Damon Lindelof is responding after Grant Morrison blasted his past comments about Green Lantern and questioned why creators take superhero jobs if they think parts of the material are “stupid.”
Now Lindelof says Morrison is right to be upset and admits he handled it badly.
Damon Lindelof says he made a dumb joke
Posting on Instagram, Lindelof said he understands why Morrison took issue with the old podcast comment and didn’t try to dodge it.
“I made a dumb joke on a comedy podcast,” Lindelof wrote. “I’m not going to bob and weave about context, the joke was dumb, the fandom is not. I owe them an explanation and a genuine reflection of my actual feelings.”
That is a pretty clear reversal from the earlier remark that helped fuel the Lanterns backlash.
Lindelof also opened by acknowledging exactly who he had upset.
“I have upset Grant Morrison, which means I have now pissed off MOST of the brilliant British/Scottish comics writers that I grew up idolizing,” he said.
Says Green Lantern meant a lot to him growing up
Lindelof then made clear Green Lantern was never a property he looked down on.
He said the first time he appeared on a Comic-Con panel was for the Lost pilot in 2004, and that he wore his favorite T-shirt at the time, a Hal Jordan Green Lantern shirt.
For Lindelof, Green Lantern was personal.
“For a quiet, uncoordinated kid, there was nothing cooler than a hero whose superpower was his imagination,” he wrote.
He also directly pushed back on the idea that he actually thinks green is dumb.
“And green is not stupid, it is my lifelong favorite color and I have a questionnaire that I filled out in third grade to prove it. Green is f-cking awesome,” he said.
Lindelof defends Lanterns and praises the team
Lindelof also said he would never want his old joke to come off as disrespectful to the people making Lanterns.
“More importantly, it would be a betrayal to everyone I worked for and alongside to say anything other than I was absolutely honored to be a part of the team that manifested the incredible construct that is Lanterns… because it was,” he said.
That part stands out because Morrison’s criticism was not only about one joke. Morrison argued Hollywood keeps hiring people who seem embarrassed by comic book material and then water it down.
Lindelof’s response is basically saying that is not where he is coming from.
Admits he was careless with his words
Lindelof closed by admitting the whole thing came down to sloppy wording.
“I was sloppy and careless with my words, ironic considering I care so much about Hal, John and the entire Corps. I can and will do better to be worthy of the oath… until then, I’ll let the show speak for itself and I can’t wait for you all to hear what it has to say,” he said.
