‘Lanterns’ Premiere Review: A Thrilling Start for DCU’s First Green Lantern Mystery
After many years of false starts, constantly changing plans, and not-so-positive results in the form of a Green Lantern movie 15 years ago, DC’s Green Space Cops finally return to our screens. The Lanterns season 1 premiere is a much more confident approach that treats Hal Jordan and John Stewart as detectives first, superheroes second, and damaged people (each in their own way) before either of those things.
The overall story in the DC series is built around an Earth-based mystery in Rushville, Nebraska, with the larger cosmic threat hiding in the shadows. From the first minutes of the Lanterns premiere, we already know this is a serious, dark, and well-thought-out show that doesn’t leave anything to chance.
[Warning: This review contains spoilers from the Lanterns season 1 premiere]
A mystery is at the center of the Lanterns premiere
The first episode treats viewers as newcomers and establishes that fear will be one of its central themes throughout the show. The opening flashback to 1996 introduces a young John Stewart (Cairo Cash Lee) watching Hal Jordan (Kyle Chandler) on television, revealing his secret identity, right before his father subjects him to a disturbing test of courage, involving an apple and a gun. John’s childhood is shown as something that shaped the way he understands fear, discipline, masculinity, respect, and emotional control.
The episode jumps forward to 2016, where John (Aaron Pierre) is an adult and has been chosen as a trainee under Hal. But Hal is not depicted as a perfect veteran hero who knows it all and can predict every move. He is arrogant, sarcastic, experienced, occasionally reckless, and clearly aware that his best years may be behind him.
John is almost his opposite. He is disciplined, quiet, serious, and constantly evaluating Hal rather than blindly accepting his authority. Their relationship has the familiar shape of a buddy-cop partnership. But more like a space cop soap opera, but more serious.
Hal treats the Green Lantern ring with the confidence of someone who has spent decades using it. John sees the same object as something dangerous that he has not yet earned the right to fully understand. We see the rings create constructs, let the user fly, and even perform some things we thought were just for show.
The first major mystery arrives when Hal and John are sent a warning by Hal’s cloud consciousness version to go to Rushville, Nebraska. A strange town leads them toward a case that initially looks like something local law enforcement will not handle, even though we are not sure yet why. Hal, however, quickly becomes convinced that something extraterrestrial is involved. There is a sense that every citizen has something they are protecting, and that makes it an even more dangerous place.
This is where the True Detective-teased theme and influence become obvious. The comparison is useful because both stories use an apparently ordinary American landscape to tell a story about something much stranger hidden underneath. The cosmic elements are therefore more unsettling when they appear because they intrude on a world that initially feels calm and down-to-earth.
After spending most of the premiere watching Hal train John and investigate the Nebraska mystery, the story jumps forward to 2026. John returns to Rushville and discovers Hal’s frozen body sitting in the football stadium bleachers. There is a bullet wound in Hal’s forehead, and his Green Lantern ring is missing.
The episode ends there. It is a genuinely bold choice. Killing Hal Jordan in the premiere could easily have felt like a cheap attempt to generate headlines, but the structure of the episode gives the death more weight.
At the same time, the missing ring immediately raises a much bigger question. If Hal was murdered, who took the ring, and why? What will happen now? Will the story from the comic books be adapted? How far will the show creators go to surprise the viewers and give them an unexpected twist?
What can we expect in future episodes of the DC series?
The most obvious question is whether Hal Jordan is really gone. The Lanterns premiere certainly suggests that, and the missing ring suggests that his death is connected directly to the larger mystery. At the same time, comic books and Green Lantern mythology have never treated death as a permanent thing. The more important question is what Hal’s death does to John. What was their relationship throughout the last years? How do they solve the mystery?
The Nebraska investigation should expand the mythology. The first episode establishes that the case has alien connections, but it deliberately keeps the larger conspiracy hidden. The presence of extraterrestrial threats, the missing ring, the mysterious people surrounding Rushville, and the history of the Green Lantern Corps all imply that the story will move from a local murder into something with consequences for Earth, the galaxy, and the Lanterns themselves.
The series also has the opportunity to explore the complicated legacy of Hal Jordan. The 2016 version of Hal is already showing signs of a man who knows his career is changing. John represents the future, and Hal does not always seem comfortable with that.
We all know that John is trained to be his replacement. His eventual death represents the end of one generation of heroes and the uncomfortable beginning of another. Therefore, in future episodes, we will definitely see more scenes with them trying to combine the legacy of Lanterns with the old and new generation.
Watch our recent conversations on Twitch, which includes talk about what happened at D23 this year and more talk about the Lanterns premiere!
Lanterns season 1 premiere is a strong start for the series
Lanterns establishes the characters well in this universe, building its story around characters, mysteries, atmosphere, and tension. The Green Lantern mythology has already been seen as a difficult property to adapt, but currently it seems to be in the right hands.
Best of all is the relationship between Hal and John. Kyle Chandler and Aaron Pierre prove that their roles as partners and the mentor-student dynamic are believable, funny, uncomfortable, and dramatic. Most importantly, Hal’s apparent death turns the series into something much more unpredictable than most origin stories.
There are still questions about whether the mystery can be maintained throughout the series. The more “down-to-earth” tone could eventually fade away and switch to focus on the stranger parts of Green Lantern mythology. But that is undoubtedly the kind of foundation this series needs. The rest of the season needs to build on the emotional conflict between John and Hal, go deeper into the Rushville mystery, and open the door to the cosmic side without losing its grounded atmosphere.
Lanterns season 1 premiere episode is now available to watch on HBO Max, with episodes releasing weekly.
Also check out DC Showcase: Green Lantern: Earth One Comic Review
