Lanterns review: John Stewart gives DC’s superhero drama its soul

Lanterns HBO Max

Released August 2026

“Aaron Pierre gives Lanterns a compelling emotional centre, even as its slow-burning murder mystery struggles to maintain momentum.”

Pros

• Aaron Pierre owns the screen as John Stewart
• John and Hal have genuine friction and chemistry
• The Green Lantern mythology feels grounded in character
• Small details reward closer attention

Cons

• The murder mystery doesn’t always provide enough momentum
• The slow-burn approach occasionally loses momentum
• Some supporting characters take too long to become interesting

John Stewart has spent most of his life preparing for a job Hal Jordan has no intention of giving up. Unfortunately for John, Hal is also the man responsible for teaching him how to do it. It is a terrible arrangement for a trainee and a promising one for a television series. Six episodes into Lanterns, watching the relationship between these two men become increasingly complicated has started to win me over.

The early True Detective comparisons were partly why I came to the show late. The first season had Matthew McConaughey and Woody Harrelson making a conversation in a car as compelling as anything happening at a crime scene. Rust and Marty’s relationship, the unsettling atmosphere, and the sense of a place holding on to its secrets made it memorable. I could understand the reference, but it also created a fairly high bar for a superhero show before I had even watched an episode. A murder mystery alone isn’t enough to make Lanterns compelling, and the series occasionally struggles with that distinction.

I was also coming to Lanterns after The Boys, curious to see whether it could become my next superhero obsession. It doesn’t take long to realise this is a very different kind of show. The powers are there, but the series is far more interested in the people carrying them. Six episodes in, John Stewart is the reason I want to keep watching. Aaron Pierre brings a quiet intensity to a man who has spent years preparing himself for a life he isn’t entirely sure how to live once it finally arrives.

John Stewart is worth getting to know

John could easily have been the most straightforward character in Lanterns: a disciplined young recruit, talented enough to earn the ring, inexperienced enough to need Hal Jordan. Pierre gives him considerably more to work with. The series has already introduced us to heavy-hitters such as Sinestro and Carol Ferris, but all the way into the sixth episode, it’s the reluctantly charismatic chemistry between Jordan and John that keeps you hooked.

A lot of John’s personality lives in what he doesn’t say. He rarely gives Hal the reaction Hal is looking for, even when the irritation is obvious. There is a stiffness to him, but it doesn’t feel like bad acting or a character written without a sense of humour. It feels learned. John knows how he is expected to behave, and Pierre makes you aware of the effort involved in maintaining that control.

The third episode remains my favourite because it finally gives some context to the person behind that composure. His upbringing makes his ambition feel less like a generic superhero trait and more like something he has been carrying for years. Success isn’t simply something John wants. It has been presented to him as something he needs to be ready for.

His relationship with Hal becomes more interesting once you understand this. Hal can treat the job casually in ways John simply can’t afford to. For someone who has spent so much of his life preparing to be taken seriously, watching the person he is supposed to learn from behave as though none of it matters must be infuriating.

The show is also smart enough not to make John completely easy to read. He keeps things from the people around him, sometimes for reasons we understand and sometimes for reasons we don’t. By the time he gets a chance to claim something he has wanted for so long, his hesitation lands precisely because the series has shown us the weight attached to that moment.

John’s problem may not be whether he is ready to become a Green Lantern. It may be whether he has spent so long preparing for the role that he has left himself very little room to figure out who he is without it.

His mother explains a lot about him

John’s mother is one of the most fascinating characters in the series so far, partly because she makes his ambition more complicated rather than simply explaining it. She understands the world her son is growing up in, and she knows John may have to work harder to receive the same consideration as a Black man. Much of her parenting seems shaped by preparing him for that reality. We can clearly see her influence in the way John carries himself. He has learned to be prepared, to expect more from himself and to never assume he will be given anything easily.

It helps explain the discipline, the restraint and the constant sense that John is evaluating himself even when nobody else appears to be doing it. His mother wants him to be ready for a world that may judge him more harshly, but being prepared all the time can become its own burden.

The birds are a small detail I keep thinking about. As a child, John is told the Guardians are watching him through them. Later, he creates a bird with the ring. I may be reading too much into it, but the connection feels deliberate. Something John associated with being watched and assessed has found its way into how he uses his power. The show may take the idea further, but even now it makes the creation feel personal rather than simply another demonstration of what the ring can do.

Hal is convincing, even if I connect with him less

Kyle Chandler makes Hal convincing, although I haven’t connected with him as strongly as I have with John. There is something inherently uncomfortable about watching an established hero realise someone younger may eventually take his place. Hal has spent years being the person everyone looks to, and John’s arrival forces him to confront the possibility that being exceptional was never going to last forever.

Chandler doesn’t play Hal as a bitter old hero clinging desperately to his relevance. There is charm there, along with the confidence of someone who has been very good at this for a very long time. His casual attitude can be funny, but it also becomes a source of friction once you see how seriously John takes the opportunity.

John has spent years preparing to become a Green Lantern. Hal has spent years being one. That difference is probably the most useful thing the show has going for their partnership. Their exchanges are a large part of why the relationship still works for me. I enjoy the dry humour of John’s restrained responses against Hal’s tendency to provoke him. The Disneyland exchange in the fourth episode is a particular favourite. It is the kind of humour I want more of from them, where their different ways of thinking are enough to make a scene amusing without either character having to turn into a punchline.

The relationship also works because neither man’s problem with the other is entirely professional. John wants to prove he belongs. Hal isn’t ready to accept the possibility that someone else might eventually replace him. Their investigation keeps forcing those insecurities into the same room. They can investigate together without necessarily trusting each other, and the series is having fun with the difference.

Superpowers without constant spectacle

Viewers arriving mainly for big, crowd-pleasing superhero action may not get their fix from Lanterns. The powers are part of the story, but much of the viewing experience involves conversations, investigation, and the people caught up in it. The action also doesn’t have the same level of gore or excess as The Boys.

The contrast is more interesting than a simple question of which show has more action. The Boys is fascinated by what happens when people with extraordinary abilities stop being accountable to anyone. Lanterns is more interested in the responsibility attached to having power in the first place.

John is a particularly good fit for that idea. He has wanted the ring for years, but getting it doesn’t magically resolve the doubts and expectations he brings with him. If anything, the power gives all of them greater consequences.

The restraint mostly works. Lanterns doesn’t need someone throwing a car through a building every ten minutes to remind us these are superheroes. A conversation between John and Hal can reveal more about the kind of heroes they are than another large-scale fight. I came to the show expecting something closer to the superhero excess of The Boys, but I don’t miss it nearly as much as I expected to.

There is more to Lanterns than the murder

There is a point where Lanterns starts to feel less like a show trying to live up to its influences and more like a series figuring out what it wants to say about its characters. John and Hal are not simply two Green Lanterns with very different personalities. Their ideas of what it means to be a hero come from completely different places, and the more time they spend together, the harder it becomes for either of them to hold on to those ideas unchanged.

John’s story is the one I am most interested in following. He has spent years preparing for this opportunity, but I don’t think the interesting question is whether he can become a good Green Lantern. It is what happens when he finally gets the thing he has worked toward for so long. His mother’s influence, his need to prove himself, and his complicated relationship with Hal have all shaped the person he has become. I want to see whether becoming a Lantern gives him the freedom he has been looking for or simply gives him another standard he feels he has to meet.

Hal has a different problem. He has already been the hero John is trying to become, and he isn’t particularly interested in giving up that position. Kyle Chandler makes the insecurity underneath his confidence believable, but there is still more I want from the character. His relationship with John has the potential to get him there. Their best scenes are the ones where the irritation, humour and genuine differences between them are all present at once.

The Rushville investigation needs to find its place alongside those character arcs. I don’t need the show to turn every episode into a race to the next clue, but the mystery has to start carrying some of the weight currently being carried by the characters. The more the case forces John and Hal to confront their own assumptions, the more useful it becomes to the story rather than simply giving them something to investigate.

I also like the fact that Lanterns is willing to let its heroes be uncertain. Superhero stories can make power look like an answer to everything. Here, the ring doesn’t make John’s decisions easier, and experience hasn’t made Hal particularly comfortable with change. Both men have plenty of confidence in what they can do, but neither seems entirely sure what they should do next.

At this point, I feel that Lanterns still has plenty to prove. The pacing needs to settle, the Rushville investigation needs to become more compelling. Having said that, there is enough here to make me want to see these arcs through. John has become the emotional centre of the show for me, Hal is beginning to reveal the person behind the confidence, and the Rushville mystery has the potential to bring the two stories together. I am looking forward to seeing how this one pans out, but yeah, I am not exactly holding my breath for the next episode.

Lantern is streaming on HBO Max and the HBO TV channel on other streaming platforms, with new episodes dropping each Sunday.