Entertainment Weekly Reveals Green Lantern Costume

I haven't gotten excited enough to see much at the movie theaters this year.  I think the remake of A Nightmare on Elm Street was the last one I went to. But as a long-time (we're talking 35-years plus) fan of DC Comics, I'm excited about Ryan Reynolds' The Green Lantern.  As a superhero, GL would be almost impossible to depict in live action, were it not for today's CGI technology.  So, it's good that they didn't try to do this character much sooner than they did.

While it is not unheard of to have the same actors turn up in different superhero adaptations (Chris Evans in Fantastic Four and Captain America), this is Ryan Reynolds' fourth, unless I've lost count.  Before GL, he was Deadpool in Wolverine (and will play the character in a spinoff), Captain Excellent in Paper Man and Hannibal King in Blade: Trinity.  There was even a lot of chatter about him playing The Flash. I'd watch Reynolds in just about anything (and Evans is no slouch either!), but that might be one superhero too far.

And what of the costume?  The silver age Green Lantern always had a costume problem. At first, it looked like a green tank-top with a turtleneck collar, long shoulder-length white gloves, and a shiny emerald ring.  It was bad superhero drag.  The mask didn't do much to hide Hal Jordan's identity either.  Over the years, they changed the design a bit, pulling some green shoulder caps out of the tank-top look, and that pretty much fixed it. Except for the long white gloves.  It never made sense to me that they'd be white, considering how easily they'd get dirty, and who wears gloves under a ring?

The movie version couldn't depart too radically, or they've lost their target audience. There have been enough changes over the years though, to give them some flexibility.  But I'm not sure they went the right way with it. It looks like someone skinned Ryan's torso, and then painted his muscle fibers green.  Maybe it will look better in motion.

Source: Entertainment Weekly