Trailer Lanterns | Official Teaser | HBO Max

[Thomas Shey]

That’s really a non-issue. I would not expect any adaptation to so slavishly stick to the original text.

A bigger issue is why are the Green Lanterns so male? They don’t have the excuse of having been written in the 30s/40s.

Female superheroes who who were not sidekicks of or adjacent to male heroes (Batgirl, Supergirl, Hawkgirl) were actually pretty rare at DC in the 60's once you get away from Wonder Woman.

There was a female human Green Lantern late in the day, and some alien ones of some significance (Katma Tui comes particularly to mind) earlier than that.

 

[Thomas Shey]

I would have at least put “from the creator of Tarzan” on the advertising!

I can’t say that I think anyone cares if something is a rip off of Star Wars or not though.

You'd be surprised at how many people's reaction is "We've seen this before" when encountering an older work that inspired a later one. I hit it when introducing people to 50's SF movies with some frequency, over and above the technical expectations.

 

[Thomas Shey]

I don't think I have, but it's possible I may have forgotten something. I feel like the breeding experiment couldn't work simply by having two powerful Lensmen having children, without Clarissa being the first female Lensman. I think X-Men have mined the same premise 2-3 times with Scott Summers and Jean Grey without Jean being the first female mutant*.

I will point out she's presented as the most powerful of the female mutants, at least in potential, however. You could take that tact in an update of the story too, of course; Kimball and Clarissa as the strongest of the Lensmen.

To clarify, yes, things would have to change to get this to work, but I don't see anything specific that would jeopardize the basic plot points and framework of the story. I think the other ongoing sub-topic going on in-thread about what exactly to do with the Arisian's plans as a whole would have a much greater impact on how it all could or would work.

Well, they're intertwined, of course.

*in in-setting chronology, I think she's the first female mutant in that Marvel Mutants were created for X-Men comics, unless we consider the previous use of mutant from Amazing Detective Cases to be the same kind of mutant.

Though technically her and the Scarlet Witch showed up at almost the same time given how early the latter appeared as a villain in the X-Men.

(It occurs to me given the Lensmen discussion that at least two, and depending on depiction, that it's amusing that all three of these women are redheads...)

 

[Thomas Shey]

One thing that made me a bit uncomfortable when I read Children of the Lens was the evil aliens were utterly annihilated. That didn’t seem like a good action to me (and I was 13).

Smith had a very black and white view of alien evil sometimes.

Also, the “we are going to need a bigger superweapon” trope was getting very tired by that point.

He always leaned into that. You saw it regularly throughout the Skylark books.

 

[chuckdee]

That’s really a non-issue. I would not expect any adaptation to so slavishly stick to the original text.

A bigger issue is why are the Green Lanterns so male? They don’t have the excuse of having been written in the 30s/40s.

The 10 Greatest Female Green Lanterns of All Time

Some of the most iconic characters in the DC comics over the years hailed from Green Lantern Corps, aka DC's intergalactic police force. And while everyone is

www.comicbasics.com

There are a few that aren't on that list and I'm not sure why Tangent Green Lantern and Boodikka(sp?) aren't on the list, as they would be two of the most powerful along with Jessica Cruz.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

Female superheroes who who were not sidekicks of or adjacent to male heroes (Batgirl, Supergirl, Hawkgirl) were actually pretty rare at DC in the 60's once you get away from Wonder Woman.

There was a female human Green Lantern late in the day, and some alien ones of some significance (Katma Tui comes particularly to mind) earlier than that.

The 60s was 60 years ago, and lanterns change on a regular basis. Why haven’t things changed? The current movie DCU has three human lanterns, all male, two toxically so.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

Smith had a very black and white view of alien evil sometimes.

Yeah, I expect any modern writer would take a more nuanced approach. It wouldn’t affect anything apart from the end, which didn’t exactly sink the landing anyway.

He always leaned into that. You saw it regularly throughout the Skylark books.

This one you really need to keep in, since it is so characteristic of the author. Just in such a way as to not be repetitious.

 

[Ryujin]

(It occurs to me given the Lensmen discussion that at least two, and depending on depiction, that it's amusing that all three of these women are redheads...)

Statistically the most rare colouration for humans in Ginger, at less than 2%. Blondes are more common at maybe 5%, depending on the source. Linking rare colouration to rare abilities seems to make a weird sort of sense, thematically.

 

[Ryujin]

Smith had a very black and white view of alien evil sometimes.

He always leaned into that. You saw it regularly throughout the Skylark books.

White Hat/Black Hat is a very '50s thing. Everything in common media needed to be clear cut, like that, often by decree. The Comics Code, for example.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

Statistically the most rare colouration for humans in Ginger, at less than 2%. Blondes are more common at maybe 5%, depending on the source. Linking rare colouration to rare abilities seems to make a weird sort of sense, thematically.

I think it had more to do with the author’s wife…