Every once in a while I read a comic book that is so bad, so poorly written, I want to swear off funny books for the rest of my life. GREEN LANTERN #29 is one of those books.
Much of the story takes place while Hal Jordon is in the United States Air Force. It was obvious from reading this that writer Geoff Johns knows absolutely nothing about the Air Force or the military in general. It’s also clear he didn’t feel like doing even some basic research to make up for any lack of knowledge.
I don’t get that. If I was going to write about something I didn’t know anything about, I would try to learn as much as I could about the subject.
I spent close to 10 years in the Air Force and a good majority of that time was spent working on aircraft. Many of the gaffs in this book were just simply ridiculous. Most of them could have been avoided by simply doing a quick Google search.
Hal Jordon enlists in the Air Force on the day of his 18th birthday and then becomes a pilot. It doesn’t work that way. Enlisted people don’t become pilots. Someone who wants to become an Air Force pilot must first graduate college with a 4-year degree and then receive a commission to become an officer. Officers do not enlist. Only enlisted people enlist.
Major Stone is said to have more Silver Stars then the American flag. That means he has at least 51 Silver Stars. The Silver Star is the third highest military decoration awarded for valor. The most Silver Stars ever awarded to any one man was to General Douglas MacArthur. He earned a whopping 7. That would mean Major Stone was awarded at least seven times as many Silver Stars as General MacArthur, a five-star general that served in World War One, World War Two, and the Korea conflict. Even though Major Stone has earned 51 Silver Stars, he still somehow cannot get promoted to lieutenant colonel.
That’s just silly.
If a Marine threatens to kill a woman unless she leaves a bar with him to go have sex, other Marines wont just passively sit still and watch it happen. They certainly wont gang up and attack someone that defends the woman from her attacker. Threatening to kill a women unless she has sex with you is actually a big no-no, even in the Marine Corp.
They’re United States Marines, not Klingons.
I could go on and on with more examples of just how badly this book was written. What’s the point? Just because you personally don’t have the life experiences connected to a topic doesn’t mean you can’t still create credible stories. If you don’t personally know about something, seek the assistance of people that do. If you are going to write about a Air Force fighter pilot, maybe talk to a real life fighter pilot. If you’ve never seen an actual bar fight, talk to someone who has. Run your ideas past them first.
At least spend a couple of minutes on Wikipedia.
Cameron Stewart, artist for THE OTHER SIDE, the Vertigo miniseries about the Viet Nam conflict took the time to actually travel to Viet Nam and tour the countryside. He wanted to make sure he gave the book the right look. If Cameron Stewart can go to Viet Nam to do research for a comic book, Geoff Johns should be able to take a few minutes to read the Wikipedia entry for the F-16.
