How much viewers like Cartoon Network’s “Green Lantern: The Animated Series” has a lot to do with if they are fans of the “Green Lantern” comic book series, specifically the iteration since 2004 written by Geoff Johns.
    
In that series, Green Lantern Hal Jordan’s long-time nemesis Sinestro forms a corps of his own to take on the Green Lantern Corps. Only after that do loads of other corps begin to show up, one for each color in the rainbow. Among them are Atrocitus’ Red Lanterns, Saint Walker’s Blue Lanterns and others. Johns’ world-building in the series is impressive. He added a ton of new characters that have quickly become fan favorites in such a short amount of time.
    
So “Green Lantern: The Animated Series” is a bit puzzling. Essentially the critical acclaim and popularity of Johns’ run has started all the “Green Lantern” properties in the mainstream media. The “Green Lantern” movie, while poorly cast and poorly written, followed the basics of Johns’ tales, though Sinestro’s lack of moral ambiguity was strange.
    
“Green Lantern: The Animated Series” deviates. No, characters are not openly different from how they are portrayed in the comics, but how the story is told is changed. In the first two episodes of the series, the hour-long “Beware My Power,” the Green Lantern Corps meets the Red Lantern Corps. The way fellow Green Lantern Kilowog reacts suggests that the Green Lantern Corps has never heard of any other kind of corps out there.
    
It is baffling that the first episode of “Green Lantern: The Animated Series” does not immediately establish Sinestro as the central villain, especially considering Green Lantern’s guest spots in other shows, like “Superman: The Animated Series” and “Justice League,” have all immediately jumped in with Sinestro as the antagonist.
    
The creators of the series said at New York Comic-Con that since Sinestro played such a large role in the “Green Lantern” movie, the creators were going to stay away from the character for the first season. That is ridiculous. It’s essentially trying to avoid doling out spoilers on a story that was written back in the 1960s when this iteration of Green Lantern was first created.
    
It is also such a shame that “Green Lantern: The Animated Series” has already gone to such lengths to match up with the movie franchise, considering the poor box-office performance of the movie will probably lead to no sequels.
    
The Red Lantern Corps themselves are much tamer than the comic book counterparts. In the comics, the Red Lanterns vomit blood and serve as mindless, killing drones for their leader Atrocitus. They are so mindless that they do not speak properly, only in guttural groans and one word at a time. Atrocitus seeks vengeance on the Guardians of the Universe, the Green Lantern Corps’ masters, for killing his home world.
    
That part of the story is intact, but the animated-series version of the Red Lanterns talk normally and look less grotesque. In particular, Atrocitus looks like a generic red villain. The choice in the first episode to have a Red Lantern that struggles to kill — Razer — adds tension to the story but does not really make logistical sense. When the Red Lanterns recruit people with rage in their heart, why would they recruit someone who does not have that? It’s the equivalent of the Green Lantern Corps choosing a coward to wear a ring.
    
That is a lot of nitpicking, but honestly, the first two episodes were fine space adventures. The series’ greatest strength is that by the very nature of the “Green Lantern” comics, with 3,600 Green Lanterns in existence, the creators can come up with new characters at will. Who knows? Maybe like Harley Quinn from “Batman: The Animated Series” or Livewire from “Superman: The Animated Series,” an original character will sneak his or her way into comic book canon.
    
And really, viewers that are hardcore “Green Lantern” fans will have a lot of nitpicks like these, but they will also watch every episode because finally, after all these years, this show exists.
    
It is great to see Hal Jordan in beautiful Bruce Timm design, even if he looks more like a bodybuilder than a test pilot. Josh Keaton’s voice fits him perfectly. He is certainly better than that Ryan Reynolds guy.

— Robby O’Daniel is a graduate student in communications. He can be reached at rodaniel@utk.edu.