10 Shows Like 'Lanterns' You Should Watch Next

Under James Gunn's tenure, the DC Universe has promised variety, and in that spirit, we're soon getting Lanterns, a show that stars Kyle Chandler as veteran Green Lantern Hal Jordan and Aaron Pierre as new recruit John Stewart fighting evil...in Nebraska. The two superheroes find themselves investigating a murder in a tiny town, a far cry from the typical intergalactic adventures of the Green Lantern Corps, space cops who can create just about anything with their fancy-schmancy rings. Though it's not without precedent, as the 1970s comics saw Hal team up with Green Arrow to travel the country and see how we live here on the ground.

It's obviously early days for the new HBO Max series, and it is as yet unclear whether it will be viewed as a clever genre twist or a too-constrained waste of potential. Either way, Lanterns won't be the first show to push the boundaries of the sci-fi and superhero genres. Here are 10 others that have arguably pulled it off.

Stock photo for illustration only, not from the actual event

A standalone sequel to the groundbreaking Alan Moore, Dave Gibbons, and John Higgins graphic novel from the '80s, Watchmen plays in the sandbox of that book with a little help from Lanterns co-creator Damon Lindelof. In an alternate Tulsa, Oklahoma, in a world where super-powered vigilantes exist and have been outlawed, the series starts with a depiction of the real-life massacre and destruction of Tulsa's Black Wall Street by white residents in 1921. Regina King plays Angela Abar, a modern cop whose grandparents were killed during those attacks, events that echo throughout the series, which focuses on the fallout from the plot of the original comic and the conspiracies that grew out of it. Like Lanterns, this show's focus is on life on the ground in a world where gods fly above.

For those seeking grand space adventures, Green Lantern: The Animated Series from some of the people behind Batman: The Animated Series doesn't take a grounded approach, instead going in the opposite direction by mining decades of comics' lore for deep space action. Hal Jordan, voiced by Josh Keaton, is one of the finest Lanterns in the Corps, but his reputation for recklessness leads superiors to distrust him. When he learns that rage-fueled Red Lanterns are murdering his compatriots in deep space, he defies orders and steals a prototype ship to help.