When it comes to having abilities far beyond those of normal people, most superhero fans focus on the thrills. We imagine flying like Superman, racing across continents like the Flash or exploring the depths of the oceans like Aquaman. If superpowers were a real thing, we’d all want them. Let’s not pretend we wouldn’t.

But what we often forget is that finding yourself suddenly capable of doing superhuman, powerfully destructive things would be utterly terrifying at first, especially if you don’t fully understand your new abilities. Absolute Green Lantern, the sixth and most recent series to be released in DC’s acclaimed new alternate universe, is a powerful reminder of this. An unnerving cosmic horror take on the classic superhero franchise, Absolute Green Lantern is mysterious, frightening and impossible to put down. It’s sure to be another highly discussed new ongoing from a line of books that seems utterly incapable of failure at this point. And while the mystery is a big part of the fun in bold new take on one of DC’s oldest franchises, we still couldn’t resist sitting down with writer Al Ewing (Metamorpho) on the eve of issue #1’s debut to see what hints and horrors we could uncover.

Absolute Green Lantern was one of the first Absolute titles announced after the initial wave. How did the book come together?

When I first heard about the whole Absolute project, Scott [Snyder] approached me to make my acquaintance and ask what ideas I had for the Absolute universe that were not the Trinity. I gave DC a couple of ideas and one of them—the more polished one, the one I’d put a little more thought into—was Green Lantern.

What I’m telling people before the first issue comes out is the less you know, the better because it’s all about unknowability. It’s about the horror of unknowability. It’s Green Lantern as a cosmic horror. The thing about Green Lantern in the regular DC Universe is that it’s a known quantity. Everyone in the universe knows the Green Lantern rules. Everyone understands, at this point, that you have the Green Lanterns, Yellow Lanterns and Red Lanterns. They know that the Green Lantern is weak against Yellow, they need to recharge their rings—there are rules. The structure of the Green Lanterns and Guardians, they’re like a known police force.

In the Absolute universe, the Green Lanterns—or rather the Green power—it’s an unknown. The Green Lantern in the Absolute universe is a gigantic object that lands on a town and crushes it. When the Green power comes to Earth, nobody understands it. It doesn’t introduce itself to anybody. It’s not like in the regular universe where Abin Sur comes down to say hello to Hal Jordan and give him the speech. We don’t get that in the Absolute universe.

What can you tell us about the cast? Which Lanterns will we be seeing?

We’re going to see at least three or four people that we know of in the regular universe as Green Lanterns. We’re going to see Hal Jordan, John Stewart, Jo Mullein and there’s a bit of a cameo from Guy Gardner. There may be others.

The thing is that we get them as humans. We don’t really get them as Lanterns. We get them as humans who come into contact with this Green power.

It seems like it’ll feature various members of the Green Lantern Corps. Why did you decide on an ensemble book rather than focusing solely on one Green Lantern?

When I first encountered Green Lantern, it was towards the end of the ’80s, so it was very much like the Green Lantern Corps. It had that angle where it’s a whole bunch of Green Lanterns together, so I guess I’ve always thought of them as more of an ensemble. Green Lantern is technically sort of a solo book. It’s always about one Green Lantern at a time, but there’s always that ensemble cast floating around the Green Lantern who’s the central character.

In this book, there’s a sort of central player, which is Jo, but around her is that whole supporting cast. Not everybody is a central character, but everybody’s important.

Jo Mullein is probably my favorite new DC character since Harley Quinn. But she’s a relatively new character who already feels very of the moment. Why is she the right Lantern to lead the book?

I think in the first version of the pitch, it was more John’s book. But the vision I had for John, and I didn’t want to lose that, was as a quite thoughtful, contemplative character. I decided I needed somebody who was more of an action-driven personality to kind of throw that into relief. So, as the book evolved into the second stage of the pitch, Jo really seemed like the ideal person to take on that active central role. I also think it’s interesting to have somebody that maybe the reader doesn’t know as well, that we can all discover together.

You’re working with artist Jahnoy Lindsay on this. What’s something he’s drawn for the title that you think is going to blow fans’ minds?

It’s a bit of a spoiler! I’m being very careful with my words here, but there’s a moment where an aspect of the Oan power is revealed at a diner in the desert. As a result, there’s a sudden release of destructive power, which Jahnoy did an incredible job depicting.

Is that in issue #1?

Yes, it’s in issue #1. There are a few double-page spreads in issue #1 that Jahnoy really knocked out of the park along with some moments of building tension. He’s great at those big action moments, but he’s also great with moments of expression and quieter, tense moments, which I did ask for a lot of in the first issue.

The Absolute titles that have been released so far have all received critical acclaim and many have gone back for reprints multiple times. It can’t be easy to follow something like that. As a writer, how do you handle that sort of pressure?

You’ve just got to have faith in what you’re putting on the page. I feel like something that does help is that every single one of the Absolute books is different in tone, what it’s trying to achieve and where it’s trying to go. They’re all coming out of the gate doing a different thing. If you pick up any Absolute comic, you won’t feel like you’ve seen the same thing before. It will feel like something new.

Obviously, what we would love is for people to follow the whole line, and I think people are going to be able to follow the whole line without feeling like there’s a sort of repetition happening. So, in terms of the pressure, as long as I handle the story in my comic, we’re all basically driving in the same direction. It’s not like a competition in that way. We’re all contributing to this larger whole. I feel like once readers have the first and second waves in their hands, they’ll be able to read all six of those comics and have different experiences with each one, and that’s going to be pretty great.
 

Absolute Green Lantern #1 by Al Ewing and Jahnoy Lindsay is now available in print and as a digital comic book.