Green Lantern Prepares for Lights Out

The Green Lantern panel featured writers Robert Venditti, Charles Soule, Van Jensen, artists Brad Walker, Bernard Chang, Editor-in-Chief Bob Harras and Editorial Director Bobbie Chase. Most of the discussion was about what's going on in each book and how it will lead into the upcoming franchise crossover event Lights Out.

Venditti described the new Green Lantern villain Relic as being designed as a specific threat to the Lanterns. Even though he's being billed as a villain, he's still a sympathetic character, as will be detailed in his Villains Month issue.

Soule chimed in on the setup for Lights Out, saying, “There's a big problem with the light. Lanterns use the light as their tools and their weapons. Relic has a plan to solve the problem, but it will affect all the Lanterns.” Rob added that Lights Out will bring about a status quo change that will be felt across the titles.

Soule added that as new writers, the group of them wanted to reconfigure the conceptions of the readers of what the books are and what to expect, like how he turned Guy Gardner to a Red Lantern. In a spoiler for anyone who hasn't read Red Lanterns #21, he told that when Guy becomes a Red Lantern he gets so angry that he beats the leader to death. The Red Lanterns are on a horrific planet with a lake of blood, so one of the first things Guy does is take them “house hunting” for a new headquarters.

Venditti explained that when Lights Out comes, readers will see the larger plan they have been building. “We're seeing towards this Lights Out event, there's a specific reason why Larfleeze was chosen to be in #21 and #22, and when we get to Lights Out, you'll see how these dominoes were put in place and then we'll start to knock them down. When you read the Villains issue, you'll see the pieces we seeded,” he said.

Venditti brought up Hal Jordan's other conflict, the new recruits. Because so many Green Lanterns have died in battle, the rings are now selecting what he calls the “Bad News Bears” of recruits. He also threw in a factoid about how he included a shark construct in the last issue because Hal would be a fan of Shark Week, which got a big laugh from the audience.

Jensen explained how in Green Lantern Corps he wanted to show different manifestations of willpower, pointing out how a single mother, a gladiator forced to fight for his life every day, and an elderly alien resigning himself to death all show different emotional kinds of willpower.

Walker talked about how much he liked that Kyle Rayner has his own book. “Kyle is the White Lantern now and it's a throwback to when he was created as the only Green Lantern, and now he's a corps of one again because he's the only White Lantern.”

Rob added that Lights Out adds an element to what it means to be a White Lantern, and there's something he'll have to do that only he can do since he is a White Lantern.

Walker explained that Relic is a scientist, and when he enters our universe he recognizes the Emotional Spectrum and has interest in it so he experiments on it and everything else around him, like the ships and Kyle himself. Relic has some strange powers that he uses to take all the space ships gathered around his arrival point and transform them into a vessel of his own that grows and transforms from issue to issue.

Lights Out will take place throughout all of the Green Lantern titles in one month plus Green Lantern Annual #2. In the 38- page annual, readers will see a huge status quo change that will tie up old plots and set up new ones in the process.

Joshua writes for IGN. If Pokemon, Game of Thrones, or Green Lantern are frequently used words in your vocabulary, then you’ll want to follow him on Twitter and IGN.

F.T.C. Staff Prepares Antitrust Case Against Google Over Search

The government’s escalating pursuit of Google is the most far-reaching antitrust investigation of a corporation since the landmark federal case against Microsoft in the late 1990s. The agency’s central focus is whether Google manipulates search results to favor its own products, and makes it harder for competitors and their products to appear prominently on a results page.

The staff recommendation is in a detailed draft memo of more than 100 pages that is being shared with the five F.T.C. commissioners, said two people briefed on the inquiry.

The memo is still being edited and changes could be made, but these are mostly fine-tuning and will not alter the broad conclusions reached after an inquiry that began more than a year ago, said these people, who spoke on the condition that they not be identified.

Google said in a statement on Friday, “We are happy to answer any questions that regulators have about our business.” In the past it has said many times that “competition is a click away.”

The commission is also building a team to take Google to court, if it comes to that. Last spring, it hired a seasoned litigator to help with the case, Beth A. Wilkinson, a partner in the firm Paul, Weiss in Washington. In a further sign that it means business, last week it brought on a well-known economist as a consultant: Richard Gilbert of the University of California, Berkeley.

The F.T.C. staff memo does not mean that the government will sue Google for antitrust violations. Next, the vote of three of the five F.T.C. commissioners would be required. And each step is a further prod for Google to make concessions to reach a settlement before going to court. Last month, Jon Leibowitz, chairman of the F.T.C., said a final decision on whether to sue Google would be made before the end of this year.

The Google investigation echoes the Microsoft case in a basic way. Google, like Microsoft in the personal computer industry, has drawn complaints from rivals and antitrust regulators as it has expanded its business beyond its dominant product, search and search advertising. Google has aggressively built off this main business to fields including online commerce and smartphone software.

As it expands its empire, Google takes on new competitors and brings formidable resources. Rivals may suffer, Google says, but the company is improving its products and services, benefiting consumers and the economy.

The American inquiry is moving in tandem with a major antitrust investigation in Europe. The European authorities are pressing ahead and seeking changes in Google’s behavior.

Speaking in New York last month, Joaquín Almunia, the European Union’s competition commissioner, pointed to antitrust regulators’ concerns that Google is “using its dominance in online search to foreclose rival specialized search engines and search advertisers.”

Google is also being investigated by the attorneys general of six states: Texas, Ohio, New York, California, Oklahoma and Mississippi.

Given the momentum of the investigations, antitrust experts say, the F.T.C. staff recommendation was to some extent expected.

The F.T.C. investigators have looked at a wide range of Google’s business practices, according to companies that have been questioned and received subpoenas from the agency.

The areas of inquiry include accusations of manipulating the search results it displays to favor Google commerce services it has developed like Google Shopping for buying goods and Google Places for advertising local restaurants and businesses. In the civilian subpoenas, the F.T.C. calls this “preferencing.”

The investigators are also looking into whether Google’s automated advertising marketplace, AdWords, discriminates against advertisers from competing online commerce services like comparison shopping sites and consumer review Web sites.

Claire Cain Miller and Edward Wyatt contributed reporting.