Green Lantern: The Animated Series

So listen, your humble host, Jimbo, writer of Awesome reviews (in his own mind at least) is, and has been for closing in on forty years now, a Green Lantern mark. See, when I was a wee little Jimbo, much younger and thinner although not as good looking because, let's face it, I get better looking every day, one of my neighbors came over with a box of comics that his nephew was throwing out because he was too old, or too cool or some crap for them. I don't buy that, but thanks, guy! Because I had never read a comic before that. It's too bad I lost that box of comics along the way too, because it had some good stuff in it, most notably a Transformers #1 and a GI JOE #3, albeit both in well-loved condition. Also in that box, though, were a few Green Lantern Corps comics. I didn't learn about the much loved Green Lanterns of Sector 2814 until later, when I became old enough to ride my bike to The Antique Paper Shop in Hazel Park, Michigan. It's gone now, but they used to sell grab bags of back issues for a buck and I'd pick through them until I found one that had a Green Lantern comic visible from the outside. Sometimes I even got two.

I saw the Green Lantern movie. It was very pretty. The special effects crew did a damn good job. The writers tried to stuff two complete story arcs into one two hour movie when you'd have been lucky to do justice to either one in that much time. That didn't really work, but it was cool. I got a dirty look sitting in the audience and reciting the Green Lantern Oath during the movie, but hey, get over yourself kid. I've been reading this stuff since before you were born.

Anyway...

I was unaware of The Animated Series when it came out, probably because I was married and going to grad school at them time. I decided to take a look at it recently though, because I found it on streaming. And you know what? I loved it.

Okay, first off the disclaimer: Starting off with a fight with the Red Lanterns was a bit weird to me. I mean, I get the whole In Media Res thing, but I don't know if that was the way I'd have done things. Then again, they did a good job with it. We end up segueing into the War of the Light ala the Blackest Night crossover event (without, it has to be admitted, many of the crossovers) and they followed things fairly closely. They didn't get all the way through it, they didn't really even get into the Black Lanterns, but it was fun.

The animation was a little cheesy, but that's okay. It's a cartoon. It worked. And the constructs were cool. The best thing about a Green Lantern (other than the part where they can travel through space with no ship, and speak every language) is being able to build awesome stuff out of light just because you want to. Seriously. How freaking cool would that be?

And yes, they do all of the cool stuff with the ring and make all the things and go all the places...

And Larfleeze is still a turd. That's good though. It made me feel grounded when he was a stinkpot. I get the fact that he's an Orange Lantern and that greed is their thing, but hey, he still sucks and I hate him. That's okay though because he doesn't really exist. Or sumfin'.

Speaking of older characters:

Hail, hail, the gang's all here!

Kilowog is everywhere in The Animated Series and you're a poozer. Sinestro makes an appearance, although as a member of the Green Lantern Corps and not the Sinestro Corps which makes no sense for where they are in the timeline, since the Sinestro Corps War had already ended, but hey it was fun to see him. We got Ch'p, Tomar Re, Carol Ferris, Guy Gardner and more. I was really happy to see Ch'p because he's my favorite. It's too bad what happened to him in the comic, but that's the life of a Green Lantern I guess. Guy is still his annoying, cocky self. They got that character perfectly when they wrote and acted him.

Seeing Hal Jordan arguing with the Guardians was good for the soul as well. It's a part of his character that gets lost sometimes, but it's been part of the comics on and off for years and it needed to be there. I'm still trying to figure out why Paralax was there, as it was the wrong time for that as well. 

And that, my friends, is my biggest beef with comic book movies, and TV shows. Stop trying to cram in everything all at once! Let things play out, especially in a series. And, let's face it, Paralax killed Hal Jordan in the comics, there's no reason to show that in the first season of a TV show anyway. 

All in all though, it was a good binge. I had just finished The Sopranos and I was looking for something fun. I found it here and I'll probably binge it again at some point in the future. 

I read somewhere that the reason the show failed was because of poor toy sales, and I blame all of you for that. It wasn't my fault. I was still married when this came out and I got my ex-wife to buy a bunch of the stuff for Christmas. I had it set up all over my computer desk. It didn't really match. Most everything else was done in knights and mythological creatures, but no system is perfect and fandoms don't always go together. That's totes not my fault. At all. 

And anyway, I needed a bigger basement for my Battletech stuff and my GI JOE stuff, too. Unfortunately, I've lost it all since. But that's neither here nor there.

Whatever.

Just go watch the show.

Bottom Line:  5.0 out of 5 Power Rings

Green Lantern: The Animated Series
Warner Brothers, 2012

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