Next year, Warner Bros.
will be releasing a movie based on a superhero named
Green Lantern. This is a big deal to me, because Green
Lantern is my favorite superhero and has been since I
was twelve years old.
“Green Lantern” is not like most superheroes such as
Superman or Wonder Woman, since many characters have
held and currently hold the title of GL. In the interest
of brevity, I’ll explain it thusly: Green Lanterns are
an intergalactic peace keeping force. There are 3600
sectors of the universe, each with two officers. Earth
is in sector 2814. The Green Lantern’s weapon is a ring
which, in the most simplest explanation, can make/do
anything the wielder wants it to. It can make a giant
green boxing glove and smash you with it; it can scan
your immediate area for carbon monoxide. The ring must
be recharged by a lantern shaped battery - hence the
name.
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However,
this is the second version of a Green
Lantern. This is where things can get
confusing if you don’t know much about comic
books, so try to bear with me. The first
Green Lantern was Alan Scott, created in
1940. His ring was a magical artifact from
ancient times. A talking green lantern (not
to be confused with Green Lantern officers.
This is literally a talking lamp) instructed
him to carve a ring from its surface to have
access to its power at all times. He made a
loudly colored costume (red, purple and
green) and began fighting crime because
that’s what you did in the ‘40s.
Unfortunately for Mr. Scott, his comic
didn’t do well and got cancelled.
The concept was
revived in the ‘50s with the science fiction
explanation that is still the norm to this
day. This new Green Lantern was named Hal
Jordan. However, Alan Scott is still around
and due to the magic properties of his ring
has barely aged since World War 2.
Most
average people who don’t read comics but
like superheroes know Green Lantern from the
Justice League cartoon; this GL is John
Stewart - an African-American. He is also an
officer of the Green Lantern Corps, but is
not THE Green Lantern (if that makes sense).
In short: John is a GL, but when you pick up
a Green Lantern comic, the main character is
Hal Jordan. |
Hal Jordan will be the
main character in the new movie, since he is the
“official” Green Lantern currently. The movie probably
isn’t going to do that well for reasons I just realized
while taking a shit.
You know what we don’t need?
Another superhero movie
about a young white guy. I must choke back my fan boy
inclinations and admit that having Hal Jordan be the
main character of the movie, even though he IS the
proper choice canonically, is stupid. Because it’s
boring. It would be nice to have a superhero movie with
a black male protagonist who isn’t all “I have GOT tuh
get me ONE UH DEEZ!” and is just a reasonable person. We
elected Obama; we’re ready for it. Someone who ISN’T
Will Smith.
But, I’m not naive. I know middle Americans (a.k.a. Real
Americans) don’t want to see a movie about a darkie (who
isn’t Will Smith).
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what I like to see in movies about
superheroes? A lot of bureaucracy. The Green
Lantern Corps are basically cops of the
universe. They have rules, orders,
assignments - they report to the Guardians
of the Universe...when Hal Jordan first
receives his ring he has to go to the planet
Oa for training. Imagine if, when
Peter Parker discovered his powers in
Spider-Man, he had to take a time out to go
learn how to use them properly. It kind of
takes the wonder and excitement out of it. A
space trooper who has to file reports and
can be suspended by his bosses is a concept
that can work in a comic book or novel, but
in a movie it might seem a little dull.
The better
choice would be Alan Scott. The magic ring
has no rule book, no training required. We
don’t have to take time-out from the main
plot for the main character to go to another
planet. Aliens are cool and everything, but
that sort of scope will probably end up
making any Earth based sequence that comes
after it seem...a little dull. |
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Alan Scott is easier to
relate to, easier to comprehend and an all around
simpler story, which is always good for a movie. It’s
sort of like how, in the original Star Wars trilogy,
Jedi and Lightsabers are really interesting and novel
because there aren’t many of them. When Luke uses his
Lightsaber to its full effect in Return of the Jedi it’s
really fucking cool.
Then you watch the new
trilogy and you find out the Jedi were dispatched on
boring missions by a council of assholes who sit around
saying stupid shit. You see four year-old kids training
with mini Lightsabers and huge battles where there are
literally dozens of people using Lightsabers and it
makes the whole concept seem...a little dull.
Too often, we get caught up with things that are cool
and exciting in theory. In theory, seeing an epic
battle between robot armies, clones and Jedi knights
would be a lot more interesting than watching just two
people fight, very slowly. But when Vader chops Luke’s
hand off, it’s way more compelling than anything from
episodes one, two, or three. It’s not our fault, I
guess. Theories are often compelling. Like “cutting
taxes helps the deficit” or “eliminating earmarks means
we’re serious about the economy” or “electing a black
president won’t cause a huge racial divide, we’re past
that.”
We should remember that,
no matter how cool ideas seem to be, we should remember
to vet them properly because god damnit I want there to
be a "Green Lantern 2!" |
