"green lantern" movie feature

7/29/2019 "Green Lantern" movie feature

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BY FRANK IOVECESpecicl to NewsdoyItimately,there is justone superrnan,just one Bat-man, just oneWonderWoman- Butthere arecountless Green Lanternswithin DC Comics' fictionaluniverse, and at least five havestarred in comic books andanimated TV series. When thelive-action "Green Lantern,"starring Ryan Reynolds, opensFriday, moviegoers could beforgiven if they wonder,"Green who? Lantern what?"The answer, in the movie'scase, is Hal |ordan, the secondand most prominent characterof that name. Created in 1959, apure product of the Space Age,he was a test pilot in the day ofthe right stuff. When he wentto help a crash-landed alien,

the dying extraterrestrial be-queathed him a "power ring"that could create objects out ofone's imagination, and a lan-tern-shaped device for charg-ing it. Protecting this sector ofthe universe as part oftheintergalactic Green LanternCorps came as part of the ded."All pop culture has to re-flect what's going on in theworld or it won't be very popu-lar," says Ken Gale, producer-host of the long-runningWBAI / 99.5 FM's comic-bookradio show "'Nuff Said."'ThisGreen Lantern arrived afterSputnik but before the Mercu-ry space flights," Gale notes,"when test pilots were consid-ered the bravest peoplearound."WriterlohnBroome andpenciler Gil Kane introducedthis second Green Lantern in thetryout title "Showcase" No.22-24 (cov er -dated OctoberI959-February 1960). At thebehest of legendary comics

editor julius Schwartz, theytookthe name, the ring, the lanternand little else from the originalGreen Lanterrl Alan Scott -created in 1940 during the "Gold-enAge of Comic Books" bywdter BiI Finger and art-ist / character-conceptualistMartin Nodell (who lived inHuntington from 19 4L to 1943and drew'Green Lantern"through 1947).The 1959 "Silver Age"Green Lantern got his ownseries, "Green Lantern" Vol.2, the following year. Andwhile the writing in his beau-tifully drawn stories might becharitably described as "child-friendly," Jordan himself wasa fully functioning grown-up,as were many aspects of thefeature.She's the bossUnusually, Jordan's boss atFerris Aircraft wns a wonum -manager Carol Ferris (played byBlake Lively in the movie). Her

Ryan Reynolds stars as HalJordan, aka "Green Lantern":His story, developed in comicbooks, is that he received hissuperpowers from a dyingalien (Temuera Morrison, left).father may have owned thecompany, but she was IvankaTrump-sawy in business and amodern woman who didn't needrescuing. Unlike Lois Lane at thetime, who pined in vain forSupermaq Ferris would go ondates with Green Lantern Whenthe superhero expresses doubtsabout their romance, because healways has to dash off, the sensi-ble Ferris tells him he's no differ-ent from a doctor on call.The comic also rejected theetluric stereotypes used forsome sidekicks in early comics.True, Hal )ordan's mechanicwas an Inuit unforflinatelycalled "Pieface" - and despitefan speculation, that comes notfrom the ice-cream treat EskimoPie, which goes unmentioned in

the early comics, but from anexisting term for "a person witharoundface and ablank. . .expression " according to the1960 editionof "The DictionaryofAmerican Slang." Yet ThomasKalmaku, ashe was formallynarrred, was fordan's smart,


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capable and always respectfirllydepicted best friend, eventuallybecoming a business executiveand more. As played by TaikaWaititi in the filrrl he's an aero-space engineer.Other Green Lanterns fol-lowed. Guy Gardner was intro-

duced in "Green Lantern" Vol. 2,No.59 (March 1968) as ]ordan'sbackup. When Gardner wasinjured in issue No. 87 (IanuaryL97 2), ar clitect |ohn Stewartreplaced him - becoming DC'ssecond African-American super-hero after writer-artist ]ack

Kirby's Army Sgt. Willie Walk-er, aka Black Racer. Gardner andStewart both eventually becamefull-fledged Lanterns.Neither are characters in thenew film. Nor is Kyle Rayner,the most recent of Earth'sGreen Lanterns - a 20-some-thing, half-Hispanic freelanceartist introduced in "GreenLantern" Vol.3, No.48 (January1994). He replaced Hal Jordanwhen Jordan became infectedwith the alien entity Parallaxand became a mass murderer,i kiling the rest of the Corps.

U Death isn't foreverNot to worry - death isimpermanent in comics, and]ordan atoned for his tempo-rary insanity by sacrificinghimself to reignite Earth's deadsun in "The Final Night" No.4(November 1996). Then, hebecame the supernatural spiritof vengeance,/redemption, theSpectre, annnnnnd now he'sback. So is the rest ofthe

Corps, including the aliensKilowog and Tomar-Re (ren-dered by CGI in the film andvoiced by Michael ClarkeDuncan and Geoffrey Rush,respectively).Whether Green Lantern willbe back in another movieobviously depends on thefortunes of this one. But in thecomics at least - to para-phrase a line from the mostprominent of the Green Lan-tern oaths - it's likely that noevil shall escape his sight formany years to come.

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An ideatime hasI Green Lanternll movieideahasFlbeenbandiedabout since at least the

l980s,whenEddieMurphywasbrieflyattached to a script. Backin2000, afilm seemedcloseenough thatWam-er Bros. registered thewebsite GreenlanternTheMovie.corn But itproceeded in fits andstarts - |ackBlackwasto star in a comedy ver-sion, and Qrentin Taranti-nosaid in2009, "Iwasoffered the'Green Lan-tern.'Not since it's been ascript, but just like, 'Hey,weownthe"G;BenLaft0rn"Wqftrroulike it?," .er:iThe version opening-+hie#k+as been,brffffiGreg Berlanti"was asked to direct andco-script it with MichaelGreen and comic-bookwriter Marc Guggen-heim. Their draft wasrewritten by MichaelGoldenberg ("HarryPotter and the Order ofthe Phoenix") whendirector Martin Camp-bell ("Casino Royale")replaced Berlanti.The producers'topcontenders to play Halfordan aka Green Ianternwere Bradley Cooper,fared Leto, |ustin Timber-.,lakeand eventual winnerity'in neynolds, who starsin an origin story thatfollows that of the com-ics: Dying alien be-queaths power ring,

"hurnanwearer joinsintergalactic peacekeepers. The movie followshis attempts to learn theropes, Iight aplanet-destroying entity and winover the lovely Carol- Fenis (Blake Lively).

AndWaaerBros.appears to be optimisticabout the future: [,astAugustithired Golden-bergto write a script fog"Green Lantem 2."-tRNm( LovEcr -

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"green lantern" movie feature

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