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chuckro“In brightest day, in blackest night…”
Green Lanterns Hal Jordan and Kilowog set out on what was supposed to be a short jaunt into the Forbidden Zone to find out what’s been killing Green Lanterns out there. When they discover the threat of the Red Lanterns, they team up with repentant Red Lantern Razer and rookie AI Aya to stop it before it threatens the greater universe.
Watching this made me think of the idea of “common canon”: The events and details that happen here and that happen in the comics or other animated movies are different, but the broad strokes—the things you’d remember years later—are the same. The powers and abilities of the various colors and characters are the same. The Red Lanterns are powered by rage because the manhunters destroyed their home. Saint Walker is a Blue Lantern who got his ring and battery from Ganthet. Mogo doesn’t socialize. The Guardians are dicks. If you picked up a Green Lantern comic having only seen this series, you’d probably be confused about a lot of the small details, but you’d get the general concept and recognize a few of your favorites. And if you wanted to run around the playground zapping things with your power ring, everyone would be on basically the same page. (Superman and Batman in media tend to do this very well: There are parts of the mythos you do not change, even if you fiddle with the details.)
The animation (full CGI) is very nice, and is a good way to approach having a lot of alien characters and settings. Green Lantern, more than any other character, requires well-done animation, because the rings are so dependent on imagination. (And even so, the characters spend most of their time making hammers and shooting energy blasts. The Green Lantern movie didn’t do that many things right, but the intricate and interesting constructs really were one of them.)
Pretty much every location that is introduced (and virtually all of the characters, for that matter) is used a second or third time. Jethrien pointed out that it was probably a cost-cutting measure as much as efficient storytelling, because the CGI models are expensive to create but cheap to re-use.
Overall: I was actually surprised to learn there was a second half to the only season of the show, because the first 13 episodes wrap up very neatly and use pretty much every element that was introduced. At some point, I’ll pick up the second set.
Green Lanterns Hal Jordan and Kilowog set out on what was supposed to be a short jaunt into the Forbidden Zone to find out what’s been killing Green Lanterns out there. When they discover the threat of the Red Lanterns, they team up with repentant Red Lantern Razer and rookie AI Aya to stop it before it threatens the greater universe.
Watching this made me think of the idea of “common canon”: The events and details that happen here and that happen in the comics or other animated movies are different, but the broad strokes—the things you’d remember years later—are the same. The powers and abilities of the various colors and characters are the same. The Red Lanterns are powered by rage because the manhunters destroyed their home. Saint Walker is a Blue Lantern who got his ring and battery from Ganthet. Mogo doesn’t socialize. The Guardians are dicks. If you picked up a Green Lantern comic having only seen this series, you’d probably be confused about a lot of the small details, but you’d get the general concept and recognize a few of your favorites. And if you wanted to run around the playground zapping things with your power ring, everyone would be on basically the same page. (Superman and Batman in media tend to do this very well: There are parts of the mythos you do not change, even if you fiddle with the details.)
The animation (full CGI) is very nice, and is a good way to approach having a lot of alien characters and settings. Green Lantern, more than any other character, requires well-done animation, because the rings are so dependent on imagination. (And even so, the characters spend most of their time making hammers and shooting energy blasts. The Green Lantern movie didn’t do that many things right, but the intricate and interesting constructs really were one of them.)
Pretty much every location that is introduced (and virtually all of the characters, for that matter) is used a second or third time. Jethrien pointed out that it was probably a cost-cutting measure as much as efficient storytelling, because the CGI models are expensive to create but cheap to re-use.
Overall: I was actually surprised to learn there was a second half to the only season of the show, because the first 13 episodes wrap up very neatly and use pretty much every element that was introduced. At some point, I’ll pick up the second set.
