Grant Morrison, the writer of DC’s Green Lantern comics, has criticized the ending of HBO’s Lanterns, saying the finale abandoned the basic premise of the franchise. The season one finale, “Dirt and Stars,” aired October 4. In it, Sheriff Kerry Kane (Kelly Macdonald) shoots Hal Jordan (Kyle Chandler) between the eyes at the Rushville football field after Hal confronts her over her son Noah’s secret. Hal stays dead, John Stewart (Aaron Pierre) takes up the ring with a new oath, and Kerry is told not to turn herself in.
Morrison laid out his objections in a reply to a reader named Brigitte:
Brigitte – happy Mabon and his Mum! I know what you mean about watching TV. It takes a lot to keep me engaged these days and I too fell asleep during the last two Lanterns episodes before the finale. Not because they were boring but because watching telly feels like a much-appreciated moment of relaxation and drift. Severance was the one that used to put Kristan and I out most effectively. Lanterns worked as a show and it’s mostly down to the two leads, particularly Kyle Chandler as Hal Jordan. They have a great supporting cast which helps, but it’s the two principals and their chemistry and charisma that sells the whole thing – so maybe those True Detective comparisons had some basis after all!
Having said that, I didn’t really like the ending, although it was all neatly put together. I found it hard to accept that the Kerry Kane character played by Kelly McDonald shot Hal Jordan in the head, and everyone seemed fine with that psychotic break. There should probably have been some response to that, because otherwise it makes it really hard for the audience to work out what makes the Green Lantern Corps an intergalactic law enforcement agency at all. The Guardians are now fine with their operatives being murdered while other officers simply ignore the fact and let the perps walk free?
I read writer Tom King’s explanation for why this choice was made – she killed the man she loved and was suffering enough – and wondered how that defence would fly in a court of law after some ghastly crime of passion.
‘The horror of murdering his wife in cold blood is punishment enough for this man, your honour. Let him walk free with a gun in his hand, and we’ll just hope it never happens again, okay?’
I watched the show; Kerry lost her shit in a way that made her seem unhinged and she shot a superhero in the head out of pique. John Stewart also let the Manhunter go free, knowing that he could one day destroy the world. For a show that’s not about masked vigilantes with their own personal code but deals with weird space policemen working for an interplanetary judiciary, it was a morally and legally incoherent conclusion that backed out of its own implications and the basic premise of the franchise.
There are rumours of a potential second season but even with the compelling Aaron Pierre, it’s hard to imagine the formula working as well without Kyle Chandler as Hal Jordan, and they’d have to find a way to recreate the partnership (Sinestro did say he could bring Hal back to life, so maybe Hal as Parallax would be good, with John having to save him). We’ll see.
Morrison’s complaint goes to the structure of the show. Lanterns is about officers of an interplanetary police force, and the finale has one of those officers murdered with no response from the Corps, the Guardians or John Stewart. Tom King and Damon Lindelof have defended the choice. Lindelof has said the writers did not want Hal’s death to be a fake-out, so that the emotional progression would feel real and earned.
Green Lantern artist Ethan Van Sciver, who drew Green Lantern: Rebirth and Sinestro Corps War, was harsher:
The ending wasn’t just “bullshit.” It didn’t make any sense. It was irresponsible. It ruined and invalidated everything that came before and made it all a waste of time.
When you submit to being told a story, you have an implicit trust in the storyteller that they know where they’re leading you. If they don’t, it’s a betrayal. Like a nature hike that walks you off a cliff at the end.
Fans have been just as upset, and the anger centers on how Hal Jordan was treated. Viewers have gone through the finale point by point. Hal spends a decade in federal prison for the destruction of Rushville, builds a life with Kerry after his release, and is shot dead by her in a panic. Kerry asks to finish watching her son’s game before turning herself in, and John tells her not to. A Manhunter walks free. Fans agree that none of it holds together, and they have been specific about where the writers lost the audience.
HBO has not renewed Lanterns for a second season. Morrison’s own suggestion is that a second season would have to rebuild the Hal and John partnership, and Hal is gone.
If a Green Lantern can be killed by a sheriff and nobody in the Corps answers for it, what is the Corps for, and does a second season have any reason to bring viewers back?
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Still not regretting avoiding anything that Gunn touches. Also haven't forgotten his pedo "humor" tweets that got him fired from Marvel the first time.
Questionable legality aside I cannot help but feel the muted reaction to the series is going to age poorly if and only if future Lanterns seasons are more cosmic and epic. A first seasons grounded on earth, a second that draws Jon deeper into his role as a galactic vigilante and a third season as a full-on space cowboy. They could be setting up a very compelling triptych.