Artist Tom Raney to join Green Lantern in June

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The veteran artist was originally announced as launching the new series but will instead join with issue #3

Sinestro-Hal Jordan
Art from Tom Raney and Mike McKone's Double Vision art for Hero Initiative/BINC Foundation auction fundraiser (Image credit: DC / Hero Initiative)

Veteran artist Tom Raney will reteam with writer Geoffrey Thorne, joining the Green Lantern creative team with issue #3 in June. 

cover to April's Green Lantern #1 by Bernard Chang (Image credit: DC)

Thorne and Raney are currently teaming for the two-part 'The Last Lanterns' story in the Future State: Green Lantern anthology in January and February. 

Thorne and Raney were initially announced as the creative team of the new Green Lantern ongoing series in December during DC's CCXP virtual panels but just days later Thorne was confirmed as the writer of the series in a follow-up press release by the publisher but no artist was mentioned.

Then artist Dexter Soy was revealed as the new series' first artist last week in advance of the DC April solicitations. 

Soy is also a contributor to the Future State: Green Lantern title, drawing a Hal Jordan story by writer Christopher Priest in February's issue #2. 

This week the Hero Initiative and the BINC Foundation revealed Raney will indeed still contribute to the new series, with Newsarama learning he'll join the title with the third issue when the series picks up on the John Stewart-centered 'The Last Lanterns' story thread from Future State.

Interestingly, as part of Hero and BINC's new 'Double Vision' auction fundraiser, Raney drew half of a new Hal Jordan-Sinestro image along with artist Mike McKone. 

Raney drew the Sinestro half. 

Art from Tom Raney (Sinestro) and Mike McKone's (Hal Jordan) Double Vision art for Hero Initiative/BINC Foundation auction fundraiser (Image credit: DC / Hero Initiative)

Hal and Sinestro recently enjoyed a moment of peace with one another in the Dark Nights: Death Metal special The Last Stories of the DC Universe. Sinestro - Hal's one-time mentor and long-time arch-villain - requested the use of a Green Lantern ring for the final battle against the Darkest Knight and the two enjoyed some flying together the night before they expected to die.

art from the Death Metal anthology special The Last Stories of the DC Universe #1 (Image credit: DC)

It will be interesting to see if that thread from the in-continuity special is eventually picked up on in the new Green Lantern series or elsewhere in the Infinite Frontier DCU. 

Newsarama cannot report how long Raney will remain with the series or if Green Lantern will have a regular ongoing art team. 

During his career, the bulk of which has been with Marvel Comics, Raney has mostly drawn series in limited stints. His longest consecutive run of issues was WildStorm's Stormwatch #37-50 beginning in 1996, the highly-influential Warren Ellis-engineered series revamp that eventually led to The Authority.

DC did not respond to inquiries about this story.

Whoever is drawing them, here is Newsarama's ranking of the greatest Green Lanterns of all time. 

Michael Doran

I'm not just the Newsarama founder and editor-in-chief, I'm also a reader. And that reference is just a little bit older than the beginning of my Newsarama journey. I founded what would become the comic book news site in 1996, and except for a brief sojourn at Marvel Comics as its marketing and communications manager in 2003, I've been writing about new comic book titles, creative changes, and occasionally offering my perspective on important industry events and developments for the 25 years since. Despite many changes to Newsarama, my passion for the medium of comic books and the characters makes the last quarter-century (it's crazy to see that in writing) time spent doing what I love most.