James Gunn’s DCU Must Avoid These 2011 Mistakes With Green Lantern Villains

The TV series Lanterns will introduce the Green Lantern Corps to the DC Universe, with the protagonists set to be Hal Jordan and John Stewart. Beyond that, there’s not a lot that’s known about the show or how it will flesh out the Green Lantern mythos. A big part of the Green Lantern lore is the villains, and getting these foes right is key to doing the hero and his Corps justice.

The 2011 Green Lantern movie theoretically featured three enemies of Green Lantern, but like other parts of the movie, these characters weren’t especially well done. The DCU would be wise to skip at least one of these enemies, with another synonymous with one of the comics’ greatest downfalls. On the other hand, if there’s one Green Lantern villain that the new shared universe must get right, it’s Sinestro.

Hector Hammond Can Be Skipped in James Gunn’s DCU

Hector Hammond is one of the oldest Green Lantern villains, but he’s also one of the least interesting. Initially, he was portrayed as merely a thief who, after exposure to an alien rock, rapidly developed extreme intelligence and mental abilities. These newfound psychic powers were coupled with a grievous new form, with his head heavily enlarged as his mental powers grew stronger. The modern origin story of Green Lantern: Secret Origin changed this and made him a potential beau of Carol Ferris, but even this didn’t do much to make him particularly interesting.

At most, Hector Hammond is a body horror character, and he only works if he’s far creepier than he is laughable. While he wasn’t one of the worst parts of the 2011 Green Lantern movie, the film’s general quality did have few favors. Likewise, he hasn’t become a more prominent villain in the decades since that movie’s release. Since he isn’t really integral to the Green Lantern mythos in the same way that other villains are, it’s easy to completely skip over Hector Hammond when it comes to the DC Universe. At the same time, his status as a sort of weird, obscure and kooky villain means that DC Studios creative lead James Gunn might take an extra interest in him.

After all, the filmmaker is known for his fondness of offbeat and esoteric comic book characters, namely of the cosmic variety. This is why he was the director for Marvel Studios’ Guardians of the Galaxy movies. Given that those films made a talking raccoon and an alien tree into household names, it’s possible that there’s hope for Hector Hammond to show up in the DCU. At most, however, he’ll likely just be an old foe of Hal Jordan’s who hasn’t achieved much in the current day of the shared universe. This would probably be the best way to handle the villain, as it establishes his existence without focusing on him for too long.

Parallax Is Too Problematic for the DCU’s Green Lantern

Parallax is one of the darkest and most powerful cosmic entities in the DC Universe of the comic books, with the giant yellow “bug” feeding upon and representing fear itself. Thus, it’s the patron entity for the yellow power rings of the Sinestro Corps. Long before “allying” with the most iconic Green Lantern villain, however, the name Parallax plagued Hal Jordan in another way. During the infamous “Emerald Twilight” storyline, a gray-haired Hal Jordan broke bad and became a murderous villain following the fallout from the destruction of his hometown in Coast City. This had him rename himself Parallax, with the darkest Green Lantern slaughtering most of the Green Lantern Corps.

Though this led to the rise of Kyle Rayner as (for the time being) the last of the Green Lanterns, many fans disliked this development for Hal Jordan. In fact, one group known as H.E.A.T. (Hal’s Emerald Attack Team) demanded that DC Comics reverse the storyline and restore the Corps. This finally happened several years later, with the Green Lantern comic book franchise having lost a lot of steam and popularity. Green Lantern: Rebirth finally brought back Hal Jordan, and it redeemed him by revealing that he was actually possessed by an entity named Parallax. This giant yellow monster has since become one of the key components of the franchise’s mythos, but adapting the villain might be problematic.

Green Lantern Comics Details

The nature of introducing Parallax means that “Emerald Twilight” might also have to be adapted, which reopens all manner of wounds. It ultimately wasn’t a great idea in the comics, and repeating the story in the movies will only make things worse for the brand as a whole, especially when it comes to the character of Hal Jordan. Likewise, a poorly adapted version of the Parallax entity was the true villain in 2011’s Green Lantern. This kept things unconnected to “Emerald Twilight,” but the villain still wasn’t particularly well handled. It may be that the creature only works if it’s revealed to be behind Hal’s fall from grace.

Adapting that at all is fairly problematic, so it could be for the best if James Gunn’s DC Universe completely skips over any version of Parallax. This way, Hal (the franchise’s most popular character) isn’t dragged through the mud again. There’s the chance that things are inverted, with John Stewart, Kyle Rayner or even the cantankerous Guy Gardner being the Green Lanterns possessed by Parallax, with Hal having to defeat them. Even then, this would only put the shoe on another foot in terms of the problems that fans had with the comic book source material.

How James Gunn’s DCU Can Best Utilize Sinestro

One Green Lantern foe who absolutely has to be in the DC Universe shows and movies is Sinestro. Born Thaal Sinestro, the citizen of the planet Korugar was once one of the greatest Green Lanterns of them all. In fact, he took Hal Jordan under his wing when the human joined the Green Lantern Corps, and the two were actually close friends for a time. Sadly, Sinestro’s arrogance and tyrannical nature saw him use his ring to subjugate Korugar, and his brutal form of fascism saw him ousted from the Corps. Gaining a Qwardian ring that used yellow energy instead of green, Sinestro frequently vexed his former comrades among the Green Lanterns, namely Hal Jordan.

After Jordan’s return to the land of the living, Sinestro stepped things up by forming his own Sinestro Corps, with some of the most powerful beings in the DC Universe (namely Superboy-Prime) joining their ranks. Mark Strong portrayed Sinestro in the 2011 Green Lantern movie, and he was actually one of the best parts of the otherwise maligned film. Needless to say, the character is one who needs to show up again in live-action, namely the DC Universe projects. One avenue to handle Sinestro’s presence might be on the TV show Lanterns.

Green Lantern (2011) Reception

The Lanterns series can juxtapose its present day mystery with flashbacks to Hal Jordan’s training under Sinestro. By the season finale, it can showcase Hal and Sinestro fighting each other when the latter’s villainy has been revealed. Doing this would allow for a lot of dramatic potential and showcase what makes Sinestro tick, all the while refraining from simply showing what was already in the 2011 movie. The show can end with Sinestro (in the present day) escaping his imprisonment at the hands of the Guardians of the Universe, with his recovered Qwardian ring being used to create others that will recruit the members of his own Corps.

Such a development can lead into a new Green Lantern movie that will most likely be far better than the previous live-action attempt. It’s a good way to set the villain up for future appearances while also getting his backstory out of the way. He’s the one foe from the 2011 film that truly needs to be prioritized on the big screen once more, and doing so can not only help to rehabilitate the Green Lantern property on the big screen, but also cement Sinestro as one of DC’s greatest villains.