Even though the 2011 film starring Ryan Reynolds is still remembered as one of the worst superhero films in the entire genre, the character of Green Lantern has still managed to become fairly recognizable due to appearances in lots of adaptational material over the years. While no Earth-based Lantern has made it back to the big screen yet (although that’s set to change with Aaron Pierre’s John Stewart showing up in Man of Tomorrow next year), Hal Jordan was the star of his own short-lived TV show Green Lantern: The Animated Series, and the John Stewart version of the character practically raised a generation of kids on Justice League and Justice League: Unlimited. Although definitely not as recognizable and beloved as a Spider-Man or a Superman, Green Lantern is debatably a better-known character than most of The Avengers were prior to the dawn of the MCU in 2008.
Unfortunately, though, his position as a B-list superhero in the eyes of the general public means that there’s so much about the character’s lore that people don’t know. Most people have no idea that the original Green Lantern, Alan Scott, was a magic-based hero with a weakness to wood who predates the sci-fi elements introduced to the mythos with Hal Jordan in 1959; most people have no idea that there are seven human members of the Green Lantern Corps; and most people have no idea that the Green Lanterns are just one part of an entire emotional light spectrum, with their own respective Lantern Corps. But the new HBO Max/DCU show Lanterns will undoubtedly expand the general audience’s awareness of the Green Lantern mythos…and it might even be building to the discovery of that last tidbit of information.
