Friday, August 05, 2016

The Muslim Green Lantern was being kept in Gitmo

It may not have been made clear 5 years ago, when Geoff Johns first set up his propaganda angle in GL, but now, it's been confirmed in one of their post Rebirth issues that Simon Baz was being kept in Guantanamo Bay when he was arrested, as seen in the following picture:
I'm sure Johns is quite proud of his apologia premise, ditto where it's been going since. An obvious attack on US policy with terrorists, and one of the most degrading parts of the character's creation is how he wears a mask that looks like what jihadists could wear.

There's a line in the BC entry that's absurd:
It was heavily implied that this was Guantanamo Bay. But in the New 52, they didn’t like to use such names or make quite such obvious references.
No kidding! Then why did they go out of their way to feature a cameo appearance by Obama? Something which also comes up in the article, by the way.

Some of the commenters sum up how none of the above adds anything to the character:
Simon Baz holds less than 0 interest for me. That he has these new lantern super powers no other Lantern has does not make him any more likable, just makes him a Gary Stu.
One of those powers happens to be a firearm, as though they couldn't characterize him any worse than he already was. Considering he began as a car thief and was later charged with transporting explosives and blowing up an old factory site with them, using a firearm that's probably not even registered wouldn't aid his police record well in real life.

Another asked:
Obama has principles?
You said it, pal. Just what principles did he have these past two terms of office? Nothing helpful, that's for sure. And another says:
UGH. This is so bad. Why isn't he using his ring to get justice then?

I hate when they use real world tragedies just as window dressing.
By now the politics behind the creation are pretty apparent, explaining perfectly why they never developed the character convincingly. Still another says:
Simon Baz is a bad idea wrapped up in a burrito of bad ideas.
More specifically, the characterization and background are the real bad ideas here. And it's clear nothing's bound to improve. Anybody's who's galled at the ultra-leftist politics DC's been forcing on their books for over 2 decades should avoid buying GL, along with many of the past works Geoff Johns left behind as he went to work in movie/TV producing.

1 comment:

Pastorius said...

Avi,
is the writer is a Muslim?