Space will run red with the rage of the Red Lanterns and the bloodied bodies of the Green Lanterns.
What They Say:
Hal must face down an invasion by the Red Lantern Corps.
The Review:
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers)
Having been one of a handful of people who actually enjoyed the Green Lantern movie last year and again on Blu-ray, I looked forward to this series and thoroughly enjoyed the sneak peek last year. This time around, I got to watch the first two episodes with my kids and was rather amused to see how closely their opinions mirrored mine. Green Lantern’s renaissance in the last few years in the comics and in other mediums has been fun to watch since he’s long been a character I’ve liked. Add in the original animated movies we’ve gotten as well and it’s generally been a very good time to be a Green Lantern fan. With this series breaking “tradition” for Warner and DC by going with CG animation, it’s definitely going to be controversial. But to me, this is the ideal series to do this with as it has the kind of otherworldly feel that it needs.
With the opening two episodes of the series, it goes in a pretty solid direction by not going the traditional route, thankfully, of giving us an origin story. Here, Hal’s been a Green Lantern for some time but he’s still got the cocky feel to him and the seat of his pants style. While he’s been brought back to Oa to deal with the way he handled a recent mission, it turns into something quite different when a dead ring arrives. To his and even Kilowog and Salaak’s surprise, the ring came from outside the 3600 sectors, from a place called the frontier realm outside of the known sector of space that the Guardian’s currently protect. It’s a shock to them all, but even more so when they’re told not go go out there and deal with it since it’s beyond their area of expertise.
Naturally, that doesn’t stop them from finding a way there but it just leads to another surprise when they discover that Green Lanterns out there are being hunted by Red Lanterns. The very idea of other color Lanterns isn’t something they’ve been exposed to prior to this, so they’re definitely wanting some answers. Not that the Guardian’s want to share any of it since they’ve long been hiding the story of this group, and more, by not recording it in the Book of Oa. Hal’s cocky nature gets him to deal with events out in the frontier to the best of his abilities as well as setting things up for him and Kilowog to pursue them after getting their bearings.
The two part storyline is pretty straightforward with what it wants to do so there aren’t any real surprises to be had here, especially if you’re familiar with the characters from the comics and where they’ve gone from there. What it does do well is to cover the basics of what’s involved in being a Green Lantern and a part of the Corps while also introducing a much larger storyline. Yet it does it by keeping to a fairly small cast of characters, primarily focusing on Hal and Kilowog while having a decent supporting cast to flesh it all out. When it brings the big bad fully into play in the second half, Atrocitus has the right flavor to him and definitely the right voice for what they’re portraying him as. The Red’s are kept small themselves with only three shown here in total as well as some of the conflicts that they have to deal with. They’re not cookie cutter villains when you get down to it but some of them definitely have a darker motivation compared to others.
In Summary:
While I went into the show with positive expectations, I came away from it very pleased. This is the look and feel of the Green Lantern show I wanted in animated form, and in CG form in particular. It gives the alien worlds the kind of feel it needs while making the characters a lot of fun to watch. The characters have long been established in the comics and the core of who they are carries over here easily. It’s entirely accessible to new viewers while not giving away all the details in an info dump and long time comic fans should be able to just get into it and have fun. I love the look of it, I loved the humor and I loved that it wasn’t dumbed down or avoids some of the basics about the characters, such as the attraction between Hal and Carol and the killing of the Lanterns. The fears that I see some have about this being kiddified are pretty much put out to pasture here, though at the same time you’re not going to get the dark comics many of us have either. You’re getting something that takes a mix of everything and puts out something that I think was really engaging and just plain fun to watch. I can’t wait to see what’s in store with this series.
Grade: B+
Readers Rating: [ratings]
