One of the many announcements at NY Comic Con this year is the new animated show Green Lantern: The Animated Series. Coming on the heels of the recent live action movie, this show has the promise of being more of a hit than the Hollywood film.
The show will skip the standard introduction of the main characters. Given that most old and new fans went to see the live action film, rehashing the origin of Hal Jordan is unnecessary. But for the sake of this report let us do a quick over view of how he began. Hal Jordan is a test pilot for Ferris Air. An alien that has crashed on Earth bestows upon him a ring which has the ability to turn thought into reality. The alien is a member of an intergalactic police force called the Green Lantern Corps which is governed by an ancient race of aliens known as The Guardians.
Now that we have that out of the way we can focus on the animated show. Playing the part of Hal Jordan is actor Josh Keaton, and voicing the part of tough-as-nails drill sergeant Kilowog is legendary voice actor Kevin Michael Richardson. Anyone who is a fan of animated shows has heard his voice over the years on numerous shows. Most recently in the new Cartoon Network show Thunder Cats. The new animated series will focus on similar story lines that were covered in the comic book, the biggest one being the War of Light storyline in which it is discovered that there are other colors of emotion to be harnessed just like the Green Lantern power of will for example the yellow power of fear and the red power of rage.
For the moment the main villain in the show will be Atrocitus who will be voiced by Jonathan Adams. Atrocitus commands the Red Rage Lanterns and clearly the power is derived from intense anger and rage. At the panel guests were treated to some early footage of the show, which for those fans who bought the live action Green Lantern DVD, will recognize a lot of the same scenes from the special features on that DVD. The show follows the more CGI look similar to Jimmy Neutron as opposed to the traditional 2D animation of many other shows. Regardless of how it is was created; the show looks fantastic and plays out well in this format.
That is mainly because for comic books animation has always been the better field to translate that material. It is rare for a live action film to capture a comic book properly, only a few cases do it well i.e. the new Batman franchise. It is shame that most adults still view animation as something for children because many of the stories covered in animation are just as "adult" as many TV shows of today.
Green Lantern: The Animated Series has a lot riding on it but as always with many of the DC related TV shows, there is a strong level of commitment and love that go into making it. So for fans who eagerly await its debut on Cartoon Network, there is no need to worry, it will be well worth the wait.
