The DC Universe (DCU) has experienced a more successful launch than many anticipated, as audiences have begun to embrace its revitalized cinematic landscape. Among the upcoming projects generating considerable excitement is the series Lanterns, which aims to introduce the Green Lantern legacy to viewers worldwide. Centered on John Stewart and his mentor Hal Jordan, this show promises a blend of superhero thrills and sci-fi police procedural elements. To fully capture the essence of the Green Lantern mythos, Lanterns should draw inspiration from a daring Green Lantern storyline: the two 12-issue series written by Grant Morrison with artwork by Liam Sharp, known as The Green Lantern and The Green Lantern: Season Two.
Exploring a Different Side of Green Lantern in Morrison and Sharp’s Work
For years, Green Lantern stories had become entwined with the Emotional Electromagnetic Spectrum, a concept that dominated many narratives since the mid-2000s. In contrast, Morrison and Sharp’s run abandoned this focus to venture into the strangest corners of the DC Universe, portraying Green Lanterns more as an intergalactic law enforcement force than traditional superheroes. This approach aligns closely with the direction Lanterns intends to explore, emphasizing the policing roles of John Stewart and Hal Jordan rather than the typical cosmic heroics.
How Morrison and Sharp Reimagined Hal Jordan
During the 2000s, Green Lantern enjoyed immense popularity under Geoff Johns, who revitalized Hal Jordan, resurrected the Green Lantern Corps, restored Sinestro’s significance, and introduced new Lantern Corps, culminating in grand sci-fi spectacles. Yet, despite these successes, the portrayal of Hal Jordan often lacked depth, presenting a largely static character known mostly as the greatest Green Lantern rather than a fully realized individual. After Johns’ departure, this limited characterization persisted.
Morrison, known for his reverence for classic DC storytelling, revisited Green Lantern history to craft a distinct version of Hal Jordan, injecting him with unpredictability and a restless spirit. This Hal excels only at being a Green Lantern, finds Earth life dull, and yearns for the freedom of the cosmos. While sometimes reckless, he completes missions the Guardians of the Universe entrust him with, leveraging his unorthodox thinking to face the most perilous challenges.
This creative team pushed Hal into mesmerizing and bizarre adventures, including battles against the Blackstars—an antagonistic anti-Lantern Corps threatening universal conquest—and the Anti-Matter Lanterns from the Anti-Matter Universe, a group of rogue alien superheroes. Their narrative even featured team-ups with characters like Barry Allen and Oliver Queen, episodes of entrapment within his own ring, vacations on mysterious planets reminiscent of Dungeons & Dragons campaigns, and grand conflicts such as the Ultrawar. Liam Sharp’s stunning visuals perfectly complemented Morrison’s imagination, rendering these wild scenarios with intense atmosphere and vibrancy, solidifying their run as one of the finest Green Lantern chronicles ever produced.
A Return to the Core: Green Lantern as a Cosmic Guardian
By stripping away recent convolutions, Morrison and Sharp’s stories brought Green Lantern back to his origins—a lone human navigating the vastness of space while striving to uphold justice. This fresh perspective revitalized the comic’s appeal by focusing on the Green Lanterns as cosmic police rather than mere superheroes, aligning Hal Jordan’s character with the unpredictable and untamed nature of the universe he patrols. This interpretation delivers a portrait of Green Lantern at his most authentic and compelling, a portrayal that ideally informs the direction of the new Lanterns series in the DCU.
The Challenge Ahead for Lanterns and the Role of James Gunn as Showrunner
The 2011 Green Lantern film sought to capture the early 2000s Green Lantern vibe but failed to resonate with both hardcore fans and general audiences. As Lanterns prepares to debut, the series faces the challenge of carving out a unique identity within a crowded superhero landscape. The best way to accomplish this is to embrace the wildest, most unconventional aspects of the Green Lantern lore, introducing viewers to a sci-fi police procedural unlike anything seen before.
This ambitious vision aligns well with the creative guidelines laid out in Morrison and Sharp’s run. The comic’s embrace of cop show elements set in outer space matches the tone the showrunners appear to seek. While John Stewart will serve as the primary focus of the series, there is ample room to craft a multidimensional Hal Jordan who captures the unpredictable and untethered qualities Morrison highlighted. By doing so, the show can introduce new audiences to the full strangeness and excitement Green Lantern stories are capable of delivering when unshackled from traditional conventions.
With James Gunn heading the creative vision for this phase of the DCU, there is hope that his experience and willingness to explore quirky, offbeat storytelling will lead the show to draw on this distinctive Green Lantern legacy. Gunn’s leadership could ensure that Lanterns doesn’t settle for a conventional superhero formula but instead brings to life a bold, imaginative journey worthy of the comic’s history.
Fans and newcomers alike eagerly await the series’ release and its potential to redefine how Green Lantern’s mythos is portrayed on screen, hopefully embracing the wild, cosmic, and cop-centric storytelling pioneered by Morrison and Sharp.
