Another Green Lantern is about to come to the small screen.
Warner Bros. Animation has tapped Auliʻi Cravalho for the lead role of Jessica Cruz in the upcoming series “My Adventures with Green Lantern.” The show is a spinoff of “My Adventures with Superman,” with Cravalho making her debut as Cruz in the second episode of Season 3, airing Saturday.
The episode, titled “Mobile Suit Toyman,” features Cravalho’s Jessica attending a panel at a fan expo, where Supergirl (Kiana Madeira)—new to Earth as a hero after the end of Season 2—is being interviewed. The scene shows Jessica dressed in a T-shirt bearing the House of El crest and asking Metropolis’ first female superhero a question from the audience.
Like much of the “My Adventures with Superman” world, this adaptation keeps the spirit of Jessica Cruz while changing some key details about the character. For starters, Jake Wyatt, Brendan Clogher and Josie Campbell’s interpretation of Jessica is much younger than her counterpart in DC Comics. Created by Geoff Johns and Ethan Van Sciver, the comic book version is in her mid-20s; here, she is depicted as a high schooler.
This adaptation also changes a lot of key elements surrounding Jessica’s backstory. In the comics, this iteration of Green Lantern (the first woman from Earth to join the Corps) was selected not by a normal Green Lantern ring, but by the Ring of Volthoom, previously used by Power Ring. Power Ring was the Green Lantern stand-in of Earth-3, a world ruled by the Crime Syndicate, filled with evil Justice League doppelgängers. Rather than operating based on will power, the Ring of Volthoom relied on its user being afraid to gain its power.
When Power Ring died on Earth-0, the ring sought out Jessica Cruz, who suffered from severe anxiety and agoraphobia after witnessing the murder of her friends. Jessica eventually learned to control this fear-based ring, training under Hal Jordan until she became a true Green Lantern, gaining her power from will rather than fear.
“My Adventures with Green Lantern” seems to be taking a simpler approach, depicting Jessica as a normal, anxious high schooler who joins the Green Lantern Corps. How that happens (and what other Green Lanterns exist in this universe) remains to be seen.
This will be the second series in the “My Adventures with Superman” universe, and the second Green Lantern series in a short span of time following HBO’s live-action detective show “Lanterns” (aimed at a more adult audience).
Jessica Cruz will debut on “My Adventures with Superman” on June 20 at 12 a.m. ET/PT on Adult Swim.
