Ethan Van Sciver’s return to Green Lantern is something that fans have been waiting for since his last contribution to the character’s story in The Sinestro Corps War. Since helping Geoff Johns bring back Hal Jordan in Green Lantern: Rebirth, Van Sciver’s stock has risen substantially, as has Green Lantern’s, and he’s become one of the artists most closely associated with the character by fans.Well, it looks like they’ll be getting their wish soon, at the expense of those readers currently enjoying his run on The Fury of Firestorm. Over at Firestorm Fan, they’re reporting that Van Sciver (who currently co-writes Firestorm and is drawing an arc at present) will leave the title soon to work on a couple of other projects, including drawing a Green Lantern story.Quoting from Van Sciver’s Facebook page, the site has the artist saying:
“Hey guys! Just thought should drop a line to let you know that I’m moving on from FURY OF FIRESTORM to draw some Green Lantern and finish this ogn that I’ve been working on. I’ve helped plot the book’s course into the future with Joe Harris, but I want to narrow my focus now. And believe me, he and Yildiray Cinar have got the ball. Thanks to everyone who’s supporting the book!”
While a Van Sciver original graphic novel could be an interesting project, the likes of which fans haven’t seen in a long time. Whether it’s a creator-owned property or just an extended take on a DC character (like the recent Batman: Noel or Walt Simonson’s upcoming Batman: The Judas Coin for instance) remains to be seen.Either way, it’s difficult to picture a scenario in which this isn’t bad news for The Fury of Firestorm, a title that’s been plagued with poor reviews and creative changes virtually since its first issue and which rated 116th on Diamond’s estimated sales chart in March with just over 16,000 copies sold. Could DC be positioning itself for another spate of cancellations and new title announcements coming around the time of the New 52’s twelfth issues?
