THE GREEN LANTERN_who the hell is
I knew this post was inevitable. I knew I couldn’t ignore this forever. I knew eventually I was going to have to address THE GREEN LANTERN. So, yes, here is the first of what can only be assumed as many posts on the Green Lantern. Now, on paper, this film is shaping up quite nicely AND i admit that. I approve of the director: Martin Campbell. And I approve of the star: Ryan Reynolds. I approve of the genre: comic book movie. And I approve of the subgenre: sci-fi comic book movie. My big problem with this Green Lantern film is that… well, it’s a Green Lantern film.
Image Courtesy of: Dispatches from Dimension X
I’m sure there are a few of you out there scratching your head right now wondering who the hell is the Green Lantern. Yeah, exactly. In my mind, and in most people’s minds, the Green Lantern is a second-rate superhero from DC Comics. He rarely, if ever, get’s the spotlight ahead of Superman and Batman. That’s not to say he doesn’t have potential, it’s just that… well… he’s not Superman or Batman.
Okay, so maybe I’m not being open minded enough. I should just appreciate that Warner Brothers is willing to start up another major movie franchise based on a mainstream DC character. But I just don’t have high expectations of this character. Again, this is only my opinion. I’m sure there are plenty of hardcore Green Lantern fans who are willing and able to tell you why the character tops them all. But the Green Lantern, when propped up against all the other mainstream comic book superheros (DC and Marvel), is really REALLY second-tier. I’m talking on par with Cyclops. Seriously. This is like giving Cyclops his own movie. Exciting, right? At least they’re going all-out sci-fi…. or at least I think they are (that’s where they f*cked up the Superman franchise — but that’s a post for another day.)
So who the hell is the Green Lantern? I thought about taking the time and writing out the character’s back story but I’m just going to post this instead:
Got that? Let me recap. Aliens give Hal Jordan a special ring as part of an intergalatic police force. I don’t think it’s magical — Wikipedia describes the ring as “otherwordly.” So it gives him the ability to control the physical world. He can makes things out of his ring… which usually ends up being a big hammer or something. A net maybe. To catch bad guys. Anyway, his weakness is the color yellow. I don’t know if that sounds cool to you or not. Maybe you’re confused by all this. It’s too much too soon. Maybe this will help:
Yep. That settles it. This guy is stupid. He’s not Batman. He’s not Spiderman. And he’s not Iron Man. There’s a certain level of coolness that is missing from this character (a freaking umbrella? really?) But I guess that’s what Campbell and Reynolds (and the whole creative team) get paid the big bucks for: to make this character cool. To think of something better than a giant umbrella. Good luck, my friends! We’re all counting on you!
Klockwork Kugler: This is my blog. This is what I do. 
The Green Lantern is a stealth flying invisibly through the coolness radar. When I was into comics, I was never really into the DC Universe. It just seemed too corny. Remember the books that cataloged all the characters in each universe? I was always fascinated by the amount of information and background in them – I guess you could say they were the earliest wikis of comics. Well, the shear number of goofy characters I can half-remember existing in the DC Universe is astounding. The one I will never forget is The Chlorophyll Kid (ability to make plants grow …fast). Their characters and artwork always lacked pizazz. Maybe the stories backed them up for the older fans, but I was twelve when I was into comics. I hadn’t become jaded yet.
The Green Lantern stories are riddle with ridiculously powerful abilities and exceptionally bad villains. Two modern villains include Tattooed Man and Javelin (an Olympic athlete turned to a life of crime). There are Yellow Rings, Red Rings, and Orange Rings (the latter having full Corps to harass the good Green Ring wearers). The powers of these rings is pretty much limitless …to me, that’s asking too much from the reader. Making the Rings ineffective to certain colors just doesn’t work for me on a worldly basis …they are going to HAVE to go full-blown sci-fi on a galactic scale to pull this off, in my opinion.
I mean, how do you write a decent, enthralling story when all your hero has to do is imagine a cage to bind any villain not wearing yellow? Oh, now I get it …the bad guy will be wearing yellow. Wow, fascinating.
As for second-rate characters getting their own movie, there’s also Thor coming down the pipes. I’m sure it will be a formulaic crap-fest that will rake in millions that would otherwise be spent on Friday/Saturday night baby sitters …like Iron Man 2. I guess this goes back to my earlier remark when I stated I liked comics when I was twelve. I’m starting to think the comic-movie genre has exhausted itself and seen it’s golden era. I wonder what will be the next craze – Farmville movies?!
Green Lantern was huge when he came back to comics in the 1960’s and later became a joke as his series fought cancellation over and over again. In recent years he has become a major player in comics. The general public has no idea who he is but as a visual he is a quick sell and even has a science fiction angle to him.
In short, Green Lantern is Warner Bros.’ Iron Man.
I have written a few posts at my blog extolling the virtues of the character and recommending books to read. If you are interested in the character but have no interest in actually reading the comics, the recent animated feature is a decent introduction to the character and I highly recommend it.
… and the unaired Justice League pilot that you referenced is regarded as trash by everyone who has seen it.
It’s valid to bring it up as it shows what could happen if the character isn’t handled correctly, but so is Joel Schumacher’s Batman & Robin and people actually paid to see that! It’s like taking an image of Batman with his goofy smile and nippled-out suit and saying that he’s stupid. Luckily we have better material for Batman to represent how cool he is, but any character can be cool if he is presented correctly. Look at Iron Man.
Haha. Okay, you got me for calling him out for the aborted JLA series. There’s no doubt the character has potential… and my mouth waters at the sci-fi possibilities (tho, admittedly, I wish they would take Superman in that direction.) I am very happy with the talent behind the camera and I’m even more pleased that this isn’t george miller’s JLA movie… that would have been a disaster. Okay… heading over to your blog now…
You may want to check this out: http://www.e4.com/misfits/
Personally I prefer No Heroics: http://dailypop.wordpress.com/2009/05/12/no-heroics/
these are great!
I’ve only seen bits and pieces of the JLA pilot such as the ‘hilarious’ sequence where the Flash cooks dinner. It makes Misfits of Science look like genius.