ClarkKent_DC > Luis Olavo de Moura DantasSeptember 12, 2026 at 12:38am
I'm watching Lanterns and I'm not totally sold, but I'm getting there.
The casting bothers me. Kyle Chandler and Aaron Pierre are fine actors, but not who I see in my mind's eye as Hal Jordan and John Stewart. I know the world is ga-ga over Kyle Chandler from Friday Night Lights, but I never watched that show. I only remember him from his one-off guest appearance on Grey's Anatomy in which he played a bomb-squad officer who got blowed up real good (which is why it was a one-off guest appearance).
And like Jeff. Hal Jordan being a smurfhole grates under my skin, especially since in many iterations (at least the ones I've read), he was the best of the best. But that goes to Denny O'Neil's fundamental dislike of the character as a "space cop" and those "Hard Travelin' Heroes" stories where he wrote Hal as a doofus who took an endless amount of crap from Green Arrow and went back for seconds issue after issue. And like Frank Miller and Batman, too many writers who followed in their footsteps took a bad characterization and continued it.
Also, I never fully accepted the retcon that John Stewart was a U.S. Marine, and a sniper to boot. To my mind, that doesn't square with the man we met in Green Lantern #87 (January 1972).
But, I should accept Lanterns on its own terms. That is, as I often tell myself, to not expect it to be comics-accurate but to consider it as alternate-universe take on things.
As such, there are things I like about it. Like admitting that the selection process for Green Lanterns is kind of dumb if the only thing they want to know is "Are you fearless?" What about honest? Noble? Compassionate? Considerate? Ethical? Intelligent? Of sound mind? Know the difference between right and wrong? Able to understand that one's actions are wrong? (Those last two are the legal test for insanity, by the by; if you can't answer "yes" to both of them, you are, under the law, insane.) Etc., etc., and so forth.
I liked how John Stewart's mother laid into the "recruiter" for the Guardians, letting her know "fearless" is a luxury Black people in America cannot afford.
I kind of like the idea that the people (beings?) who don't get chosen for the Green Lantern ring feel some type of way about it. I suppose it's like not making the cut for the Olympics; there has to be some disappointment in not getting it after all the effort and training one has put in.
I'm not sure I like the way Hal Jordan is "training" John Stewart to be a Green Lantern; his method seems pretty slapdash to me. But then, the whole idea of "training" a Green Lantern is a post-Crisis retcon anyway Plus, I think the notion that Green Lanterns are "space cops" is misguided. To my mind, they are more like federal marshals. That makes sense if you're writing about a lawman who has a vast territory to cover, like Marshal Matt Dillon or Marshal Raylan Givens. Unfortunately, too many writers write Green Lanterns like they're writing about neighborhood precinct cops like the ones in Blue Bloods, right down to loving donuts.
We'll see how this goes. I know Tom King has his fingerprints on this show, which doesn't sell me. Not after the likes of Strange Adventures and Heroes in Crisis. Maybe those were outliers, but they taint my perception of how good he can be. But on the other hand, he did write Batman/Elmer Fudd Special, so he can turn out a good story some of the time.
Richard Willis > Captain ComicsSeptember 11, 2026 at 3:52pm
I havent been on board for the (fairly) recent addition of the Manhunters to the GL lore, but I'm definitely happy with Lanterns.
I'm just going to stare incredulously at the words "(fairly) recent" and marvel at the difference in perspective age brings. Englehart and Dillon tied the Manhunters to the GLC 50 years ago, a couple months before I started reading comics, so it feels like a foundational part of the mythos to me.
Richard Willis > Rob Staeger (Grodd Mod)September 11, 2026 at 5:57pm
I was still buying (and reading) GL in 1976 but don't remember that.
It happened in Justice League, issue 140 (unless I'm wrong and it was established before then). I don't know when that story began getting reflected in GL comics themselves, though.
It might not have gotten into full swing in the Green Lantern comic until the Millenium crossover, although I suspect it was before that.
Looking further, I think that's what happened. It's basically a one-off story in JLA in 1976, establishing the connection, with a follow-up that referenced it right as I started reading. And then the idea lay dormant for almost a dozen years, when, in 1988, the Manhunters became the villains in Millenium. But because I read those JLA stories so early in my comic reading, they became one of the foundational stories of the DCU to me.
Richard Willis > Rob Staeger (Grodd Mod)September 11, 2026 at 7:00pm
I don't think I was buying any of the titles listed in the Wiki entry.
Philip Portelli > Rob Staeger (Grodd Mod)September 11, 2026 at 8:54pm
The Manhunters that Steve Englehart connected to the Guardians and the Green Lantern Corps debuted in 1st Issue Special #5 (Au'75) created by Jack Kirby! That was the first appearance of Mark Shaw, the Grandmaster and the Manhunter cult, a revival and extreme update of the Golden Age version which was already revived by Archie Goodwin and Walt Simonson in Detective Comics #437-443 in 1974.
The Baron > Philip PortelliSeptember 11, 2026 at 9:17pm
No one could draw ugly guys like Kirby.
ClarkKent_DC > The BaronSeptember 11, 2026 at 11:56pm
Replies
I'm watching Lanterns and I'm not totally sold, but I'm getting there.
The casting bothers me. Kyle Chandler and Aaron Pierre are fine actors, but not who I see in my mind's eye as Hal Jordan and John Stewart. I know the world is ga-ga over Kyle Chandler from Friday Night Lights, but I never watched that show. I only remember him from his one-off guest appearance on Grey's Anatomy in which he played a bomb-squad officer who got blowed up real good (which is why it was a one-off guest appearance).
And like Jeff. Hal Jordan being a smurfhole grates under my skin, especially since in many iterations (at least the ones I've read), he was the best of the best. But that goes to Denny O'Neil's fundamental dislike of the character as a "space cop" and those "Hard Travelin' Heroes" stories where he wrote Hal as a doofus who took an endless amount of crap from Green Arrow and went back for seconds issue after issue. And like Frank Miller and Batman, too many writers who followed in their footsteps took a bad characterization and continued it.
Also, I never fully accepted the retcon that John Stewart was a U.S. Marine, and a sniper to boot. To my mind, that doesn't square with the man we met in Green Lantern #87 (January 1972).
But, I should accept Lanterns on its own terms. That is, as I often tell myself, to not expect it to be comics-accurate but to consider it as alternate-universe take on things.
As such, there are things I like about it. Like admitting that the selection process for Green Lanterns is kind of dumb if the only thing they want to know is "Are you fearless?" What about honest? Noble? Compassionate? Considerate? Ethical? Intelligent? Of sound mind? Know the difference between right and wrong? Able to understand that one's actions are wrong? (Those last two are the legal test for insanity, by the by; if you can't answer "yes" to both of them, you are, under the law, insane.) Etc., etc., and so forth.
I liked how John Stewart's mother laid into the "recruiter" for the Guardians, letting her know "fearless" is a luxury Black people in America cannot afford.
I kind of like the idea that the people (beings?) who don't get chosen for the Green Lantern ring feel some type of way about it. I suppose it's like not making the cut for the Olympics; there has to be some disappointment in not getting it after all the effort and training one has put in.
I'm not sure I like the way Hal Jordan is "training" John Stewart to be a Green Lantern; his method seems pretty slapdash to me. But then, the whole idea of "training" a Green Lantern is a post-Crisis retcon anyway
Plus, I think the notion that Green Lanterns are "space cops" is misguided. To my mind, they are more like federal marshals. That makes sense if you're writing about a lawman who has a vast territory to cover, like Marshal Matt Dillon or Marshal Raylan Givens. Unfortunately, too many writers write Green Lanterns like they're writing about neighborhood precinct cops like the ones in Blue Bloods, right down to loving donuts.
We'll see how this goes. I know Tom King has his fingerprints on this show, which doesn't sell me. Not after the likes of Strange Adventures and Heroes in Crisis. Maybe those were outliers, but they taint my perception of how good he can be. But on the other hand, he did write Batman/Elmer Fudd Special, so he can turn out a good story some of the time.
I havent been on board for the (fairly) recent addition of the Manhunters to the GL lore, but I'm definitely happy with Lanterns.
I'm just going to stare incredulously at the words "(fairly) recent" and marvel at the difference in perspective age brings. Englehart and Dillon tied the Manhunters to the GLC 50 years ago, a couple months before I started reading comics, so it feels like a foundational part of the mythos to me.
I was still buying (and reading) GL in 1976 but don't remember that.
It happened in Justice League, issue 140 (unless I'm wrong and it was established before then). I don't know when that story began getting reflected in GL comics themselves, though.
It might not have gotten into full swing in the Green Lantern comic until the Millenium crossover, although I suspect it was before that.
Looking further, I think that's what happened. It's basically a one-off story in JLA in 1976, establishing the connection, with a follow-up that referenced it right as I started reading. And then the idea lay dormant for almost a dozen years, when, in 1988, the Manhunters became the villains in Millenium. But because I read those JLA stories so early in my comic reading, they became one of the foundational stories of the DCU to me.
Millennium (comics) - Wikipedia
I don't think I was buying any of the titles listed in the Wiki entry.
The Manhunters that Steve Englehart connected to the Guardians and the Green Lantern Corps debuted in 1st Issue Special #5 (Au'75) created by Jack Kirby! That was the first appearance of Mark Shaw, the Grandmaster and the Manhunter cult, a revival and extreme update of the Golden Age version which was already revived by Archie Goodwin and Walt Simonson in Detective Comics #437-443 in 1974.
No one could draw ugly guys like Kirby.
No one could draw guys ugly like Kirby, too!
-
159
-
160
-
161
-
162
-
163
of 165 Next