Of the Comics Persuasion: How to make a Green Lantern movie

Of course, the Green Lantern film that Warner Bros. released in 2011 was not that movie. 

With the monumental successes of the Nolan Batman franchise and of the newest DC superhero blockbuster, Man of Steel, it's apparent that Warner Bros. will be attempting to get all of their ducks in a row in order to compete with the well-made and fantastically interconnected movies from Marvel Studios. So, how should WB approach the remaining characters in its pantheon? How can those heroes be translated in a manner that preserves their comic book roots but also offers quantifiable diversity in the film line? 

Well, I had a few ideas, and I'd like to share them with you. 

As I've alluded to previously, this is an idea that's been gestating for quite some time. I grew up reading GL comics and my favorite bearer of the ring was always Kyle Rayner. He embodied all of the period idiosyncrasies and ridiculousness of my generation and did it without much cynicism. He was simply a product of the times, as most of us are and were. 

But something else set Kyle apart. His predecessor, Hal Jordan, was, before his mental breakdown, really nothing more than a Captain Kirk with a power ring. There wasn't much to distinguish him from any other character in DC's line except for his unique skill set. He had a square jaw and dispensed justice just like everyone else.

Kyle Rayner was finally a lead character with some real nuance. He wasn't stoic or brooding. He wasn't a boy scout either. He was DC's Peter Parker, a kid with an incredible burden of power and the added baggage of having to go toe-to-toe with one of his own heroes, Hal Jordan. He had personality. It's this dynamic that made his interactions with other DC characters, like Wally West and Connor Hawke, so exquisitely entertaining.

So how do you make a Kyle Rayner GL film work?

I'm borrowing quite a bit from Ron Marz's long run on the Green Lantern book here, but I think there's truly something special about that particular period of that title. Furthermore, Marz succeeded in doing something incredible with the Lantern continuity at that time: It didn't matter whether you were a longtime reader or completely new to comics; Ron Marz distilled GL's continuity in ways that seemed organic and accessible. The past was rendered cinematically. Even if you hadn't read of Hal's rampage, you were given a strong sense of what had happened to him when he showed up asking for Kyle's power ring; and if you were unfamiliar with John Stewart's saga, you still understood why Fatality was hunting down Green Lanterns (Retribution being one of my favorite GL arcs). Everything was well- conceived and plotted, and one gets the sense, reading some of that run, of a fully-realized epic, tying up much of the loose ends of GL continuity in the wake of the Zero Hour event. It all just clicked seamlessly into place. 

However, Marz's GL run isn't all fantastic. You can see, looking back, that quite a few things in comics in the 90's were done solely for shock value. Green Lantern was no different. After all, we do get the awful women-in-refrigerators meme from Ron's creative stretch. But there was a cohesiveness and uniformity of atmosphere that defined much of Kyle Rayner's tenure as the foremost Lantern of sector 2814.

I suppose I should eventually get to the point. 

My perfect Green Lantern film wouldn't star Hal Jordan--I suppose I've already made that clear--but it would certainly include him. You see, the way to make GL viable is not to rehash Hal's origin story. It's a pretty generic origin story anyway, one that certainly doesn't merit anymore screen time. Rather it should be a telling of Kyle's origin as a Lantern and how the acquisition of a power ring puts him on a collision course with Hal. The existing continuity isn't so dense that it will be off-putting to the lay, but will instead give a sense of the rich history of the Green Lantern Corps, as if this is a thing that has already existed for eons.

After being chosen by the ring, Kyle, a broke, slovenly, twenty-something graphic designer blessed with a tolerant girlfriend, Alex, has trouble coming to grips with the immense power he's been granted. Enter Hal Jordan, under the guise of a mentor. Kyle is awestruck, having grown up watching Hal tangle with monsters and super-villains over the city, and he's also a bit perplexed as Hal had previously disappeared from the public eye without a trace after a tragic defeat which saw an entire neighborhood destroyed. Similarly, Alex has her doubts about this drastic change to Kyle's status quo. However, Kyle must rein in his own feelings of inferiority and his own misgivings in order to meet the challenges of the ring head-on. With Hal's aid, Kyle is better able to cope with his new responsibilities, but he also begins to suspect that Hal may have some ulterior motives for his tutelage. 

Meanwhile, an alien being, Fatality, the woman who mortally wounded the previous owner of Kyle's ring, has tracked the ring's journey to Earth, and she's out for Kyle's blood. Fatality uses Lantern power rings, taken as trophies from her fallen foes, to enhance her already formidable combat prowess. Hal and Kyle must join forces to defeat her, but during the course of their first encounter, Fatality reveals that not only was her planet destroyed by a Green Lantern but that she knows the truth about Hal. 

Confronting Hal after their battle with Fatality, Kyle demands that Hal explain what their adversary had alluded to. Reluctantly, Hal explains everything to Kyle: how in the line of duty, facing his first defeat, he lost the people he loved; how the Oans, the guardians of the Green Lanterns' power batteries, had the abilities to resurrect them but wouldn't; how he had to defeat them, even murder some of them, and take their rings and their batteries to attempt to recreate his life; how Kyle's ring was the missing piece of the puzzle; and, ultimately, how Hal had intentionally failed to train Kyle to use his ring to its full potential, and that during the course of the fight with Fatality, Kyle's ring had been pushed to the limits of its charge. 

Hal then defeats Kyle and takes his ring. He begins using the rings and batteries he's amassed to warp time and re-imagine history, but his efforts are destroying the world around him even as he recreates his world of an ideal past. It's important that the destruction caused by Hal be more visceral and identifiably mortal to onlookers in contrast with Man of Steel's bloodless brawls. (I loved the movie, but Snyder and co. really dropped the ball with their frivolous destruction in MoS.) It's imperative that we see the lengths that Hal will go to resurrect his loved ones, and that we see the unfathomable depths of his madness.

Concurrently, Kyle is sought out by Fatality, who has come to realize that Kyle, too, has been betrayed by a Lantern. She gives him one of her memento rings and together they take on Hal Jordan. Only by using his own creativity is Kyle able to rout Hal. Hal's fall is an immensely tragic one, as he sees his loved ones, his city of the past, fade before his very eyes, taken from him twice now.

Fatality and Kyle share an impassioned kiss in the wake of their victory over Jordan, and Alex sees the kiss broadcast over the news.

Other Lanterns descend upon the Earth to take Hal back to Oa to pay for his crimes against the Corps and against Earth. Their presence forces Fatality to retreat back into hiding. Finally, Kyle is taken to Oa to be commended for his valor and is reissued his ring.

Perhaps the film closes with a final scene of Hal being placed in a galactic prison. As he is guided by Manhunters to his cell, he passes one occupied by an old friend... and an old enemy: Sinestro--Some little nod to Hal's background and to the future of the series.

Maybe the sequel prominently features the Manhunters? Maybe Mongul or Sinestro? The growing divide between Kyle and Alex? The romantic/adversarial dynamic between Kyle and Fatality?

Anyway, that's how I'd like to see a Green Lantern franchise founded. What do you guys think? Maybe you'd rather have another Hal movie, or perhaps you'd rather see John Stewart wielding the power ring. Let me know the comments section below!

Join me next time, as I'll be talking about the Flash and Wonder Woman!