If comic book author Tom King has a superpower, it’s that everything he writes turns to gold.
Marvel and DC have each adapted one of his comics, resulting in 2021’s “WandaVision” and 2026’s “Supergirl.” Now, he’s helping forge the rebooted DC Universe with his take on the Green Lanterns — galactic peacekeepers who can create any item imaginable using magic rings.
Green Lanterns have struggled in Hollywood, falling far below the popularity of Superman, Batman and Wonder Woman. Ryan Reynolds brought one of the emerald heroes to life in his infamous “Green Lantern” movie in 2011; the result was a cheesy, CGI-filled disaster. With his new HBO series “Lanterns,” King has reimagined the Lanterns as gritty earthbound detectives, à la Matthew McConaughey’s and Woody Harrelson’s characters in “True Detective.”
So don’t let the superhero genre fool you — “Lanterns” has as much gravitas as HBO’s top dramas; in fact, it’s charting a more mature path for the DC Universe after the spunky adventures in “Superman” and “Supergirl.” In the show, Kyle Chandler plays Hal Jordan, an ornery Green Lantern who is begrudgingly training his upstart protégé (Aaron Pierre). The argumentative duo are summoned to investigate a murder in rural Nebraska that has mysterious connections to dangerous extraterrestrials.
