HBO Lanterns Series Criticized as Woke
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What happened
HBO’s series Lanterns, a live-action take on DC Comics’ Green Lantern universe produced with James Gunn and co-created by Damon Lindelof, aired a third episode titled “OutKast” in which Bernadette Stewart tells an alien Guardian that it is unfair to ask a Black man in America if he is afraid and that Black people are “terrified daily of persecution.” Writer and co-executive producer Vanessa Baden Kelly, a former child actress on Gullah Gullah Island and Kenan & Kel, spent roughly a decade as a community organizer for politician Karen Bass and attorney Ben Crump before returning to TV writing. In interviews she discussed that scene and her career; actor J. Alphonse Nicholson, who plays John Stewart Sr., said on a podcast that the show illustrates how different things could be if people trusted Black women, citing Kamala Harris. Some viewers and commentators criticized the series for centering racial privilege in John Stewart’s origin rather than the comics’ traditional test of overcoming fear.
BLINDSPOT.
Only right-leaning outlets are covering this story
— the other side's media is silent.
Omitted — what each side leaves out
Unpacked
Left-leaning coverage has not reported this story at all, so those readers would miss that HBO's Lanterns drew fire for recasting a hero's origin around racial fear. Right-leaning coverage reports a mother in an episode telling an alien Guardian how unfair it is to ask a Black man in America if he is afraid. The same coverage also reports that actor J. Alphonse Nicholson said on a podcast the country is experiencing the consequences of not trusting a Black woman, linking the series to Kamala Harris. Breitbart alone adds that writer Vanessa Baden Kelly spent years as a community organizer for Karen Bass and Ben Crump. Fox News alone adds her later remark that vintage John Stewart comics already had him calling people "Whitey."
Right-leaning outlets split on emphasis. Breitbart leads with the writer's activist résumé. Fox News leads with the lore change and still includes a defender who said critics "never read" the old Green Lantern/Green Arrow comics.
Has HBO or the showrunners said whether that lecture is the series' argument, or does that claim exist only in an actor's podcast remarks?
Bottom line
Left-leaning news has ignored HBO's Lanterns entirely. The mother's lecture that a Black man should not be asked if he is afraid appears in Fox News, while Breitbart instead headlined the writer's work for Ben Crump.
The receipts — 6 facts one side's coverage lacks
- In an episode of Lanterns, John Stewart's mother asks an alien Guardian whether it understands how unfair it is to ask a Black man in America if he is afraid.
- Vanessa Baden Kelly said her acting work stalled because diversity had slipped backwards, while she was working for Karen Bass.
- In Lanterns, Stewart is conditioned from infancy to wield the ring through hyper-precise perfection rather than chosen as an adult for the ability to overcome fear.
- John Stewart debuted in 1971 as one of DC's first Black superheroes, portrayed as a civil rights advocate.
- Steven DeKnight said critics claiming Lanterns ruined Green Lantern by going woke never read the O'Neil and Adams Green Lantern/Green Arrow run.
- Fox News Digital reached out to Warner Bros. Discovery and did not immediately hear back.
The Right View
Breitbart and Fox News framed Lanterns as a “woke” rewrite of Green Lantern lore that inserts modern racial-privilege arguments into a 1980s-set story. They highlighted Baden Kelly’s activist work for Bass and Crump, her remark that entertainment “diversity” had “slipped backwards” around 2000, Episode 3’s lecture to the Guardian, Lindelof’s earlier HBO Watchmen, and Nicholson’s Harris comments. Fox News quoted critic Christian Toto calling the dialogue on-the-nose and inauthentic to the period, and noted that some fans say childhood racial conditioning replaced willpower as the reason Stewart is chosen. Both outlets also recorded defenses: filmmaker Steven DeKnight cited the 1970s Green Lantern/Green Arrow comics, and Baden Kelly argued that John Stewart, introduced in 1971, was always politically outspoken. Warner Bros. Discovery did not immediately comment to Fox News.
Our Take (balanced)
The story is substantive on the checkable record: a named episode, quoted dialogue, named writers and actors, a documented career path, and recorded interviews. Established facts are that the series includes explicit racial-politics dialogue, that creatives have described the work in those terms, and that right-leaning outlets and some viewers have attacked those choices. What remains opinion—not fact—is whether that is a betrayal of canon, “woke” preaching, or a continuation of Stewart’s 1970s civil-rights characterization. No left-leaning outlet has reported this. Watch for any statement from HBO or Warner Bros. Discovery, whether later episodes repeat or walk back the same framing, and whether a wider set of reviews addresses the same scenes and interviews.
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