As June 17th gets closer and closer, I continue to hear three things from people about the Green Lantern movie:
1.”Ryan Reynolds is so hot!!”
I’m in no position to argue for or against this. Feel free to email Vira, Patricia, or Ella for their opinions. I’m sure they’d be more helpful.
2.”His mask looks so fake!”
It most certainly does. I’m not sure CGI was a better choice than, I don’t know, using a real mask.
3. And my personal favorite, “Ryan Reynolds!?! Green Lantern is black!!”
And this article is for the many, many people that are asking that third question. If you’re a comic geek, you’ll probably already know the basics I’m about to lay down. But if you’re not, read carefully and you will learn why Ryan Reynolds was chosen over Will Smith.
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To start off with, The Green Lantern Corps was formed by these guys:
This cross of a smurf and the guy that voices Homer Simpson is one of the Guardians of the Universe. This group of immortals, after billions of years, decided to combat evil and create an orderly universe. They relocated Oa at the center of the universe and divided the universe into 3,600 sectors. The guardians created the power rings which, in turn, chose people that were able to overcome great fear to patrol each sector. There are around 7,000 lanterns of various alien races. Group pictures (aside from the one below) are very difficult to get.
See there are a lot of Lanterns. And is that an alien version of the Great Pumpkin on the upper left?
There is a metric fuck ton of folks with these types of power rings. Many people would be just surprised to learn this. But this article is about the human Green Lantern. So, here’s another picture:
L-R John Stewart, Hal Jordan, Kyle Rayner, Guy Gardner
Today, we’re focusing on John and Hal; this doesn’t mean Kyle and Guy aren’t awesome as well. Kyle is extremely powerful and Guy is basically what would happen if Bruce Campbell was given a power ring. If Guy is in these movies, it should TOTALLY be Bruce Campbell!! I’d be an amazing casting guy! But moving on…
Hal Jordan was the first human chosen by one of the rings. For lack of a better word, Hal is the main character, leading such story arcs as Rebirth and Brightest Day. John Stewart is basically Hal’s alternate. If the ring hadn’t found Hal on that faithful day, it would have gone to John. Since then, John has gotten his own ring, became a member of the Green Lantern Corps, joined the JSA and proved himself to have testicles the size of Sedans when he punched Batman.
So where does this whole “Green Lantern is black” thing come from? The Cartoon Network, of course. The Justice League’s original members lacked any sort of minority.
Well, I guess Clark and Martian Manhunter count as the minority since they're not humans....Is that why J'onn looks so angry?
Since we’ve grown a bit more racially diverse since then, Cartoon Network switched out Hal Jordan for John Stewart when they created their cartoon to use him as the token minority. This was not a bad choice, by any means!! I love John Stewart’s character! I’m just stating that’s how this whole thought process was born. People watching one episode more than likely assumed John was simply a lone vigilante with a power ring instead of a member of an intergalactic police force. And that’s how this “Green Lantern is black” thing came to be.
In closing, the upcoming movie is Hal Jordan’s story. This does not mean that the other pre-Lantern human Lanterns aren’t in it. Both Guy Gardner (not being played by Bruce Campbell for inexplicable reasons) and John Stewart have cameos and will hopefully be fleshed out in sequels. I hope this article has done it’s purpose of explaining why Ryan Reynolds was cast. Now you can spend your time seeing this movie ogling Ryan Reynolds or laughing at that ridiculous mask.
I know which I’ll be doing.
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