Lanterns Episode 3 Gives The 'Chosen One' Superhero Trope A Much-Needed Twist

Warning: This article contains major spoilers for "Lanterns" Episode 3, "OutKast."

If you've seen one superhero origin story, you've seen them all. A normal kid is plucked from obscurity, set on a path to greatness and immense power, and it's all chalked up to the vague idea of "destiny." It's not terribly surprising that comic books borrowed so heavily from the standard Campbellian hero's journey. Whether it's Peter Parker or Luke Skywalker, our favorite characters tend to share plenty of overlap — largely because our very conception of storytelling follows many of the same patterns passed down through the ages. It's hardly a coincidence that a "Spider-Man" movie and a retelling of "The Odyssey" are currently two of the biggest movies of the year, after all. We just love our Chosen Ones, don't we?

But leave it to "Lanterns" to flip the script when we needed it most. If you raised an eyebrow at all the comparisons to "Watchmen" in various reviews, well, Episode 3 is where those parallels become most obvious. Not unlike the Hooded Justice episode of Damon Lindelof's previous HBO series, which unmasked the vigilante and provided a retconned origin story through a racial lens, "OutKast" opts for a similar approach with John Stewart (Aaron Pierre). Here, his traditional comic book origins are similarly set aside in favor of something much more radical.

While the series premiere establishes that John is somewhat inspired by the already-established Hal, this week's episode dives headfirst into the complicated dynamics involved. It's one thing for a youngster to aspire to such a lofty position. It's quite another to force a Black kid to prove himself worthy of a white man's mantle, navigate a much less privileged path, and eventually spit in the face of the Chosen One trope.

Do you hear that noise? It's the sound of Green Lantern fans collectively losing their minds over the biggest and most ambitious swing yet in "Lanterns." Ending the premiere with the twist that Hal Jordan is found dead 10 years into the future was already controversial enough. But Episode 3 keeps the show's bold streak going by halting the ongoing storyline set in Rushville, Nebraska in its tracks, dedicating an entire hour to John Stewart's traumatic childhood upbringing, and retconning everything we thought we knew about the character's origins in the process.

It all starts with John literally crashing through a glass ceiling (just in case anyone thought this show was being too subtle) into an abandoned mall, which turns out to be the setting for the job interview of his life. The flashback-riddled episode then transports us to the beginning of all the trouble, when John Stewart, Sr. (J. Alphonse Nicholson) fails the test to become a Green Lantern and forever changes the trajectory of his family. Once his skeptical wife Bernadette (Jasmine Cephas Jones) is finally convinced of what he experienced that fateful night (thanks to a convincing — and frightening — display by Laura Linney's unnamed Guardian), both parents embark on an obsessive quest to raise up their son John and prove he has what it takes.

It almost goes without saying that this is markedly different from John's origins in DC Comics, but the change works wonders. This opens the door for the episode to depict how toxic Chosen One stories can truly be. John suffers relentless abuse as a child, even if it's born from good intentions. Once he finally learns the truth, however, he rejects destiny and chooses himself.

The conceit of the episode revolves around the seemingly innocuous question posed by the ring: "Are you afraid?" That's all well and good for a drunken hotshot like Hal to answer with ease, which ushers him into the DC Universe without ever actually having to earn it. ("Power like that, shouldn't you have to work for it? Excel, prove yourself, instead of just getting randomly selected?" as John challenges Hal in a bar in the premiere.) And longtime comic book fans know this is simply par for the course in becoming a Green Lantern, as fear is antithetical to the very idea of serving in the Corps.

But what "Lanterns" proposes is that the reality is bound to be different for someone like John Stewart, Sr. and his family, where fear is baked into the very existence of being Black while living in America. This in turn shines a spotlight on the inherent bias of this entire process — a subversive approach that may come as a shock to viewers expecting another straightforward superhero tale. But given that this is a show co-created by Damon Lindelof and an episode directed by Stephen Williams (who also directed "This Extraordinary Being," the Hooded Justice-centric episode of "Watchmen"), perhaps we should've seen this coming.

From this perspective, John's simmering animosity of Hal makes a ton of emotional sense. Of course the guy who has worked his whole life for a job, which his predecessor was handed on a platter, would feel resentful. Add to that the implication that John is far more powerful than Hal lets on and, well, this may be one of the most thematically rich superhero shows we've ever seen. New episodes of "Lanterns" stream on HBO Max every Sunday.