Reading comics has been, and is a way of life for me, an opportunity to escape from “reality” and see impossible deeds made by humans. Learning how I can be a better person. Superheroes are outcast of society, and still they fight to preserve life and good; protect people; make life better. But they are also flaw. They fight against themselves and against villains. Fighters of life. Fighting from within them to learn how to fight outside.

Everyone had a motivation to become a superhero. A motivation to improve themselves and always keep the torch lighted.

I was a huge fan of Batman. There was no one else.  He was the best; the brains of the Justice League; the “common sense” in humanity. I learn his ways, and reach a point where i was acting like him, being paranoid with everybody even with my closest friends, preparing for the worst and expecting the worst from people, thinking people is not reliable, only a few, three-finger-hand-few.

Many things happened in my personal life, and I became depress. It was awful, very difficult to explained. Can say I was living in a black hole. I had to force myself to do everything, even the things I loved the most. It was a constant struggle not to go deeper.

At that time I read again “Infinite Crisis”. I saw how Bat’s broke and realize he was wrong. He was a social being, who had a lot of friends that care about him. How Batman went for help to destroy OMAC, regretting on how he was not a better figure for Dick, and risking his life to save him. It was heart breaking.

You show me how someone as strong as Batman can change his way of life. You make Batman a human again and for that I will always be grateful to you. I took off the Batman armor I was living with and start living again. Saw a dim of light at the end of the tunnel.

And as Batman went for vacations, I decide to give him time, and turn my eyes on Green Lantern. Bought Green Lantern Rebirth and enter in his world. Then I went and bought all the comics related with Hal Jordan and Parallax:

-       Superman Exile

-       Emerald Twilight

-       Zero Hour: Crisis in Time

-       The Final Hour

-       Legacy

I discover an amazing superhero in Hal Jordan. Someone who had suffers more than any other superhero and show how superheroes can just crack down. A reminder that they are still humans, and they feel.

Is Jordan/Parallax (before we knew it was a fear entity) a villain or just someone who is a product of the circumstances? Are all superheroes not like that? is everybody not like that?

Lost and regret can be powerful weapons.

 In Rebirth and your run on Green Lantern, is where we had seen this character evolve to something that is a light bearer for humanity. All this is thanks to you. Geoff, the way you explore the meaning of life through the eyes of people like Hank Heshaw, and how Jordan empathizes with him is out of this world.

“Life isn’t always kind. Sometimes it rips the people you love away from you that can create pain. Pain can create fear. Fear can create hate. It happened to me. Also happened to another pilot. His name is Hank Henshaw. ( Hal Jordan, Revenge of the Green Lanterns)

Because that is life, to take a moment and understand the other person, where he comes from, how he is, how he interacts with others, his decisions. It is the road we choose, the one that determines how we will become, the freedom of choice.

You changed the analogy of superheroes and villains forever, making bad characters compelling. When Henshaw was in the bubble of ion power with the Antimonitor waiting to explode and said “Thank You” was one of the saddest moments I’ve read in comics. I was happy for him. It shows how characters dealt with circumstances of life.

Not only him, Sinestro came from been a goofy character (that purple suit is awful) to one villain you have to fear, and respect. At the same time is impossible not to feel that there is good in him. He makes his point, a villain that finally won. Look at Hal Jordan, being doubtful about killing Sinestro but at the end he was in favor of it, does that make him less than a hero? Does working with Scarecrow, Luthor, Atrocitus, Larfleeze and Sinestro makes Jordan a complacent person? Or is part of the utilitarianism of life? Or desperation?

My answer is no. No because he was one villain at certain point in his life, when he became Parallax and everybody came to forgive him. Kyle Reyner was the first one to do it, so you make a point, as Sinestro makes it. Life is not about who is bad or who is good, but who has freedom and who is able to learn from mistakes.  Humans have their own road to chose, and no one can say otherwise, just fear keep us in the same place.

Atrocitus, what a cool character. To fear him, but wait, he went to sector 666, kneel down and ask “why?” He is a different person after that. Rage control by lost and sadness, speechless!!

You make people hope, feel compassion and have limitless will: have fear always present in our lives. You teach trough the comics, that fear can be overcome.

Geoff I can put you in the same spots of a lot of existentialists writes such as Sartre, Camus, Dostoyevsky, and Kafka. You went inside of the human existence, explore our emotions, and the actions and consequences of life: rise questions about the meaning of life through the eyes of the Green Lanterns and the characters around them… our purpose.

Is an allegory of freedom, of feelings, of following the heart.

Is a discectomy of the human essence; the rationality that gives the best and worst attributes to humans.

Life spawned trough out several story lines that start in Rebirth and end with Blackest Night (haven’t read Brightest Day, waiting for the hardcovers). You show the beginning of light, and how it must shine even in the blackest night. You gave hope and at the same time rise all this questions on how humans live.

Atonement, redemption, friendship, respect… are things that can always be acquire in life.

“But how we help the entire universe overcome great fear? A universe where an explosion in a crowded market is no longer shocking. A universe where beings fear those from a culture unknown to them. A universe where even the simple unknowns of tomorrow instill great…” (Hal Jordan, Sinestro wars)

A world where humans are becoming more soulless, money and capitalism is in the front line. Where people live with fear

“As long as there is life there will be fear. You will never be rid of it “ (Sinestro, Sinestro Wars)

“ And I want all to realize that control comes not out of love, compassion or hope, but out of fear.” (Sinestro, Sinestro wars)

Is out of fear how our societies live nowadays and only our will to be free can overcome that fear. Our will and hope to make a good difference

Finally, I just want to thank you for writing. Putting comics at the same level as literature and much better than today’s novels.

As many people in the eights enjoy reading authors such as Frank Miller, Alan Moore or Marv Wolfman; writers who change the word of comics forever.

I am grateful to live at the time Geoff Johns is changing the world of comics again.

Proud of reading comics that are allegories of today’s world: the social panic, the government control, the fear…

Like Watchmen was in the eighties, I am proud of reading Green Lantern in the 2000’s.

As Ganthet said “follow your heart”. Keep writing with your heart. Keep those stories full of soul, where forgotten superheroes come in front of the big three and characters are more important than the story.

Very few had managed to do what you’ve done, and keep doing it, keep writing with passion.

“In Blackest Night, In Brightest Day.

No Evil Shall Spare My Sight,

Let those who Worship Evil Might,

Green Lantern’s Light”

Thank you Geoff Johns.

Gabriel Gutierrez

San Jose, Costa Rica.