02.06
For this episode, we get a look at the Green Lantern John Stewart. Back when this show was in its production stages, there was controversy over choosing John as a main character for the show, the two main reasons being that it felt like token casting for some people, as well as the fact that there has already been a Green Lantern in the DCAU, namely Kyle Rayner. So of course, the writers had to quickly prove that he could be an interesting character in his own right. Where Rayner was young, imaginative, and unused to the idea of being among the likes of Superman or Wonder Woman, Stewart shows a more militant approach to things. He doesn’t view being a superhero as something fantastic or amazing, but as a civil duty. This alone helps prove to be an interesting contrast to the worlds he travels as well as creates a certain odd couple relationship that he has with Flash. We also get a few hints in this episode that Stewart’s duty as a Lantern is slowly consuming his life, as we see him in his hometown only reluctantly interacting with the people he grew up with. While we already see this within Batman, it proves to be more interesting seeing this happen for a regular man like John rather than a multi-billionaire.
Unfortunately, this character development gets delivered to us via a poorly maneuvered plot. In it, John is arrested by Manhunters for the accidental destruction of an alien planet that he was accused of by a wanton criminal. Because of this, the court, the jury, the Guardians, and even his fellow Lanterns treat him as a pariah without so much as checking the evidence of whether or not he really did it. I know I’m probably nitpicking, but this element alone undermined whatever quality this story had. The entire plot of these episodes weighs upon the inability for alien law enforcement to even so much as check the “debris” of the planet. Instead, they blindly rely on the word of a common criminal over a Green Lantern acting in self-defense. Even though interactions with some of the aliens imply a less than cordial view of the Corps, it still feels like several characters in the story were being idiots for the sake of the plot.
The villains of the story, the Manhunters, prove to be marginally more interesting than the White Martians, mostly because the twist that they were the predecessors to the Green Lanterns adds an undertone to what the Corps could be like if headed by less altruistic members (which easily could have been shown with Sinestro, but the writers rarely seemed to remember him). However, the plot’s pretty inconsistent as to how strong these guys are. At the beginning, only a handful of them were able to fight the Justice League to a standstill. While by the end, entire legions of Manhunters end up dropping like flies by the hands of the Guardians, several Green Lanterns, and even the same JL members that previously struggled against them. Albeit, this is far from a unique flaw in action shows, but you’d think something like Justice League would be smart enough not to play this trope so dreadfully straight.
So overall, nil for two. While In Blackest Night improves upon the character study that Secret Origins lacked, it has plot holes the size of ostrich eggs.
But on the bright side of things, it does have an amusing scene of Flash trying (and failing) to be Johnny Cochran. If seeing Wally play lawyer doesn’t make you laugh, nothing will.
Originally posted on Thursday, November 24, 2011.