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In brightest day, in blackest night, no trailer shall escape our sight! Here’s Alasdair Stuart with a look at the new Lanterns trailer and what it tells us.

0.02 – Ring

Lovely design. Love that it’s granular and looks slightly weird.

0.05 – Red vs Green?

Red Lanterns are powered by rage, and their lanterns are coloured accordingly. It’s a logical assumption we’re getting them at some point but if I had to guess this is closer to home. Given the building being incinerated I’m guessing a straight up beam weapon.

0.18 – Did you just use that ring to counterfeit money?’ ‘…Nope.’

Aside from the concerns some folks are going to have about Hal doing something like this, I rather like it. it’s a charmingly scruffy moment and it puts him and Jon on very different sides of the same coin.

0.26 – ‘I sure as hell didn’t interview for it.’

What you miss on first watch is that Hal’s shield is going up before he can see either of the assassins. That either means the ring’s passive defences are on or far more likely, that and Hal being very, very good at his job.

0.37 – ‘I’ve been doing this since you were a baby’

That shot of the three kids watching the TV and one in particular? Given we know superheroes have been active for a long time in this universe I will bet you dollars to doughnuts that’s young Jon watching Hal. Which makes his disgust at what this man has become more relatable and complex.

0.52 – Lantern

Jon’s holding the lantern battery here. Which I’m guessing is key to him getting out of this situation with a bunch of Dutton Ranch cosplayers.

1.00 – ‘It’s only one question. Are you afraid?’

Called it! Also, the single question is a nice nod to the current Absolute Green Lantern series, which plays in similar waters. And we don’t get much of it but that’s a lovely, ’90s/’00s looking GL costume Hal seems to be wearing.

1.02 – Someone’s coming to town

Atmospheric entry at the pole. Looks like Earth but is it? And who’s coming home?

1.05 – ‘Are you afraid?’

Yeah, that’s a very ’90s era uniform Hal has on.

1.12 – Guy Gardner

Earth has a lot of Lanterns, and this seems to be the one with the… most unique… haircut, paying what seems to be Jon a visit in prison.

1.14 – Offworld

It goes by very fast but there are two moons in orbit, so this is not Earth. It also seems to be Jon and Hal, with Jon carrying the backpack again. But Hal is further behind him, which is maybe a nice indicator of a power shift in the relationship. Also yellow is a very, very bad colour for Green Lanterns to be around. The reason has changed a lot over the years but it’s the one colour the Green Power Rings are weak against.

1.18 – Missing Man

The Missing Man formation, with a plane removed from or leaving the formation is flown over a USAF funeral with a woman and a young boy on the front row. Is this Hal?

1.23 – Jon in trouble

Jon is bound, held down and something injected into his head. Colour is a vital part of the Green Lantern comics and I’m guessing the orange we see here is no accident. Intriguingly, Orange Lanterns are powered by Avarice. Given the tension between Jon and Hal, that again adds a whole new dimension to the ‘Training a replacement’ relationship they seem to have.

1.29 – Jon’s past life

Jon Stewart has been a soldier and an architect as well as a Lantern and this is from his first life. Note the green flash at the middle of the explosion he’s watching…

1.37 – Laura Linney!

I have no idea who she’s playing but given Jon’s talking to her about the job, my guess is possibly Cameron Chase. A field, and later senior agent at the Department of Extranormal Affairs, Chase is again a big part of Absolute Green Lantern and a version of her would be a good fit here. Although given her line (‘Then go and get it, Jon Stewart’) she may be connected to that orange energy and some different lanterns…

Lanterns debuts on August 16th. There are countless Green Lantern comics and they’re all a really good time but maybe give Absolute Green Lantern a try. It’s from a slightly different universe but there seems to be some interesting common ground with the show.