Shipping this week:
MAR110266 Green Lantern Movie Prequel Hal Jordan #1 2.99
Originally due: May 25th
So a Green Lantern Movie Prequel is shipping this week, a full month late and 3 weeks after the Green Lantern Movie opened. The fifth and final Green Lantern Movie Prequel book won’t be out until August. As a retailer I’m pretty worried about this. Not just because of a late book, because hey, sometimes books are late. But because of the creative team, and because of how Capital “I” Important this book is. This was DC’s major tie-in to the Green Lantern film, written by Green Lantern writer, Chief Creative Officer, and Green Lantern movie Executive Producer Geoff Johns. Apparently at no point was it a priority to get their major movie tie-in out in time for the movie, that’s a little distressing. But worse than that, this is nothing new. Johns has been at least a month late on Green Lantern for most of the title’s run, with frequent skip-months to get the book back on track.
And getting worse, GL isn’t the first problematic work of Johns’. Johns really sunk his teeth into Flash before he moved to GL, and that series has frankly been a mess for years now. There’ve been 4 relaunches of that title in 2.5 years:
Flash: Rebirth #1 (April 2009) (6 issues, 11 months)
Blackest Night: The Flash #1 (December 2009) (Came out before the 6th and final issue of Flash: Rebirth)
Flash #1 (Brightest Day) (April 2010) (10 issues, 13 months)
Flash #1 (September 2011)
Frequent delays, content changes, having the end of the arc ruined, all sorts of relaunches… It hasn’t been a great time to be a Flash fan. Sure, the content is generally very well regarded when it arrives, but for fans who are used to getting their comic every month, Flash has been about the most disappointing title that DC publishes in that regard for 3 years.
But making things ever worse is a non-Geoff Johns-written comic being released this week:
APR110099 Green Lantern Emerald Warriors #11 (War Of GL) 2.99
You see, this book is an aftermath book to Geoff Johns’ “War Of The Green Lanterns” crossover that’s been running for the past few months. It takes place after the War is over–an epilogue to the series. Have you guessed why this is distressing? It’s because the last issue of War Of The Green Lanterns hasn’t ended yet. The last part is Green Lantern #67, written by Geoff Johns, and which has been moved from it’s original ship date of June 15th to… July 13th.
Now, frankly, I don’t personally give a fuck. I don’t really read these books, but I do pay attention. This isn’t the first time DC or Marvel have spoiled the ending of one of their own major crossovers because of lateness, editorial incompetence, or just not really giving a fuck themselves. I feel like while it’s my job to sell these books to people (and I enjoy my job) anyone who’s buying them knows what they’re getting into by now. It’s admittedly one of the crappier parts of my job, but it’s not all sunshine and roses here in the comic book trenches.
No, why I’m even bothering to write this blog entry, is this guy, Geoff Johns, is the guy in charge of relaunching the entire DC Universe in September. 52 brand new comics, all hinging on Geoff Johns and Jim Lee (another fine creator not known for being timely) and their Justice League ongoing series, and that’s kinda fucked up right there. DC has chosen to make Geoff Johns the public face of this relaunch, Johns has seemingly willingly stepped into the role, and every book he’s involved with right now has massive scheduling and timeliness problems.
I don’t say any of this to be cruel, to take a shot at DC when they’re trying something exciting and new, to rain on their parade. But it’s been rattling around in the back of my head since the announcement, and the release of two fairly major fuckups within the DCU this Wednesday, both directly tied to Johns? Well, I felt like it was at least worth noting.
- Chris
The Importance of Timing Comic Releases » Comics Worth Reading says:
[...] Butcher looks at the release schedule of the Green Lantern movie prequel comics, pointing out that although the movie opened June 17, one of the comics (Hal Jordan) ships this [...]
June 28th, 2011 at 4:29 pm
Comics A.M. | Why Marvel spoils stories in the media, Green Lantern lateness | Robot 6 @ Comic Book Resources – Covering Comic Book News and Entertainment says:
[...] Retailing | Toronto retailer Chris Butcher worries about how well the two late Green Lantern movie prequel comics — one shipping this week, one shipping in August — will sell so long after the film’s release. He also discusses the lateness of the final issue of the War of the Green Lanterns crossover, which won’t come out until after the epilogue story in this week’s Green Lantern Emerald Warriors #11. [Comics616] [...]
June 29th, 2011 at 9:57 am
I imagine that the GL film prequel comics also would have sold better before the movie release due to the film’s poor quality. If I had loved the film, I might be inclined to explore its world a lot more. Now, no interest in that.
June 29th, 2011 at 10:16 am
While I agree at the stupidity of this scheduling, it should also be noted that on DC’s little truck tour across the nation they have specifically stated that lateness will no longer be tolerated. And that goes for EVERYONE, including Jim Lee and Geoff Johns.
Chris Stepping in here: What does that MEAN though? Does that mean their flagship book loses its creative team after 3 issues? 5 issues? Are Lee and Johns on Justice League for the long haul, or just enough for a trade paperback? If I’m going to invest massive ammounts of money and marketing effort into this stuff, it’d help to know we’re going to get a similar product for at least… I dunno, a year? Is that crazy?
June 29th, 2011 at 10:17 am
AMEN! ‘Nuf said!
June 29th, 2011 at 10:30 am
Dan Didio has said multiple times that he will not tolerate lateness as part of the relaunch. Is he willing to come down on his own CCO?
June 29th, 2011 at 10:35 am
I agree with you. I thought it was moderately amusing that while Jim Lee publicly promised (albeit tongue-in-cheek) that he wasn’t going to fuck this up, there’s been neither a similar promise from Johns nor any acknowledgement that his lateness is ever even a problem. I mean, at least Lee knows enough to be able to joke about it.
In all fairness, though, of the Flash relaunches you mentioned, one (The Flash Rebirth) was a mini-series, never intended to be an ongoing, and one (Blackest Night Flash) was a Blackest Night tie-in mini-series, also not meant to be an ongoing. But your point is well-taken.
June 29th, 2011 at 10:52 am
It’s funny how seven or eight years ago I thought Johns was an okay writer and you were awfully mean to him sometimes. Now I consider him the Aerys Targaryen of comics.
June 29th, 2011 at 11:46 am
Gerry: as Jim Shooter recently revealed, DiDio doesn’t really give a fuck if his golden boy can’t keep a schedule, he’ll just work around it.
June 29th, 2011 at 11:47 am