Despite growing up with a serious love of Super Friends, I have to confess that Green Lantern was never one of my favorites. I never really understood him, I don’t think. I mean, what sort of superhero weakness is it where your Kryptonite is a color? Superheroes can’t just be walking around all “I possess the most powerful ring in the universe, but, uh, by the way, the color yellow totally trumps that. Crap. Could you go change your shirt?”

I tell you this by way of explanation; perhaps I have undervalued Green Lantern lo these many years.

Maybe you just love Green Lantern. Maybe he’s your favorite, because you don’t like yellow. Or because you know something super-special-cool about him that I don’t. (That wouldn’t be too hard.) But whether you love him or not, you can soon be seeing a lot more of him; Green Lantern is going live-action:

Green Lantern is finally ready to light up the silver screen in a big way.

DC Comics’ ring-powered superhero will be prominently featured in two upcoming live-action features from Warner Bros., as a member of the crime-fighting Justice League of America and in his own solo effort.

Well, you know, good for him. Everyone should have their time to shine, even if they do get all woozy around the color yellow.

“To me, this was on the last great comic book movie that hasn’t been made,” the newly minted ring master [director Greg Berlanti] told the Hollywood Reporter. “It was a comic book with a real mythology that you would see in a lot of the space operas and the sci-fi books. The best part about it, anybody can be become one of the Green Lanterns because anyone can end up with that ring.”

I always found it confusing that any ol’ person who got the ring would become the new Green Lantern, but then, I also didn’t get why Wonder Woman’s invisible jet was a useful thing to have, given that you could still see her sitting there in it. It’s possible that some of the nuances of comic book lore are lost on me.

The film, which focuses on how Jordan first came into contact with the ring and became a member of the Green Lantern Corps, is being positioned as the possible launch pad for a franchise.

Well of course it is. You know Hollywood—why make just one movie when you could easily make four? (As a side note, I find it fascinating that there can be talk of a franchise before the first movie is even out of the gate. Do you suppose they ever guess wrong on this stuff? I mean, isn’t there at least the possibility that the movie will tank, that someone will figure out that hey, there’s a reason why Green Lantern has not been as in-demand as some of these other superheroes?

No offense, Green Lantern. I’m sure you’re a swell guy. Er, bunch of guys. Um, I think I’m going to wear yellow today, just in case I’ve offended anyone who might happen to have some ultimate power….

This entry was posted on Thursday, November 1st, 2007 at 6:22 am and is filed under Movies, Retro. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.