Green Lantern Corps is the name of a fictional intergalactic militarized law enforcement organisation appearing in comics published by DC Comics. They patrol the farthest reaches of the DC Universe at the behest of the Guardians, a race of immortals residing on the planet Oa.
According to DC continuity, the Green Lantern Corps has been in existence for three billion years, surviving multiple conflicts both internal and foreign. Currently operating amongst the 3600 “sectors” of the universe, there are 7204 members (known commonly as Green Lanterns). There are two lanterns for every sector, with the exception of sector 2814, which has six members. Each Green Lantern is given a power ring, a weapon granting the use of incredible abilities that are directed by the wearer’s own willpower.
The Guardians of the Universe are one of several races that originated on the planet Maltus and were among the first intelligent life forms in the universe. At this time they were short greyish blue humanoids with black hair. They became scientists and thinkers, experimenting on the worlds around them. In a pivotal moment billions of years ago, a Maltusian named Krona used time-bending technology to observe the beginning of the universe.
However, this test unleashed disaster upon all existence. Originally, the experiment splintered the universe into the multiverse and created the evil anti-matter universe. Following the retroactive destruction of the Multiverse, it was revealed that Krona flooded the beginning of the universe with entropy causing it “to be born old”.Krona’s experiment also drew Volthoom, a traveler from the multiverse looking to save his Earth. He brought with him the Travel Lantern powered by the Emotional Spectrum.
Through working with Volthoom the future Guardians shed their emotions into The Great Heart and inadvertently created the First Ring. Volthoom received this ring and had the Great Heart implanted in his chest, controlling the whole emotional spectrum made him dangerous. The future guardians destroyed his Travel Lantern further escalating the situation. Future Guardian Rami used the pieces of the Travel Lantern to create the first seven green lantern rings and imprison the First Lantern Volthoom.
Soon after it was decided that the emotional spectrum was at present too dangerous to wield.The male Maltusians argued about how to deal with the situation. One group decided to dedicate their eternal existences to contain evil; this group fractured into the Guardians of the Universe and the Controllers. Later a single male Guardian would become the Pale Bishop and found The Paling, an anti-emotion faith.
The females, however, saw no need to involve themselves and, since the Oans were by then immortal and had no more need to reproduce, left their mates and became known as the Zamarons later founding the Star Sapphires. Relocating to the planet Oa at “the center of the universe”, the Guardians dedicated themselves to combatting evil and creating an orderly universe. During this period they slowly evolved into their current appearance.
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It’s frankly shocking that the Green Lantern hasn’t gotten a truly stellar live-action adaptation yet. Of course, DC certainly tried with 2011’s Green Lantern, one of the most infamous comic book films of all time that really shouldn’t have been the disaster that it was.
It had a fantastic action filmmaker in Casino Royale (2006) director Marin Campbell, an extremely talented cast led by future Deadpool Ryan Reynolds, and rich source material Alas, the movie is remembered as a critical and financial failure, with nearly everyone who was a part of the film’s production treating it as a practical joke in their careers. Since then, apart from a brief cameo from a Green Lantern Corps member in Justice League (2017), we haven’t seen the famous green ring appear in any other DC live-action project since the first film.
Green Lantern has, however, found far more success in television, nearly all of them being animated like the legendary Justice League (2001-2004) series and the fan-favorite Green Lantern: The Animated Series (2011-2013). With the many wielders of the Green Lantern ring seemingly feeling much more comfortable on the small screen, it makes sense that new DC Studios CEOs James Gunn and Peter Safran have opted to use the serialized television format to bring the Green Lanterns into their new DC Universe. Simply titled Lanterns, the plural use of the word is deliberate as the show will star not one, but two heroes who share the title of Green Lantern.
Those two people are Hal Jordan, the original human Green Lantern Corp member and the one we follow in the 2011 film as well as Green Lantern: The Animated Series, and John Stewart, the Green Lantern best known as the roster member seen in both Justice League and its sequel series Justice League Unlimited (2004-2006). The second live-action series in Gunn and Safran’s recently announced “Gods and Monsters” phase, the ambitious new show will see the two Lanterns (and perhaps a few more) embark on a detective story that will result in major consequences for the rest of the DCU.
A buddy-cop-style Green Lantern show has been in on-and-off development for a very long time and has been shrouded in secrecy for that same timeframe. With Gunn and Safran now finally kicking the show’s production into gear, it’s only a matter of time until we learn more about the anticipated project. Until then, here is everything we know so far about Lanterns.
