I started reading comic books in the mid-1950s–Batman and Superman mostly. But by 1960, my favorite DC comic series was The Flash. Not far behind was Green Lantern. We all know about the Ryan Reynolds movie version of Green Lantern that bombed. Now we have a new series, Lanterns, on HBO MAX.

 Kyle Chandler’s Hal Jordan, the first of the intergalactic cops known as Green Lanterns recruited from Earth, is paired with John Stewart (Cairo Cash Lee) into plots that seem more like True Detective than a superhero series.

“Created by crime drama specialist Chris Mundy (True Detective, Ozark), TV eminence Damon Lindelof (Lost, The Leftovers), and Eisner-winning comics writer Tom King, it juggles their different strengths and points of view with mixed success.” Those audiences craving something like Spider-Man are going to be disappointed with this Buddies series with a dash of CGI. GRADE: Incomplete but trending towards a B-