TV Talk - Green Lantern: The Animated Series

(From TeamFourStar’s Dragon Ball Z Abridged)

Vegeta: What are you doing, Nappa?

Nappa: I’m cuddling it, Vegeta!

Vegeta: It’s Dead, Nappa!

Nappa: NOOOOOO!!!!!!

Well, it has come to this. When I started this little themed phase, I came up with the title of “The Yay, the Okay, and the Nay” of Green Lantern. If the live-action movie’s the “nay,” those two animated movies are the “okay”, then guess what gets the “yay?” It’s Green Lantern: The Animated Series, a show I completely missed out on when it was airing.

Green Lantern: The Animated Series (or GLTAS for short) aired on Cartoon Network as part of the network’s “DC Nation” hour. It aired along with stuff like Young Justice and Beware the Batman. 26 episodes ran between 2012 and 2013. While it was created because of the live-action movie, it didn’t tie into the movie and had its own continuity. It was heavily based off of Geoff Johns’ run on Green Lantern which was still going at the time. It was also completely done in CG which was a first for Bruce Timm, the producer. Unfortunately, due to the reception of the live-action movie and poor toy sales, the series was cancelled. Outside of Teen Titans Go!, all those shows that were a part of that DC Nation block got the ax… hrmmm.

I was never able to watch the show since I was working and we had no cable. Also, the animation made it seem that it was going to be aimed for the little ones. I think it was 2014 when I first ran over this show on Netflix. I decided to watch the first episode… and then was pretty much hooked until the end. I was also regretting not liking the animation now that I had seen it in action. The show was probably the thing that got me to check out Johns’ run on Green Lantern. Back in 2016, I threw it on a list of TV shows that got axed too soon and it was right at the top. I don’t know if you can tell, but I really liked this show.

GLTAS followed the adventures of Hal Jordan and Kilowog, two members of the Green Lantern Corps. The Guardians receive news that Green Lanterns are being killed in Frontier Space, an area of space where GLs’ are limited. With the help of Ganthet, they “borrow” a space craft controlled by an experimental AI in order to get to Frontier Space faster. When they get there, they face off against the killers: the Red Lanterns, ring bearers who power their rings through rage. They end up capturing a RL named Razer and he becomes a wild card for this group. Oh yeah, the AI, named Aya, also ends up going "all EDI" on us and builds herself (?) a body. The four then have to stop the threat of the Red Lanterns as well as other threats like Manhunters, despots, Thanagaarians, and the freakin’ Anti-Monitor. Yeah, it took him long enough to show up in something!

PROS

The show was pretty close to perfect. First off, the story-telling and tone were pretty perfect. While the animation makes it look pretty kid-friendly, the show had a similar tone to other DCAU shows like Justice League and Superman: The Animated Series. While it had a lighter tone in some places, it could get pretty serious. Heck, one of the first scenes we see is a Green Lantern getting killed in action. In fact, most folk get killed here even though there’s no blood. It’s all in the dialogue.

The show was also pretty serialized. While you had stories that would wrap up in one episode, some stories didn’t. That was definitely the case for characters like Razer and Aya. All the characters shined here. Hal Jordan was the pretty cool but cocky hero. Kilowog, Razer, and Aya were also pretty good characters. Razer and Aya especially went places where I didn’t even think the show would go. You’ll see what I mean when you get into the second half of the season. There were also a lot of characters from the Green Lantern mythos showing up here. It was like the production team had Geoff John’s run right at their side or something.

For as dark and twisted as the Red Lanterns are in the comics, I'm surprised that they were used as villains here. 

 The voice acting was pretty stellar. You had talents like Josh Keaton, Kevin Michael Richardson, Grey DeLisie, Jason Spisak, Clancy Brown, Dedrich Bader, Jennifer Hale, and others on the show. You even get a couple that even I was surprised by. The music was pretty good and the main theme song was cool. It was so good I didn’t even want to skip the dang thing on the DC Universe app.

As for the animation, it was pretty good, but I’ll admit that I had to get used to it. We haven’t seen many DC heroes in CG like that, so it was jarring at first. Luckily, everything else was so good that you didn’t mind the lack of 2D animation. It ended up growing on me. In fact, it reminded me a lot of The Incredibles and how that animation was. The action scenes here were pretty good and the designs for characters had that usual Timm look.

What the f-- Oh, come on, Cartoon Network! $#$#! By the way, I missed this little Easter egg the first time around.

CONS

I ain’t got nothing to say here. It’s good, y’all! It’s good!

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Weeeell, I do have a couple of qualms. If anything, there more like nitpicks.

"Hal Jordan of Sector 2814, you are on trial by the Guardians for being a little one-note at times."

One thing I will say the show didn’t do was give Hal Jordan much backstory or character development. Now, it is possible this stuff would have come later in a second season, but we didn’t get it. Hal’s cool, cocky, and a ladies’ man. While we do get a little more especially when Carol Ferris is involved, that’s pretty much it. Razer and Aya were pretty much the biggest ones who got development. Even Kilowog got a little development.

I don't want to spoil anything here, but this was a little weird. Just watch the show for more context.

We also don’t see much of Earth on the show. My guess is that the creators wanted to stay off of Earth as much as possible. Maybe we would’ve gotten more of Earth in another season. Sometimes, the story-telling could be a little mishandled. The biggest example is Aya’s arc toward the end of the show. It wasn’t a bad turn, but it could’ve been handled somewhat better. Other than these things, small nitpicks, and the fact that the show wasn’t aired during the hey-day of Cartoon Network, that’s pretty much all I have for this section. Yeah, it’s that good.

FAVORITE EPISODES

Yep, he even hadn't gone bad yet... Poppycock, I say!

This section is a little hard for me. Personally, I’d say watch the whole thing since the episodes depend on one another. Still, if you need a quick guide on the best episodes, here are some good ones.

1. Beware My Power – This two-parter starts the show and gets us introduced to the Red Lanterns.
2. Reckoning – Razer decides to go back to the Red Lanterns and rejoin them… or so we think.
3. Lost Planet – The team finds out that a new Green Lantern is going to get a ring on an unknown planet, so they go there to find the new member.
4. Homecoming – This ends the arc with the Red Lanterns as Atrocitus and his lieutenants make it to Oa.
5. The New Guy – Hal returns home and finds out that he’s been replaced by another Green Lantern. Just guess who it is.
6. Prisoner of Sinestro – While on the hunt for the Manhunters, the team runs across Sinestro (he hadn’t gone bad yet) as he’s carting a dangerous prisoner.
7. Scarred – When Aya goes rogue, the team has to find out about her origins.
8. Ranx/Dark Matter – The final two episodes of the series. Without giving anything away, the team must stop the big threat from wiping out all of existence. If you ever wanted to see that big hand from Crisis on Infinite Earths in animation, this (and Justice League Unlimited) would be it.

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Well, I think that does it for me and Hal Jordan. In closing, this was a good, unappreciated show. It did all it needed to do and more. It just sucks that it didn’t get its second season. You could tell that the creators wanted to keep on going, man.  If anyone at WB/DC is reading this, could y’all maybe pull a “Young Justice” on this too? I don’t think I’m asking too much, am I? Or at least a comic series to maybe see what would’ve happened afterwards? Just something to think about. Well, that’s all I got for tonight. Until then, Peace, God Bless, and don’t be a douche to A.I. They don’t like that type of stuff.