Green Lantern’s New HBO Series Gives Hal Jordan The Perfect Muscle Car
HBO’s Lanterns is taking Green Lantern in a considerably different direction. Instead of immediately throwing its heroes across the galaxy, the series pairs veteran Lantern Hal Jordan with new recruit John Stewart as they investigate a mysterious murder in rural Nebraska. Kyle Chandler plays the older, battle-worn Jordan, while Aaron Pierre’s Stewart is still learning exactly what his new Green Lantern ring can do.
Naturally, we immediately noticed what they’re driving.
Hal Jordan appears to own a black Buick Grand National, and this isn’t simply a classic car sitting in the background. The Buick gets pulled directly into Stewart’s Green Lantern training, giving one of America’s most recognizable muscle cars an unexpectedly important role in DC’s new series.
Hal Jordan Apparently Drives A Buick Grand National
During the footage, Hal and John are traveling in the black Grand National when their conversation turns into a rather dangerous driving lesson. Hal removes his own Green Lantern ring, places it on the Buick’s dashboard, and jumps out of the moving car.
John is left behind and essentially forced to figure out how to use his own ring before the Grand National meets a considerably less heroic ending.
The California license plate also points toward the Buick belonging to Hal, making the car an interesting choice for the character. This version of Jordan is an older Green Lantern who’s been around long enough for his ring to show visible battle damage, and the show puts considerable emphasis on the clash between his experience and John’s completely different approach.
An old black turbo Buick fits him remarkably well.
The Buick Grand National Wasn’t Your Typical 1980s Muscle Car
The Grand National also has some serious performance history behind it. Buick turned its relatively ordinary Regal into one of the most intimidating American cars of the 1980s by putting a turbocharged 3.8-liter V6 under the hood and steadily increasing its performance.
By 1987, the Grand National was officially producing 245 horsepower and 355 lb-ft of torque, impressive numbers during an era when plenty of American V8s were struggling to recover from the performance drought of the previous decade. The blacked-out styling only added to its reputation, creating a muscle car that looked considerably more sinister than the luxury coupe underneath.
Then came the legendary 1987 GNX, developed with help from ASC/McLaren and officially rated at 276 horsepower. The GNX became the ultimate expression of Buick’s turbocharged formula and helped cement the Grand National family as one of the most collectible American performance cars of its era.
Lanterns Is Keeping Its Superheroes Surprisingly Grounded
The Grand National fits particularly well because Lanterns isn’t being presented as a conventional superhero series. Hal and John are effectively playing intergalactic cops inside a grounded murder mystery, with the investigation centered on a small Nebraska town and potentially carrying much larger consequences for the DCU. The series has leaned heavily into a darker detective-drama approach rather than nonstop cosmic spectacle.
That doesn’t mean the larger Green Lantern universe is disappearing. Guy Gardner, Sinestro and other pieces of Green Lantern mythology are involved, while Hal’s relationship with John appears central to the story. For us, though, there’s another mystery worth solving: exactly which Grand National Hal owns. Either way, John better figure that ring out quickly because crashing a collectible Buick seems like a pretty aggressive way to fail driver’s ed.
Source: HBO
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