The Four Color Media Monitor

IGN's got a list of series DC is going to release in the months after their latest unneeded crossover, Future State, and it's only 10, with some of the titles on the list all too obviously flagship series that are far from a surprise (Batman, Wonder Woman, Titans), even if they're reboots from Number One. I think the one I want to comment on for starters is Justice League Dark:

DC has also confirmed the monthly Justice League Dark series will be continuing after Future State, with Ram V remaining on board as writer and Injustice's Xermanico coming on as artist. It's unclear whether the series will continue its current renumbering or relaunch with a new #1 issue, and it remains to be seen how significantly the team roster will change.

We have here a series building on a direction that's been over-emphasized for a long time: darkness. And we've gotten to a point where that alone can easily turn me away, even if I still read DC's output, which I abandoned 15 years ago.

But that's not all that's troubling here. It seems DC is giving the reins of a new Green Lantern series to former actor and now scriptwriter Geoffrey Thorne, somebody who's spoken with obsessive negativity about Hal Jordan in the past:

Grant Morrison and Liam Sharp are ending their run on The Green Lantern in March, and DC will be debuting at least one new GL book in its place. Future State: Green Lantern's Geoffrey Thorne and Tom Raney will reunite for New Green Lantern. It remains to be seen which character or characters will headline the series, though the Future State series will emphasize John Stewart rallying the Corps after the Central Power Battery goes out.

If Thorne wants to make Stewart the star here, that's fine in itself. But based on a troubling string of disparaging comments he's made on social media in the past, that's why Thorne's not a good choice for a scriptwriter. Here's a list of Thorne's comments spanning as far back as 2014, adding up to an alarming serial damnation:

@thebeallman Hal Jordan was always Cardboard Joe. He'll never be cool. Being Parallax was the best thing that ever happened to him.

— Thorne_Identity (@GeoffThorne) October 29, 2014

Someone please explain to me why we dumped John Stewart for cardboard Hal Jordan again? because I'm just not processing it at this moment.

— Thorne_Identity (@GeoffThorne) December 21, 2014

every time DC MOVIES present a GREEN LANTERN that isn't JOHN STEWART they fail. At diversity and at commerce. #moneyonthetableidiots https://t.co/a20mLOSUdc

— Thorne_Identity (@GeoffThorne) January 3, 2017

Notice how he mentions "diversity"? Proving there's more to this obsession than meets the eye. Not to mention if it suggests Thorne's disparaging Jordan because he picked him as the perfect poster boy for a crappy white man to rag on, that's just as disturbing. Here's more:

oh please. Peter Parker is a supermodel dating an astronaut compared to Hal Jordan.

— Thorne_Identity (@GeoffThorne) January 3, 2017

worst hero: hal jordan. He's no better than a piece of cardboard with a Hal Jordan face painted on it. villain: Mr. Sinister. Because, no. https://t.co/LUQUIP0cBE

— Thorne_Identity (@GeoffThorne) February 18, 2017

if it's not "John Stewart is THE Green Lantern," no lessons were learned. https://t.co/5UZWamZ7gX

— Thorne_Identity (@GeoffThorne) July 26, 2018

becoming parallax was the best and only interesting thing hal jordan did in his entire career.

— Thorne_Identity (@GeoffThorne) September 29, 2018

hal is literally the least interesting GL in the history of the title and I'm including Alan Scott.

— Thorne_Identity (@GeoffThorne) February 3, 2019

Hal Jordan is and always has been a worthless cardboard cutout. John Stewart should be THE Green Lantern. https://t.co/fFor8FYz5a

— Thorne_Identity (@GeoffThorne) February 27, 2019

well, no. Hal is just a cardboard cutout. GAMBIT is the worst.

— Thorne_Identity (@GeoffThorne) December 15, 2018

if Hal's there, I'm out.

— Thorne_Identity (@GeoffThorne) October 30, 2019

if Hal Jordan is present I will not watch the show.

— Thorne_Identity (@GeoffThorne) October 30, 2019

i mean, I'm not a "hate watch" type of person. I give EVERY show a chance (except those that include Hal Jordan). So I'm happy i get to be happy about this.

— Thorne_Identity (@GeoffThorne) October 30, 2019

I joke about hating Gambit because it's fun. I actually hate Hal Jordan.

— Thorne_Identity (@GeoffThorne) October 30, 2019

Sir. I know Superman. I've read Superman my whole life.

Sir, Hal Jordan is no Superman.

— Thorne_Identity (@GeoffThorne) October 30, 2019

John Stewart was the only green lantern most human beings had ever heard of until he was erased to put Hal back in the box. Warner's could have had ALL the Black Panther love Marvel currently owns but for that error.

— Thorne_Identity (@GeoffThorne) June 4, 2020

it was and remains the only thing hal jordan has ever done that was interesting or worth reading about. huge mistake to retcon it into demonic possession.

— Thorne_Identity (@GeoffThorne) June 8, 2020

Remember when Hal Jordan went bad and was Parallax and he was was actually Parallax and not some alien parasite?

Good times.

— Thorne_Identity (@GeoffThorne) September 29, 2020

this remains the only interesting thing Hal Jordan has ever done or been.

— Thorne_Identity (@GeoffThorne) November 25, 2020

Man, do we have somebody here who can't spot the elephant in the room if it came up and trumpeted loudly 10 times in his vicinity: he condemns a fictional character instead of how he was written by various scriptwriters in the past. This is most absolutely disturbing, compounded by Thorne's celebration of Hal turning evil in Emerald Twilight. I find his claim he finds hating Gambit "fun" just as grating, because, while he may not admit it, that's what he's doing with Hal Jordan too. It's head-shakingly unbelievable how the hard work of so many decent writers and artists over past decades, like Hal's very own co-creators John Broome and Gil Kane, and even John Stewart's creators, Dennis O'Neil and Neal Adams, is being stomped upon by these illogical ingrates. I notice at one point Thorne disparaged Alan Scott too, and if Scott were still the star rather than Jordan, and underwent the Parallax transformation, it's a sure bet Thorne would turn against him just as viciously, tearing down on a fictional character because it's somehow even more valid and "healthy" than ragging on a real life innocent. Not true. Even bashing fictional creations can be very offensive, indicative of an insane mind, and unfair to the writers who worked hard to produce said creations. I may not think Kyle Rayner's ascension to GL was valid, but I recognize it's not his fault, but rather, that of writer Ron Marz and editor Kevin Dooley, who created the just-as-fictional character in 1993-94.

No less disturbing are the people on Twitter in agreement with Thorne, proving there's a whole generation and segment out there who can't tell the difference between fiction and reality, and won't see the forest for the trees. Would it be acceptable if even a tiny iota of these comments were made about Stewart? Absolutely not. So why is it acceptable to disparage Hal? It's virtually inexplicable why these people want anything to do with the GL franchise - or any mainstream comics - at all. Seriously, what's the use? They don't respect the history or make any distinctions between the good and bad, so why are they even reading them, assuming they actually do? (And chances are stratospheric they don't.) This also marks a clear failure of Marie Javins, as the current DC editor, to hire somebody based on talent, strongly suggesting she's part of the same mentality that drove Dooley in the 90s, and that's not good for business or storytelling.

Curiously enough, Thorne, of all people obviously to the left end of the political spectrum, supposedly has issues with Geoff Johns' writing, and in a potential irony, even Cyborg:

@107thPeoria @ComicAttack @BlackGirlNerds cyborg used to have value but since Geoff Johns castrated him he's worthless.

— Thorne_Identity (@GeoffThorne) August 29, 2014

@TimothyQuinzel @PatrickZircher will cyborg be the geoff johns eunuch version or something actually good this time around?

— Thorne_Identity (@GeoffThorne) February 7, 2015

who geoff johns likes isn't relevant.

— Thorne_Identity (@GeoffThorne) August 18, 2016

Honestly i'm dead sick of Cyborg being shoved at me because someone didn't want to leave John Stewart in place. Hal Jordan is worthless.

— Thorne_Identity (@GeoffThorne) April 25, 2017

Cyborg is only in the current line-up because SOMEBODY refused to accept that it should be John instead of Hal (lots of lost revenue, kids. you could have had that sweet Black Panther $). Vic is a Titan. The end. Nothing against Arthur, but nothing for him either. Ditto Shazam.

— Thorne_Identity (@GeoffThorne) July 19, 2018

Did it ever occur to Thorne that Johns could've castrated John Stewart just as badly if he cast him in Justice League instead of Vic Stone? Something about this reeks of phoniness, right down to Thorne's statement he's "sick" of Cyborg being pushed on him. Even if he means within the context of the League, it still suggests his Titans fandom is phony too. In any event, it's clear he's predisposed to liking John and hating Hal (and Alan). What kind of fandom is that? Fake and divisive, I'd say. I don't believe he's a Superman fan either. The way Thorne approaches everything, it's no wonder I can't credit him even the slightest bit for allegedly criticizing Geoff Johns, because all he's doing is ranting for "fun", not altruism, nor does he seem to complain about all the shoddy violence and slapdash nostalgia prevalent in a lot of Johns' writings from the past 2 decades. It does hint, however, that no matter how far to the left Johns leans, Thorne isn't grateful.

And how come no complaints by Thorne about how the terrible 1989 miniseries Cosmic Odyssey stained John Stewart with a plotline where he accidentally caused the death of a planet's population? If there's no concern over how offensive that is, I must question whether Thorne is really a fan of Stewart either. Come to think of it, how come no mention of the huge mistake it was to kill Katma Tui prior to that embarrassment in Action Comics Weekly? And even if Thorne did think it was a bad move, how, based on his serial disparagings of Hal, can I possibly thank Thorne if turns out he's willing to reverse the damage done, assuming DC editorial would allow it? He makes it exceedingly difficult.

Now, on top of the insults added to injury, we have somebody lacking respect for history granted the task of writing a series whose primary 2 stars were white, after all the serial denigration he heaped upon them. This is reason enough to avoid nearly everything Thorne's worked on. If DC's coming to an end in publishing, it couldn't come sooner, but it's clear it'll be on a very sad note, and Hal looks to be denigrated anew. What's more, I don't see Johns stepping forward to complain, and in hindsight, it's been apparent he only had Hal brought back to serve at the time for merchandise and movie marketing, not because he wanted to do what was sorely needed: remove Emerald Twilight from canon altogether, as it should've been long ago. Instead, he came up with the awkward retcon that Parallax was a separate entity that possessed Hal. I'm sorry, but that's just not going far enough in righting a wrong, and Johns' resorting to shock value violence and at one point even making Sinestro the star of a book was stooping pretty low.

It's worth noting that Thorne's repellent comments did draw critical response, as noted on Blog of Oa, and he tried doing damage control. But it's too little, too late, considering he kept up this reprehensible obsession at least until recently. All he's done is perpetuate an offensive approach wherein a fictional character is beaten to pieces over the faults of real life past writers, proving the outright refusal of a certain segment to distinguish between fiction and reality, and lay blame where it's really due, still prevails. In other words, Gerard Jones, easily the writer most guilty of leading to the whole mess, is still getting away with all his scriptwriting atrocities, even as he now sits in prison for the child porn offenses he was arrested for 3 years ago. It's just plain stunning how for over 30 years, a fictional character is made to pay for the sins of the assigned writers, courtesy of a whole generation of ingrates who don't make distinctions and clearly aren't interested in good writing. That's what brought down Hal before, and now, it looks like it could be happening again.

Update: and if Thorne's political leanings matter, last year, he attacked Candace Owens, a prominent director at Turning Point USA, in a most horrific manner. At this point I'm beginning to think his statements also say quite a bit about his positions on women as well. Truly sickening.

Labels: bad editors, dc comics, golden calf of death, Green Lantern, misogyny and racism, moonbat writers, msm propaganda, violence