After eight weeks and eight episodes, the first live-action show in James Gunn’s new DCU has ended. Lanterns was the second attempt to bring the Green Lantern mythos to life after the disastrous Ryan Reynolds vehicle in 2011, and the two projects could not be more different. While the film opted to jump straight into cosmic superhero shenanigans, Lanterns instead took a much more grounded approach, explicitly modeling itself after HBO’s True Detective — an approach that may have disappointed fans looking for the procedural space opera of the comics, but mostly resonated with critics and general audiences.
That’s certainly not to say that Lanterns didn’t engage with the more heightened aspects of the source material. On the contrary, the entire first season used the mystery of the Manhunters’ presence on Earth and the modern-day demise of Hal Jordan as a launchpad to introduce the world of the Green Lantern Corps, which will surely be expanded upon when Aaron Pierre’s John Stewart shows up in next year’s Man of Tomorrow. But the show’s season finale drastically changed the status quo with several major reveals and defining character turns, meaning the DCU’s version of the Green Lantern Corps will be tumultuous in its own particular way.
