A lot of fans are sighing with great relief that, for the moment, it seems the reports of Jack Black as “Green Lantern” were premature.
But ohhh, the hullabaloo the original announcement caused. The cries of outrage. The shrieks that this was a ridiculous idea, that a comedic take on Green Lantern was an insult–insult, I say!–was a terrible concept, rotten to the Corps.
I would like to respond to that with one word: G’Nort.
Yes, G’Nort, the long-standing member of the Lantern Corp who is nothing but a huge in-joke. He’s a canine incarnation of Art Carney’s Ed Norton. Not to be confused with that other height of seriousness, Ch’p, the Green Lantern squirrel. And then there’s Mojo, the Green Lantern sentient planet.
I mean, what the hëll?!? Fans are willing to accept that there’s a Green Lantern that’s basically a giant piece of sentient broccoli, but they draw the line at a short chubby man? Speaking as a short chubby man, I take great exception to this. I like to think that I’m at least as worthy of a power ring as sentient broccoli.
I personally wouldn’t have minded the notion of an unlikely guy acquiring a power ring, using it for all the predictable, self-serving purposes until he slowly comes to realize the potential for heroism and the selfishness of using such power for his own ends. Could be a darned good character arc…certainly more promising from a movie point of view than the adventures of a guy who has absolutely no sense of fear acquiring a ring and going off to unhesitatingly do good with it.
Then again, keep in mind that fans went nuts when Michael Keaton was cast as Bruce Wayne. And Spider-Man’s web spinners were going to be organic.
What is this inability that many fans have to be so unyielding in their preconceptions…especially in the case of Green Lantern, the most malleable concept in comics?
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