5 Reasons The Emotional Spectrum Ruined Green Lantern Comics

The elevator pitch for Green Lantern is: “a man gets a space ring.” Most strong character concepts can be explained very simply. Superman: last survivor of alien world comes to Earth and becomes a hero; Batman: orphaned rich kid grows up and dresses as a bat to punch criminals in the face. This is true even outside of superheroes. Look at Sherlock Holmes, who can simply be defined as “super observant genius solves crimes with his intellect.” But what if, at a certain point, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle decided that there should be a Holmes-like consulting detective in every major country? What if we met the Sherlock Holmes of America, or China? Wouldn’t Holmes start to feel a lot less unique and subsequently a lot less interesting?

Yes, Hal Jordan is one of over 7000 Green Lanterns in the corps, but that doesn’t work against the character per se because he’s the first human being to be a member. Maybe having other human Green Lanterns like Guy Gardner and Simon Baz is what really cheapens the concept, but one could argue that’s an expansion of the original premise. Instead of the first human Green Lantern, you have the first human Green Lanterns. It satisfyingly answers the question: “Why am I reading about this?” But with all of those corps competing with each other, you have to wonder why Green Lanterns are worth following.

There is a difference between “Green Lantern” and “Green Lantern, one of over six different types of Lantern to choose from.” It constantly begs the question, “What are the other corps up to right now?” Green Lantern (as a concept) becomes part of a larger framework and, as a result, can no longer stand on its own.

Look at James Bond for another analogy. We know that he is 007 and that there are at least six other agents who do what he does, but we don’t see them (with rare exception). Imagine if, every time you wanted to see a movie about Bond, you’d also have to see 001-006. What if their stories became so intermingled that telling a simple narrative with only Bond became impossible? What if you heard conversations like “Sure, I like 007 and all, but 004 is really my favorite. Why don’t they tell more stories with him?” It’s not that the other Lantern corps can’t exist, it’s that we need to be able to move on and continue with other stories despite their presence.

Green Lantern is long, long, long overdue for a “back to basics” reset. It doesn’t have to be as drastic as what happened with Kyle, but there needs to be a return to the simple concept of “Space Cop saves the day.” Seriously, Green Lantern has the potential to be a kind of “Law & Order in Space,” a procedural where Hal has to stop and solve crimes on alien worlds, with unfamiliar cultures and environments. It could keep things fresh and still provide opportunities for longer running arcs. When being told stories about an intergalactic peacekeeping force with sci-fi magic rings, the last thing we should be feeling is monotony.