So you’re frustrated…

The Lanterns finale has people arguing across YouTube and Twitter about whether this is a fair adaptation of John Stewart and Hal Jordan. I haven’t watched the show and I’m not telling you whether to like it. I want to talk about the reaction.

First, you’re not wrong to expect accuracy. I’ve vouched for comic fans on this channel for years. You read the source material, you know who these characters are, and wanting an adaptation to respect that is not an unreasonable position. Nobody should gaslight you into thinking something’s wrong with you for it.

But here’s the reality I had to come to terms with, and I think a lot of you need to as well. These things are usually not made with you in mind, and that starts with who’s making them. A lot of the people writing, directing and starring in live action adaptations are not deep fans of the material. There are spec writers who build an entire career on loose concepts, pitch them, and a studio bolts an existing IP onto the thing afterward. Strip the names and the artifacts out and you’d have the same story, because the IP was never the starting point. For plenty of these people it’s a stepping stone to get their work seen, and that’s exactly why the big cinematic universes were so attractive to writers in the first place.

John Cena said this out loud about Peacemaker. When he asked James Gunn whether he should go read every Peacemaker comic to prepare, Gunn told him not to. Read the script instead. Cena said he didn’t read a single comic before or during production.

Then there’s the normie audience, which is the bigger tool. They’re not coming in with your knowledge base, and they don’t want homework. If it’s accessible and it looks expensive, they’ll show up. Capture that crowd and the accuracy question never costs anybody anything.

So at some point it becomes unhealthy to keep slamming your head into a wall expecting something different from people who’ve shown you for years that they aren’t interested in giving it to you. If you want something that actually respects a world, the original creators or the people instrumental in building it generally have to be attached. Anything far removed from that, I think is over with.

You’re not wrong to be frustrated. I just want you to think about it differently, and that’s going to take purposeful action from you as a customer. That’s the only way to the other side.

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#Lanterns #GreenLantern #Comics #Adaptations