Spoilers for all Tomorrowverse works preceding this one will be left unmarked.
Green Lantern: Beware My Power is an animated film based on the DC Comics superhero of the same name. The cast for the film includes Aldis Hodge as John Stewart, Jimmi Simpson as Green Arrow, Brian Bloom as Adam Strange, Jamie Gray Hyder as Hawkgirl, Rick D. Wasserman as Sinestro and other actors, such as Nolan North who provides additional voices.
The fifth film in the Tomorrowverse continuity, the film sees John Stewart, a former sniper in the US Marines, wind up being recruited into the Green Lantern Corps when most of their membership is wiped out in a war between Rann and Thanagar. With the aid of members of the Justice League, John will have to prove to himself that he has no fear as he faces off against Sinestro.
The movie released on July 26, 2022.* Watch the trailer here.
The Movie Contains The Following Tropes:
- Aborted Arc: While his short ended with Adam leaping into a Zeta Beam in hopes of being reunited with his daughter, it's implied she's still missing after several years and Adam dies without seeing her again.
- Adaptational Species Change: Adam Strange is confirmed to be a metahuman in this version.
- Adaptational Wimp: Despero in the comics is such a powerhouse that he can overpower multiple heavy hitter heroes like Superman, Shazam, Power Girl, and Wonder Woman all at once. And even scaled down versions of Despero in other media portrayals are all strong enough to give the main heroes a climactic fight. In this film, Despero is defeated by a rookie (in terms of being a Green Lantern) John Stewart in one hit and has the added bonus of looking older and frailer than other depictions.
- Arrested for Heroism: In his first scene, John stops a group of thugs from lighting a homeless person on fire. Some cops apprehend him and consider charging him for assaulting the thugs, but decide against it, since arresting a decorated former marine would look bad.
- Art-Shifted Sequel: To DC Showcase: Adam Strange, which had a more realistic animation style similar to the DCAMU in comparison to the other Tomorrowverse films.
- Ascended Extra: Green Arrow gets a larger role in this film following his cameo in Batman: The Long Halloween and acts as the Deuteragonist and John's Foil.
- Big Bad Duumvirate: Played With. The Parallax-possessed Hal Jordan is the current leader of the Sinestro Corps planning on destroying and remaking the universe, but Sinestro himself is the ultimate mastermind behind Hal's corruption, the slaughter of the Green Lanterns, and the Rann-Thanagar war, and despite some initial reluctance at being Demoted to Dragon is otherwise perfectly content orchestrating the mad designs of his new master to placate his own sadistic desires.
- Broad Strokes: The film continues Adam's story after his own DC Showcase short, though there are some contradictions between the two. The main one is that his short implied Adam lived in a Used Future where humanity had expanded into space travel, so it's likely that in this version Adam had been living with alien miners instead. Also the color of the Zeta Beams were yellow in the short but are blue in this film.
- The Bus Came Back:
- After being absent for the last two installments in the series, Martian Manhunter returns for a full appearance at the Watchtower.
- Since DC Showcase: Adam Strange was made part of this universe, Adam returns after two years.
- The Cameo: Crisis on Infinite Earths would confirm that the homeless man John saves was John Constantine from the DCAMU, doomed to become Pariah.
- Composite Character: John has traits of Kyle Rayner since he is given a power ring by a dying Guardian after the Green Lantern Corps has been seemingly destroyed which makes him the last Green Lantern. Like in the comics Hal is responsible for killing them.
- Canon Welding: DC Showcase: Adam Strange is revealed to be canon in a Broad Strokes sense.
- Designated Girl Fight: While they don't fight on the first encounter, Hawkgirl does duke it out against Lyssa in the climax.
- Experienced Protagonist:
- Downplayed as while John is a war veteran, that does little to help him in becoming a Green Lantern and he's interacting with characters who have been heroes for far longer than him.
- The other heroes have been at this for awhile, with the much older Adam being considered a Living Legend on the cosmic side of things.
- Fallen Hero: Hal Jordan was once considered the greatest Green Lantern in the entire universe, but after being infected by the Parallax parasite he became determined to force the universe into peace and killed the Corps as well as insuring a war continued between Rann and Thanagar.
- Fire-Forged Friends: Between John, Oliver, Shayera and Adam Strange to a lesser degree. They were strangers before the mission and they even tried to kill each other on separate occasions, but become genuine companions by the final battle.
- Foil: Green Arrow is an experienced Badass Normal and archer who is familiar with the Green Lanterns due to his friendship with Hal Jordan while John has only just become a Green Lantern which means that despite his military history he often makes mistakes and needs things to be explained to him.
- The Ghost: The Trinity and the Flash are all mentioned but do not appear, being busy on other assignments while Green Arrow, Martian Manhunter and Vixen keep the fort.
- Heroic Sacrifice: Learning that his unique metahuman biology will absorb the Zeta Beam from the weapon, Adam sacrifices himself to save Thanagar and Rann.
- Living Legend: Adam is this in the cosmic arena. Every Rannian he meets gives him help no questions asked once they realize it really is him, the Thanagarians are implied to respect him as much as they fear him for everything he's done against them and even the Green Lanterns are hinted to have respected him deeply and knew his reputation well.
- Mythology Gag:
- The presences of Vixen and then Hawkgirl, and John interacting with both and the suggestion that he'll likely be working again with each, nods to their portrayals in the DCAU Justice League series.
- Hal's Face–Heel Turn and the destruction of the Green Lantern Corp are directly taken from the Emerald Twilight storyline, down to his wearing numerous Green Lantern Rings, while Hal's intention to destroy everything and build a new universe are from the Zero Hour event where he was also shot through the heart by Green Arrow.
- Narm: An In-Universe example as John finds the Green Lantern oath to be hokey and ridiculous, but by the end he recognizes the point of the oath and what it stands for.
- Pointy Ears: Sinestro has always had them, but they're more subtle in the comics while in this they're very noticeable.
- Reasonable Authority Figure: The leaders of Rann quickly believe Strange when he reveals that the war with Thanagar was caused by a False Flag Operation. They also help him try to stop their weapons developers from carrying out genocide against the Thanagarians in spite of how brutal the war has been.
- Replacement Goldfish: Subverted with Oliver and John. Oliver was best friends with Hal and was furious when he learned that his ring was now in John's possession, and while understandable not wanting to admit his friend was dead he's very short and bitter towards John. However he does start warming up to John as he shows he has potential as a hero and after learning Hal is alive any resentment he has vanishes. In the end it's clear that while the two are now friends Oliver doesn't see John as Hal's replacement and instead as a hero of his own right.
- The Smurfette Principle: Hawkgirl for the good guys and Lyssa Drak for the bad guys.
- Stripperiffic: Lyssa Drak, one of Sinestro's most loyal followers, is seen in her traditional skimpy outfit.
- These Hands Have Killed:
- A major part of John's PTSD is how much blood there is on his hands. He tries to avoid resorting to lethal force as a result but the combat situations he's forced into have him clearly tempted to kill again. He manages to make some peace with it at the end, citing his belief that even if crossing the line may be unavoidable at times it can at least be lived with because it was done for the right reasons rather than it just being the easier choice.
- Green Arrow has this at the end. As a proponent of Thou Shalt Not Kill it heavily weighs on him when he has to kill Hal to stop him. The fact that Hal was his best friend only compounds the issue.
- Thou Shalt Not Kill: The movie as a whole explores this idea. Green Arrow practices this and the rest of the Justice League is implied to as well until he has to break it to stop Hal but Hawkgirl, Adam Strange and John have all crossed this line before and are shown to be otherwise morally upstanding individuals. John in particular is seen to struggle with the idea of lethal force, suffering PTSD and being reluctant to use it despite being tempted. The overall idea is shown that while there are times where killing is unavoidable it should be put off unless absolutely necessary and only for the right reasons.
- Time Skip: This film hints that a large amount of time has passed since The Long Halloween due to: the Justice League having officially become a team as well as having created the Watchtower, along with how they have a close enough relationship with Hal and the Green Lantern Corps for John's power ring to explain the Watchtower to John; Martian Manhunter having returned to Earth and becoming a member of the team; and Vixen making her debut in this film with Wonder Woman also being mentioned.
- Tragic Villain: Since Hal was infected with a parasite, it's left unclear how much of his actions came from Parallax or himself. Regardless it's likely that without it he would have remained the hero he once was.
- Uncertain Doom: Adam's Heroic Sacrifice qualifies as this. While the others take it that he's gone for good, Adam's words beforehand hint that he's not expecting to die but it's not clear if his metagene could protect him from the alterations to the Zeta Beam weapon or if he's simply being optimistic.
- The Voiceless: Arkillo, Despero and Kanjar-Ro are never seen speaking onscreen, even though they're all capable of doing so in the comics.
- War Is Hell: The film does not hide how brutal and ugly war can really be and how there are no sides that are wholly good or evil but rather specific people with influence who push things forward for better or worse.
