The controversy surrounding Lanterns and its treatment of Hal Jordan just took an extraordinary turn. Frankey Smith, better known online as Fantastic Frankeym one of the hosts of DC Studios Showcase: The Official Podcast, entered a Green Lantern fan’s private messages to insist that Hal Jordan is “canonically” racist before suggesting that the DC Universe “may not be for” the fan if he disagreed.
The exchange was first reported by Geeks + Gamers after Green Lantern fan and podcaster Raymond Weijland published screenshots of the apparent conversation.
Apparently the DC podcast host Gunn hired is lecturing people that Hal Jordan is racist and that they shouldn’t read DC books if they think he isn’t
I love the DCU but this behavior isn’t acceptable especially from DC employees who are messing with dc’s IP#lanterns #DCU pic.twitter.com/GAQeES9hRc
— Warlion (@Warlioncomics) September 2, 2026
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This is significant because Smith isn’t simply a comic book commentator giving a personal opinion on social media.
DC itself announced Smith as a host of DC Studios Showcase: The Official Podcast, describing the program as a partnership between DC, DC Studios, and Max designed to provide fans with access to the creators, actors, and personalities shaping the DC Universe.
Now one of the public faces of that official promotional apparatus appears to be telling a longtime fan that one of DC’s most iconic heroes is racist—and that perhaps DC simply isn’t for him anymore.
‘Canonically Hal Is a Bit Racist’
The dispute began after Smith reportedly declared on Threads, “Hate to break it to ya but Hal is indeed a bit racist.”
Weijland responded to the comment in an Instagram Story, rejecting the characterization.
DC Podcast host confronts fan to call Hal Jordan racist – X, @Warlioncomics
“Just because the new show writes Hal that way doesn’t mean it’s true for his character DC fans,” he wrote. “I love John and am enjoying the show but dawg. The character assassination is crazy.”
According to screenshots subsequently published by Weijland, Smith then initiated a private conversation with him.
“Hi Just to let you know canonically Hal Is a bit racist and that’s ok,” Smith reportedly wrote.
Smith apparently supported the argument by sending Weijland a famous page from Green Lantern #76, the 1970 comic by Denny O’Neil and Neal Adams that launched the celebrated “Hard-Traveling Heroes” storyline.
DC Podcast host confronts fan to call Hal Jordan racist – X, @Warlioncomics
But the conversation quickly moved beyond debating comic book history.
When Weijland argued that turning Hal into a racist character unnecessarily divided fans, Smith reportedly answered, “I’m only giving you the courtesy of a response because we have a lot of mutuals but I’m not here to argue microagressions.”
Then came the remarkable part.
“Sure lol. The DC may not be for you love, the heros [sic] are complex and flawed. I suggest paw patrol,” Smith reportedly wrote.
DC Podcast host confronts fan to call Hal Jordan racist – X, @Warlioncomics
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After Weijland reiterated that he enjoyed Lanterns but disagreed with the characterization of Hal, Smith reportedly told him to “check your privilege” and added, “We also talking about racism on the show btw so buckle up.”
There’s an enormous difference between fans disagreeing with each other on social media and someone attached to an official DC Studios program entering a fan’s private messages to lecture him about one of the company’s characters.
More importantly, Smith’s response appears to confirm something critics of Lanterns have been arguing since its controversial third episode aired: the racial commentary surrounding Hal Jordan isn’t merely something viewers are imagining.
No, That Comic Doesn’t Establish Hal Jordan as a Racist
The comic book page cited by Smith is one of the most famous moments in Green Lantern history.
In Green Lantern #76, an elderly Black man confronts Hal Jordan about the problems facing Black Americans. He points out that Green Lantern has helped people with various skin colors across the universe before asking what Hal has done for Black people on Earth.
Hal can’t provide an answer.
A page from Green Lantern #76 – DC Comics
The moment is uncomfortable by design.
O’Neil and Adams were deliberately taking a traditionally cosmic superhero and forcing him to confront social problems he had ignored. Hal’s failure was blindness to injustice around him—not an announcement that Green Lantern was secretly a racial supremacist.
Those aren’t remotely the same thing.
Even DC’s own retrospective on the relationship between Hal Jordan and John Stewart presents their early racial conflict as part of Hal’s character development.
When the Guardians select John as Hal’s potential replacement, Hal initially questions the decision after seeing John’s aggressive confrontation with a police officer. John subsequently exposes a politician’s plan to manufacture a race war.
What happens next?
According to DC itself, Hal “confesses his biases and apologizes.”
Hal Jordan and Kyle Rayner fight side by side as Green Lanterns – YouTube, Comics Explained
That’s the part that disappears when someone takes a story from more than half a century ago and reduces it to “Hal Jordan is racist.”
The story gave Hal a blind spot. John challenged it. Hal recognized that he was wrong. The two men eventually became friends, colleagues, and two of the greatest Green Lanterns in DC history. Indeed, the same DC retrospective describes their relationship as a “longtime friendship” forged through years of tragedy and triumph.
That’s character development.
Declaring that Hal remains “canonically racist” effectively erases the development that followed.
Lanterns Continues to Focus on Race
Lanterns Episode 3, “OutKast,” radically rewrote John Stewart’s origin story around race, fear, and privilege.
The episode establishes that Abin Sur’s ring approached John Stewart Sr. before eventually selecting Hal Jordan. John Sr. admits that he experiences fear, causing the ring to reject him.
John’s mother, Bernadette, subsequently argues that the test itself is unfair because asking a Black man in America whether he knows fear fundamentally disadvantages him.
She later tells John that Hal possesses the ring because “he’s been privileged enough in this life that he didn’t have to know fear.”
That framing generated immediate criticism from viewers who believed the series was diminishing Hal Jordan in order to elevate John Stewart.
The people behind the episode have done little to distance themselves from its racial interpretation.
Episode writer Vanessa Baden Kelly told TheWrap that the writers specifically discussed “how much more a Black superhero has to do to be accepted in that world.”
The writers didn’t accidentally stumble into the racial conversation surrounding these characters. It was deliberately constructed into John’s new origin. And now an official DC Studios podcast personality is apparently telling fans that Hal Jordan really is racist anyway.
John Stewart Doesn’t Need Any of This
Perhaps the most frustrating element of this entire debate is that John Stewart doesn’t need any of this.
John is already one of DC’s greatest heroes.
He was introduced in Green Lantern #87 in 1971 and eventually became Earth’s primary Green Lantern after Hal stepped away from the Corps. For an entire generation raised on Justice League and Justice League Unlimited, John Stewart was Green Lantern.
John Stewart as Green Lantern – YouTube, Comics Explained
He doesn’t need Hal Jordan to be racist or to represent “privilege.” John also doesn’t need Hal’s accomplishments diminished so that his own appear greater by comparison.
The best Green Lantern stories have allowed these characters to challenge one another while recognizing that both are heroic men with different backgrounds, personalities, strengths, and weaknesses.
Telling Fans ‘DC May Not Be for You’ Is the Bigger Problem
There’s also a larger issue here that goes beyond Hal Jordan.
Smith is entitled to an opinion about Green Lantern and fans are entitled to disagree with it. But when you’re appearing on a program literally called DC Studios Showcase: The Official Podcast, the relationship changes.
DC’s own announcement described the show as a “one-stop destination for all things DC and DC Studios,” with Smith and her fellow hosts providing commentary and interviewing the people shaping the franchise.
This isn’t some unaffiliated fan podcast.
Kyle Chandler as Hal Jordan in the Lanterns trailer – YouTube @HBO
So telling a dissatisfied customer that DC “may not be for you” while suggesting Paw Patrol as an alternative isn’t merely snark between two anonymous accounts.
It’s someone operating within DC Studios’ official promotional ecosystem effectively telling a fan to go somewhere else.
Entertainment companies have spent much of the last decade learning the consequences of that attitude.
Fans don’t have to accept every reinterpretation of a character. They aren’t obligated to agree with creators, actors, writers, podcast hosts, or corporate representatives simply because those people have been granted stewardship over something they love.
And criticizing a radical rewrite of John Stewart’s origin doesn’t mean someone dislikes John Stewart.
Rejecting the claim that Hal Jordan is “canonically racist” doesn’t mean someone believes superheroes must be flawless.
Hal Jordan as Green Lantern – YouTube, Comics Explained
In fact, acknowledging Hal’s mistakes, his growth, his friendship with John, and the decades of stories that followed those early encounters requires a considerably more nuanced understanding of the character than permanently defining him by one uncomfortable moment published in 1970.
Hal Jordan learned, changed, and became John’s friend.
If the message coming from people officially representing DC Studios is instead that longtime fans should “check their privilege,” accept that Hal Jordan is racist, and perhaps go watch Paw Patrol if they disagree, DC shouldn’t be surprised when some of those fans eventually take the advice and leave.
How do you feel about Lanterns? Sound off and let us know!
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