Despite months of rumours and alleged leaks, no recognizable member of the Green Lantern Corps turned up in Justice League. That said, just because we didn’t get Armie Hammer suited up as Hal Jordan, which the internet had been collectively praying for, it doesn’t mean that the mythology of the Lanterns wasn’t teased in the movie.
During a flashback to the last time Steppenwolf and his Parademons invaded our planet, Wonder Woman explains that all the people of the Earth joined together to fight them – mankind, Atlanteans, Amazons et al. Not just that, but the Gods also lent a hand, as did the aforementioned Emerald knights of the universe. In particular, we saw one alien Green Lantern fall prey to Steppenwolf during the battle, with his Power Ring flying off into space to recruit a new hero into the Corps.
Due to the ill-fated extraterrestrial only having a brief role, it’s proved difficult for fans to work out whether this character has a history in the comics. As it turns out though, he does, and this particular GL actually comes with an interesting backstory. Redditor StrandingDeath was on hand to prove the connection between the movie Lantern and the comic book character called Yalan Gur – and you can check out his reasoning here.
For those who may not know, Yalan Gur is a one-issue wonder on the page, so if you consider yourself an expert in DC lore but hadn’t heard of him, then that’s fair enough. Back in 1991’s Green Lantern #19, it was revealed that Gur was the Lantern assigned to Sector 2814 in the 10th century. He became corrupted by the power, however, and attempted to enslave China.
Obviously, in the DCEU the character has a much different – and far more noble – fate, but it’s a nice nod to the comics that the filmmakers included a Lantern who’s canonically from that time period. It’s the sort of close attention to detail that fans appreciate – even if 99.9% of the audience won’t ever pick up on it.
Of course, we could have had two more famous Lanterns involved in Justice League, as well – namely, Tomar-Re and Kilowog meeting with Bruce Wayne in an aborted post-credits sequence. Fingers crossed that the scene will materialize in the fabled Director’s Cut.
Justice League is now playing in theaters worldwide.
