There have been many takes about last Sunday’s Lanterns finale, and what went right or wrong with it, though some people’s opinions hold more weight than others. One of those is Grant Morrison, a prolific DC Comics writer who has had lengthy runs on Green Lantern in particular. So, what did he think of the finale? He wasn’t wild about it.

In a Substack post, Morrison went in depth as to why he didn’t think the Lanterns finale was coherent:

“I didn’t really like the ending, although it was all neatly put together. I found it hard to accept that the Kerry Kane character played by Kelly McDonald shot Hal Jordan in the head, and everyone seemed fine with that psychotic break. There should probably have been some response to that, because otherwise it makes it really hard for the audience to work out what makes the Green Lantern Corps an intergalactic law enforcement agency at all. The Guardians are now fine with their operatives being murdered while other officers simply ignore the fact and let the perps walk free?”

He goes on to call it a “morally and legally incoherent conclusion” when you also add the fact that John Stewart let a potentially world-ending Manhunter go as well. He does speak highly of why the show did work overall, namely because of its two leads, but especially because of Kyle Chandler as Hal Jordan, who, like everyone, believes will probably return despite his death.

Tom King, the comic writer working on Lanterns itself, explained his side of things when everyone was originally questioning the finale:

“We had a big debate. It was like, ‘Does Kerry Kane get punished?’ Nothing could punish her more than the fact that she did that thing and she has to live with it. There’s no, like, jail isn’t worse than that.”

The counter to that was…having to live with it while being in jail would be worse than that, and Morrison comments on how this wouldn’t work in a court of law:

‘The horror of murdering his wife in cold blood is punishment enough for this man, your honour. Let him walk free with a gun in his hand, and we’ll just hope it never happens again, okay?’”

Again, that especially does not work in a series about space police. Fans have also cited that John Stewart did all these exceptionally morally grey things (if not morally…black), while he and the show tried to make out Guy Gardner to be some sort of doofy villain, the guy who upholds the code and just helped Superman prevent a genocide. Now he’s kicked off Earth because…why? He has a bad haircut and a gold tooth? John really comes out smelling worse than everyone here.

Comparing the Morrison and King positions, Morrison seems more right to me. I didn’t hate the Lanterns finale as much as some, I suppose, and it had plenty of good moments, but Stewart being so lax here just because he was friends with the murderers did not seem like the right course of events.

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