Frank and Thomas break down the full first season of HBO's Lanterns the night after the finale, from John Stewart's new oath to Hal Jordan's "I love you, Junior" goodbye. Frank had the season sitting at a six until the last episode pulled it up to a strong eight.

The conversation keeps splitting along one line: how the show plays for a comic reader versus someone who only knows the DCU on screen. That split shapes the read on John embracing fear, the lantern that looked more yellow than green, his choice to let Noah live, and a villain lineup that gave Sinestro too little screen time and Antaan almost nothing to do. The back half looks ahead to Man of Tomorrow, what a second season should be about, and the questions about Hal and Sheriff Kerry Kane the finale left open. Full spoilers start at 11:12.

Timestamps and Topics

• 00:00 Housekeeping and the John Stewart Patreon Statue
• 01:53 Finale Gut Reactions and Season Scores
• 11:12 John Stewart as the Cowboy Green Lantern (Full Spoilers)
• 17:22 The Yellow Lantern Tease and the Noah Decision
• 26:23 John's Family and the Hal Jordan Goodbye
• 39:53 Where the Villains Fell Short
• 46:29 Lanterns in Man of Tomorrow and Season 2
• 49:57 Final Thoughts
• 55:44 Side Quest and Patreon Shout-Out

Key Takeaways

• The finale changed Frank's score for the whole season. Knowing where the story lands made earlier weak spots, like the limited Sinestro time, play as setup.
• John's new oath includes "I embrace fear." To a comic reader that sounds like Parallax. Taken on its own, it gives the Green Lanterns the thing Frank and Thomas said they were missing back in their episode one review: admitting fear exists and overcoming it.
• Frank compares the repaired lantern to kintsugi, the Japanese practice of mending broken pottery with gold, as a way to read the yellow in it as a flaw being honored.
• Sparing Noah is the choice that sells John as a superhero. He takes on the risk of a young Manhunter and commits to becoming strong enough to stop him if it comes to that.
• The villains were the weakest part of the season. Zoe is gone by the midpoint, Antaan's crew never returns, and Ulrich Thomsen's Sinestro needed more scenes.
• For Man of Tomorrow, Frank wants John in a role as active as Mister Terrific's in Superman, plus a clear signal of what Lanterns season two is about.

Quotes

• "This John Stewart is a superhero. He's not a cop." (Frank)

• "Before that finale, I had the season sitting closer to a six. With that, I have it at a strong eight." (Frank)

• "Antaan. What a waste of a character." (Frank)

• "They've left us wanting a little bit more than they should have." (Frank)

• "If it wasn't for this ending, it would have been an unsatisfactory show, no doubt." (Frank)

Links and Resources

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Listener Questions

Did you watch Lanterns without reading a single Green Lantern comic? Frank and Thomas want to know how the season played for you, since neither of them can watch it that way. Send your take, your season two theories, or a topic you want covered on a future episode.

Episode Summary

Avengers: Endgame is back in theaters with a new ending, and it puts Loki on Steve Rogers and Peggy Carter's doorstep as the MCU's answer to Doctor Doom. Frank breaks down the leaked Encore Edition scenes, then sits down with Keith Arem and Chris Yates, the writers behind Danny Trejo's cursed-conquistador comic Year of the Devil.

The Encore leaks include a TVA post-credit scene where incursions multiply into the thousands and a visit from Doom to Bruce Banner's underground lab, and Frank lays out what they mean for Avengers: Doomsday on December 18. In the interview, Keith explains how Danny stopped a recording session to pitch a book they could make together, and the pair talk about building Diego de Rojas from Danny's tattoos, his grindhouse roles, and his love of history. In Headlines, Mark Hamill replaces Jim Cummings as Darkwing Duck, Paramount settles with 12 state attorneys general over its Warner Bros. Discovery merger, Daredevil: Born Again ends with season 3, Alan Ritchson is in talks to replace Jason Momoa in Helldivers, and Brad Pitt returns for World War Z 2. Frank closes with a personal message for Suicide Prevention Awareness Month.

Chapters

• 00:00 Intro
• 01:10 Avengers: Endgame Encore Leaks and the Road to Doomsday
• 07:58 Interview: Keith Arem and Chris Yates on Danny Trejo's Year of the Devil
• 19:55 Headlines: Mark Hamill Is the New Darkwing Duck
• 24:38 Paramount's Settlement Terms for the Warner Bros. Discovery Deal
• 30:02 Daredevil: Born Again Ends With Season 3
• 35:01 Helldivers Recasting and World War Z 2
• 39:01 Network Updates
• 40:40 Suicide Prevention Awareness Month

Key Takeaways

• The leaked Encore ending positions Loki, now the god of stories, as the counterweight to Doctor Doom heading into Doomsday.
• The TVA post-credit scene shows incursions spreading from one to thousands, which Frank reads as the setup for Secret Wars.
• Year of the Devil follows Diego de Rojas, a conquistador who frees the devil from a prison beneath Chichén Itzá and is cursed to hunt the Four Horsemen across 500 years. It's a five-issue prestige series from PCB Entertainment launching September 29.
• Frank thinks Mark Hamill brings clout to the Darkwing Duck reboot, but a younger lead would have given the series a longer runway.
• Paramount's settlement requires 30 theatrical films a year, a $1.5 billion investment in California productions, and keeping both historic studio lots open. Frank opposes the merger but calls these terms the best-case version of it.
• With Born Again ending, Frank pitches three ways forward for Charlie Cox's Daredevil: a Daredevil: Yellow adaptation, a Defenders-style series with a rotating street-level cast, or a yearly special presentation.

Memorable Quotes

• "Loki vs. Doctor Doom, which is a sentence that just screams awesome comic book to me." (Frank Lourence)

• "We felt like it had to have some dirt under the fingernails." (Chris Yates, on Year of the Devil)

• "He just kind of literally stopped in the middle of a session and he was like, I want to do a book with you." (Keith Arem, on Danny Trejo)

• "Number one is jobs. Number two is creativity." (Frank Lourence, on the Paramount and WBD merger)

• "It's not about blowing up aliens and fighting for democracy. It is about the satire of that." (Frank Lourence, on the Helldivers movie)

Sources

All news discussed on this episode is sourced from GeekFreaksPodcast.com.

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Listener Questions

Is Loki the right hero to stand against Doom, and what should Marvel do with Daredevil after Born Again? Send your answers, questions, and topic ideas to Info@GFPods.com or DM us on any of the socials above.