The in Green Lantern Corps.

The Corps was the subject of a hostile takeover by the insidious leader of the United Planets, Lord Premier Thaaros. But happened to the Emotional Spectrum. Green Lantern Corps writers Jeremy Adams and Morgan sit down with Screen Rant to share what kind of colorful adventures are ahead for the squad of ring-slingers.

Screen Rant: Jeremy, tell us a little bit about why now’s the best time to bring the Green Lantern Corps back for a new ongoing series and Morgan, tell us how you got involved on this project.

Jeremy Adams: I think it's the best time because, obviously, the Green Lantern book was getting heavily populated with other Green Lanterns. We started bringing everybody in, the backups started really exploring some of those characters. And so by the end of the last arc, it was a myriad of characters. And so it seemed like a great jumping-off point to re-establish the Green Lanterns for the universe, and because people are going to be semi-familiar with them now from the Green Lantern book, if they hadn't been already. It seemed like a primo launch spot. More than anything, I'm excited that we get to expand the Green Lantern universe a little more.

Morgan Hampton: Yeah, and I got involved. I was just emailing editors looking for work at DC since Cyborg ended, and I hit up Paul Kaminski. I had a Green Lantern pitch that he really liked, so he kind of looped me in, saying that they were thinking about doing a Green Lantern Corps book, and asked me if I wanted to write it with Jeremy. And I was like, "Absolutely.". I feel like comics are really interesting. Sometimes it can just be crickets for a long time, and then all of a sudden you're on a book, and it's due tomorrow. So that's kind of how it's been on this book. But it's been a lot of fun, no doubt.

I think one of the things I’ve talked about with Jeremy is the balancing act when it comes to how many human Green Lanterns. I feel like every time there’s a Green Lantern Corps series, it comes back with more and more Earth-based Lanterns. For the both of you, how do you find that balance when pretty much every Lantern is someone’s favorite?

Jeremy Adams: Our plan is to do kind of a couple issue arcs focusing on a plot on one particular Lantern and then a B plot on another particular Lantern, and then we'll change to a couple other different lanterns. Those plot threads are not going to go away. Those characters aren't going to go away. But it's more like shifting the camera toward those characters. I think, Morgan, you said it best. It was definitely more like Star Trek.

Morgan Hampton: Yeah, in that regard, hopefully, everyone will be satisfied. You know, we're touching all the Green Lanterns, except for the ones whose favorite character was from Green Lantern #457, and we've never seen them since. They probably won't be happy. But other than that, we do want to service all these characters and give them their moment so they can develop and just be front and center.

Jeremy Adams: It's like the burning questions people have for individual lanterns that maybe don't have the most developed backstory. My favorite Lanterns that people are very verbally "I hate that guy.". And that to me is like "Oh, great. That's fertile ground. How do we make them like this guy?". That's fun, because their expectations are so low. If we just give them a little bit of shine, I bet everybody will love them.

Strangely, that's never worked for a lot of people with Guy Gardner. I mean I like him but a lot of people don't

Jeremy Adams: (laughs) I know! He's my favorite. And it's so funny, people are like "Ah, I hate him!". But he's awesome!

The two of you are working with Fernando Pasarin and Oclair Albert on this project. How has the collaboration been with them?

Morgan Hampton: Literally, they bring it to life, like, in the most literal sense. We just start talking about how populated and lived in these worlds feel off of the art and this book wouldn't be half of what it is without both of them, what they're contributing. Like, it's absolutely incredible.

Jeremy Adams: I worked with Fernando and Oclair a great deal, especially in Flash. They are really tight, like they're a unit. Fernando is unbelievable in his execution, and just the fact that he goes so above and beyond what he asked, even on the page. In fact, he's so excited about doing this book. He's so excited about doing Green Lantern Corps and aliens and everything. He's just so kid-like, when it comes to this, he wants it to run forever. He wants to be involved forever, which you can't ask for something more. I'm always championing the fact that this is a visual medium, and if it doesn't look good, you're probably going to put the book down. And as a writer, it's like, "What can we do to make this more fun for you?". There's this bizarre thing where he's already like "I'm so excited. I don't care what you do, this is going to be awesome.". He's so pumped about it.

Diving into the first issue, you know I was a fan of Green Lantern: War Journal, so I was really happy to see John play such a big role here. I am curious about where he is coming off of War Journal. How do you feel about his character development, and how does that impact Green Lantern Corps?

Morgan Hampton: I mean, he did some very interesting things in War Journal with creating a construct of his deceased sister, his mom is kind of in his ring now. We've both approached it like "Were those right things to do?" I don't know. So let's explore that with him as he's trying to figure out why he made these decisions or if they were the right thing for him to do, and how that's going to kind of maybe spill out or not spill out. I think we've talked about how he's very much presenting like he's fine, but there's a lot bubbling underneath the service surface that he's not dealing with that is going to come out at some point.

Jeremy Adams: You know, John's had a huge part to play in the Green Lantern Universe in the past several years. Not just in Phillip Kennedy Johnson's last Green Lantern run. PKJ, really brought an emotional depth to it. But how do you go from being a god-like being that's split himself into two, and then suddenly your mom has a neurological disorder. I mean, it's a lot and I don't think he can just sweep it under the rug. And I think that Philip was very smart and intricate in the way that he dealt with the emotions of it. Emotions are a funny thing, you know, and trauma is a funny thing, too, and a lot of that stuff can bubble up. And I think now that he's in a corps, there's going to be a lot of people that have questions like "Hey, should you be making sentient constructs? You know there are rules.". And not only should you be making them, but should they be around? So it's a lot.

I liked how the Fractured Spectrum special showed off the other Lanterns beyond John in new roles, Jessica’s leading the Corps, Guy’s kind of like a private eye. Do you want to talk about the changes for these characters and where it's going to take them in this new book?

Jeremy Adams: It's going to go in a lot of different directions. We want to explore a lot of characters that maybe current fans don't necessarily know a lot about about. Part of our mission statement is to get people interested in these other characters. My joy would be that you go, "Hey, I like Jo. I want to go back and read her series." or "Teen Lantern's interesting. What do we actually know about her?". Jess has been kind of a mainstay, but it's really fun to see her in a different role. That's been gratifying, because we get to have a little more concentrated time on individual characters that are fan-favorites that have been the focal point of Green Lantern for the past several years in different iterations. But it's also a heavy task. I think Morgan and I want to give everybody a moment. We want to give everybody time. And for a book that comes out monthly, it always feels like we don't have enough time, but we've got a big story to tell, and we know what the big story is, and I think it's going to be exciting to dive into it.

Jeremy Adams: I much prefer this isn't a singular Green Lantern book. This is more like an ensemble. It's like you couldn't sit there and say Friends was about Joey. And Green Lantern Corps is an entity that is now just getting back up to speed, starting to gather more troops, starting to figure out who and what they can patrol, and with the added danger of people manifesting Emotional Spectrum powers in the universe. Makes that a little bit more complicated. But we're really going to drill down and see who these characters are, so that you can step away from this book knowing in your head that, "Teen Lantern's like this. Jess is like this. Simon is like this.", and hopefully you'll like it or be annoyed by it, in the case of Guy.

Morgan Hampton: Yeah, the big goal, I think, is to really push all these characters a little bit more forward than they've been pushed up into this point. So I think, for me as a writer, a big thing is character progression. While I'm playing with these characters, how can I move them forward, put them through problems, make them grow, stuff like that. So I think that's kind of our goal for all these characters that we're going to be focusing on.

Speaking of the changes to the Emotional Spectrum, I really am liking the addition of the Sorrow Lantern. It’s such a simple idea, but I think he offers something new with the Emotional Spectrum. What's going on with him and the overall 'Fractal Lantern' saga?

Jeremy Adams: So we've revealed the Starbreaker, who is an emotional vampire who's using Nathan Broome's pain and sorrow as a way to facilitate his own ends. And I think that's going to be a huge part that plays in the Green Lantern book and the Green Lantern Corps. It's not going to be the last part of that fractured spectrum that's going to manifest, which is a whole other interesting scenario, because it's caused a lot of chaos. And anytime you have an energy source that is becoming unstable, it's going to have unintended consequences. But with Green Lantern and Green Lantern Corps, we're building towards something a kind of showdown between Starbreaker and the Sorrow Lantern. And the Sorrow Lantern, to me, is interesting, because Carol left him at the altar, and he shows this extreme form of emotion in the midst of the Emotional Spectrum being so jacked up. And whether it was the proximity to Hal and Carol or whatever, you know, it's manifested in this way, and all he wants to do is stop the pain. And that's weirdly relatable. So it makes him a much deeper character that I definitely could have just thrown on the trash heap of history, of comic history. That small entry into the Who's Who somewhere. But he's playing a bigger part than even I thought he would at the beginning. So Morgan and I have big plans for him.

I don’t know how much either of you want to give away but is there anything you want to say about the Corps newest ?

Jeremy Adams: We just had this conversation in our last interview! We're like, "We probably shouldn't say anything about that.". But I think that it will be surprising, the people that are Green Lanterns. I've already seen people comment on St. Walker being a Green Lantern.

Morgan Hampton: Yeah, and my comments have been crazy off the reveal, like, "Is that him? He's a Green Lantern?!" And I'm just like, I'm gonna keep my mouth shut. (laughs)

Jeremy Adams: St. Walker, Razor. There's a couple other characters, I think. The grounding principle is that all the Central Power Batteries are gone and so the people that are manifesting other emotions, that don't have willpower at their base, are in serious trouble. Like, if you start manifesting an emotion, as you see in Green Lantern Corps, and you don't have the will to control it, it will end up badly for you. My feeling is that willpower is not an emotion as much as it's a controlling factor of emotions, and so those people have a leg up to control some of that combustible energy, like Kyle as a White Lantern. Why isn't he a White Lantern right now? Well, it's gotten unruly. You know, the Emotional Spectrum is very unruly. They don't have anything to focus those energies anymore. So you're taking your life into your own hands if you do that. So if you have that willpower control it, then you have that willpower to be a Green Lantern.

There’s a subtle change to the Guardians of the Universe I liked in the Fractured Spectrum one-shot, where there appears to be a Guardian modeled after every shade of the Emotional Spectrum. What does that mean for this new iteration of the Guardians?

Jeremy Adams: So John made the Source Lantern, right? To me, the Source is the primordial energy source of the DC Universe. So in within that is probably all the Emotional Spectrum. I think what John did, even if he knew it or consciously or subconsciously, he was healing the Guardians, by bringing the Guardians back. But if you read the last Green Lantern issue, the Source Lantern was popped by Kyle and Varron. So they have been prematurely brought out, and because of that, I think each of them has a affection for a particular emotion, but I can't get into it too much, because it's going to have a role to play. The Guardians right now have an advisory role within the Green Lantern universe, and that's because no one knows exactly. They know they have knowledge. Our guys know they have knowledge, but they also know that the Guardians, the old guardians, for as much good as they did, there's a lot of bad. So I think that our guys are kind of self-governing at the moment, but rest assured, those smock-wearing Guardians are not done yet.

Jeremy, you’re writing Green Lantern and Green Lantern Corps, how is it writing both of these titles while trying to tell this larger-scale story. And Morgan, what are you bringing to Corps that fans aren’t getting in Green Lantern?

Jeremy Adams: Well, what's great for me is I get to bounce ideas off of somebody. (laughs). So I'm actually using his brain for my own purposes

Morgan Hampton: I don't envy your position, though, being on both of these books that are both kind of like bouncing off with the same topic.

Jeremy Adams: Well, it's weird because I'm pulling this thread that I've been talking about the Green Lantern book into two other books. I think that with Green Lantern, I get a little more focused, because I can focus on Hal and then there's this little subset with Kyle and a couple other characters that's just been a fun, blow off steam thing in the book coming up. But it is hard because it's a bigger book now. Now I'm servicing the ideas that Morgan and I are talking about. And I feel like even though Morgan and I know where we're going, we got to get there quicker, because we have a lot of ideas to explore and not that much runway to do it. Is that fair, Morgan?

Morgan Hampton: Yeah. To answer your question, I don't know. I feel like Jeremy might be able to answer that better, like, since you're on both books, what do you think I'm bringing to Green Lantern Corps that's not in Green Lantern?

Jeremy Adams: Again, I think because we get to explore all these other characters, Morgan's really good at diving into the depths of their emotional state and more dramatic that we can explore. There's more characters to explore. With Hal in the Green Lantern book, he's done a lot of growing up already. And with Green Lantern Corps, we're able to really dive into the different personalities and quirks of the many characters. Which is hard when you're doing just a singular character, it's like "Oh, I did that. I don't want to retread things.". So it's fun to be able to go over to Green Lantern Corps and Morgan and I talk about, "What's this character like? What's he doing?".

What do the two of you want to say about Green Lantern Corps future and how it fits into DC All In?

Morgan Hampton: I think what I want to say is that we've talked a lot about how we really want this book to be an all-encoming space book. So, yes, it's about the Green Lantern Corps, but it's about how they're navigating the universe as well, and the type of characters and conflicts that they come across that may not be so universal to the Earth-based stuff. So I think we want this book to be really big in scope outside of the character moments that we want to have, we want this to feel just like a space periodical, where you come in and have these weird space adventures with these odd characters that you can't get in any other book.

Jeremy Adams: Yeah, all of that. I would say that, especially for Green Lantern fans, it's going to have a lot of crazy payoffs, a lot of crazy stuff that's coming forward that I don't think anybody will expect, and that will probably give us anger, excitement, and all the emotions. What we're trying to do is manifest that emotion in real-life. I want greed. I want comion. I mean, really, that's what this is. And I think for fans of DC and Green Lantern, I think I've said this a bunch when, even when I was writing The Flash, I feel like I'm part of a buyback program. I'm trying to get people that were very interested in Green Lantern that may have dropped off to come back. This is going to be a fun, exciting ride, and I think they'll enjoy it, and I think they'll understand it, and if you like what Geoff was doing and Rob was doing, I think we're in that vein, and we're trying to write these space opera books that have a lot of stakes to them.

Green Lantern Corps #1 is available from DC Comics on February 12th, 2025.