The time has finally come for the latest DCU project to arrive on our screens with the series premiere of Lanterns, which throws us into a new side of this universe.
The first scene sends us to 1996, with a TV interview of Hal Jordan (Kyle Chandler) as Green Lantern playing on the TV with a young John Stewart (Cairo Cash Lee) watching while his siblings fear their father’s arrival, wanting to turn off the TV instead. It’s worth noting that this TV interview is claimed to be the first sitdown heart-to-heart interview with a superhero. We can see that Hal is trying to relate to everyone else on Earth by saying he’s just “a normal person.” In retrospect, this line comes into effect when we see how Hal behaves in the future and when he’s paired with certain characters.
The first noticeable aspect of Lanterns is that, unlike Creature Commandos/Peacemaker, which has outrageous potty humour, and Superman/Supergirl, which has a more light-hearted touch to its humour, Lanterns has a subtlety in its delivery. Early on with John Stewart (Aaron Pierre), he referred to Hal as “Sir”, which the Jordan said sounded like a “f*ck you” every time Stewart said it, causing him to say it once more with a pause. It’s moments like this early on that give you a preview of their relationship.
Hal Jordan has been the only Green Lantern on Earth and has now been training John Stewart for two months to be the next Green Lantern. Jordan has an odd way of training Stewart, and from their conversation in the car, not much has happened in these two months. Stewart hasn’t even been given a chance with the ring yet. There’s some tension between the two that’s unclear at this moment, but the one thing they both have in common is that they tolerate each other as much as they can.
With the intro at the start and the conversation John Stewart has on the phone with his father, it’s clear that this is something Stewart has been working for his entire life. It’s the first time that a Lantern has trained another person from their sector to be a Lantern, and if the Guardians are changing up the rules, that means they know something that we as the audience do not know yet.
Lanterns starts feeling like itself once Jordan and Stewarts arrive in Rushville, Nebraska, after Hal receives the code word from his projected self, “There’s hail in Rushville, Nebraska,” which means there are aliens and that Jordan has been keeping an eye on this area for at least 10 years. Lanterns has a little bit of everything, and that’s what this premiere episode is so great at showcasing. Stewart messes up and spooks a suspect, which leads into a tense chase sequence that’s thrilling. It’s moments like this that help to blend this grounded storyline with the sc-fi of it all.
When we meet the Macons, a family that lives on a private ranch with trained, armed guards, the show begins to feel a lot more grounded. Sherif Kerry (Kelly Macdonald) advises Hal to avoid interacting with her father-in-law, Will Macon (Garret Dillahunt), but as expected, he follows his gut instead of listening to Kerry, who this time isn’t the law and holds jurisdiction but is a Macon and knows her family. On this ranch, Will holds any kind of jurisdiction and knows everything. He has been preparing for a war with aliens after the arrival of Abin Sur and is well aware that John Stewart slept with his wife, Zoe Macon (Poorna Jagannathan), by saying, ‘Nothing better than eating off another man’s grill.’
“He’s not f*cking fearless; he’s lonely,” is what Sheriff Kerry says, talking to Stewart about how Hal doesn’t love anybody. It’s an interesting analysis of Hal Jordan, who throughout this episode has been written and portrayed by the talented Kyle Chandler as someone who might easily be the biggest jerk in the superhero world. He’s popular to the general public, but to the people who manage to get close with him, he’s unlikable.
The issue with Hal is that he quite literally has been an intergalactic space cop for decades and does know what he’s doing. He knows exactly how to push people’s buttons and always trusts his instincts, which so far in this episode have always been proven to be right. A man like Hal quite literally holds all the power in his ring and has earned the right to be this smartass.
Aaron Pierre is also phenomenal as John Stewart, acting opposite Chandler and feeling like the missing piece to the puzzle. He’s quite the opposite of Hal Jordan and takes more after his own father. He follows orders and does things by the book. There are a lot of mistakes that Stewart makes in this episode, but his anger is never portrayed outright and only subtly through how Pierre delivers certain lines. Kelly Macdonald is also the heart of this show, playing a character that’s trying to keep control of her small town. She’s the most relatable and the most human, helping further ground this show.
By the end of the episode, we get a shocking reveal 10 years later that Hal Jordan has been killed. John Stewart notices that his ring is missing, and that starts to bring up questions such as Who killed Hal Jordan? Who did his ring fly to? Is this the real Hal Jordan, or is it a shapeshifter of some sort? Lanterns Episode 1 has done the magnificent job of bringing two engaging mysteries to the audience in the past and present.
Chris Mundy, Damon Lindelof, and Tom King have done such a fantastic job of bringing Green Lantern back into the live-action fray and setting up a story that’s worth coming back every week for. Two intriguing mysteries, two fascinating characters, one ring. This is the start of something new in the DCU, and hopefully they manage to keep that balance of a grounded detective show and a comic book project without it leaning too much into one area which could possibly see the show collapse in an unfortunate way.
