HBO Officially Changes a Fundamental Rule of Green Lantern Canon

The new Green Lantern’s power comes with a terrible drawback

In HBO’s Lanterns, John Stewart (Aaron Pierre) spends his whole life preparing to become a Green Lantern. He seemingly abandons his destiny in episode 5, turning down the ring after becoming disillusioned with how the Guardians of the Universe treated the Manhunters and Hal Jordan (Kyle Chandler). John gets another chance to become a superhero in the season finale, but that power comes with a huge drawback tied to one of DC Comics’ greatest villains.

This article contains major spoilers for Lanterns episode 8.

What is so special about John’s Lantern?

The Lanterns finale, “Dirt and Stars,” reveals that Sinestro (Ulrich Thomsen) forged a new Lantern on Antaan’s home planet. The planet’s air and water were contaminated by the Manhunter Zoe (Poorna Jagannathan), who unleashed a weapon that exposes people to their greatest fears and makes them suicidal. That fear manifests in yellow streaks in the Lantern.

“The Lantern Corp thinks that fear makes you weak,” Sinestro explains. “They couldn’t be more wrong. If harnessed correctly, fear can be the most powerful force in the universe. Fear is just evolutionary intelligence.”

The Halogram warns John not to use Sinestro’s Lantern to charge his ring, saying, “You don’t know what that Lantern might do.” But at the end of the episode, John uses the Lantern with a custom oath: “In brightest day, in darkest night, I embrace my fear, I’ll do what’s right. I choose this ring, I choose this fight, in service to this lantern’s light.” While he wants to use the power to protect Earth, John could be going down a very dark path.

In Green Lantern comics, the Guardians of the Universe imprisoned Parallax, the cosmic embodiment of fear, inside their Central Power Battery on Oa. Also known as “the yellow impurity,” Parallax possessed Hal Jordan and caused him to murder most of the other Green Lanterns in an effort to remake the universe. The Guardians hid Parallax’s existence, much like they didn’t tell the Green Lanterns about the Manhunters. Zoe doesn’t know how she survived when the Guardians turned off all of the Manhunters, and it’s possible that they couldn’t fully control her because she was contaminated by Parallax, who she then unleashed on Antaan’s planet. Lanterns never mentions Parallax, but the show’s writers seem to be heavily hinting at its existence, possibly saving it as the primary villain for season 2 if the series is renewed.

In the comics, Sinestro teamed up with Parallax to create his own organization known as the Sinestro Corps, who use yellow Lantern rings powered by fear instead of willpower. John’s oath has some similarities to the words spoken by Sinestro’s disciples: “In blackest day, in brightest night, beware your fears made into light. Let those who try to stop what's right burn like his power — Sinestro's might!”

Lanterns co-showrunner Tom King confirmed this connection in a virtual press conference, explaining that John's oath was inspired by Geoff Johns' Green Lantern run, which introduced the Sinestro Corps along with several other organizations based on the color spectrum.

"John is not 100% a Green Lantern anymore," King says. "He has a Lantern that has a bit of yellow in it. He has a bit of fear in it. It's an unsanctioned Lantern. So he's not saying the same oath as every other Green Lantern because he's not like every other Green Lantern. This is an utterly unique creation that has not been given to him, that he is not chosen for, but that he chose for himself. He gets his own unique oath which seems to line up very much with the lore and where we're going from here."

What’s next for John and Sinestro?

John is in many ways following in Sinestro’s footsteps. He’s denying the authority of the Guardians and embracing the power of fear rather than trying to stay fearless. He could wind up succumbing to Parallax’s influence, especially since Lanterns’ writers seem to be fusing John with another classic Green Lantern.

On the rare occasions that John got to wield Hal’s ring, he showcased a remarkable level of power. He could maintain the bird construct and his connection to the Halogram even when he was no longer wearing the ring. That’s a power typically associated with Kyle Rayner, the successor to Hal Jordan chosen by the Guardians when Hal was under Parallax’s influence. Kyle’s special power came from hosting Ion, the manifestation of the green energy of willpower that fuels Green Lantern rings and keeps Parallax in check. When Sinestro pulled Ion out of Kyle, Parallax chose him as its next host.

Sinestro remains trapped on Antaan’s planet, where he will likely forge himself a new Lantern and ring that is even further twisted by fear, establishing himself as the first Yellow Lantern. But John could become an even greater threat to the DC Universe if he succumbs to the yellow impurity.