DC animation fans have been lighting up over the recent announcement of My Adventures with Green Lantern. It’s our first Green Lantern animated series in twelve years, but this time, it’s not Hal Jordan in the lead. We’re taking the ring out for a spin with Jessica Cruz, costar of DC Super Hero Girls and Justice League vs. the Fatal Five.

It’s a bold choice that’s certainly enough to raise interest in any Green Lantern fan, but one that’s particularly exciting if you’ve been following her since her debut in Geoff Johns’ Justice League in 2014. My Adventures with Superman has richly benefitted from exploring its Metropolis-based protagonists so far, venturing deep into relatable feelings that allow us to identify personally with heroes of immense cosmic power. More so than any other Green Lantern, Jessica Cruz is where you’ll find that relatability. Because out of the near dozen human Green Lanterns there have been, nobody better exemplifies what bearing those colors means today.

What’s the biggest development in the history of the Green Lantern franchise? Okay, it was taking the mystical background of Alan Scott’s wishing ring and turning into an intergalactic corps of space rangers. But let’s talk ideologically. When Hal Jordan was recruited by a dying Abin Sur to represent his sector of the universe, it was under one qualification above all others: he was a man who knew no fear. As a test pilot who pushed the limits out in experimental aircraft without a safety net, Hal was the perfect candidate for a job that would test anyone beyond the limits of their imagination. The Green Lanterns who would follow him were all similarly fearless. But something changed as the 20th century gave way to the 21st.

After Hal Jordan lost his city, and then his mind, the qualifications for joining a new Green Lantern Corps fundamentally changed. No longer do the rings seek fearlessness. Inevitably, fear comes for us all, and it’s those who have never experienced it who are least equipped to meet that fear when it arrives. Being a Green Lantern isn’t about that anymore. To be a Green Lantern is not to deny fear, but to overcome it.

On Abin Sur’s original terms, Jessica Cruz was probably the last person who would ever be chosen as a Green Lantern. Already living with chronic anxiety, Jessica became a full-on agoraphobe for years after surviving an attack in the woods which claimed the lives of all her closest friends. In fact, it wasn’t a Green Lantern ring which originally chose her at all. Jessica first came to the attention of the Justice League as the host of the parasitic Power Ring, an entity from another universe which feeds off the fear of its host.

Jessica’s trauma provided Power Ring with more fear than it ever had access to before. And yet, with the Justice League’s help, Jessica rose to a challenge that so many of us battle with every day: despite the harsh memories of an unkind world, she found the strength to keep moving. Even through the fear.

With Power Ring’s defeat, it was this true courage that earned Jessica a Green Lantern ring. The ranks of test pilots, war veterans and whatever Guy Gardner’s deal is would now be joined by the most terrified woman on Earth.

Jessica Cruz’s intrinsic contrast to what we so often think about when we imagine the fearless Green Lanterns is exactly what makes her the most interesting person to bear the ring so far. Over a decade, we’ve seen Jessica evolve from struggling to scramble together the courage to leave her bedroom, to defending the planet alongside Simon Baz in Green Lanterns, to facing Darkseid himself in Justice League Odyssey, and even—in one of her most intriguing turns—embracing her fear as part of who she is during an eye-opening turn with the Sinestro Corps in the Green Lantern 2021 Annual.

What sets a Jessica Cruz story apart from any other Green Lantern is how it examines our own relationship with fear. Jessica began as an extreme example and has worked hard to cope with the traumatic incident which triggered her greatest lapse into fear. But even as a Green Lantern, Jessica still suffers from the anxieties many of us feel on a daily basis. She struggles with that everyday fear that accompanies finding a career, making a friend, finding a partner, taking leadership, or just making hard choices. Very few of us have experienced what it’s like to fly an experimental fighter jet, but we’ve all had to fill out a resume.

From the little we already know about My Adventures with Green Lantern, this new incarnation of Jessica won’t be exactly like the one from the comics, but that’s perfectly fine. What we’re excited about is the potential for the show to reveal what her fans have known about her all along: that if being a Green Lantern is about overcoming great fear, nobody wears the green better than Jessica Cruz.
 

Alex Jaffe is the author of our monthly "Ask the Question" column and writes about TV, movies, comics and superhero history for DC.com. Follow him on Bluesky at @AlexJaffe and find him in the DC Official Discord server as HubCityQuestion.

NOTE: The views and opinions expressed in this feature are solely those of Alex Jaffe and do not necessarily reflect those of DC or Warner Bros. Discovery, nor should they be read as confirmation or denial of future DC plans.