From DC Comics by Alex Jaffe
DC animation fans have been lighting up over the recent announcement of My Adventures with Green Lantern. It’s our first Green Lantern animated series in twelve years, but this time, it’s not Hal Jordan in the lead. We’re taking the ring out for a spin with Jessica Cruz, costar of DC Super Hero Girls and Justice League vs. the Fatal Five.
It’s a bold choice that’s certainly enough to raise interest in any Green Lantern fan, but one that’s particularly exciting if you’ve been following her since her debut in Geoff Johns’ Justice League in 2014. My Adventures with Superman has richly benefitted from exploring its Metropolis-based protagonists so far, venturing deep into relatable feelings that allow us to identify personally with heroes of immense cosmic power. More so than any other Green Lantern, Jessica Cruz is where you’ll find that relatability. Because out of the near dozen human Green Lanterns there have been, nobody better exemplifies what bearing those colors means today.
What’s the biggest development in the history of the Green Lantern franchise? Okay, it was taking the mystical background of Alan Scott’s wishing ring and turning into an intergalactic corps of space rangers. But let’s talk ideologically. When Hal Jordan was recruited by a dying Abin Sur to represent his sector of the universe, it was under one qualification above all others: he was a man who knew no fear. As a test pilot who pushed the limits out in experimental aircraft without a safety net, Hal was the perfect candidate for a job that would test anyone beyond the limits of their imagination. The Green Lanterns who would follow him were all similarly fearless. But something changed as the 20th century gave way to the 21st.
After Hal Jordan lost his city, and then his mind, the qualifications for joining a new Green Lantern Corps fundamentally changed. No longer do the rings seek fearlessness. Inevitably, fear comes for us all, and it’s those who have never experienced it who are least equipped to meet that fear when it arrives. Being a Green Lantern isn’t about that anymore. To be a Green Lantern is not to deny fear, but to overcome it.
On Abin Sur’s original terms, Jessica Cruz was probably the last person who would ever be chosen as a Green Lantern. Already living with chronic anxiety, Jessica became a full-on agoraphobe for years after surviving an attack in the woods which claimed the lives of all her closest friends. In fact, it wasn’t a Green Lantern ring which originally chose her at all. Jessica first came to the attention of the Justice League as the host of the parasitic Power Ring, an entity from another universe which feeds off the fear of its host.
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