It certainly looks good, from its sleek CGI styling to its diverse roster of alien space cops. But details are everything, as the messy Green Lantern film and Green Lantern: Emerald Knights proved.
And then there is the central hero himself to worry about. In the clip above, Hal Jordan, Earth’s interstellar policeman, struggles to remember the home planet of his Green Lantern Corps comrade and blithely admits using unnecessary violence. It’s not quite as compelling a character study as Superman or Batman, and rings especially lazy in our real world, where alarming violence from an increasingly militarized police force is raising all sorts of troubling questions.
That said, Green Lantern: The Animated Series has all the right animation players lined up. Voiceover champs like Tom Kenny, Kevin Michael Richardson, Grey DeLisle and Josh Keaton (who plays Hal Jordan) are on board. But it remains to be seen whether they can carry a hero whose cultural capital is beginning to fade. Whether that’s because of overexposure or a lack of ambition and empathy has yet to be decided.
Screen the reel above and let us know in the comments section below why you think Green Lantern is having such a hard time escaping the comics realm. Do you miss John Stewart from Justice League? Would you pay to see a live-action Green Lantern sequel? Are you going to repeatedly watch Green Lantern: The Animated Series and hope for the best? Beware, Green Lantern fandom’s might!
Green Lantern: The Animated Series airs Fridays at 7 p.m./6 p.m. Central on Cartoon Network.
