The Guardians of the Universe are the fucking worst. Worse than the Jedi Council, worse than the Council in Zion in The Matrix sequels. They're so shitty; they never know anything for ancient beings supposedly so wise, they constantly impede their Green Lanterns, and they're arrogant little dipshit space midgets. They absolutely suck.
Green Lantern: The Animated Series is worlds better than the Ryan Reynolds movie. This sounds like faint praise, but it's true. This Hal Jordan is the headstrong hotshot alpha male Hal Jordan is supposed to be. (Which also makes him kind of infuriating as a lead.) Thankfully, The Animated Series spares us another rehashing of the origin story; it assumes we know how Hal Jordan got his ring and presents him established and experienced as a Green Lantern.
The design of OA in this show as a sleek, future city world is also a lot better than the rocky cave world version of OA in the live action movie. The design of Atrocitus' headquarters as a fortress on top of an asteroid, which is the remains of his homeworld the Guardians destroyed, is also pretty cool.
The main action involves Hal Jordan and Kilowog absconding with the Guardians' new Interceptor space craft with "ultra warp" to rescue Green Lanterns being killed in frontier space by Red Lanterns lead by Atrocitus. This is the discovery and first meeting of the Red Lanterns by the Green Lanterns.
Kilowog: "I make hammers." And he means it. He spent the whole fight with the Red Lanterns swinging a construct that looked a lot like Thor's Mjolnir.
My eternal pet peeve with Green Lantern: Ring-slinging combat remains incredibly unimaginative. Basic shields, basic shapes, and plain old energy blasts is 95% of what the Lanterns use on each other. It's pretty boring. And this is a cartoon - budget isn't an issue here. Except for Jordan, these are all alien creatures - is any thought ever given to what unique objects and weapons might exist in the cultures on their worlds? No.
The best part of the episode was Kilowog making fun of Hal Jordan for wearing a mask. "He wears it in case some Earthling sneaks onto the Interceptor - while we're in space! - and says "Aha! The Green Lantern on my world is Hal Jordan! I'm telling everyone!"
Also, I don't think Kilowog said "poozer" once. A precedent has been set! Appreciated.
Posts
