Everyone's watching DC's Lanterns, but HBO already gave us something much better

James Gunn and Peter Safran are busy building out a new DC Cinematic Universe, and they have just completed an important project: the first season of Lanterns, an HBO show about the Green Lantern Corps, has wrapped up. Overall, it was a success, but HBO has already made a vastly superior show based on DC Comics.

Lanterns burned bright

Although not everyone saw the light

In DC Comics, the Green Lantern Corps is an intergalactic police force made up of people from all over the universe; through the use of their power rings, they can will anything they can imagine into existence, and use it to fight evil.

Although Lanterns occasionally engaged with this cosmic aspect of the story, it was mostly earthbound. We meet Hal Jordan (Kyle Chandler), the Green Lantern in charge of the section of outer space that includes Earth; and his trainee John Stewart (Aaron Pierre). Most of the action takes place in the small town of Rushville, NE, where there's been mysterious extraterrestrial activity.

Although there are some big action scenes, Lanterns feels more like a detective series that occasionally has sci-fi elements, rather than the superheroic adventure story fans of the comics may have been expecting. That's not necessarily a criticism; Lanterns leans on character drama, and most of it is strong. The relationship between Hal and John is particularly interesting, and we get to know intriguing supporting characters like Rushville sheriff Kerry Kane (Kelly Macdonald).

But not everyone was satisfied. On IMDb, the season finale of Lanterns is among the show's lowest-rated episodes. Some didn't think the show sufficiently tied up its loose ends, some didn't think it paid due homage to the comic books, and some expected more action from the climax of the season. Reception was positive, but mixed.

The Penguin beat Lanterns to the punch

And it's still the best DC show on the network

In 2024, two years before Lanterns, HBO aired The Penguin, a limited series starring Colin Farrell as the iconic Batman villain, here named Oswald Cobb. Farrell already played Oswald in 2022's The Batman. This was his first solo outing, and HBO knocked it out of the park.

Where Lanterns borrows from the HBO show True Detective, The Penguin takes cues from The Sopranos. Oswald Cobb isn't an over-the-top supervillain, but a crafty, mid-level gangster trying to rise through the ranks. He's intelligent and ambitious, but also hot-tempered, which gets him in trouble.

The show charts Oswald's rise to the top of the criminal empire in Gotham City, with plenty of twists and turns along the way. Cristin Milioti shines as Sofia Gigante, a gangster heiress who serves as Oswald's friend, foil, and arch-rival; the show is named after the Penguin, but Sofia nearly runs away with it. Deirdre O'Connell plays Oswald's mother, Francis, while Rhenzy Feliz plays his personal attendant, Vic Aguilar. Both of them feel like throwaway characters at first, but the show ends up putting them to unforgettable dramatic use.

Like Lanterns, The Penguin is well-produced from top to bottom. But it edges out the more recent series because it's comfortable in its own skin. On Lanterns, we're always waiting for the show to expand, to tell a story worthy of its interstellar trappings. But it never gets there, perhaps because HBO didn't have the budget for it.

But The Penguin doesn't need a big budget. We're never waiting for Oswald Cobb to take off into space and battle an alien menace. It makes all the sense in the world for his story to remain intimate, gritty, and nasty. The show delivers exactly what it promises.

The part everybody is waiting for: lore

The DC Cinematic Universe(s)

It should be noted that The Penguin and Lanterns technically take place in different versions of the DC Universe. Lanterns takes place in the same universe as 2025's Superman movie, starring David Corenswet as the Man of Steel. But The Penguin is an offshoot of The Batman, which takes place in an entirely different universe. There is a Batman in the world of Lanterns, but it's not the one played by Robert Pattinson we met in The Batman. Don't expect any crossover between these two realms.

Unfortunately, HBO isn't planning a second season of The Penguin, although the titular character will return in the upcoming movie The Batman: Part II, due out in 2028. As for Lanterns, HBO hasn't officially announced a second season, but with viewership holding strong, it seems likely.

Lanterns will (probably) return

When and if that second season materializes, perhaps fans of the comics will get some of the far-flung Green Lantern action they're used to. For now, the show remains an interesting and mostly successful experiment in how to do superheroics on a budget, with a coat of patented HBO polish subbing in for action and adventure. And if you watched both of these shows and still aren't satisfied, there are plenty of other options out there.