Lanterns – OutKast review S1 E3
OutKast significantly raises the bar for the rest of this season of Lanterns. This episode provided some essential context on the dynamic between John Stewart and Hal Jordan and the pursuit of greatness.
What stood out the most with OutKast was how director Stephen Williams and writer Vanessa Baden Kelly took full advantage of the TV series format to craft such a compelling superhero origin. As OutKast ended, still 10 years out from the pilot episode’s cliffhanger, it created a unique excitement to see John become Green Lantern.
Not just from a “the comic book series needs to end with the hero fully suited up in his superhero costume” perspective, but from a character and his support system actually getting to see the dream they sacrificed so much to make happen come to fruition.
This was a Matthew & Tina Knowles, Sonja Norwood, Tina Douglas, Wanda Durant or Richard Williams type story where parents see something special in their child and make the tough choices to forsake a “normal” childhood in order to achieve the greater good of establishing the foundation for them to truly be special.
That’s not the norm for a superhero origin, which tends to get kickstarted by a horrible tragedy — Superman’s planet gets destroyed, Batman’s parents are gunned down in front of him, Uncle Ben gets killed because Spider-Man was in his teenage feelings.
OutKast begins in 2016 with John falling from the sky into a deserted mall with a few random signs directing him to the manager’s office. There’s an Easter Egg for comic fans with a clever mention of Janus Cosmetics. In the comics, the Janus Directive was a storyline that crossed over into the Suicide Squad, Task Force X and Checkmate over a fake piece of intel spread by Kobra concealing his real plan to take over the world.
John goes to the manager’s office and meets a guardian (Laura Linney), who’s in human form so as not to make him uncomfortable. After testing his patience by making him wait until the next day to actually interview him, she’s curious why he didn’t ask why he was selected for the Green Lantern gig. John confidently responds he knows exactly why he’s here.
The scene shifts to 1996 with the Stewart household settled in for the night. One of baby John’s brothers calls for their mother, Bernadette (Jasmine Cephas Jones, Hamilton), while John Sr. stays in bed as baby John is in his crib. A green light enters in the room asking if John Sr. was afraid. When he responds he is, the light fades out and baby John starts crying.
Not long after, John Sr. is agitated watching a TV news report on Green Lantern — Hal still wearing his mask at this point. Bernadette is horrified to see him so distraught and wants him out of the house after he shoots the TV. OutKast is an entire episode about subverting expectations.
The Guardian goes to Bernadette to apologize for any discomfort John Sr. experienced as trauma has been an unintended side effect of the initial interview process. Bernadette is still unsure until the Guardian reveals its true self. While OutKast doesn’t have Laura Linney dressed up like a Guardian the entire episode, at least we do get a decently explained reason and a tease of the accurate comic book look.
Kelly writes a devastating line when Bernadette asks the Guardian if it “knows how unfair it is to ask a black man if he is afraid? Even in space y’all don’t consider us.”
As John Sr. is no cliche himself, it’s fair to consider that he has a loving wife and three boys, so he absolutely has something to be fearful about losing let alone his own life if he gets caught in the wrong position.
Realizing John Sr. hadn’t lost his mind, Bernadette apologizes to her husband and shares that the Guardian thought John Jr. might be a worthwhile Lantern candidate prompting her to suggest they train John to be fearless. His brothers can’t be candidates since they’re too old and already know fear. John’s parents use the moment that nearly ruined their marriage — John Sr. being passed over as a Green Lantern — as the motivating factor to make John the ideal candidate as a means of making things right.
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Cephas Jones and Nicholson absolutely cannot be overlooked when it comes to TV supporting performances in the next award cycle. They were both incredible here as parents trying to do right by their son even if it’s straining their family.
This means John doesn’t get a regular childhood. For his fifth birthday, he gets a Green Lantern costume and a rifle to visualize his target and learn how to shoot it. That provides some much-needed context to one of the pilot episode’s wildest moments when young John is happy to test his lack of fear as his father shoots an apple off his head.
His father and John weren’t crazy — they were training. It’s young John who first suggests the apple shot test “like William Tell” and Bernadette who encourages John Sr. to do it. And after every round of practice it’s off to get a cheeseburger, which actually explains why John doesn’t eat meat.
As far as the bird construct from last week? Bernadette told John the birds reported back to the Guardians to inform of his progress kinda like a year-round Elf on a Shelf. This made birds a favorite for John’s drawing hobby. This does kind of butt up against the background of Kyle Rayner, but it works in this context. John’s parents have him so focused that his older brothers question his “blackness” because he doesn’t sound or act like them making him feel like a true OutKast even among his family.
John is still fearful to the point he doesn’t want to pull the trigger and try to shoot the apple off his father’s head. It’s not until Bernadette explains she lied about the birds and that the only reason Hal Jordan was chosen over his father was because Hal was privileged enough to not know fear.
“Sometimes a black man has to raise his own hand. They don’t see us. So we make ourselves seen. We can’t worry about the choosing part. Choose yourself.” Cephas Jones truly got so many of the best lines in OutKast and absolutely delivered in every scene. John is ready to shoot now but wants to try to shoot the apple off his mother’s head.
The pilot episode made clear that John’s father was still alive allowing for an opening for some cliche superhero trauma to unfold with his mother dying. Fortunately, Outkast went in the unexpected direction and had Bernadette not just survive, but see John get the call she was the driving force in helping to make a reality. John succeeds and tells Bernadette he doesn’t really like cheeseburgers.
The Guardian wants to know why John was dishonorably discharged from the military. He was assigned to take out a high value target, who he staked out for 9 months until the perfect shot presented itself. Just when that moment finally arrives, Hal Jordan swoops in and grabbed him to serve out a prison sentence. The government needed a scapegoat and John agreed to do it.
Now kicked out of the military in part due to Hal Jordan doing his own thing, John is at a loss. Bernadette enrolled him in art school and he becomes very proficient at it — enough to get called for a special assignment. He’s asked to draw the exterior of the building and then his father’s watch. For the latter, he can’t use a pencil, but rather a Green Lantern ring. The Guardian is pleased and sends him along for the interview with the manager.
The manager Guardian isn’t upset that John has reason to have some beef with Jordan. There is concern with the Guardians that Hal still respects Sinestro, who killed one of their own when he betrayed the Corps. That was big enough that it made the news on Earth and John is familiar with the story.
“Would you be comfortable replacing Hal Jordan under the guise you will be his protege?” John responds in the manner that perfectly lines up with how he’s approached everything else in OutKast. “Are those my orders? Than it doesn’t matter if I’m comfortable with it.”
John’s big moment has arrived and before he can share the news with his parents, he finds Hal Jordan in the kitchen chatting with his folks, “The Midwest Huxtables.” Hal’s references are a tad dated by 2016. Hal drops all the friendly pretenses when he walks outside with John and tells him he doesn’t want a sidekick or a protege and the only way he’s giving up the ring is over his cold, dead body. Check and check on that front.
In the chef’s kiss moment of the episode, OutKast ends with Gasoline Dreams from OutKast.
As a staunch skeptic of Lanterns when it was announced, these first three episodes have fully won me over with Outkast easily in the conversation for one of the best hours of TV this year. Based on the first batch of episodes, there’s no reason to doubt it, but if the series continues along this path, it could make for one of the finest comic book TV seasons from DC or Marvel.
Rating: 10 out of 10
Photo Credit: HBO
After watching OutKast,
check out Green Lantern: Back in Action on trade paperback at Amazon.
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