It’s time to go back to space. From humble, earthbound beginnings, the past year of Jeremy Adams’ Green Lantern series has been ramping up into a massive space opera as the underlying cosmic forces of the universe are in upheaval, intergalactic authority has been exposed and all your favorite members of the Corps are teaming up for a civil war against their own masters. With this week’s Green Lantern: Fractured Spectrum, Adams and artist V Ken Marion are kicking up the wattage of Green Lantern’s light to levels we’ve never seen before for a story too big to be contained by a single ongoing.

Recently, we spoke with Adams to catch us up on the story so far, give us a sense of where we’re headed, update us on the status of a surprising new Blue Lantern and answer the one question every Green Lantern author must contend with in our current age.

A lot has happened in the Green Lantern mythology since you started on the book. The emotional spectrum’s all out of wack, the central batteries are blowing up, Durlans took over the Corps and then there’s all this multiversal, metaphysical stuff you’ve brought in through John Stewart. Do you think you can catch new readers up to speed with what’s been happening?

Yeah! So, at the end of Geoff Thorne’s run, which is a very high concept space opera, John Stewart had created this giant Source bubble, that I’m calling a Source Lantern. And the United Planets had, by order of the Guardians, become the controllers of the Green Lantern Corps.

My editor was like, “Hey, just write a paragraph saying everything went back to normal.” And I was like, “No! I’m a nerd. I can’t have that happen. I have to explain in excruciating detail.”

Phillip Kennedy Johnson had really elevated the United Planets in the Superman Warworld Saga. That introduced [United Planets leader] Lord Thaaros, and I remember asking Phil, “Can I use him and use the United Planets?” And the fact that they’re Durlans, all of that stuff came together.

So, they put a quarantine on Earth, on Sector 2814, because that’s where the problem area of the entire universe seems to be. Every Crisis seems to either come there, or come out of there. But it was also a way to keep the prying eyes of different heroes away from what Thaaros was doing. Thaaros was consolidating power—getting rid of the loyal Green Lanterns and supplanting them with Lanterns of his own that were powered by the Source Battery. And they had the ability to shift their spectrum with whatever they’re doing.

Hal doesn’t know any of this is going on. He’s on Earth. But while he’s down there, he suddenly figures out that the Green Lantern power battery pulls its energy from a defunct Manhunter armor. And we find out the Guardians had created a Designated Survivor Lantern in Earth, in case something had happened because the Guardians think of humans as like the cockroaches of the universe. They’re always going to survive. And that’s the reason there are all these Earth Lanterns. They were the backup plan in case everything goes to pot. Which it had.

So, Hal gets a new ring, he goes into space, he finds out what the United Planets are doing and he decides to confront them. And during that time, Phillip Kennedy Johnson, writing this great War Journal series, he has this character called Star Shroud. And he has the Darkstar ring, and we pull all of that in to culminate in this giant battle where the Earth Lanterns, Sinestro and a couple others have these new rings, and they have to fight two very powerful bad guys and the entire United Planets in order to come back to some sort of status quo.

But, it’s not status quo. There are no Central Power Batteries out there, except for the Green Lantern one. That means the Emotional Spectrum is wild. There are these beings all around the universe that are starting to manifest the Emotional Spectrum. So now, the Green Lantern Corps isn’t just out there being lawmen—they have to deal with people trying to manifest the Emotional Spectrum and what that might look like. And deal with how they can bring those people into the Corps, or how they can help control it, or what happens if they can’t help them control it.

On top of all that, the Emotional Spectrum is fractured. There are now these Fractal Lanterns—people manifesting different emotions that hadn’t existed before, one of them being Carol Ferris’s ex-fiancé, Nathan. He becomes the Sorrow, and he hates it! He just wants this pain, this sorrow, to end. And it’s really not his fault. It might even be because he was in proximity to Carol and Hal that the Emotional Spectrum hit him. He comes into contact with Starbreaker, who is an old time DC villain who also happens to be an emotional vampire, which will ALL play into what will happen in the next year!

I don’t think that was succinct, and I don’t think that was simple, but that’s me catching you up!

A major highlight of your Green Lantern run so far, at least to me, has been the backups that you’ve been affording to the other human Green Lanterns. What can you tell us about the Green Lantern Corps team book they’ll be expanding into?

By the end of my first year, Green Lantern had basically become a Corps book. One of the things that Paul Kaminski and Jillian Grant, my editors, talk about is how these backups can be additive as we start to discover what’s happening with Jo, Guy and Kyle. As we dove into those, we began to see that there’s a lot of story to be told with them. So as we go into Green Lantern Corps, Morgan Hampton and I have been trying to create these tales that will concentrate on a couple Lanterns at a time for a couple issues, and then we’ll flip over to another couple Lanterns at a time, in terms of an A plot and a B plot, so we can really dig into them and explore what’s going on with them while the Green Lantern Corps is searching for a way to stop Nathan and patrol the universe.

It definitely goes hand-in-hand with Green Lantern. These are two stories going toward the same thing. After you see the Fractured Spectrum special, people will understand what everyone’s trying to stop.

You’re the steward of the Green Lantern Corps franchise right now, so I’m just going to ask you this point blank. Are the Green Lantern Corps cops?

I think of them more as old time US marshals. They ride into town with a tin badge and you’re like, “Well, maybe they have authority?”

They’re kind of cops, but it’s more Star Trek-like to me. It’s more going out, exploring, but also trying to maintain some sense of order in the universe. And that’s going to be really focused upon, because I should say they’re like the cops of the Emotional Spectrum. That means they have much more responsibility now.

I do think of them as cops in some ways. It’s an easy parallel to make. But now the Guardians aren’t necessarily the governing authority, so I feel they’re more like territorial US marshals in the old west riding into town on their horses. “We’re looking for bad guys.”

If the Guardians are out, and now the United Planets are out, who’s in charge of all of this?

The Lantern Corps have a council and the Guardians are there in an advisory capacity, but they are changed. They were inside the Source Lantern being revived, but that got popped a little too early. So, these Guardians are a little young and they’re wearing smocks indicating different parts in the Emotional Spectrum. We’ll dive into that mystery more as the year goes on.

Everyone who follows the Green Lanterns has their own favorite Green Lantern. I’m looking at this cover for the Green Lantern Corps series with seven different Lanterns on it. How are you managing everybody’s favorites? It seems like a lot to juggle.

We’re trying to do our best. We get a lot of, “Why aren’t you using this character?” We will! “Where are my favorite alien Green Lanterns?” Give us a chance!

I have one more question for you. I’m not sure if you saw this. But in last December’s Batman Smells, Robin Laid an Egg anthology, we got a story where Mrs. Claus becomes our newest Blue Lantern. Is that canon?

…Okay. This is the first I’ve heard of it. That’s good to know. I should be looking at the calendar, and what issue comes out around December 25th. (laughs)
 

Green Lantern: Fractured Spectrum #1 by Jeremy Adams, V Ken Marion and Romulo Fajardo Jr. is now available in print and as a digital comic book. The story continues later this month in Green Lantern #19 (in stores January 29) and next month in Green Lantern Corps #1 (in stores February 12).

Get caught up on the story so far on DC UNIVERSE INFINITE.