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Green Lantern's ring, DC comic books often tell us, is the most powerful weapon in the universe. With the right amount of creativity and willpower, the ring's user can create almost anything. Its only limitation for a long time was, of all things, the color yellow, and even that largely went away years ago. Get the ring, and do whatever you want.
Lanterns, the new DC Universe show debuting this weekend on HBO and HBO Max, comes with more significant and wide-ranging limitations. Whether because of budget, a lack of willpower on the part of the creative team, or some combination of the two, Lanterns seems really reluctant to actually be a Green Lantern show. Instead, it's primarily, "Green Lantern, but make it True Detective." Or, at times, "Green Lantern, but make it Reacher."
Alan Sepinwall
A good chunk of it works, anyway, thanks to some strong lead performances — particularly by Kyle Chandler and Kelly Macdonald — and a lighter touch than you might expect from the above description. But even in the parts I was enjoying — often enjoying very much — I kept wondering why anyone wanted to make this show, this way.
Green Lantern has been around in one form or another since 1940. The original version was named Alan Scott. His ring was magical, and its weakness was wood, which meant that one of his archenemies was a guy with a baseball bat. (I am not making this up.) In 1959, the idea was revamped in a more science-fiction vein. Now there was an entire Green Lantern Corps of space cops, patrolling the universe, and our hero was test pilot Hal Jordan. (This is when the vulnerability to yellow came in.) Hal was given backups and substitutes and partners over the years, including gym teacher Guy Gardner and architect John Stewart (one of the earliest Black superheroes), but eventually writers who grew up reading Hal's adventures would bring him back to the forefront. Then John Stewart was used as the main Green Lantern in the early 2000s Justice League cartoon, and to a new generation, he was their Green Lantern. In 2011, Ryan Reynolds played Hal in a big-budget Green Lantern film that was such a disaster, it nearly ended both Reynolds' career as a leading man and the idea of ever trying to adapt any of these characters into live-action.