Lanterns

I read John Stewart’s first appearance as a kid, out of my Dad’s comic collection. Green Lantern #87, 1972. Dennis O’Neil and Neal Adams made him a Detroit architect who refused the mask because he had nothing to hide. He was later retconned into a U.S. Marine. His first job was guarding a racist senator he couldn’t stand. Heady stuff for a kid.

So I wanted Lanterns to be a space opera with cool wishing rings, crazy aliens, and galaxy-spanning consequences. Cosmic DC Universe in all its weird glory. Three episodes in, I’ve gotten almost none of that. The show drops Hal Jordan and John Stewart into a small Nebraska town, where there are several dead (alien) bodies and a lot of quiet. It’s True Detective with a power ring, and there are two mysteries running. One is the case from the logline. The other I won’t spoil.

My disappointment lasted about twenty minutes. Kyle Chandler plays Hal as a tired man who resents the kid sent to replace him. He’s crusty, world-weary, and perfect. Aaron Pierre plays John with a stillness that makes you lean in. Episode 3 slows everything down to tell you who John is, and the show is better for it.

The fan chatter is the good kind. People are sorting every neighbor into “human” or “not human.” Some think the trouble didn’t come to town at all, and the town is the trouble. Others are squinting at the Guardians. A few are already mapping it all onto the new Superman movie currently being filmed.

For me, the pleasure is in seriously not knowing where the story is headed. Online predictions are all over the place. I’ll be shocked if we see Parallax or any other colored rings. Well, we might see Sinestro’s yellow power ring.

Then there’s the crowd calling it “woke” or racist. John Stewart has been political since Nixon was president. Denny O’Neil understood what he was doing 50+ years ago. Those people never read them. I just hope my Dad has that issue bagged and boarded. A good copy is worth about a grand.

Anyway, three episodes down, five to go. I’m in.