Green Lantern: The Animated Series

Green Lantern: The Animated Series is an American animated superhero television series based on the DC Comics superhero Green Lantern. The series aired on Cartoon Network, as part of their "DC Nation" television block. The series follows the adventures of Hal Jordan, the Green Lantern of Sector 2814, and his fellow warrior ally, Kilowog against the series' main antagonists, the Red Lanterns, led by the villain Atrocitus, and the Manhunters.
A one-hour sneak peek aired on November 11, 2011, it ran from March 17, 2012, until March 16, 2013. A special screening of the first episode was shown at New York Comic Con 2011 on October 15. This was the first Green Lantern television series and the first CGI DC/WB series. The series was cancelled after one season due to poor toy sales after the negative reception and poor box office performance of the live-action film.
The series focuses on the adventures of Hal Jordan, the Green Lantern of Sector 2814, and his partner Kilowog. Jordan steals a space ship controlled by Aya (an AI) and travels to "Frontier Space" together with Kilowog. This is the very edge of the Guardians of the Universe' territory, where Green Lanterns are being killed by the Red Lanterns. Atrocitus, their leader, wants revenge for the destruction of his world by the Manhunters, created by the Guardians, but who were also shut down by the Guardians. During their adventure, they meet a Red Lantern called Razer. They take him as a prisoner, but eventually adopt him as a teammate after he helps them defeat Atrocitus. Razer also falls in love with Aya, but after Atrocitus is defeated and Razer rejects her, Aya decides to eliminate all life in the universe.
At the end of season one, Jordan discovers that Aya is born out of a living being and that she is alive. He tries to convince her to end her universal genocide, but fails. Razer gets severely injured when he tries to kill Aya, as she defends herself by firing a laser beam. Hal convinces Aya that what she is doing is wrong and she saves the universe and heals Razer, but in Aya's anger, she recreated the Manhunter army and downloaded a copy of herself into every single Manhunter. The only solution to shut them down is, in effect, a massive computer virus, that will also destroy Aya. Aya launches the virus and the Manhunters are shut down. However, she also destroys herself and she passes after saying goodbye to Razer.
Back on Oa, Razer cannot and will not believe that Aya is dead because she was not a complete robot after all, but alive; and a living being cannot be destroyed by a computer virus. He starts a galaxy-spanning search, in the hope to find her somewhere in the universe.
The Green Lantern Corps celebrates their victory. Meanwhile, a Blue Lantern ring follows Razer during his quest, but if he will receive it is left ambiguous.
In early stages of production, the show was conceived as a "Bruce Timm-does-CG-project". Phil Kent, chairman and CEO of Time Warner's Turner Networks unit, originally announced that Green Lantern: The Animated Series would be a part of Cartoon Network's original programming. A preview of the show was featured at the 2010 New York Comic Con featuring test footage, characters/story description, and art work. Bruce Timm, who produced the entire DC Animated Universe, was attached as producer of the show. Timm was originally reluctant to use CG instead of traditional animation, but eventually came around. A total of 26 episodes had been ordered for the first season. By the time of New York Comic Con, thirteen had already been planned, and five had already been recorded. The series was not intended to be an origin story, due to Warner Bros. already releasing a film based on the characters' origin. The series is the first television series by Bruce Timm and the first series featuring Green Lantern to be rendered using CG. Originally, Sinestro was not allowed to be used, but this was later overturned in 2013, and Sinestro finally did appear. The producers said that if the series was a hit, other Lanterns like Guy Gardner, John Stewart and Kyle Rayner might be introduced.
Green Lantern: The Animated Series, since its first showing at the 2011 Comic Con, has received positive reviews. Chris Sims of ComicsAlliance commented that he'd never been a huge fan of Green Lantern, but rather of DC Animated Universe creator Bruce Timm, and when he heard that Timm was producing the series he began looking forward to it, saying that the one-hour premiere "does it right". Tony Guerrero of Comic Vine said it was "a good first episode and definitely worth checking out". Brian Lowry of Variety praised the animation style, saying that "Warner Bros. has gone full bore into the CGI dimension with a bold, sleek design that more than anything resembles The Incredibles".
The series was released on DVD in two volumes by Warner Bros. Home Entertainment. The first volume was released on August 28, 2012 and the second volume was released on June 25, 2013. The entire series was released in a Blu-ray set on March 14, 2014, from Warner Archive.
A series of 15 numbered issues was published between 2011 and 2013. Its 32-paged debut comic, Green Lantern: The Animated Series #0 was released on November 30, 2011, written by Art Baltazar with art by Dario Brizuela. The first issue received mixed to positive reviews, with one reviewer giving a B+ stating it is "good kids material" and "a fun way to introduce new readers, especially younger readers, to the Green Lantern universe without having to worry about the violence level". The issue gathered a high sales debut, with an approximate 13,500 copies sold. A story from one of the issues was included in the DC Nation 2012 Free Comic Day comic.
DC Direct released two limited edition maquettes, to accompany the official release of Green Lantern: The Animated Series in spring 2012. The first maquette is Hal Jordan, sculpted by Paul Harding, and was released on March 7. The other, Atrocitus, is sculpted by Dave Cortez and was released on May 23. Mattel had plans to manufacture action figures based on the series in 2011, but none were produced.
A horizontal shooter starring Hal Jordan was released in 2015 at the Cartoon Network site.
La-La Land Records, the record label behind the Batman: The Animated Series soundtracks, released the show's soundtrack on July 31, 2012. The label would later release a second volume of music from the series on July 2, 2013.