HBO’s Lanterns Looks Killer, But It Has Me Worried About the DCU’s Future for One Reason

Lanterns has a massive weight on its shoulders as one of the first DCU projects not to be directed or written by James Gunn, and Superman’s Guy Gardner, much less Lanterns’ first teaser trailer, has not done the show any favors in terms of what audiences can anticipate. Going from the color, lightheartedness, and whimsy of Superman to something as drab as Lanterns appears to be is already a jarring tonal contrast, but that’s not the largest issue this HBO series must grapple with.

Lore and continuity should be paramount in any cinematic universe, let alone one that is loosely adapting and supposedly inspired by almost a century of comic book source material. That’s why, assuming the trailer’s lines of dialogue were particularly cherry-picked, the DCU’s iteration of the Green Lantern Corps—Hal Jordan and John Stewart, at least—may be completely unfamiliar and unrecognizable to anyone who adores it in the comics.

A ‘True Detective’ Green Lantern Story Has Legs

It’d be startling if Lanterns turns out to be as drab, nihilistic, and dreadful as HBO’s True Detective, and yet it shouldn’t be surprising at all that Lanterns has taken shape the way it has when True Detective has always seemingly been Lanterns’ north star. Funny enough, for the longest time, all we had to go on from the show was a single image of Aaron Pierre’s John Stewart and Kyle Chandler’s Hal Jordan.

The premise, even before we had any actual context of the story, is fascinating: a rookie-mentor duo of cosmic defenders narrowing the scope of their intergalactic jurisdiction to a rural town in midwestern America. The crime(s) they’re investigating are obviously zany enough to be brought to the Green Lanterns’ attention and require their intervention, but how it’ll squeeze into the overarching DCU continuity is worrisome.

The trailer shows these characters almost exclusively wearing the same clothing they’re seen wearing in the bespoke image, which may imply that most of what the trailer shows takes place early in Lanterns, let alone within the first episode exclusively. Therefore, it’s probably way too early to make any concrete judgments on the series’ overall tone or aesthetic, and this trailer may be deliberately painting a bogus picture.

Lanterns’ First Trailer Says All We Need to Know

In order to convince itself that it’s this earnest, ‘dark’ thriller, Lanterns may be making a mockery of other members of the cosmos’ diverse Green Lantern Corps. Traditionally, these characters train together and have mentee-mentor relationships, and it is grating to hear Hal refer to them as “aliens” so flippantly, especially when calling Ch’p, a H’lvenite he was recruited alongside in the comics, a “f***ng squirrel.”

Even if the DCU hadn’t had metahumans of all kinds around for centuries, Hal’s dialogue in this scene suggests that Lanterns’ iteration of the character doesn’t know his Corps companions well or respect them at all, including the likes of Kilowog the Bolovaxian. Likewise, the show appears to be retconning John’s Green Lantern origin by bizarrely making him earn the ring that he supposedly hasn’t even worn yet somehow. Thus, it can be expected that a lot of loose liberties will be taken regarding what is typically considered standard Green Lantern canon, as well as its Corps characters’ relationship dynamics.

Now, it isn’t unheard of at all for comic book ‘adaptations’ to only skim the comics and characters they’re allegedly inspired by, and the DCU’s mythology has no obligation to lift whole narratives, character traits, or popular lore from the comics, for better or worse. For example, one of the only big lore developments that’s been made is controversially having Jor-El and Lara-El send their son, Kal-El, to oppressively rule over the people of Earth.

DCU Lore is Pitiful Right Now

If the teaser trailer was intentionally edited to be taken out of context and leave all of its possible surprises for when audiences watch it, the DCU and HBO have to know that the response to it would be polarizing at best. Perhaps the trailer omits special effects and imagery that will be present in actual episodes, but it’d be incredibly bold to obscure those details and fake divisive character dialogue for the sake of an alarming reveal when the show airs in August.

Notwithstanding, lore in the DCU mythology is quite underdeveloped. Each installment—Creature Commandos, Peacemaker, and Superman—has so far been relatively intimate in terms of how much it explores the broader lore of the universe it inhabits.

As for the Green Lantern Corps, we learned virtually nothing from Superman’s Guy Gardner, who was already established as a member of the Justice Gang. There’s no telling what novel storytelling choices will be made in Lanterns until it is released later this summer, but it will hopefully shed some light on what is and isn’t canon for the DCU’s Green Lanterns.