HBOs Lanterns a return to the cool as hell comics of the 80s.
ALSO: Australia's young(er) people are embracing broadcast TV
I grew up as an early 90s DC comic book kid. That early 90s distinction is important as it was an era informed heavily by a radical shift in mainstream American comics through the 80s.
In the 80s, comics got cool. In the 90s they got corporate. And in the 00s, they became a dumpster fire.
When I started reading comics, it started in that post Batman 1989 movie glow. I was too young for them, but I was fully aware at the time that there were in that era superhero books that were okay for kids to read (Superman, The Flash, Justice League, etc), but there were also comics for adults like Swamp Thing, Watchmen, Sandman, the very coolly-titled Sandman Mystery Theatre, and more.
But then, there were also crossovers. The most iconic was The Dark Knight Returns, an alternate reality story set five minutes into the future about a Batman coming out of retirement. It’s firmly an 80s-era Reagan America with fears of crime and nuclear power felt through the book.
There was also the very grown-up Green Arrow books, which was a stripped-back superhero book with its hero fighting crime in the grimy backstreets of a city.
Nowadays, most comics are written with an adult audience firmly in mind. But it was this era of 80s books that are among my favourite as they were being bold and ambitious. They were resetting the perception of what could be done with superhero characters and broke them out of the homogenous mainstream publishing of the era.
I felt a similar charge today when I saw HBO’s new Lanterns trailer.
This is based on the Green Lantern character, a superhero who could create objects made from light by using his power ring. The objects were restricted only by his willpower and scope of imagination, which I think is a pretty cool idea for a character.
Green lantern was adapted into a pretty terrible film back in 2011 with Ryan Reynolds as the Green Lantern of Earth, Hal Jordan. The problem with that film is that it lacked creative ambition and was just a pretty generic superhero bit of fluff. It didn’t help that it was murky-looking and had no texture to it at all.
Those 80s comics I loved… they were all texture.
The new Lanterns show is made by HBO and features Green Lantern Hal Jordan, as played by Kyle Chandler. He’s teamed up with another Green Lantern named John Stewart (a 70s-era character named well before the popular comedian came into the public eye) who is played in the new show by Aaron Pierre. They’re the Green Lanterns assigned to protect Earth and are part of an intergalactic force of Green Lanterns.
And the show looks cool as hell.
Already there’s a lot of people talking about it as a superhero take on HBO’s True Detective, which isn’t an unfair comment. I’m looking at it more as HBO embracing Green Lantern as a Neo-Western. Yeah, it can sit on HBO Max next to True Detective, but it also feels in line with recent theatrical releases like Eddington and One Battle After Another.
Maybe superhero shows can be legitimately cool now.
The dumbest report of 2026?
Bango, a company that specialises in providing the technology solution to bundle subscription services together, has released a report that:
One in six Americans want subscriptions billed based on actual usage, such as time spent in an app.
One in ten want to pay for video streaming per hour watched rather than committing to a monthly bill.
Seven percent would consider paying per minute viewed.
A quarter of those surveyed think streaming services should introduce rewards for binge-watching “streaks,” such as unlocking discounts after streaming a set number of hours or completing a season.
One in five consumers say they would share additional data such as viewing or watch history if it unlocked better deals.
21 percent of those surveyed say they want cross-platform credits that can be used across multiple streaming services.
20 percent want credits that apply across all of their subscriptions, not just streaming.
The good news is that all of this perfectly matches Bango’s business model. It’s always incredible how that works.
Ultimately, what Bango is telling me with this survey is that audiences mostly just want to pay on a per episode basis like Apple iTunes used to offer (maybe they still sell individual episodes?).
Read: World Screen
Australians youngs flock to broadcast TV. No, really.
The Australian Communications and Media Authority today released its annual report Trends and developments in viewing and listening 2024–25. This is the ninth consecutive year that the report has been released.
The main findings are a bit boringly consistent:
91% of Australian adults used an online service to watch video in the past seven days.
YouTube and Netflix continue to dominate video streaming.
68% of adults use a paid subscription streaming service.
Viewing of broadcast catch-up services stayed steady at 44%.
This is all in line with the 2024 findings.
What is actually interesting, however is:
Viewership of broadcast TV rose up to 52%, up from 46% in 2024. Driving this increase were increases from those aged 18-24 (34%, up from 19%) and 25-44 (42%, up from 30%).
Viewership of user-generated short-form video on platforms like YouTube and TikTok fell to 52%, down from 59%.
ABC iView remains the most-watched platform for watching broadcast TV catch-up, but declined to 52% from 62%. A major beneficiary was 7plus, which increased to 45%, up from 39%. This places it just ahead of SBS On Demand at 40%.
You can download the full report at The ACMA.
News Desk
French production company Banijay will merge with British production company All3Media to form a combined company valued at $8 billion. Read: New York Times
Despite the deal, the hunger for greater consolidation continues with Banijay Group CEO François Riahi not ruling out a bid for ITV Studios. Read: Deadline
It is now confirmed that The Bear will snd with its fifth season. Read: Deadline
Expect a lot of 9/11 retrospectives this year for the 25th anniversary. Today Lifetime has announced Sherri Shepherd will star in a movie adaptation of Genelle Guzman-McMillan's memoir Angel in the Rubble: The Miraculous Rescue of 9/11's Last Survivor. Read: thefutoncritic
And The History Channel has the new two-hour special 102 Minutes Inside The Towers. Read: thefutoncritic
Banijay
Miss Scarlet has been renewed for a seventh and final season by Masterpiece PBS. Read: Deadline
Netflix co-CEO Ted Sarandos never met with President Trump or any White House officials last week when he visited Washington. His meeting was canceled after he arrived at the White House. Read: Axios
Gayle King is sticking with Barri Weiss’ CBS Mornings, renewing her deal. Read: Deadline
James Talarico won the Democratic primary yesterday for Texas. Was he the recipient of a ‘Colbert Bump’? Read: THR
Listen to your friend Billy Zane. He has just joined season 2 of Apple TV comedy Stick. Read: Deadline
Deadline has an interesting article on the vibe at HBO’s launch party for new Steve Carrell comedy Roosters where many WBD staff faced an uncertain employment future. It ends noting WBD’s top-level execs did not appear and that just before the show was screened, attendees received phone notifications that CEO David Zaslav sold $114m of his shares. Read: Deadline
Kaley Cuoco has joined Ray Romano and Joshua Jackson in the cast of HBO’s upcoming family drama How To Survive Without Me. Read: Deadline
Trailer Park
Last One Laughing UK returns to Prime Video for season 2 on 19 March. Comedians will include: Bob Mortimer, Alan Carr, Diane Morgan, Romesh Ranganathan, Mel Giedroyc, David Mitchell, Maisie Adam, Sam Campbell, Gbemisola Ikumelo, and Amy Gledhill.
That’s the newsletter for the today.
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