Major, major spoilers for the premiere episode of HBO’s Lanterns. You’ve been warned. Let’s clear the air on this right at the top: Lanterns is unquestionably better than Green Lantern. Even fifteen years later, the 2011 film, with Ryan Reynolds as a wisecracking test pilot drafted into an intergalactic police force, is widely considered a nadir for the big-screen superhero genre, a fact so well-understood that it inspired a post-credits meta-gag in Deadpool 2 (Deadpool travels back in time and shoots Ryan Reynolds to stop it from happening.) Based on the first four episodes shared with critics, Lanterns does more than just clear that admittedly-low bar. Initially announced alongside Superman and Supergirl as part of James Gunn’s initial slate as head honcho of the DCU, the series—which premiered Sunday night—had an immediately eyebrow-raising premise: What if two Green Lanterns, Hal Jordan and John Stewart, were dispatched to investigate a mystery in America’s heartland à la True Detective, and stumbled on a cosmic threat in the process? Since then, the series picked up a staggering roster …