Tonight at 7PM (ET), the Cartoon Network airs a special preview of the new Green Lantern animated series.
Done in an almost 3-D style, I admit my initial reaction was that I didn’t care for it too much… that it would look like a video game. Fortunately that feeling goes away quickly and it becomes obvious that Green Lantern is more like something better – like The Incredibles.
The Red Lanterns are the villains in the initial story and perhaps the whole series. This worried me too; after all, Red Lanterns was the first of the “New 52” comics I dropped entirely. But for an animated show, they really seem to work…. it’s simplistic and good to know Green Lanterns good, Red Lanterns bad. (And don’t get started on the Yellow Lanterns, aka the Sinestro Corps… where are they?)
Josh Keaton provides the voice of Hal Jordan, the series’ leading Green Lantern. You might remember him as the main voice in the fantastic but way too short lived Spectacular Spider-Man series. Other familiar voices include Ian Abercrombie (Alfred from Birds of Prey!) as Ganthet and Kevin Michael Richardson (Thundercats’ Panthro) as Kilowog.
What I especially liked about this opening story, which is comprised of two episodes back to back, is that the style is a lot more simplistic than this year’s live-action Green Lantern film, but it’s actually…. better. Oa is a lot sleeker, more like something from comics’ Silver Age, and the characters themselves are written in a way that is also more accessible than the film. Is it sad that I liked animated Carol Ferris more than I cared for Blake Lively? Hal Jordan is presented as a bit of a smart aleck in the Ryan Reynolds vein but he’s also more heroic, closer to the Hal Jordan we all know and love.
Kids are especially going to love this, but adults, who enjoy Green Lantern, will surely not leave the show disappointed, either. It’s worth checking out.
