The adventures of a superhero named "Green Lantern" date back to the publication of All-American Comics #16, published in July 1940, making the character nearly as old as the first superhero, Superman. The original Green Lantern was named Alan Scott and his powers derived from a magic ring and lantern that gave him incredible abilities. When the appeal of the character — and the superhero genre in general — waned in the late '40s, his comic book was canceled. However, the name would live again in the '50s with the creation of Green Lantern Hal Jordan, who also wielded a power ring and lantern, but whose abilities derived from science.
Though they may have different alter-egos, costumes, origins, and weaknesses, what unites the two disparate Green Lanterns is their power ring. The ring bestows many abilities to the user, including flight, telepathy, power blasts, and others, but the trademark ability of the ring has always been the creation of "solid-light" or "solid-energy" constructs limited only by the imagination and will power of the ring wielder. In many older comic books, Green Lantern typically created simple constructs with the ring, such as a giant pair of scissors or a giant boxing glove, but as comic book readers have become more sophisticated, so have Green Lantern's constructs. In a typical modern issue of Green Lantern, Hal Jordan may use his ring to create anything from a Tyrannosaurus Rex to an F-22 Raptor fighter jet.
Since the announcement that Warner Bros. was developing a live-action Green Lantern, fans of the character have been speculating about whether this ability will be featured in the movie. Any doubt that director Martin Campbell might opt to feature Green Lantern's more pedestrian powers can now be laid to rest. While doing press for his latest movie, Edge of Darkness, Campbell revealed to MTV that this ability will be actualized in the movie. Campbell even gained some comic-nerd cred by correcting the interviewer's inaccurate use of the word "object" to describe the creations.
They're called constructs, and indeed he will [create them]. So, one of the nice things is you all sit down and say, "What are we gonna do here?" We can make something a little imaginative, we can do this, we can do that.... So, really, it's as much as your imagination can go to make the constructs, if you see what I mean.
When asked if there was a specific construct effect that Campbell was particularly pleased with, Campbell said it was still too early to make those types of decisions.
Well, we haven't even ... because I haven't even started filming, we've locked off a few, but beyond that, no. They'll all be, of course, done in post-[production], so we'll have a reasonable amount of time to be thinking.
Green Lantern goes into production in March with Ryan Reynolds portraying Hal Jordan/Green Lantern. The only other confirmed cast member at this time is Blake Lively in the role of Hal's boss and love interest, Carol Ferris.