5 Characters Who Could Expand the World Around DC’s Lanterns
With Guy Gardner already making his abrasive entrance in Superman and Lanterns, bringing the iconic Hal Jordan and John Stewart properly into the DCU, the Green Lantern corner of this universe suddenly has a lot of room to grow. Fortunately, comics have spent decades surrounding Earth’s Lanterns with heroes, villains, alien factions, complicated exes, and enough emotional-spectrum lore to keep HBO busy for a very long time.
That also means our wishlist can get a little weird. There’s another Green Lantern we desperately want to meet, a former Hal Jordan love interest who deserves another shot at relevance, an entire group of cosmic revolutionaries, and two villains capable of making the current DCU considerably more chaotic. Some could naturally emerge from Lanterns, while others could push this corner of the franchise far beyond Earth.
Kyle Rayner
Personal bias fully acknowledged: we need Kyle Rayner.
Introduced during one of the biggest upheavals in Green Lantern history, Kyle became the bearer of the last Green Lantern ring after Hal Jordan’s fall and the destruction of the Corps. He was also fundamentally different from the Lantern who came before him. Kyle was a struggling artist suddenly handed an absurd amount of responsibility, and his creativity became one of his defining strengths, producing constructs that felt shaped by an actual imagination rather than a standard superhero arsenal.
That personality gives the DCU plenty to work with. Kyle can be funny, insecure, romantic, occasionally messy, and deeply earnest, with relationships and friendships that make his life outside the costume equally worthwhile. His story eventually expands through Ion, the White Lantern mythology, and practically every corner of the emotional spectrum.
More importantly, the DCU already has very distinct Lantern personalities in Hal, John, and Guy. Adding an artist whose greatest weapon is essentially his imagination would keep that lineup from ever feeling interchangeable.
The Omega Men
The Omega Men would be one of the easiest ways to take Green Lantern stories properly off-world without immediately jumping into another enormous Corps-wide event.
Across their different incarnations, the group has operated within the Vega system as rebels and freedom fighters, bringing with them alien politics, morally complicated conflicts, and some wonderfully strange DC cosmic lore.
Their wider history also creates some fun connective tissue. Ryand’r, also known as Darkfire, has been an Omega Men member—and happens to be the younger brother of Koriand’r and Komand’r, better known as Starfire and Blackfire. Suddenly, one cosmic property provides a route toward Lantern mythology, the possibility of Tamaran, and potentially the Titans.
There are a lot of aliens waiting beyond Earth. The Omega Men give the DCU a particularly unpredictable group to meet first.
Jillian Pearlman
Carol Ferris is obviously the name associated with Hal Jordan’s romantic history, and her brief appearance in Lanterns Episode 6 finally places her in the DCU. What the series has not established yet is whether this Carol ever became Star Sapphire, leaving that entire side of Green Lantern mythology surprisingly open. Enter Jillian Pearlman.
Better known by her Air Force call sign Cowgirl, Jillian was another pilot in Hal’s orbit and eventually became romantically involved with him. Their relationship also brought out a particularly protective side of Hal: after Jillian was shot down and captured during a mission, he went searching for her as Green Lantern. Later, the Star Sapphire gem recognized Hal’s feelings for Jillian, abandoned Carol as its host, and briefly possessed Jillian instead.
That history gives the DCU options. Jillian can exist independently as a pilot connected to Hal’s past, while her Star Sapphire history offers another possible doorway into the violet side of the emotional spectrum. Carol will always be the iconic Star Sapphire we love, but the mythology has never belonged exclusively to one person.
Parallax
At some point, the DCU is probably going to have to deal with the giant yellow fear-elephant in the room.
Parallax is inseparable from some of Green Lantern’s biggest stories. Hal originally took the Parallax identity during his devastating fall in the 1990s; Green Lantern: Rebirth later expanded the mythology by revealing Parallax as the fear entity that had infected him. Kyle Rayner has also been possessed by it too, giving the villain connections across multiple generations of Lanterns.
Naturally, Lanterns has already generated theories that its version of Hal could somehow lead toward Parallax. Those remain theories, and considering the number of theories this show inspires every Sunday, choosing one feels dangerous.
Still, Parallax offers something valuable for later stories: an enemy that can corrupt Lanterns from within rather than simply trading glowing punches with them. Once the DCU starts exploring fear as an actual cosmic force, things can get wonderfully complicated.
Black Hand
And then there’s the deeply unsettling road to Blackest Night.
William Hand began as a Green Lantern villain capable of draining energy, but later stories transformed him into something much more important—and considerably creepier. He becomes the herald of Nekron and a central figure in Blackest Night, where Black Lantern rings begin resurrecting dead heroes and villains across the DC Universe.
Visually alone, Black Hand and the Black Lantern Corps could give the DCU an incredible horror-flavored event someday. There’s also already a very convenient source of speculation: fans have repeatedly questioned whether Garret Dillahunt’s Lanterns character William Macon could eventually become, or somehow connect to, William Hand. Dillahunt himself has happily played along with theories that Macon may be hiding another identity, though nothing has officially confirmed the connection.
Whether that theory survives Lanterns or gets vaporized along with half of our weekly predictions, Black Hand deserves a place somewhere in the DCU’s future. He’s also a good reminder of just how much remains untouched once Green Lantern stories move beyond the Corps itself. Between cosmic rebels, emotional-spectrum chaos, complicated relationships, and villains capable of turning the entire DC Universe upside down, there’s a lot waiting beyond Earth—and these five would be a very good start.
Lanterns Airs Sundays on HBO and HBO MAX.
