DC's "Lanterns" Episode 1

I used to love Green Lantern comics.  I came to Green Lantern by reading Emerald Dawn and then Emerald Dawn II.*  But GL and it's cast were a lot, and so I was an inconsistent reader for years.  I eventually fell into the monthly habit, and was there for the last of Kyle's run as the only Lantern, the return of Hal Jordan, elevation of John Stewart and eventually Geoff Johns' expansion of the Lantern spectrum.

A few things killed Green Lantern for me. Repetition of the same story concepts.  No real concept of how to write stories that fulfilled the promise of space cops.  Stuff like that.

yours truly for Halloween 2004,** I believe, with the late, great Melbotis

The other, larger item was that in 2011, shamed by Marvel's rapid ascension and their various failed efforts - Warner Bros. rushed a Green Lantern movie into production.

It was a very bad film.  Even Ryan Reynolds, appearing on SNL to promote the movie, seemed aware it would tank.  

I was unhappy while watching the movie.  It made me sad about Green Lantern as a concept - and with a lot of nonsense happening at DC Comics at the time, I kind of bailed on the whole franchise.  Upon occasion, I've tried to jump back in, but aside from a run by Grant Morrison, don't feel like DC Comics themselves know what to do with the idea.

But, then, DC Studios announced a new show and made it clear this wouldn't be Hal running around .

I've now watched the first episode of what will be a nine-episode show about Green Lantern business.  I've avoided knowing very much about the show ahead of time, but was aware that this was not guys in green tights flying in space and goofing around with interstellar crises so abstracted from our mundane concerns the stories would be hard to latch onto.

The first episode mostly exists to let you know who Hal and John are and to introduce the inkling of a plot and mystery.  I just saw IndieWire say the episode was too full of information, and if they think this is honestly true, maybe that reviewer is not suited for media review.

Hal first appeared as Green Lantern in 1996, when John Stewart was still a kid.  Even then, John was working on his fearlessness - and we see how he's training up in shocking illustration.  Hal is a known quantity around Earth by 2016 when the vast majority of the action takes place.  He's training up John, who expects military-style training, but Hal is more of a "let's keep you on your toes" kind of guy.  

A message alerts Hal that there's something afoot in Nebraska, and he bolts from the training, leaving John to track him down.  Hal is convinced something alien is afoot - and things are a bit weird here in Rushville.  

But like a good pilot, it needs to accomplish three things:

1. Set the tone 
2. Introduce the main characters and show why you should care about them
3. Leave you on tenterhooks, wondering what will happen in the next episode

It absolutely sets the tone, which HBO has clumsily called "True Detective", but that's as close to the vibe as I guess you'll get, even if it's nowhere near as nihilistic from jump.  What it is *not* is goofy - it feels like a cop show on prestige TV, whether that's True Detective, Mare of Easttown or an installment of Fargo.  Dark things loom at the edges, even for seasoned detectives.

The show got a slam-dunk with Kyle Chandler as Hal.  Reynolds was always a terrible fit, Nathan Fillion is an ideal Guy Gardner.  But Hal is not a good soldier, he never has been (no matter what Ollie Queen said to get him On the Road).  He's a test pilot, but one who gets fired, and not just for being late.  And Kyle Chandler absolutely knows how to play a dick-swinging Hal Jordan without it ever feeling like a cartoon. 

And, of course, I love that the origin of Hal Jordan basically got glossed over in a short monologue, like he's tired of telling it.  

Aaron Pierre just @#$%ing looks like John Stewart, so that doesn't hurt.  His John is disciplined, he's well trained in some ways, and he'd do great at paper tests and following directions, but that's not what a GL does, and so Hal needs to break him in.  Get him to operate without a mission plan.  But inside, John is clearly boiling over - and is this close to breaking some rules.  Like sleeping with the wrong woman at a bar in Nebraska.

And, hoo-boy, those final seconds of the first episode.  If that doesn't keep you coming back, I'm not sure what will.

I imagine there's all sorts of complaints out there - that this isn't *their* Green Lantern, etc...  Maybe that the tone is too dark or the drama too Earth-grounded.  To that I say "the comics should have been doing this twenty years ago - y'all ran out of ideas for what to do in space in 2005."  I'll be curious how DC comics reflects DC Studios in the years to come.

At the core of the Green Lantern concept, since the 1950's, has been that the Green Lantern has the ability to overcome great fear - they have enormous will.  And that's part of how they get selected. How that folds into the story, I can't say.  But I think we're in for a very interesting ride.

Also, the FX in this and what we got in Superman aren't exactly the same,  but I appreciate the restraint here.  Keep it grounded until it's not.

I won't get too excited too early.  I was the one who was like "I think I like what Secret Invasion is doing" after the pilot, only to watch all of Secret Invasion and not so secretly feel like I wasted hours of my life.  Let's see how this goes, if they stick the landing, etc...  But at least the pilot is hitting my buttons.

More to come.

*both books have been memory-holed by DC as one of the creators turned out to be involved in some very dark, very bad stuff and wound up doing time.  

**my very twitchy neighbor across the street was very concerned I was dressed as something "demonic" and didn't seem to believe my explanation that there is a superhero named Green Lantern.  We never spoke again and they moved back to Kansas shortly after