Men In Black Meets Andor In HBO’s 8-Part Sci-Fi Series

A new HBO Max science fiction series combines the gritty and deeply mature tone of Andor with the space cop buddy comedy aspects of Men in Black. While they may not seem very similar at first, Andor and Men in Black are two of the best sci-fi stories from the past 30 years. Men in Black is arguably one of the best sci-fi movies ever made that spawned a great trilogy, while Andor is easily the best Star Wars show of all time.

Despite their high quality, Men in Black and Andor don't have a lot of overlap beyond being science fiction stories. Men in Black is distinctly comedic and lighthearted, while Andor received a lot of its praise specifically for being grounded and mature. Combining both of those conflicting qualities into one show shouldn't be a recipe for success, but as a new HBO Max series is currently proving, it can be done to great effect.

HBO Max's Lanterns follows Hal Jordan (Kyle Chandler) and John Stewart (Aaron Pierre), two Green Lanterns who are investigating an invasion of aliens disguised as humans in a small, rural American town. While it may be a superhero show that's part of James Gunn's DCU, Lanterns combines the maturity and nuance of Andor with the buddy cop comedy elements of Men in Black, and it brings those two very different elements together exceptionally well.

Lanterns Is DC’s Version Of Star Wars’ Andor

Lanterns has already been compared to Andor, and it's clear to see why. Lanterns does for DC what Andor did for Star Wars. Before Andor, Star Wars was mostly just a family-friendly sci-fi fantasy series. It had dark moments like Leia's torture at Darth Vader's hand, and it handled some heavy topics like slavery, genocide, and fascism, but Star Wars was always an adventurous and light series that even children could enjoy first and foremost.

Andor reinterpreted Star Wars completely. Andor took many of the existing darker themes of Star Wars and presented them in a much more complex, mature, and deeply serious way. The Empire was no longer just a mustache-twirling villain, it was a living, breathing, fascist machine that enacted political violence at every turn. The Rebels were no longer simply heroes, they became morally complex and compromised agents of revolution, ones who didn't scoff at brutal and visceral violence to accomplish their aims.

Andor took a long-running science fiction series that was mainly seen as being for kids and updated it for an adult audience, complete with heavy real-world topics like the creeping rise of fascism. Lanterns does the same for DC. Previously, DC was just seen as another superhero franchise secondary to the Marvel Cinematic Universe. It had dark moments and mature topics, but James Gunn's DCU was primarily for kids and families. That general tone is perfectly exemplified by Superman 2025; the movie had political commentary to make, but it was hardly the focus.

Lanterns reinvents DC as being something more mature and adult than Superman or Supergirl. John Stewart faces and openly discusses racism and bigotry in the DC Universe, he has sex in the show's premiere episode. The entire series is framed as a gritty murder mystery, one where a genocidal race of aliens has invaded Earth, opening up a natural exploration of xenophobia. It's markedly more mature than anything else the DCU has produced so far, and it's changing viewers' opinions of what DC is capable of in much the same way Andor changed the way people view Star Wars.

Most importantly, Lanterns also mimics Andor's quality. Telling a more mature story made it unique, but what really set Andor apart as the best Star Wars show ever made was how well it told that story. It's chock-full of nuance and complexity, and it's endlessly capable of giving these heavy topics the careful consideration they deserve. Lanterns, so far, has proven that it's just as capable of having a mature discussion about real-world topics, which could help it go down as one of the best superhero shows ever made.

Lanterns Fills The Same Space Cop Niche As Men In Black

For all its maturity and dark themes in the vein of Andor, however, Lanterns also takes inspiration from another major science fiction franchise: Men in Black. Nowhere is that similarity easier to see than in Hal Jordan. Hal is a self-described space cop who is very familiar with strange and otherworldly aliens, like his pet carnivorous plant Earl. He's also training a younger space cop who is meant to replace him and who is the audience's point of view into this strange and high-concept sci-fi world where aliens exist on Earth.

That's almost beat-for-beat the premise of Men in Black. Hal is Agent K, the world-weary veteran who has strangely familiar relationships with outrageous aliens. John is Agent J, the younger student who balks at the things his mentor takes as normal yet shows remarkable promise and potential even as he's finding his footing. The Green Lanterns and the Men in Black are both law enforcement agencies who protect Earth from alien threats. Only the details are different.

Even the general tone of Lanterns and Men in Black is similar. For all its maturity, Lanterns is also deeply comedic, just like Men in Black. Most of the comedy in both franchises also comes from the main characters playing ridiculous situations completely straight. Agent K speaks to a talking pug like he's an old informant, and Hal interrogates an alien invader about Harry Potter and Barack Obama. Additionally, Men in Black also has its fair share of mature moments; J encounters racism, the agents work to stop genocides, and there's an overarching focus on literal xenophobia.

Between the buddy cop pairing of Hal Jordan and John Stewart mirroring K and J, the intergalactic law enforcement agencies, the fantastical aliens who are treated as normal people, and the comedic elements being derived from playing absurd situations completely seriously, there's a lot of overlap between Lanterns and Men in Black. That, coupled with the raw and gritty reinterpretation of a long-running franchise akin to Andor, could make Lanterns a modern classic of the sci-fi genre.