I can pinpoint the exact moment I lost the will to live when it came to superhero TV. It was The Falcon and the Winter Soldier. The whole thing read like the screenwriter had copied and pasted quips from every Marvel movie into one haphazard script, and I realised that I absolutely didn't need this tired genre of action sequences and magical suits in my life anymore.
I wasn't alone. As 'superhero fatigue' was coined to explain the dwindling box office power of these former blockbuster giants, studio bosses appeared to pause and reassess what audiences actually wanted.
As it turns out, we wanted superhero shows that don't feel like superhero shows at all — and HBO’s Lanterns is the latest, perfect example. And what did we want? As it turns out, it was superhero shows that aren't really superhero shows at all - and Lanterns is the latest, perfect example.
Lanterns is based on the DC Comics Green Lantern, but rather than an origin story, or green-spandex clad heroics, the show is grounded in reality, with a detective style drama taking precedence over otherworldly shenanigans.
In the series, any hints of powers or extraterrestrial mysteries are told as manner of fact and dull with little sense of wonder and taken for granted. Aliens are on the news, and so what? Hal's magic ring is running out of battery and he forgot his charger. A mass shooting has alien victims. John brings Hal his superhero uniform only to be laughed at. And so on.
This is what I have been enjoying from superhero shows lately, and one of the show's co-creators Damon Lindelof is certainly no stranger to it. Merging alternate worlds where superheroes exist with reality makes for a solid, pragmatic plot that almost makes us forget we're watching any 'super' at all. The screenwriter's excellent 2019 adaptation of Watchmen feels like the blueprint that Lanterns is following, and I only wish there had been more following suit.
Fortunately, Lanterns and Watchmen aren't the only ones. Marvel achieved a similar subversion with Wonder Man, which was again less of a superhero series, and more about a passionate actor hiding a part of himself to take his shot at Hollywood. Then there's The Penguin. With no mention of Batman, DC took on a comic book villain from Gothic and made an authentically brutal gangster drama.
© HBOOf course we'll always have our flat-out superhero series - Daredevil: Born Again and VisionQuest being among them, but reshaping superheroes with a gritty, grounded identity is what cured me of my superhero fatigue. How about you?
