The first clip from Sunday's season finale of Lanterns has been released, filling in some of the gaps in Hal Jordan's life between 2016 and 2026. Back in Rushville, Nebraska, Hal finds himself being defended from the wrath of the townspeople by Sheriff Kerry.
It's made clear that, following Hal's battle with the Manhunter, everyone hates him. It seems he's still viewed as a hero in some parts of the country, but this clip from Lanterns appears eager to remind fans that the former superhero is largely despised.
This won't come as a shock to many unhappy fans, as the DCU has already established that Hal is a racist and a failure. However, it's still not entirely clear why his battle with the Manhunter led to him being imprisoned; we know he acted selfishly to protect his status as a Green Lantern, but he still did everything a hero arguably could to protect the town from Zoe's attack.
Zoe was an alien invader who had committed genocide in space, so even if some innocents died in the crossfire, why Hal has been vilified is hard to say.
The Lanterns finale has a lot of story to tell this Sunday, including who killed Hal, what the deal is with Sinestro, and how John Stewart becomes Earth's Green Lantern alongside Guy Gardner.
"The thing that has been very, very shocking to me was the inability to have some nuance [about Hal's portrayal]," Lanterns writer Vanessa Baden Kelly recently said of the negative reaction from fans to Hal's portrayal. "I'm from Florida, so I grew up around a lot of white people who would probably use the N-word amongst their peers and then also turn around and defend you in something."
She added, "I can look at Hal's microaggressions and be like, yeah, he's got some racist tendencies because he's a man of a certain age that grew up in a certain time and place. I also feel like he probably f***s aliens in other places and doesn't feel like he's non-discriminatory."
Lanterns follows new recruit John Stewart and Lantern legend Hal Jordan, two intergalactic cops drawn into a dark, earth-based mystery as they investigate a murder in the American heartland.
Alongside Kyle Chander and Aaron Pierre, Kelly Macdonald, Garret Dillahunt, Poorna Jagannathan, Nicole Ari Parker, Jason Ritter, J. Alphonse Nicholson, and Jasmine Cephas Jones round out the cast.
Seven episodes of Lanterns are now streaming on HBO Max.