Tom King brings CIA grit to HBO's Green Lantern reboot
The comics writer is shaping “Lanterns” as a grounded HBO murder mystery after years in counterterrorism and a run of screen-ready DC and Marvel hits.
By Georgia Hale · Staff Writer
3 min read
Tom King is taking Green Lantern back to Earth, and according to Variety, HBO’s “Lanterns” is being built less like a cosmic effects parade and more like a hard-nosed detective drama.
The series stars Kyle Chandler as Hal Jordan, a veteran Green Lantern, with Aaron Pierre as the younger recruit he is training. Variety reports that the pair are pulled into a murder case in rural Nebraska, where the investigation points toward dangerous alien forces.
That is a sharp turn for a superhero brand that has had a rough ride in Hollywood. Ryan Reynolds played the emerald-ringed hero in the 2011 “Green Lantern” film, which Variety characterized as a CGI-heavy misfire. King’s version is drawing from the mood of “True Detective,” with galactic cops recast as earthbound investigators.
From comics kid to CIA officer
King’s path to HBO’s DC universe is not the standard writer-room résumé. He told Variety he bought “Avengers” No. 300 when he was 7 and still owns it. At Columbia University, he landed internships at both DC Comics and Marvel, including work connected to DC’s Vertigo line and as an assistant to “X-Men” writer Chris Claremont.
Then the comics business hit a rough patch in the early 2000s. King said a Marvel boss warned him that the industry was fading, prompting him to take a job at the Justice Department and plan for law school.
After the Sept. 11 attacks, King said he applied to the CIA because he wanted to help and believed his talent for tracking details made him useful. He told Variety that after training, he became a CIA case officer and spent his 20s in that work.
King also addressed criticism from some comics readers over his CIA background. He told Variety he opposed the Iraq War, worked against al-Qaida and the Taliban, and rejected rumors that he had helped start the war. “I didn’t start the Iraq War. I was 23 years old,” he said.
He said his work included cases involving people who planned to attack a base, and that those plots were stopped. Variety reports he left the CIA after seven highly stressful years, following a care package from his mother in Baghdad that reconnected him with modern comics by writers including Brian Michael Bendis, Mark Millar and Ed Brubaker.
A DC brain trust bet
King’s post-CIA comics career quickly turned into screen material. His 2015 Marvel series “The Vision,” about the android living in suburbia with a robot family, became a key inspiration for Disney+’s “WandaVision,” according to Variety.
He later signed an exclusive deal with DC, writing 85 issues of “Batman” and the acclaimed “Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow.” That comic became the basis for the 2026 “Supergirl” film after James Gunn and Peter Safran took charge of DC Studios.
Safran told Variety that he and Gunn admired “Woman of Tomorrow” even before leading DC Studios and wanted to work with comics creators in new ways. In 2022, they brought King into a group of writers helping map the relaunched DC universe.
At Safran’s house, King pitched “Lanterns” as a grounded murder mystery, Variety reports. Damon Lindelof joined the project as a co-creator with “Ozark” showrunner Chris Mundy, and told Variety that King’s life experience gives his work added intensity.
King is also developing an animated adaptation of his DC series “Mister Miracle,” about Scott Free, an immortal escape artist dealing with trauma. King won two Eisner Awards for that comic, which he told Variety is about recovery after a suicide attempt.
Next up, “Lanterns” heads to San Diego Comic-Con. King told Variety the appearance will carry extra meaning: his first year there, he was selling his novel from a table near Hall H. This time, he said, he will be inside the room.
This story draws on original reporting from Variety.