I've posted has been written by Geoff Johns. A man who sets up future storylines MONTHS in advance. So I believe there is NO WAY these multiple examples are in this series out of coincidence.

If only we could see how the Green Lanterns exist in the future, so we can see if I'm right or not. Hold up, remember a little story called 'Final Crisis: Legion of Three Worlds'? You do? Remember who wrote that? Oh YEAH....Geoff Johns. So what do we learn there? Among other things we learn two things...

First we see that, on an Oa where Sodam Yat is the last 'Guardian' of the universe, the Lantern Corps sees Ganthet as a deity of sorts. Wether ancesteral respect of something more, Ganthet is the ONLY Guardian whom the Corps still holds in some high regard. When we see the Guardians rapidly losing respect among the Lanterns in current continuity, this revelation holds some weight.

Secondly we see the oath of Sodam Yat. CLEARLY a merging of the Green Lantern Corps oath and the Sinestro Corps oath. To me this suggests a point at which Sinestro re-joins the Corps. Remember, everything Sinestro has done up until this point was to force the Green Lanterns to become the police force he believed they should be. NOT to destory the Corps. He's always believed in the purpose of the Corps, just not how they went about it. Once the Guardians begin to push away the Green Lanterns, Sinestros distrust of them will have been proven right and who knows how Sinestro fits into the possible 'new' Green Lantern Corps that comes into being after the Guardians (save Ganthet) are out of the picture?

It's my theory that sometime VERY soon, everything will come to a head and the Guardians will push the last button when they attempt to create their "third army" and abandon their Corps. Somehow Sinesto or Hal or the Blue Lanterns or Ganthet himself will lead the abandoned corpsmen against the Guardians...by teaching them how to access their OWN will. Becoming non-reliant on the Guardians and their methods. This would explain why Geoff has planted these seeds and also explain why we've become INCREASINGLY frustrated and upset with how the Guardians are conducting themselves in recent years. To me, it's the only conceiveable option out there.

NOTE: During talks on the Lanterncast; Dan, Jim and I have discussed this possibility at length. I will not sit here and say that everything posted above is my own ideas 100% but I don't know what came from where. I DO know that I'm the one who made the connection between the 'Keepers' and the 'Legion of Three Worlds' storylines in order to further our theory. But I did want to make sure Dan and Jim got their credit.