Sinestro

It's safe to say that I did not expect the "War of the Green Lanterns" story to end the way that it did. We often talk about "shaking up the status quo" when it comes to comics. I think it's safe to say that Geoff Johns has done just that.

Sinestro is an interesting character. When he started out he wasn't really anybody. He was just a Green Lantern villain with a yellow ring, a ridiculous mustache, and an absurd set of clothes.

But over time he really has matured into a nuanced character. I'd even say that Sinestro is a more interesting and more complex character than Hal Jordan. And that's what makes giving Sinestro the starring role in the relaunched Green Lantern.

Sinestro vs. the Sinestro Corps. How is it that we're only getting this now?

Green Lantern: The Movie

I saw Sherlock Holmes last week. It wasn't the first time; I saw the movie in the theater. After all, I'm a pretty big Sherlock Holmes fan. I've read all the original Arthur Conan Doyle stories as well as my fair share of Holmes tales written by other others.

But this isn't really about Sherlock Holmes. It's about the fact that I didn't connect the name Mark Strong (Lord Blackwood in Sherlock Holmes to Mark Strong (Sinestro in Green Lantern). That's mostly because I forgot the guy's name. I mean, "Mark Strong" isn't the most common of names.

Now, when I realized exactly who it was who was playing Sinestro my immediate thought was: He's perfect. I still think so. But what it really did was finally drive home to me that this movie is actually happening. So far it's been hard to wrap my mind around the fact that there is actually going to be a Green Lantern movie. This has driven it home for me in a very explicit way.

For some reason Green Lantern never seemed like a likely movie. I always knew it would be a good movie, but how often do actually good comics get made into movies? It's usually really bad comics (or rather, bad adaptations of comics) that get made into movies. And by that I mean the movies have nothing to do with the actual comics.

See Steel. Or Catwoman. Those are the two most egregious examples. But something seems to have happened in recent years: Hollywood is actually making comic book movies that are like the comics. Geoff Johns's new position as Chief Creative Officer is the most shining example of that philosophy.

Will Green Lantern be good? I don't really know. But I think the fact that it's being made at all is a serious win for super-hero fans...

Thursday Night Thinking #134

What astonishing thoughts await you in this week's Thursday Night Thinking?

I don't care what anyone says. Geoff Johns didn't make Sinestro cool. Sinestro has always been cool. And it's stuff like this that proves it.

Secret Origins

As you well know, Geoff Johns is retelling Hal Jordan's origin. Again. This isn't the first time that Hal's origin has been retold. Or the second. Or even the third. But this version is probably going to be a little different from the previous version.

Specifically, it'll be full of retcons! We all know how much Geoff Johns loves retroactive continuity. So the heart of this "Secret Origin" is probably going to be a lot of things that we actually don't know about Hal -- because they never happened before.

There will undoubtedly be a tightening up of the friendship between Sinestro and Hal, as Johns has really been playing that up. For me, that friendship just reiterates what an idiot Hal Jordan really is. I mean, jeeze... How bad of an idea is it to become friends with a guy named "Sinestro"? I don't know anybody named "Evilor" or " Doomerina." But if I did, I wouldn't make an effort to become friends with them...