Batman and New X-Men writer Grant Morrison has not shied away from making his feelings about Lanterns known. The prolific writer has previously butted heads with Damon Lindelof and had few compliments for the premiere, bemoaning its "low-fi route" to the Green Lantern Corps.
Now, though, Morrison has had a change of heart. In a recent Substack post, he shared his take on the series after watching a few more episodes and appears sold on both Kyle Chandler and Aaron Pierre, who he hailed as "great."
"I didn’t care for the Hannibal Lecter-ing of Sinestro, but otherwise the show has picked up nicely, and the approach has worked, so good on them," Morrison revealed. "Otherwise, I’ve grown to love the more nuanced Hal Jordan Kyle Chandler is delivering."
"Pierre’s John Stewart has developed impressively as a character, with every episode cracking him out of his regimented shell while Hal’s reckless drunken bum routine is revealed as useful misdirection," the writer continued. "I’ll watch until the end, but it’s probably not worth having any more opinions about the show until then."
Morrison perceiving Hal's actions as a "drunken bum routine" and "useful misdirection" is certainly interesting, and he joins a chorus of voices who have a lot to say about the DCU's approach to the most famous Green Lantern. Some are positive, some are negative, but everyone has a take.
The writer, who masterminded one of the best Superman stories ever with All-Star Superman, also had some thoughts on DC Studios' Supergirl movie. That opened to mixed reviews this summer and flopped at the box office with $126.4 million worldwide.
While Morrison didn't hate the movie, he didn't have anything good to say about Jason Momoa's Lobo or Supergirl's big bad, Krem of the Yellow Hills. In that respect, he echoes the thoughts on many comic book fans.
"I watched Supergirl, which wasn’t terrible but wasn’t especially great either. All the best and most moving scenes involved Millie Alcock, and I thought she did a credible job. Jason Momoa, who I was actually looking forward to, was very disappointing as Lobo. It was, in fact, one of the worst performances I’ve ever seen in a film and quite baffling, as I know Momoa’s not usually that bad and Lobo seems like a character made for him to play. Go figure."
"Then the whole plot fell apart in Act 2 - all Supergirl had to do was bring Krypto with her to that yellow sun world, and the sun’s rays would have made the dog invulnerable again, easily able to shake off any toxin. They needn’t have bothered chasing after the dull and low-level Romanian gangster baddie, Krem of the Yellow Hills, to get the antidote after all!"
Six episodes of Lanterns are now streaming on HBO Max, as is Supergirl.