When DC comics first introduced the character of John Stewart, back in the early 1970s, he was one of the first African-American superheroes to enter a pantheon dominated by white men. The character was a landmark: a Black Power advocate, a college graduate, and one of the few superheroes who didn’t wear a mask. Now, for the first time, a live-action version of the character is being brought to the screen in Sky’s gritty new science-fiction mystery, Lanterns.
Here, Earth is protected from extraterrestrial intrusion by the Green Lantern, a role performed, at present, by Hal Jordan (Kyle Chandler), a hard-drinking, wise-cracking former fighter pilot. But times are changing and Jordan is getting old, so the Guardians of the Universe, a committee of supernatural beings that appoints the lanterns, solicits John Stewart (Aaron Pierre) to become his successor. An ex-Marine who has spent his whole life training for the role, John feels ready to slide on the Green Lantern’s superpower-imbued ring. He soon realises, however, that Jordan isn’t going to give it up easily. “I don’t want a sidekick, and I don’t need a backup,” the incumbent Mr Lantern informs him. With that friction a live concern, the two embark on an investigation into a mass shooting in the small town of Rushville, Nebraska, which might just be the centre of an alien invasion.
