The DC Extended Universe (now supplanted by James Gunn’s rebooted DC Universe) was plagued by constant problems and subpar films. Zack Snyder’s DC movies are usually cited as the beginning of this; “Man of Steel” was too divisive to be a solid bedrock, but WB forged ahead to disappointing results with “Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice.”
Really, though, the false starts go back earlier to 2011’s “Green Lantern,” which was intended to be DC’s answer to 2008’s “Iron Man” but ended up bombing critically and commercially. (Star Ryan Reynolds has an idea why.) I think that Green Lantern is also one of those superheroes that works better as a drawing, whether in comics or animated.
The premise of Green Lantern is there are space cops, the Green Lantern Corps, who wield rings that make green energy constructs from the Green Lantern’s imagination. These constructs (impossible to render practically) look better if they’re part of an animated environment, not digitally inserted afterward. Likewise, the Green Lantern Corps consists of cartoony aliens from all corners of the galaxy; animation bypasses the unflattering alien designs that plagued the 2011 “Green Lantern.”
Even the archetypes fit anime. Comics critic Ritesh Babu has compared the Green Lantern mythos to the manga “Bleach” (where superpowered Shinigami each wield personalized blades as an extension of themselves, a la each Lantern’s ring), and pinned the love-hate rival relationship between Hal Jordan (the Green Lantern of Sector 2814, including Earth’s solar system) and Sinestro (once the Green Lantern Corps’ greatest hero and Jordan’s teacher, now a villain and wielder of the fear-powered Yellow Ring) as akin to anime rivalries like Naruto and Sasuke.
If there’s any DC Comic that lends itself to an anime, it’s “Green Lantern.”
