The Green Lantern Easter Egg in 'Justice League,' Explained
The DC movie universe is under Green Lantern jurisdiction, now.
The premier superhero team of the DC Universe has finally assembled in Justice League. Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, the Flash, Aquaman, and Cyborg are finally united, but there’s one major DC hero missing from Zack Snyder and Joss Whedon’s movie. Or, maybe not, as there’s a huge Green Lantern Easter egg in the new movie.
This post contains Justice League spoilers.
Justice League blows the DC Universe wide open by introducing Steppenwolf (Ciarán Hinds), the uncle and general to DC’s ultimate big bad Darkseid, as he brings in his Parademon army to collect Earth’s three Mother Boxes, powerful alien supercomputers capable of awesome power. It’s not the first time he tried to conquer the planet, as the Amazon’s explain in a flashback scene.
In a scene that resembles the beginning of Lord of the Rings more than any superhero movie, Steppenwolf and his army of Parademons face down against the combined might of Amazons, the Atlanteans, “the armies of men,” and some allies from other worlds. Those allies are unmistakably members of the Green Lantern Corps. They’re extremely hard to miss; in a battlefield of hot auburn and brown colors, warriors who give off lime green energy and wear bright green rings have a few moments onscreen. When one dies, Steppenwolf even watches as a deceased Corps member’s ring flies off, looking for another worthy wielder, confirming the Green Lantern Corps exist in the DC movie universe
In case 2011’s Green Lantern with Ryan Reynolds has been wiped clean from your memory (in which case, lucky), the Green Lantern Corps are intergalactic peacekeepers made up of extraordinary individuals of willpower. Commanded by the ancient Guardians of Oa, the Green Lantern Corps are basically space cops, and from Earth, a number of humans have become Green Lanterns.
The most popular Green Lantern is Hal Jordan, who debuted in the Silver Age in Showcase #22 in 1959. But there have also been other Lanterns, including Alan Scott (an older character with a slightly different origin), Kyle Rayner, John Stewart (not to be confused with Jon Stweart of The Daily Show), and the meat-headed Guy Gardner.
Simon Baz and Jessica Cruz, Earth's two current Green Lanterns.
Currently, there are two humans designated as Earth’s Green Lanterns. Simon Baz, a Muslim-American mechanic and ex-con from Detroit, and Jessica Cruz, a 20-something woman who suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder. In the ongoing Green Lanterns comic series by Sam Humphries, Baz and Cruz struggle to work together as rookie cops whilst Hal Jordan deals with intergalactic politics in Hal Jordan and the Green Lantern Corps. Both books launched in 2016, so it’s easy to catch up if Justice League ignited some interest in you.
There’s no official Green Lantern movie on Warner Bros.’s schedule yet, though.
Justice League is in theaters now.
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