Lindelof Being Wrong Doesn’t Mean Grant Morrison Is Right

Posted in: Comics, Opinion, TV, TV | Tagged: grant morrison, green lantern, lanterns, opinion

We look at Grant Morrison’s thoughts on HBO’s Lanterns and Damon Lindelof’s past comments to make the case that they’re BOTH wrong.

Discussing comics being adapted into television series is one of those conversations that can turn pretty ugly, pretty fast. I will readily admit that, as much as I love and defend it, television hasn’t always had the best track record when it comes to bringing comic book pages to the small screen. That said, we’ve also seen quite a few great series that have either matched or surpassed what the source material offered. And if we’re really going to have an honest conversation, then you have to add into the mix that there are more than a few comics fans out there with their own adaptations in their heads who won’t accept anything that doesn’t match it. That brings me to something that was brought to my attention over the weekend: some comments that writer and comics great Grant Morrison had to share about Chris Mundy (True Detective: Night Country), Damon Lindelof (Watchmen), and Tom King‘s (Supergirl) Aaron Pierre and Kyle Chandler-starring Lanterns.

In a recent edition of their Substack, Xanaduum (“15/3 WOKE WAR THREE”), Morrison responded to a clip from Lindelof’s 2025 appearance on the Lovett or Leave It podcast. When asked why the DC Studios series was called “Lanterns” instead of “Green Lantern,” Lindelof responded, “It’s called ‘Lanterns’ because we all agreed that the green was stupid, so now it’s just ‘Lanterns.'”:

TV writer/producer Damon Lindelof’s comments notwithstanding, the ‘Green’ in ‘Green Lantern(s)’ green is not ‘stupid’. Why does a writer attach himself to this kind of narrative if he thinks it’s fundamentally ‘stupid’? You don’t hand CSI scripts to patronising writers who condemn forensics experts and their haircuts as ‘stupid’, so why hire people who are ashamed and in denial about the comic book material they’ve been assigned to develop? Why don’t they turn down jobs they’re not suited for? It’s not like he needs the money, and Lindelof has proven that he can come up with his own ideas. What is this jockish dismissal of superhero conventions intended to prove anyway? Does Lindelof imagine it makes him seem less nerdy? It’s a bit too late for that, so what’s it all about? The only people who give a fuck about the Lanterns TV series are Green Lantern fans. Why alienate them at the start? That feels more like ‘stupid’.

Do I think it was a smart move by Lindelof? Nope, especially considering his experience working on HBO’s Watchmen should’ve been enough for him to avoid that kind of self-inflicted PR wound. The fact that it was said in a slightly snarky, trying-to-be-funny way didn’t exactly help the matter. That said, is a stupid comment on a podcast worth that kind of pushback? It would be like asking me to condemn all of Morrison’s work moving forward because they had some questionable views about using AI only a few scant months ago. I’ve been running under the impression, based on what’s been out there since the series was first announced, that it would be called Lanterns because it would focus on more than just the Green Lantern Corps.

Regarding “why hire people who are ashamed and in denial about the comic book material they’ve been assigned to develop,” Lindelof hurt his case, but this overall thought process that comics are sacred texts that shouldn’t be touched has proven false time and time again (with Prime Video and Showrunner Eric Kripke‘s The Boys being just one example). As for whether Lindelof is “not suited” for the job based on what Morrison laid out, the success of Lindelof’s Watchmen spinoff would seem to put that argument to rest. That last point actually leads into Morrison’s final comments on the matter:

‘Green Lanterns’ is a much more evocative and dramatic title than ‘Lanterns’, (just as ‘Raise the Red Lantern’ is a better movie title than ‘Raise the Lantern’), and anyone who can’t grasp why that is shouldn’t be anywhere near superhero stories. The show might even be good, but how much better could this stuff be if studios were willing to hire the right people for the job instead of phoning their embarrassed friends to water the source material down? Hollywood will die of insularity and inbreeding.

Well, it appears Lindelof’s comments from last year were more than enough for Morrison to run under the assumption that Lanterns is going to suck – even though less than five minutes of footage has been released (though it seems Morrison is willing to concede that  “The show might even be good…”: not exactly a “good luck and break a leg!”). But this line is the one that really hits hard: “How much better could this stuff be if studios were willing to hire the right people for the job instead of phoning their embarrassed friends to water the source material down?”

A couple of things. First, it should be a given that when possible, the folks who created the work being adapted should be involved in how it goes from the page to the screen. Does that mean they should be the ones running the production or having final creative say? No. Because, as much as it would be insulting to compare Lindelof’s comics-writing track record to Morrison’s, it would be equally insulting to compare Morrison’s television experience to the person responsible for LOST, The Leftovers, Watchmen, and other pop culture-redefining series on the small screen. Was Mark Millar‘s series run over at Netflix a success? Because he made it clear throughout the production of Jupiter’s Legacy that the adaptation was his vision – and we saw the results. We’ve seen other comic creators jump into leadership roles in their adaptations, only to realize how different working in that world is from working in comics. I don’t think a call for mutual respect is a lot to ask for…

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