Green Lantern lighting the blackest night on consoles next year

Ever since Arkham Asylum proved DC characters can be just as amazing in games as Marvel heroes, we’ve been waiting to see more of the universe that brought us Superman and Batman, aside from DC Universe Online. Today Warner Bros Interactive announced Green Lantern: Rise of the Manhunters, based on the upcoming movie, and it will finally give the colossal GL mythos a chance to shine its light on 360, PS3, Wii and DS.

It’s connected to the film’s continuity but WBI was pretty short on details. Hell, we don’t even know if you play as Hal Jordan, the premier Green Lantern. All we know is that it involves flying around the universe and cleaning up messes with the most powerful weapon around, the Green Lantern ring, but that could mean you play as any number of the thousands-strong GL Corps.

If you’ll indulge me, allow me put on my comic book guessing cap and do my best to figure out what this just announced game is about. First let’s assume that the Lantern film is pretty closely based on the comic’s mythology, which early reports seem to indicate. So what does “Rise of the Manhunters” mean? Let’s look a little closer at that promotional image:

In the reflection of the ring you’ll see what GL fanboys will recognize as the Manhunters, a violent race of automatons that inhabit the planet Biot, obviously. They were created billions of years ago by the oldest beings in the DCU, the Guardians, to police the galaxy, but they were too cold and calculating, eventually doing what all robots do, decide to kill every living thing. The Guardians banished them and created the Green Lantern Corps, giving living beings from all over the cosmos rings that can create anything with energy they can will into existence. But soon enough the killer bots return to get revenge on Guardians and the Corps.

The only problem with this, and why I believe they aren’t confirming the film’s main Green Lantern, Hal Jordan being in the game is because he isn’t, as the first attack of the Manhunters happened before his time in the Corps. So who would you play as? Well there’s the Lantern who gives his ring to Hal, Abin Sur, there’s Hal future nemesis Sinestro, or Corps Drill Instructor Kilowog among many, many others. We look forward to seeing what WBI and developer Double Helix(Silent Hill: Homecoming) can cook up for this probable prequel next summer.

Jul 23, 2010