Lanterns: Is DC and Max's Green Lantern Series Bringing Nekron to Life?

With the DCU set to launch projects like Superman and Creature Commandos in the coming year, the first chapter of the DC Universe, Gods and Monsters, will bring about some of the comic book company’s most prized characters to life on both the big and silver screen. One project that has seen some development in the last couple of months is Lanterns, a Max original series that will follow Green Lanterns Hal Jordan and John Stewart. Hal, a seasoned lantern played by Kyle Chandler, and John, the younger recruit, will face an Earth-bound mystery that is meant to be reminiscent of True Detective. With such a dark show inspiring the story, could the DCU bring the personification of Death itself, Nekron, to life?

Nekron, a powerful being from the Land of the Unliving, has been a significant power within the DC Universe. He has faced the Green Lantern Corps and other heroes and villains. With a cosmic-level powerset and an almost supernatural power, Nekron would be the perfect Green Lantern foe to appear in the upcoming Lanterns series, encapsulating the gods and monsters aspect of the DCU’s first chapter. So, could the DCU finally bring Nekron to life?

Nekron in the Comics, EXPLAINED

Known as the living personification of Death and the ruler of the Land of the Unliving (just adjacent to Hell itself), Nekron is a powerful ruler who discovered a path to our world after Krona, the Oan banished from Oa, became living energy and tore a hole in space and time itself. Nekron escaped through this tear in reality and drew power from the souls and spirits of the dead from his realm to attack the universe. However, Hal Jordan and the Green Lantern Corps defeat the being soon after, beginning his long rivalry with the space cops.

Nekron would return and face many heroes, including Captain Atom, Doctor Fate, Kyle Rainer’s Green Lantern, and Wonder Woman. However, the Green Lantern Corps would always prove to be his greatest rival. His greatest story came during Blackest Night, the chilling Green Lantern and DC crossover event that saw the emergence of the Black Lanterns.

It was discovered that Nekron was the avatar of darkness, created in the nothingness that existed before the birth of the universe and the antithesis of the White Light. Using the villain known as Black Hand as his connection to Earth, Nekron launched a massive attack, resurrecting several dead heroes and villains using Black Lantern rings to become his army, as well as transforming heroes like Superman, Wonder Woman, Green Arrow, Superboy and others into Black Lanterns as well. Nekron launched a massive attack on the Life Entity, hoping its destruction would lead to the death of the entire universe and return it to the state of nothingness it was born. However, Nekron was stopped when Sinestro, of all people, bonded with the Life Entity, fighting back Nekron and his darkness.

Eventually, the heroes discover the Black Hand’s connection to Nekron, and by defeating him, they can banish Nekron back to the Land of the Unliving and end the Blackest Night. In the follow-up, Brightest Day, Nekron attempts to return by corrupting Swamp Thing but is quickly banished by the elemental heroes of Earth. Nekron has been pretty quiet since then, returning for a handful of stories that saw heroes attempting to access the energy of the Black Lanterns to stop the antagonistic energy villain Volthoom.

Nekron in the DCU

Considering the theme of the first chapter of the DCU is Gods and Monsters, and the inspiration that the acclaimed series True Detective has on the upcoming Lanterns series, an Earth-bound murder mystery-style season that sees Hal Jordan and John Stewart investigating a mysterious and dark energy source like Nekron, would be amazing. An adaptation of Blackest Night would be even better, introducing dead heroes and villains to become Black Lanterns so that Hal and John can stop. Rumors that the upcoming Superman film will be set in a time when heroes have already long existed in the DCU would allow heroes such as the Justice Society of America and others to possibly have a legacy, one that would allow a villain like Nekron to use them for his purposes.

If Blackest Night is adapted, Nekron and his Earth-bound agent Black Hand could be the season’s antagonists, with Black Hand becoming the villain the Lanterns are initially hunting. At the same time, Nekron reveals himself to be the big bad they are facing. The haunting imagery typically associated with Nekron would fit into the monsters side of the DCU’s first chapter, and the Black Lanterns themselves would make not only terrifying monsters to face but the perfect antithesis to the light of the Green Lantern Corps. It would also correctly open up the DCU to the emotional spectrum long associated with the Green Lantern mythos. Future casting announcements could reveal if Nekron’s presence will be felt, but only time will tell.