‘Lanterns’ made it clear that its Green Lantern story isn’t just about colorful costumes and cosmic battles. The HBO series starts like a grounded murder mystery, then slowly pulls the rug from under the viewer. By the end of the premiere, the question isn’t simply who was behind the football-field shooting. It’s what happened to Hal Jordan.
That twist makes the series a lot more personal to explore, particularly since now John Stewart has to find out what happened to the man he once looked up to.
Hal Jordan’s Death Could Be The Real Mystery
The most disturbing scene in the show’s opening episode is Hal’s body, frozen on the very same football field that he investigated the shooting years earlier. It immediately raises a huge question: is Hal actually dead? Comic-book logic dictates that nothing is so straightforward.
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It may be an alien in disguise, a clever trick, or something even more bizarre. However, if it’s Hal, the killer has to be very powerful. This is a Green Lantern, a guy who can survive what an ordinary human can’t. Even stranger is the missing Power Ring.
No, a Green Lantern doesn’t just drop his ring like a key. The ring selects its owner, and Hal’s lack of it is highly suspicious. The possibility that Hal eventually passed the mantle to Guy Gardner raises even more questions. Did Hal retire? Was he forced out? Or did something happen that left him unworthy of the ring?
There’s also William Macon’s militia. The show takes too long to set up the bizarre private army on his land, making it a waste of time. Those details are important in a mystery like this.
John Stewart May Have To Pay For Hal’s Past
The most intriguing aspect of the mystery is the reason for the alien’s visit. Waylon Sanders tells his friends that he is an alien and doesn’t call the shooting “random violence”. He claims that he came down to Earth to “avenge”. All of a sudden, the whole case is different.
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Someone has a grudge against Earth, and there’s a strong possibility that Hal knows why. John arrives in the story as a young Green Lantern impressed by Hal, but learns that his hero may have enemies across the universe. John’s investigation is no longer about a murder.
He might be revealing the repercussions of Hal’s past decisions. This is why ‘Lanterns’ feels so exciting right now. Beneath the aliens, Power Rings and superhero mythology is a very human story about a young man discovering that his hero isn’t perfect.
And honestly, that’s exactly the kind of mystery that can keep us watching. We don’t just want to know who killed Hal Jordan. We want to know what Hal did to make someone want him dead.
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