The Lanterns Episode 3 fight now includes someone on DC’s own payroll.
Frankey Smith, a host of DC Studios Showcase: The Official Podcast, took to Threads amid the “OutKast” backlash to tell Green Lantern fans: “Hate to break it to ya but Hal is indeed a bit of a racist.”
When a fan pushed back, Smith suggested he go watch Paw Patrol instead of Lanterns, then doubled down that Hal is “canonically” racist, citing decades-old comics as the receipts.
It didn’t stay public
Screenshots shared by Green Lantern fan and podcaster Raymond Weijland — spreading across X — show Smith then taking it to his Instagram DMs after he criticized the post, writing that “canonically Hal Is a bit racist and that’s ok.”
Attached: the famous Green Lantern #76 page in which an elderly Black man confronts Hal over the “black skins.”
About those receipts: that page is from the 1970s O’Neil/Adams run, the same era in which John Stewart called Hal “Whitey” in his debut issue.
If a 1971 comic makes Hal canonically racist forever, nobody in that run survives the standard. The five decades of canon since have Hal and John as partners, friends, and equals.
It’s also the same playbook as the episode itself: the “OutKast” writer reached for 1971’s Green Lantern #87 to argue the show’s race material is “who John Stewart’s always been.”
An official DC voice, aimed at DC’s audience
Smith isn’t some random account. She’s a public face of DC Studios’ officially sanctioned podcast.
She’s also the host Lanterns star J. Alphonse Nicholson was talking to when he tied Episode 3 to Kamala Harris and “the consequences of not trusting a black woman.”
So while HBO Max weighs a renewal that comes down entirely to whether the audience shows up, an official DC voice spent the week telling that audience the franchise’s flagship Lantern is a racist, and to go watch Paw Patrol if they disagree.
We’ve heard that before, and it has never worked out.
Even the show’s defenders won’t back the reading. Forbes’ Paul Tassi, who has praised the season, argues the “Hal got the ring because he was white” takeaway is flat wrong, since the episode itself says the Guardians don’t know Earth’s races exist.
When DC’s own podcast and the show’s own defenders can’t agree on what the episode says about Hal Jordan, that is the story of Episode 3, and the fanbase already rendered its verdict.
