Those of you who want to yell at me for just using reviews and official promotional material to decide not to watch HBO Max’s Greenless Lanterns…did they not change and ruin the oath? The promotional material says they did and to them it’s a good thing.
"Lanterns" writers say John Stewart's personalized oath, which omits the vow to confront "evil," is like Green Lanterns in the comics who change their oaths because they can't see or understand light/color. pic.twitter.com/9Aftqk7gli
Given everything I’ve heard about this show, I’m not surprised that they don’t understand the Green Lantern oath. For one thing, they think its silly. Given what better writers have done with the oath, it makes them look even more, perhaps even willingly, ignorant.
One would think John Stewart, a former soldier, would understand what an oath means.
An oath is a solemn, formal promise or declaration that often calls upon a deity or a sacred value to witness the truth of a statement or the sincerity of one’s intentions
-(Merriam-Webster)
It’s not just some rallying cry, and while the Green Lantern oath (and probably some of the other Technicolor Lantern oaths) may double as charting the time it takes to charge the ring, it also reminds the bearer why they took that oath and why they are Green Lanterns. The Greenless Lantern John Stewart of Lanterns, a man who fought for a power he may not completely earn because racial nonsense and a crazy mom, decided to create his own oath.
Bullcrap! Stewart’s oath in this series misses what the oath stands for, replacing it with himself. I don’t care what the showrunners say, making the oath more “ghetto” and bringing up a blind Lantern who had to replace a line for her situation isn’t the same thing. The spirit of the proper Green Lantern oath was taken away. To demonstrate, let’s go over the TRUE Green Lantern oath and put it against Damon Lindelof’s oath to see just how wrong the new oath is.
In brightest day, in blackest night
Notice that the show changes “blackest” to “darkest”. On it’s own that’s not a complete turnaway, but as Geeks & Gamers contributor Martin Montanaro noted, it is where the “heresy”, as he put it, begins:
“Blackest night” in Green Lantern mythology isn’t racial terminology. Black and light are being used in their ancient metaphorical senses: absence of light versus illumination. The oath literally ends with “Green Lantern’s light.”
Changing that language because of racial connotations — if that influenced the decision — would impose precisely the racial framework onto the phrase that wasn’t there to begin with.
I’ve heard it accidentally replaced with “darkest” before, and I probably did it as well, so I’m not losing sleep over it. It is noteworthy, however. So what does this mean either way? “Brightest day” and “blackest/darkest night”. No matter what the situation is, a Lantern’s light shines against evil, and we’ll get back to that. Even in the brightest day, the light of a Green Lantern shines, and illuminates those who need its protection and those who need to be revealed. No night is dark enough to obscure the light of a Green Lantern. No matter how bleak things look, the Lantern will light the way. The choice of a lantern overall as a symbol, as far back in a meta sense to Alan Scott, who wasn’t the space cop Hal and his colleagues are, is a choice for a reason, something this show fails to do. Their version of John and the Guardians are hardly a light you want to follow. Unless every review and interview I’ve seen has lied to me, there is no light in the darkness but an embracing of it. To wit:
No evil shall escape my sight.
Montanaro notes that this John’s original oath does not even mention evil, nevermind fighting against it. He’ll “embrace this fear, and choose what’s right”. Apparently this includes letting a Manhunter go, killing another one that Hal wanted to bring in for trial (which might be payback for Hal doing the same thing to a guy he was ordered to snipe when he was in the military), letting Hal’s murderer go unpunished, stealing Hal’s ring, corrupting it with the yellow light of “fear”, and other details that led reviewers to declare that John was actually a villain, compared to other John Stewarts in the multiverse.
He was fighting a Manhunter in that clip.
In contrast, a proper Green Lantern’s light shines on evil, exposing them in the brightness and darkness. No matter where evil hides, a Green Lantern will find you and bring you to justice. After all…
Let those who worship evil’s might beware my power, Green Lantern’s light!
Meanwhile, John-in-name-only opted for “I choose this ring, I choose this fight, in service to this Lantern’s light”. In other words, service to himself. The ring isn’t chosen. It chooses its user, and on Earth it’s chosen quite a few, including John himself. In this show, he stole it, he wasn’t chosen. He lied, cheated, allowed the killer of his predecessor to go free, and if he could he would have let go someone who killed an entire planet of people. In the comics, it was even worse. The Manhunters destroyed an entire sector of space, leading to the formation of the Red Lanterns apologists kept assuming were in the show. Turns out they weren’t, because these creators cared more about their story than the comics, a running theme from both DC Studios and Marvel Studios lately.
Even Guy Gardner, the biggest jerk of the Green Lantern Corp, respects the oath. The oath taken by each Lantern is a call to what made them become a Lantern. Compare it to the other Lantern oaths:
Yellow Lanterns: “In Blackest Day, in brightest night; Beware your fears made into light. Let those who try to stop what’s right, Burn like his powers…Sinestro’s MIGHT!” The oath of those who follow Sinestro’s more violent approach to fighting evil, kicked out of the Corp for his extreme perspectives. In the comics prior to Geoff Johns and Ethan Van Sciver’s “emotional spectrum” nonsense, yellow was a counter to the Green Lantern ring’s “necessary impurity”. Even back then the ring chose someone who wasn’t “without fear”. Only a fool fears nothing, and bravery isn’t lacking fear but overcoming it. Hal became the greatest Green Lantern because he was so good at overcoming great fear that he could even overcome the impurity. Note that John-ish has embraced Sinestro’s point of view.
Star Sapphire: “For Hearts long lost and full of fright. For those alone in Blackest Night. Accept our ring and join our fight, Love conquers all with Violet’s light!”. The “Star Sapphire Corp” was retconned into the Multicolor Lantern nonsense. Originally it was about a corrupted version of love. It’s why Hal’s on-and-off girlfriend Carol Ferris was made one, as a counter to Hal. Under the retconned version, and granted my exposure to them is the most limited, it’s more about overcoming hate and evil with love and compassion. I admittedly don’t hate this, but it is a retcon that they were even tied to the Lanterns at all. Of course the Sinestro Corp wasn’t a thing, either.
Red Lanterns: “With Blood and Rage of crimson Red. We fill men’s souls with darkest dread. Together with our hellish hate, We’ll burn you all…that is your fate!” Remember, their whole sector of space was destroyed by the Manhunters. The Red Lanterns started as survivors of that tragedy, and every one of them is driven by some tragedy that befell them. They also drool blood acid because 2000s and probably Van Sciver. This is a man whose indie comic involves space insects turning people into honey. He’s kind of gross, regardless of his politics and social views. The Red Lanterns are all about hate and anger, which fuels the rings as much as their power batteries. If they lose that, they can’t use the Red Lantern rings.
Blue Lanterns: “In a Fearful Day, in Raging Night. With strong hearts full, our souls ignite. When all seems lost in the War of Light, look to the stars–For hope burns bright!” Blue Lanterns spread hope, though unless something’s changed their rings are useless since they can’t create constructs without another Lantern’s help. Not much else to say there. The Orange Lanterns are just one guy declaring his greed, and I don’t even know what the Indigo Lanterns are on about. All of these, even the Red and Yellow Lanterns, fight evil in their own way. Of course, there’s the actual evil Lanterns (Larfleeze is just a greedy ass) of the spectrum.
Black Lanterns: “The Blackest Night, falls from the skies. The Darkness grows as all light dies. We crave your hearts and your demise. By my Black Hand…the Dead Shall RISE!” Calling them the Zombie Lanterns isn’t quite accurate, but it works for this discussion. The Black Lanterns are about death and the undead.
The oath isn’t just some “silly poem”. It means something, it stands for something, it’s the embodiment given voice of what a Lantern believes, what drives them to push onward and overcome evil. it’s a reminder of what Hal, a better written John, Kyle, Guy, and everyone else chose to do when they became a Green Lantern. It’s why the oath matters. It’s why changing the oath shows the failings of this version of John Stewart. It’s all about him, closer to the Orange Lantern oath (Larfleeze going “mine” until the ring is charged, the article I linked to comparing it to the seagulls in Finding Nemo) because it’s not about overcoming evil. It’s about embracing fear, lifting himself over selfless duty to the sector he’s sworn to protect. John’s whole arc was a pursuit of power and getting it. That’s not a hero. Villains seek power for themselves. Heroes seek power only to protect what matters to them or overcome a great evil, not for the power itself.
The oath unites the Green Lanterns, and the other Corps (except for Orange of course, since the Corp is just Larfleeze making constructs that he trusts only because he owns them) in their shared cause. John’s oath separates him from everyone. It’s about him. It’s about his cause, his purpose, his desires. It’s a terrible oath on the surface, but the more you look into what the actual oath means the more you see the flaws, see how it makes him the true villain of the story. The ring is supposed to choose its bearer, something this show ignored from concept except to start John’s negative character arc with his parents pushing him towards taking power rather than being chosen to be worthy of it.
That’s why this show fails. That’s why this version of John pales compared to the other, and any pun in that was intentional because that comes on many fronts. Lanterns is a pale imitation of a comic and mythology that dates back to 1960 as well as its 2000s retcon. Even Johns and Van Sciver understood what the oath meant, what overcoming evil was all about. That’s something this show doesn’t. It’s about craving power and why that’s a good thing. The showrunners and writers have basically said that, knowingly or otherwise. I still find it funny that a show called Lanterns seems to be shining darkness instead of light, leading people away from the light. Don’t try to tell me the show is good and I don’t know because I haven’t seen it. I’ve seen enough to know this isn’t a superhero show, that John isn’t a good man and was brought up to not be a good man, and that there is no light in this story.
(As in there’s barely even sunlight in most of the clips I saw.)
The Clutter Reports (my other site)
Those of you who want to yell at me for just using reviews and official promotional material to decide not to watch HBO Max’s Greenless Lanterns…did they not change and ruin the oath? The promotional material says they did and to them it’s a good thing.
Given everything I’ve heard about this show, I’m not surprised that they don’t understand the Green Lantern oath. For one thing, they think its silly. Given what better writers have done with the oath, it makes them look even more, perhaps even willingly, ignorant.
One would think John Stewart, a former soldier, would understand what an oath means.
It’s not just some rallying cry, and while the Green Lantern oath (and probably some of the other Technicolor Lantern oaths) may double as charting the time it takes to charge the ring, it also reminds the bearer why they took that oath and why they are Green Lanterns. The Greenless Lantern John Stewart of Lanterns, a man who fought for a power he may not completely earn because racial nonsense and a crazy mom, decided to create his own oath.
Bullcrap! Stewart’s oath in this series misses what the oath stands for, replacing it with himself. I don’t care what the showrunners say, making the oath more “ghetto” and bringing up a blind Lantern who had to replace a line for her situation isn’t the same thing. The spirit of the proper Green Lantern oath was taken away. To demonstrate, let’s go over the TRUE Green Lantern oath and put it against Damon Lindelof’s oath to see just how wrong the new oath is.
In brightest day, in blackest night
Notice that the show changes “blackest” to “darkest”. On it’s own that’s not a complete turnaway, but as Geeks & Gamers contributor Martin Montanaro noted, it is where the “heresy”, as he put it, begins:
I’ve heard it accidentally replaced with “darkest” before, and I probably did it as well, so I’m not losing sleep over it. It is noteworthy, however. So what does this mean either way? “Brightest day” and “blackest/darkest night”. No matter what the situation is, a Lantern’s light shines against evil, and we’ll get back to that. Even in the brightest day, the light of a Green Lantern shines, and illuminates those who need its protection and those who need to be revealed. No night is dark enough to obscure the light of a Green Lantern. No matter how bleak things look, the Lantern will light the way. The choice of a lantern overall as a symbol, as far back in a meta sense to Alan Scott, who wasn’t the space cop Hal and his colleagues are, is a choice for a reason, something this show fails to do. Their version of John and the Guardians are hardly a light you want to follow. Unless every review and interview I’ve seen has lied to me, there is no light in the darkness but an embracing of it. To wit:
No evil shall escape my sight.
Montanaro notes that this John’s original oath does not even mention evil, nevermind fighting against it. He’ll “embrace this fear, and choose what’s right”. Apparently this includes letting a Manhunter go, killing another one that Hal wanted to bring in for trial (which might be payback for Hal doing the same thing to a guy he was ordered to snipe when he was in the military), letting Hal’s murderer go unpunished, stealing Hal’s ring, corrupting it with the yellow light of “fear”, and other details that led reviewers to declare that John was actually a villain, compared to other John Stewarts in the multiverse.
He was fighting a Manhunter in that clip.
In contrast, a proper Green Lantern’s light shines on evil, exposing them in the brightness and darkness. No matter where evil hides, a Green Lantern will find you and bring you to justice. After all…
Let those who worship evil’s might beware my power, Green Lantern’s light!
Meanwhile, John-in-name-only opted for “I choose this ring, I choose this fight, in service to this Lantern’s light”. In other words, service to himself. The ring isn’t chosen. It chooses its user, and on Earth it’s chosen quite a few, including John himself. In this show, he stole it, he wasn’t chosen. He lied, cheated, allowed the killer of his predecessor to go free, and if he could he would have let go someone who killed an entire planet of people. In the comics, it was even worse. The Manhunters destroyed an entire sector of space, leading to the formation of the Red Lanterns apologists kept assuming were in the show. Turns out they weren’t, because these creators cared more about their story than the comics, a running theme from both DC Studios and Marvel Studios lately.
Even Guy Gardner, the biggest jerk of the Green Lantern Corp, respects the oath. The oath taken by each Lantern is a call to what made them become a Lantern. Compare it to the other Lantern oaths:
Yellow Lanterns: “In Blackest Day, in brightest night; Beware your fears made into light. Let those who try to stop what’s right, Burn like his powers…Sinestro’s MIGHT!” The oath of those who follow Sinestro’s more violent approach to fighting evil, kicked out of the Corp for his extreme perspectives. In the comics prior to Geoff Johns and Ethan Van Sciver’s “emotional spectrum” nonsense, yellow was a counter to the Green Lantern ring’s “necessary impurity”. Even back then the ring chose someone who wasn’t “without fear”. Only a fool fears nothing, and bravery isn’t lacking fear but overcoming it. Hal became the greatest Green Lantern because he was so good at overcoming great fear that he could even overcome the impurity. Note that John-ish has embraced Sinestro’s point of view.
Star Sapphire: “For Hearts long lost and full of fright. For those alone in Blackest Night. Accept our ring and join our fight, Love conquers all with Violet’s light!”. The “Star Sapphire Corp” was retconned into the Multicolor Lantern nonsense. Originally it was about a corrupted version of love. It’s why Hal’s on-and-off girlfriend Carol Ferris was made one, as a counter to Hal. Under the retconned version, and granted my exposure to them is the most limited, it’s more about overcoming hate and evil with love and compassion. I admittedly don’t hate this, but it is a retcon that they were even tied to the Lanterns at all. Of course the Sinestro Corp wasn’t a thing, either.
Red Lanterns: “With Blood and Rage of crimson Red. We fill men’s souls with darkest dread. Together with our hellish hate, We’ll burn you all…that is your fate!” Remember, their whole sector of space was destroyed by the Manhunters. The Red Lanterns started as survivors of that tragedy, and every one of them is driven by some tragedy that befell them. They also drool blood acid because 2000s and probably Van Sciver. This is a man whose indie comic involves space insects turning people into honey. He’s kind of gross, regardless of his politics and social views. The Red Lanterns are all about hate and anger, which fuels the rings as much as their power batteries. If they lose that, they can’t use the Red Lantern rings.
Blue Lanterns: “In a Fearful Day, in Raging Night. With strong hearts full, our souls ignite. When all seems lost in the War of Light, look to the stars–For hope burns bright!” Blue Lanterns spread hope, though unless something’s changed their rings are useless since they can’t create constructs without another Lantern’s help. Not much else to say there. The Orange Lanterns are just one guy declaring his greed, and I don’t even know what the Indigo Lanterns are on about. All of these, even the Red and Yellow Lanterns, fight evil in their own way. Of course, there’s the actual evil Lanterns (Larfleeze is just a greedy ass) of the spectrum.
Black Lanterns: “The Blackest Night, falls from the skies. The Darkness grows as all light dies. We crave your hearts and your demise. By my Black Hand…the Dead Shall RISE!” Calling them the Zombie Lanterns isn’t quite accurate, but it works for this discussion. The Black Lanterns are about death and the undead.
The oath isn’t just some “silly poem”. It means something, it stands for something, it’s the embodiment given voice of what a Lantern believes, what drives them to push onward and overcome evil. it’s a reminder of what Hal, a better written John, Kyle, Guy, and everyone else chose to do when they became a Green Lantern. It’s why the oath matters. It’s why changing the oath shows the failings of this version of John Stewart. It’s all about him, closer to the Orange Lantern oath (Larfleeze going “mine” until the ring is charged, the article I linked to comparing it to the seagulls in Finding Nemo) because it’s not about overcoming evil. It’s about embracing fear, lifting himself over selfless duty to the sector he’s sworn to protect. John’s whole arc was a pursuit of power and getting it. That’s not a hero. Villains seek power for themselves. Heroes seek power only to protect what matters to them or overcome a great evil, not for the power itself.
The oath unites the Green Lanterns, and the other Corps (except for Orange of course, since the Corp is just Larfleeze making constructs that he trusts only because he owns them) in their shared cause. John’s oath separates him from everyone. It’s about him. It’s about his cause, his purpose, his desires. It’s a terrible oath on the surface, but the more you look into what the actual oath means the more you see the flaws, see how it makes him the true villain of the story. The ring is supposed to choose its bearer, something this show ignored from concept except to start John’s negative character arc with his parents pushing him towards taking power rather than being chosen to be worthy of it.
That’s why this show fails. That’s why this version of John pales compared to the other, and any pun in that was intentional because that comes on many fronts. Lanterns is a pale imitation of a comic and mythology that dates back to 1960 as well as its 2000s retcon. Even Johns and Van Sciver understood what the oath meant, what overcoming evil was all about. That’s something this show doesn’t. It’s about craving power and why that’s a good thing. The showrunners and writers have basically said that, knowingly or otherwise. I still find it funny that a show called Lanterns seems to be shining darkness instead of light, leading people away from the light. Don’t try to tell me the show is good and I don’t know because I haven’t seen it. I’ve seen enough to know this isn’t a superhero show, that John isn’t a good man and was brought up to not be a good man, and that there is no light in this story.
(As in there’s barely even sunlight in most of the clips I saw.)
Rate this:
Tell others about the Spotlight:
Related
Posted by ShadowWing Tronix on October 6, 2026 in DC Spotlight, Streaming Spotlight and tagged comic to streaming adaptation, commentary, DC Comics, DC Gunnverse, DC Studios, Green Lantern, Hollywood versus comics, John Stewart, Lanterns (HBO Max), the Lantern oath.
Leave a comment
About ShadowWing Tronix
A would be comic writer looking to organize his living space as well as his thoughts. So I have a blog for each goal. :)