HBO’s latest superhero drama series, “Lanterns,” debuts on Sunday, 15 years after the release of “Green Lantern,” DC Comics’ sadly misbegotten 2011 space opera adventure, starring Ryan Reynolds as the fearless test pilot Hal Jordan. Seeing Hal again after all this time may be confusing for some, especially anyone who noticed that a completely different Green Lantern, Guy Gardner, protected the universe in last year’s “Superman” reboot from James Gunn.
If you’re confused, it’s because this is confusing.
Hal wasn’t the first hero to be called “Green Lantern” — that would be the stalwart railroad engineer Alan Scott, who was introduced in All-American Comics No. 16, from 1940 — but he did become the most popular and enduring protagonist in the popular sci-fi adventure comic Green Lantern and its many spinoffs.
In “Lanterns,” Kyle Chandler stars as an older and scruffier version of Hal, a cocky Air Force veteran and the first human to serve in the Green Lantern Corps. Hal mentors John Stewart (Aaron Pierre), a loyal former Marine and ostensibly Hal’s successor as the guardian of Sector 2814, the part of the galaxy that includes Earth.
Ahead of the “Lanterns” premiere, here’s an overview of the show’s characters and their histories, as found over the decades in the original comics and in various screen adaptations.
Who Are the Green Lanterns?
Like an intergalactic police force, the Green Lanterns have been assigned to protect the universe by their bosses, the immortal but aloof Guardians of the Universe. Green Lanterns use their rings to project an energy beam that takes the shape of whatever the ring’s owner can imagine, from machine guns to giant baseball bats. In Hal’s 1959 comic book debut, Showcase No. 22, the previous defender of Sector 2814, Abin Sur, explains that the ring loses power after 24 hours and must be recharged using a green “battery” shaped like a lantern.
The Green Lanterns are the second attempt by the Guardians at organizing an armed peacekeeping force. They were preceded by the heartless robot Manhunters, a Lantern-less troupe that eventually rebelled against the Guardians because they would rather punish wrongdoers than administer a more humane sort of justice.
Who is Guy Gardner?
In the comics, Guy Gardner is an egotistic but harmless antihero who serves mostly as a comic foil for other superheroes. He was introduced as an alternate Green Lantern for Sector 2814, in case Jordan ever needed a replacement. Guy was heroic but plain, and by the 1980s he became a deliberate parody of jingoistic patriotism and then ultimately a narcissistic loudmouth, as best exemplified by his humorous depiction in the winningly lighthearted “Justice League International” comics.
In “Superman,” Fillion and Gunn present Guy (Nathan Fillion) as the leader of a superhero group that he calls the Justice Gang, whose members include the brawny Hawkgirl (Isabela Merced) and the brainy Mister Terrific (Edi Gathegi). Guy’s role was a minor supporting one, so it isn’t clear how he became the Green Lantern of Sector 2814 or what Hal Jordan has to do with it. He’ll have a cameo in the new series.
OK, so who’s Hal Jordan?
Good question. Some mystery surrounds Hal at the beginning of “Lanterns,” but a TV news program in Episode 1 suggests that he became a Green Lantern in the 1980s. The episode also faithfully rehashes the origin story found in the comic books: Hal inherited the Green Lantern power ring from Abin Sur, an extraterrestrial from the planet Ungara who crash-landed on Earth and, with his dying breath, gave Hal the space cop job.
Hal is usually too stubborn to take orders from the Guardians of the Universe. He also isn’t a great team player, as we see in both the comics and the 2011 movie. And while the pilot of “Lanterns” presents Hal and John as something of a buddy duo, Hal often keeps John at arm’s length, even though John occasionally reminds him that he is training to be Hal’s replacement.
And John Stewart is?
John Stewart debuted in Green Lantern No. 87, from 1971, as Hal’s emergency substitute after Guy got hurt while rescuing school children from an earthquake. Created by the writer Denny O’Neil and the artist Neal Adams, John initially stood out as a rare Black superhero. In an essay written for the comic book collection “Green Lantern: John Stewart — A Celebration of 50 Years,” Adams recalled telling the editor Julius Schwartz that he wanted to avoid clichés by making John a college graduate with professional skills: “I’m sick of these characters who don’t represent the aspirations of every Black person in America.”
Although Adams and O’Neil initially conceived of John as an unemployed architect, the character was later given a background as a former Marine in the popular “Justice League” animated series (2001-4), where he was voiced by the versatile Phil LaMarr. Like Hal, John distrusts authority figures and tends to solve problems on his own.
What’s With the Color Yellow?
Before Abin Sur dies, he tells Hal that all of the Green Lanterns’ metal batteries contain a “yellow impurity” that makes them vulnerable to anything yellow, the ring’s sole weakness. That might seem goofy and old-fashioned, but that bit of Green Lantern lore has somehow persisted over the years, notably in the 2011 movie, in which Hal must battle a monstrous yellow creature called Parallax, a former Guardian of the Universe.
Are there other Lantern Corps?
Yes, but that wasn’t always the case. When the Green Lanterns were introduced, they were the only lantern-themed peacekeepers. Later, they were supplemented by other color-coded Lantern Corps, whose respective members activate their rings with different feelings, including compassion (indigo), greed (orange) and rage (red).
Green Lanterns get their color from what the alien narrator of the 2011 movie, Tomar-Re (Geoffrey Rush), calls “the emerald energy of willpower.” Alternatively, the fascistic Sinestro Corps, a yellow-hued group named after its leader, the rebellious former Green Lantern Sinestro, is empowered by fear.
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