https://www.npr.org/2026/10/04/nx-s1-5987757/lanterns-finale-hboSuperhero action fans waiting for a sprawling, special effects-laden fight scene to cap the percolating drama of HBO's Lanterns will likely be disappointed by the hit show's brooding, measured season finale.Instead, what producers delivered Sunday night was a simmering meditation on parents and children, fear and love, ruthlessness versus kindness. And in the process, they wrapped up a season that revitalized and reinvented what a modern superhero story can do on the small screen.Lanterns has become an unlikely hit for HBO, centered on the Green Lantern — a character with many iterations in comics books and animated features, but a somewhat more checkered history in live action. Famously, the Green Lantern film starring a pre-superstardom Ryan Reynolds tanked so hard he joked about it in the superhero franchise he finally got right, Deadpool.From the beginning, Lanterns producers had a challenge: How to take a concept that sounds cartoonish on its face — space cops given one of the greatest weapons in the universe, a power ring capable of conjuring anything, by blue-skinned immortal Guardians — and make it feel real, with human stakes. And they had to do it while also showcasing several different characters who have worn the mantle of Green Lantern on Earth.The solution was aping one of HBO's other unlikely hits: True Detective. So Friday Night Lights icon Kyle Chandler was tapped to play Hal Jordan, the most famous Lantern — depicted in this story as the first human to join the galactic Green Lantern Corps. He starts as a square-jawed hero, but as the meat of Lanterns' story unfolds in 2016, Jordan is a grizzled adventurer near burnout — forced to work with an aspiring backup Lantern he fears has been recruited to replace him, Aaron Pierre's John Stewart.
HBO's series has soared by digging into the personalities of the men behind the mythos, mostly ditching eye-catching costumes and special effects — the only Lantern who wears a costume is walking joke Guy Gardner, a lunkhead also featured in last year's Superman film. These are characters struggling with a galactic-level mystery imported from outer space, but somehow the more complicated foe is their own personal stuff — they're confronting issues of race, coping with the legacy of self-destructively obsessive parents and handling flawed, all-powerful bosses.The result is a show relatable and compelling for people who aren't comic book fans — real drama, unfolding over eight episodes of high-quality television.Stewart is an iconic figure for comics nerds. One of the first Black superheroes created in the early 1970s, Stewart emerges in Lanterns as the son of parents who literally raised him for the job. But between his borderline abusive upbringing — in which his parents would make him endure bizarre tests to prove he was fearless — and his experience as a military sniper, Stewart struggles to reconcile his deep desire to serve an important duty with a deep distrust of authority figures. Especially, the Guardians.Indeed, Lanterns captures the unique duality Black folks face in society and especially in the superhero world: a love and deep hunger for the ideals of justice and fairness, balanced by a rueful understanding that institutions tasked with delivering those things are often exploitative and hypocritical. Especially for non-white people.Throughout Lanterns, Stewart faces the question people of color often confront while working inside white-dominated institutions: How can I serve the greater good without letting this dubious enterprise co-opt me?
In the show's season finale, Stewart finds a complicated but ultimately satisfying solution to that question, allowing him to become a superhero on his own terms. Which is — speaking as a Black comics nerd with fifty years in the game — something of the ultimate fantasy for many of us. (This resolution also may help explain reports that Pierre's Stewart will appear in next year's Superman movie, Man of Tomorrow.)What I've liked most about Lanterns is the way it has presented Stewart as a man for whom Blackness is a key part of his history and reality, but not the only element in his relationship to the world. One of the toughest challenges in creating an authentic, compelling Black superhero is finding a way to show how race affects them in key moments at certain times without totally defining their lives in a way that feels patronizing.Lanterns positions Jordan and Stewart as an odd couple of sorts, digging into a situation where a deadly alien called a Manhunter is living in a rural Nebraska town, disguised as a human. Producers hit on an ingenious way of building a rapport between Jordan and Stewart — rather than manufacturing some awkward moment where they admit they eventually like each other, they stay prickly antagonists until Jordan is murdered mysteriously, and Stewart reconnects with Jordan's consciousness stored inside his power ring.But, as thrilling as it is to watch these characters face those circumstances, the real drama in Lanterns is mostly internal.Lanterns is, of course, an important stage in the reinvention of the DCU — the TV and film franchise featuring DC Comics characters like Superman and Batman. Renowned director James Gunn, who assumed control of the franchise with partner Peter Safran years ago, has overseen projects in this reimagined franchise like the Superman and Supergirl films and the Peacemaker series on HBO Max.
Im one of 12 people who was upset at Gunn for removing Nova from GotG, and while I still am, I can see how detrimental it would have been for him to be in those moviesI really do not think Gunn has a soul.
I am so very tired of the "superhero slop that seems to be embarrassed about being superhero slop so it contains almost no actual superhero content" genre of slop
>>1541640The finale to Peacemaker was a 45 minutes of music videos to shitty songs Gunn found on Reddit (he actually gets his music inspiration from there) while he’s getting cucked by John Cena
>>1541641Thats a pretty vivid hallucination you hadLike, "you should see a doctor" level of delusional hallucination.
>>1541642Everything I said is 100% true and you can watch for yourself if you don’t believe me.Gunn is really bad what he does
>>1541645see >>1541642
>>1541645>>1541639>It's just another Gunn antiReminder that Gunn's Superman is how he should be portrayed and it single handedly destroyed the heat chart meme rightoids were trying to force.
>>1541822Don’t ever call me rightoid. I’ve hated republicans since I was 16Gunn is a shitty director who got lucky with GotG cuz Fiege was there to be the tard wrangler. Motherfucker makes the same thing for every show or movie>Disfunctional ragtag group with a furry mascot learns to work together
>>1541829Don't know much about comics, that's just one part of nerd culture I never got into. But I loved star wars before Disney got their hands on it and it just became fanfic with nostalgia bait. I have to assume they are mismanaging their superhero IPs just as bad.I just wanted to reach out in solidarity. Thank you for not becoming a right wing lunatic because feckless left wing identitarians can't write a script to save their fucking lives. It's a fucking bizarre position to be in, watching half the people you know pretend a dogshit movie is the best thing they've ever seen, and half of them go Rey's a FUCKING WAHMAN? TRANS KIDS BETTER NOT PLAY SPORTS!
>>1541836I tapped out of comics with Secret Wars, and you can kinda look at the audience reaction to this phase of capeshit to see why. I’ve hated Gunn since GotG 1 and Im glad that I’ve been vindicated over time, but I hate that it comes at the cost of this culture war shit since Gunn is a feckless retard that inserts his brand of corporate-approved woke into everything he makes.The dude shamelessly ripped off Man in the High Castle for Peacemaker and he didn’t understand a single thing PKD was talking about in that bookI feel like a thread like this belongs more on /tv/ and /co/, but whatever. Im not OP for the record
>>1541638>Stewart finds a complicated but ultimately satisfying solution to that question, allowing him to become a superhero on his own terms.He steals jewelry off a dead white guy, lets a manhunter into the world after all the shit they pulled in Nebraska, and allowed a emotionally fragile white woman to go free after they killed his mentor in cold blood.
>>1541860yeah, its not surprising that fragile white chuds who don't know anything about comics hate it
>>1541964>don't know anything about comics..Hal Jordan had an entire character arc in which he fell into despair, became host to an ancient cosmic evil, sacrificed himself, and then was reborn as green jesus.Lantern's Hal Jordan is a bitch that cries about a black man replacing him.
>>1541979>liesThanks for proving my point, racist shill who never watched the show.
Kys shill
>>1541981Not watching this show is a virtue.
>>1541979Wasn’t Hal being controlled by a parasite their attempt to retcon why he became evil?
>>1541990Parallax bonded to him after he decided to holocaust the green lantern corp and steal their rings. He decide to be a massive dickhead out of grief.
Nobody gave a fuck about green lantern for the last what? decade or something and suddenly when an original HBO series that actually makes green lantern slightly interesting you guys start chimping out
>>1542012What about the poor mom and pop Hollywood blockbusters? If we don’t watch marvel movies Hollywood mainstreet will go out of business and shareholders won’t make as much money
>>1541636It's perfect. When I think about people who cocksuck billionaire media orgs, I immediately think of NPR.
>>1542012Plz understand, Conservatives don't know about John Stewart so they're just doing their usual racist spinning of claiming he's an OC donut steel Gunn character meant to supplant the White Hal Jordon.Then again, these are the same people who think Lex Luthor is the real hero.
>>1542059Conservatives are form the UK and aren't really conservative.EUlander's and UKisland bongs are all fucking knee grows of the highest caliber.
>>1542066We're talking about American Conservatives who are hardline authoritarians based on the works of Joseph de Maistre, except instead they adapted hereditary monarchies to oligarchs. >Mum limited government memeThey only want to limit the government that the people have influence over.
>>1542067I highly doubt your Euro antifa tranny opinion on US politics matters.
>>1542069>NPC buzzword damage control
>>1542070Except its true, at least the part about you being some kind of euro trash. The rest I've just interpreted from your posts.>N-no.OK faggot.
>>1542072>He's still strawmanningI take it you're in a vatnik adjacent country with your specific level of projectionKeep seething
>>1542067I thought American Conservatism was more influenced by generations of republican leadership Like the Reagan generation. The Newt Gingrich generation. The Ron Paul generation. The Trump generation
>>1542109Since you're a euro can we talk about how euro "liberalism" is inspired by North Korea, China and other totalitarian regimes?Then lets talk about how US Dems usually run 5-10 years behind the totalitarian euroshits.Then we'll also say "WE" yes "WE" as a nation do not want that. That's why the late night comedy shows, billionaire owned MSM, and other assorted homosexuals exist to create Default Democrats by constantly casting shade on Republicans.So, Euro, rotten crotch troon, I'll need you to fuck off with your euro tranny shit when you're talking to me.
>>1542131Is that what American conservatives really believe?
>capeshitDon't care
>>1542136Most Americans understand that euros are idiots.
/co/ fag here, the show sucks dog shit and was made by the same guy who made that dog shit watchmen show. its so bad that it got the Surf Dracula meme to come back because of how fucking accurate it is to describe it
>>1541636heroes looks now like hobos searching for cock to suck for next dose of fentanyl
