The DC Universe‘s approach to its timeline and starting point appears to have already ensured the franchise will avoid a villain problem that cropped up in 2011’s Green Lantern movie. Despite releasing during a period wherein the superhero genre was building to bigger heights than ever before, the 2011 Green Lantern film didn’t exactly ensure a lasting on-screen presence for the titular hero faction.
Indeed, the divisive reception to Green Lantern appears to have played a big part in why the iconic DC heroes have largely remained absent from DC’s later live-action installments, which has plagued the group up until their return in the DCU timeline. That said, the DCU does seem to have learned lessons from how Green Lantern’s approach to the heroes and their story was received.
The DC Universe’s Timeline Lets The Franchise Skip One Of Green Lantern’s Biggest Problems
One of the key complaints leveled at the semi-infamous 2011 Green Lantern movie was the way the film handled its villain, which in no small part was a result of the antagonist selected.
Having Parallax serve as an antagonistic force in the first installment that audiences had to get to grips with the Green Lantern lore was always going to be a trickier task, given the galactic being’s lore is somewhat more complicated, and requires more of an established understanding of the wider history around the Green Lanterns and other similar factions.
While Parallax’s story was given a human element by tying the entity to Hector Hammond, this to some degree only served to complicate things further – all seemingly for the sake of teeing up Sinestro as a villain for the movie’s sequel, versus giving audiences a perhaps more straightforward entry point by instead first focusing on Sinestro, the character who has arguably been the Green Lanterns’ central antagonist for most of comic history.
The DCU timeline appears to effectively skip this issue, as the fact Lanterns introduces us to an older, veteran Hal Jordan – instead of making Hal a total newcomer, as he was in Green Lantern – means the franchise can and should have Hal’s former mentor Sinestro already well established as a villain in this universe. That said, it also seems the DCU would be able to approach a figure like Parallax differently thanks to the way it’s set up the Green Lanterns already.
The DCU’s First Green Lantern Project Could Avoid The Group’s Villains Altogether
Green Lantern Hawkgirl and Mister Terrific preparing to fight in Superman in 4K
The way the DCU has explored the Green Lanterns thus far is effective in avoiding some of the difficulties the 2011 Green Lantern movie dealt with because the franchise has been able to establish the hero faction without having to yet delve into their galactic opponents and biggest comic villains.
Spending time establishing the likes of Guy Gardner in Superman and Peacemaker and delving into the Green Lanterns this way seems a promising move, as it allows those who are less versed in this corner of DC’s comic world to gain an understanding of what Green Lanterns are and what their powers and lore look like before having to process anything further about the story around them.
Indeed, with the DC Universe’s upcoming Lanterns show seeming to be more of an Earth-based mystery series than a space-faring adventure story, it’s entirely possible that even the franchise’s first Green Lantern-centered release won’t feature any actual Green Lantern villains within it – which could be the right move in order to ensure the time is taken to fully flesh out the Green Lanterns themselves.