What happens when Larry Niven writes some Green Lantern? (also, a bit more 1602 Spider-Man)

[thanekos]

Well, that Green Lantern Bible thing in Playgrounds of the Mind, for one thing.

...also, Ganthet's Tale, a 58 page oneshot by my apparent count.

There's also some John Byrne on script and art, so fun times all around for everyone.



That of Krona's, specifically.

But there's a twist:



yeah, something very different happened.

and to make sure it doesn't happen again, the Guardian Ganthet needs some help.

First, Hal Jordan, who he catches at the worst of times:



And then it's off to pick up some leprechauns, who it turns out have Maltusian genetics; they're needed because the Corps were recently decimated (Legion, was it?), and the scope of the threat requires powers on that level.

Along the way, we learn something interesting about Guardian housing, which may or may not be true today:



And then Earth's Maltusians are found:



Their existence on Earth's explained:



Ultimately, only Percival comes along, as the others just don't care about their past anymore.

The three go to space soon after, to track down something Ganthet realizes must be dealt with now; but first, it's revelation time:



" My god.. it's full of nothing.. "



... fuck, Krona really fucked up, didn't he?

Ganthet, at any rate, has reason to believe a rogue Guardian, his Zamaron wife, and their two children plan to do that again.

And a billion more years gone isn't something he wants; only by training Percival, and with Hal on hand as backup, can he stop this.

But is that what these antagonists really want?



spoilers: no it's not

Battle is joined, at any rate: Hal finds himself contending with the kids, who've got power rings (well, obviously)



As the inexperienced Percival is overpowered in battle, Hal prepares a strategy Ganthet laid out:



constructs? and physics? oh, this is larry niven



in retrospect, hope becomes will, fear becomes greed, and will becomes fear the farther you go. almost works.

but it turns out that the kids, having Maltusian derivative parents, don't need the rings to work their mojo.

Hal and Ganthet are defeated soon enough, and tied up to have the antagonists reveal their true plan:



while Percival does pretty neat construct battle with Doranchatok, the male of the earlier pair:



heh.



double heh.

anyway, their battle ends up damaging the Krona-killing device in mid-function:



the Guardian, Dawlakispokpok, is killed; the Zamaron, Thwarcharchura, surrenders herself and her son to Oan law. Percival is brought back to Oa.

As for the daughter, Darthardeen?



and so the Guardians gained yet another person with an axe to grind against them.

Line starts behind Sinestro, lady.

bonus: In 1602, Peter Parquagh is attacked by Baron Octavius's Curtis Connors, a man who turned himself into a lizard via self-experimentation. The reason? Octavius needs certain blood to not be a freaky octopus man anymore.

Also, pirate Wilson Fiske's remarkably accurate gunner, the Bull's Eye, is tracking Peter to kill him as per his captain's orders.

When the two fight setups collide?



Anticlimax happens. Perhaps an " I missed! I never miss! " moment, as well.. probably not.

(okay, mildly amusing accidental resolution, but that's longer to say.)

Peter is, nonetheless, captured and lightly experimented on by Octavius's thrall Henri Pym:



(and yes, that is 1602!Beast in the cage. Once again, Hank downs his own serums, and that happens.)

Pym and Peter escape the Carcassone guardsmen, but the former needs more of the latter to formulate his cure; luckily, Octavius has got that nice and tight as he retreats to Venice. See, Peter's found a job with the Watsonne acting troupe, and he's gotten on rather well with the actress Marion Jane:

Comments

[shanejayell]

This was written before the whole 'emotional; spectrum' concept was introduced.

LOVED Niven's whole GL bible. Very interesting reading. I also wonder if they'll ever release the whole story he was writing?

[uadlika]

I just discovered the Marvel 1602 universe this week and am pleased to see that they are continuing it! Have other scans been posted?

[thehefner]

Niven wrote a whole GL Bible for DC? How was it? Did it entail plans for something he was going to write, or for other writers to follow (like, would it have been after the original plans for "Emerald Twilight," or a series running alongside Gerard Jones' run)?

[kamino_neko]

in retrospect, hope becomes will, fear becomes greed, and will becomes fear the farther you go. almost works.

Love->Compassion->Hope->Will->Fear->Greed->Rage - the only real speed bump on that direction is the Will->Fear. And even that's not horrible.

Going the other way...

Rage->Greed->Fear->Will->Hope->Compassion->Love

Doesn't work as well, I don't think. Greed->Fear->Will works fairly well, as does Compassion->Love, but Rage becoming greed doesn't work near as well as the other way around, and Hope is a hiccup both coming and going in this direction.

[nagaoka]

Well if Sinestro and his viewpoints on using fear to enact will is anything to go by, it really isn't much of a speed bump.

[kamino_neko]

Like I said, Fear->Will works well enough - it's Will->Fear that's problematic. For those two blue shifting works well, red shifting doesn't. On the other hand, for the rest of the spectrum, red shifting works better.

[cmdr_zoom]

I'm a fan of Niven's writing, but the problem with his work on the DCU is that he tried to remove or explain away all of the DCU's magic, render everything scientific and rational. And the DCU just isn't like that. It never has been. It is steeped in mysticism, back to front. You might as well try to take away one of the colors of the spectrum.

[lamashtar]

Its in the collection of notes and shorts Playgrounds of the Mind. Niven did a lot of bitching how things didn't make sense and how they ought to be changed. The bits I read through seemed more like a proposal than a set out plan. I believe they saw that the world he'd create, and the Corps, wouldn't be the Lanterns people know, and wouldn't be very compatible with the wider DC universe. That's my explanation of why they scrapped it.

[lamashtar]

Eek! Your large images are sucking your bandwidth allowance, and the images are disappearing.

What I was going to add was that Ganthet's mention of insanity here is the source of my own belief that he used to be Apsa, the Oldtimer.

[shanejayell]

Niven's Bible was used as the basis for Gerard Jones' run, from what I recall. Niven was the one who pointed out that the oaths were to time how long you needed to hold the ring to the battery to get a charge, for instance.

[autumn_lily]

They are completely gone! Sucked into the realm of No Bandwidth!!

[nagaoka]

I was saying will to fear (which I assume is what will > fear means) makes sense, considering someone like Sinestro and all that. Unless I'm misunderstanding somewhere

[kamino_neko]

But that's the thing - Sinestro is a better support of Fear becoming Will, than the other way - Fear is the tool he uses to force action - his intended reaction is 'I fear this, therefor I have the will to act'.

But he's the same man he was when he wielded the Green ring - his Will didn't give over to Fear - he's just changed power sources, to an energy he could always have controlled.

[arbre_rieur]

What DCU stuff has he done besides this one-shot?

[kamino_neko]

Or to expand on the original progressions...

If you love someone, you naturally feel compassion for them.
If you feel compassion, you naturally hope for the good, or the cessation of the bad.
If you hope for something, you may naturally develop the will to act toward it.
If you have will...fear is not a natural progression.
But, if you fear loss, or deprivation, you may naturally become avaricious - if I have it all, I can't lose everything I have.
If you're avaricious, you will become enraged when prevented from getting what you want.

On the other hand, if you fear something, that can galvanize your will to act against it.

[kamino_neko]

Oops. For want of a </font> tag....

[shanejayell]

Well, from reading the 'playgrounds of the mind' bit, Niven was specifically hired to bring in a science fiction approach to the GLC. Some of which DC has kept, some of which they haven't.

[shanejayell]

*lol*

Damn cool.


This was written WAY before the emotional spectrum was introduced, so it's straight physics. One wonders how Niven would react to the whole 'emotion=energy color' bit?

[arilou_skiff]

Greed>Fear works. If you want something you naturally fear to lose it.

[hatman]

No, no. Everyone knows it goes:

Fear -> Anger -> Hate -> Suffering -> The Dark Side

[joysweeper]

There's a fair amount of it on the backup, IIRC.

[jlbarnett]

however if you confront something with all your will for long enough and you can't defeat it, isn't it possible you'll come to fear it?

For example, the Cold War may have been originally about each side believing their system was superior and attempting to show it. But eventually it was about each side being afraid the other would blow them up.