DCU Hal Jordan Reveals Why He Doesn’t Wear the Green Lantern Suit, And It Changes the Comics

Lanterns made its long-awaited debut tonight, finally giving fans a clearer idea of the Green Lantern mythology and how being a Green Lantern actually works in the DCU. There’s also understandably quite a bit of focus on Hal Jordan’s Green Lantern specifically, and that includes why he doesn’t wear the Green Lantern suit these days, and that reason changes things from the comics in a major way.

Spoilers incoming for Lanterns episode 1, so you’ve been warned. In Lanterns episode 1, we finally see the full scene play out between Hal and John Stewart that sends John over the cliff in the car as part of his training. When John finds Hal, he is waiting for him at a restaurant up the road, and he’s busy greeting fans and taking pictures. It’s at this point that he’s asked why he doesn’t wear the suit, and he says he does still bring it out for special occasions. That’s because in the DCU, the Green Lantern costume, at least for Hal, is an actual costume and not just a construct manifestation of the ring, and that’s obviously a big change from the comics.

Green Lantern Didn’t Always Have A Construct Costume

In recent years, most Green Lanterns, including Hal Jordan, simply create their costumes just like it was any other construct. That wasn’t always the case though, as originally Hal wore a physical costume that he got from Abin Sur when he initially got the Power Ring, and he would change into it when it was time to jump into action. Funnily enough, Hal actually took Abin’s costume directly off him after the crash, though one thing Abin Sur didn’t have was a mask, so Hal had to make a construct of a mask and use the ring’s powers to make sure it stayed on.

Eventually, the construct method of costume creation would take over, and some Lanterns could even change the designs of their costumes, like Kyle Rayner memorably did to create his very stylized take on the suit. In the DCU though, Hal has stayed closer to that original origin story and worn a traditional Lantern suit, and in previous photos and footage we’ve seen that the suit has taken quite a beating over the years. Plus, Hal has been a Lantern for decades at this point, so the suit is clearly worn down at this point.

Since the suit is physical and has to be changed into, it makes a lot of sense that Hal wouldn’t really wear it all that much, especially after all these years. In the trailers, we’ve seen him wearing it when he’s visiting Sinestro, so he does wear it more than just for special occasions, but on the whole, he simply goes with his jacket-and-jeans look.

This is also in keeping with Gunn’s design philosophy with Guy Gardner, and while his suit is much brighter compared to Hal’s, it still feels similar in terms of approach. As for a suit for Stewart, that hasn’t been seen yet, so it will be interesting to see what the approach to his suit is when the time comes.

This is also a change from the last Green Lantern movie, which featured the complete opposite approach and had Ryan Reynolds wearing a complete CGI costume. While the idea of forming a costume out of a construct was in line with current comics, many criticized the overall look of the suit and the CGI quality, so there are naturally positives and negatives to both approaches.

Lanterns is now streaming on HBO.

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