Lanterns: Bright but not Blinding [Review]
The season premiered on August 16 with a 91% critic score on Rotten Tomatoes, averaging 19 million viewers per episode
HBOs Lanterns was announced in 2023 as one of the first parts of the DCU’s Gods And Monsters slate. It was described as ‘a buddy cop detective mystery series.’ While the Green Lantern mythos is one that used to be as iconic as any others, The 2011 movie (directed by Martin Campbell) seemed to kill the public’s interest in the character. The idea that a character who is part of experimental science fiction stories, was simply too silly for the modern era.
Review
Lanterns is for sure a step in the right direction for the quality of stories that are told in superhero production, but it still is afraid to truly lean into the concepts that make the comics unique. While it's not a bad show, it does feel like a bad Green Lantern story. With it having some glaring shortcomings that make it feel at times generic within the superhero landscape.
We’re told the story of Hal Jordan and John Stewart from both perspectives, giving each character an equal sense of importance. The story spans from the childhood of Hal Jordan to the future of John Stewart. The setting of small town Nebraska gives stakes that most modern superhero stories don’t typically have. However the groundedness that is such a key part of the show’s success is also a double edged sword. Where the show benefits from the grounded story it lacks in what makes comic books special. We don’t see a green lantern suit for the majority of the show instead traded in for Hal Jordan’s fit of a brown jacket and jeans that doesn’t make him feel anything other than someone who could get lost in the background
An absolute core of the shows success is the dynamic of Kyle Chandler as Hal Jordan and Aaron Pierre as John Stewart, the 2 actors serve as total opposites in the show giving a sense of yin and yang. Hal Jordan seems to lean into more of a reckless rouge “do want you want” type of person while John embodies a structured disciplined pillar of what a green lantern should be. The classic buddy cop dynamic plays perfectly for these characters, giving Hal the higher ground makes for perfect moments almost reminiscent of Robert Downey Jr and Don Cheadle (Iron Man and War Machine respectively) in the early days of the MCU.
A big problem with Lanterns is it feels like it’s an overcorrection of the issues the original film faced, and it also feels like the biggest example for a lot of issues this genre faces. Tone has been a huge problem in modern day superhero media, each adaptation fears being ridiculed for feeling too “silly” or “goofy”. Where the 2011 film felt like it couldn’t balance the wacky concepts the mythos introduces, Lanterns chooses to forego most aspects of the character.
Green Lantern is traditionally a man who is a part of a giant space police force. He faces forces that threaten earth with a magic ring that allows him to create any construct his mind can imagine. In the show, Hal Jordan operates in a small town in Nebraska, he uses his ring very sparingly (about 7 times during the 8 hour runtime), all aliens are disguised as humans, and all contact with the greater lantern corps is limited to references or brief appearances. While one adaptation felt unable to make the audience take the wackier aspects of Green Lantern seriously, the other felt unwilling or even scared to even make an attempt.
In this day and age Green Lantern is a concept that isn’t super difficult to depict within the entertainment industry. Franchises like Star Wars or Guardians of the Galaxy lean into the wackier space adventures, yet are able to hold the audience’s attention. The question is brought up on whether audiences are unable to take those ideas seriously, or if the screenwriters just weren’t cut out for the job of doing so.
A defining theme in the Lanterns mythos is that character is the strongest embodiment of will power. To be a Green Lantern you must be fearless, you have to have the will to control the power. It establishes that everyday people are capable of this, that what makes you a hero is the person you are. The backstories of the various human lanterns were things like artists, architects, waitresses. A large change was not only adapted but amplified in Lantern’s depiction of John Stewart. No longer is he an average black man who went to college to become an architect, something the creator intentionally did to try and separate him from other black heroes at the time, but he’s now a soldier with a tortured past. Rather than him being an average man who just happened to have the will and character to become a hero, he was a man born into a military family and was groomed into being a Green Lantern by his father. While this makes for interesting characterization, it does play into a larger issue with the Superhero genres pushed into militaristic propaganda and ideas. It subtly tells the audience that you can’t just be a hero, you need to be a soldier, or a marine, or a police officer.
This is a recurring issue within the superhero genre. Military groups typically help fund the production of these shows and films, so they also get a say in how the stories are written. This has led to a lot of superhero stories being retrofitted through a militaristic lens. All forms of American militarism are depicted as good, all heroes must defend the current way things are and operate under the government law. Gone are the heroes of yesteryear, who chose to try and change the world for the better. Who were average working men and women who were just like you or I. Say hello to state sponsored superheroes, who are defending the American institution and must be the people in power in our society.
While Lanterns is not the first to do this sort of pro military and police-esque take on superhero’s, it’s even more apparent in films like Captain America or Iron Man. Lanterns does feel like it is the most drastic depiction of the issue. The obsession to tie the show into modern real world military institutions holds it back from being a truly powerful series. It instead feels like the equivalent watching an Army advertisement, except here they have magic rings.
While the show has strong characterization and writing, even with a lackluster finale. Lanterns still at times feels like the epitome of everything wrong with the genre. While its writing can be great at times, it feels like it shouldn’t be a Green Lantern television show as it’s too scared to really have any fun with the franchise. It’s scared to be anything more than what you can see in a billion other crime dramas. And for a concept that has so much room for a powerful message about overcoming your fears and becoming something bigger than yourself, it feels bogged down by bizarre writing decisions, a fear to really be an improvement over its predecessors, a lackluster finale, and a heavy use of propaganda.
