Spoilers below for the third episode of Lanterns for anyone who hasn’t watched it yet on HBO or streamed it via HBO Max subscription, so be warned!
Tonight’s “OutKast” was big for Aaron Pierre’s John Stewart, as audiences learned about more from his childhood and time working with Hal, as well as more context behind the past events we were shown already. Nothing seemed to debunk my biggest theory about Hal’s death, which I’m okay with given it was another fun and methodical installment, and we finally got to meet Laura Linney’s long-mysterious character, the Guardian that put John on the path to Green Lantern-dom. Now who else caught the almost immediate DC lore namecheck?
Right after John lands on that big beautiful pile of mattresses, mall store signs for the closed-down Janus Cosmetics are seen in the background, and it’s either a wildly clever comic book nod that won’t have any further impact on the story, or it’s a wildly clever comic book nod that ALSO potentially confirms a personal favorite rogues-gallery villain for the DCU’s Batman. Let's talk about that one first.
Janus Cosmetics May Imply Black Mask's DCU Existence
Introduced in 1985's Batman #386, Janus Cosmetics was a company owned by Charles Sionis that was eventually run by his son Roman, but only after the latter burned both of his parents to death specifically to take over the family business. Roman was obsessed with masks of all kinds, and essentially bankrupted the company after taking over. He lost control of it to the Wayne Foundation, and that's where Black Mask was born.
Black Mask's front-cover description beats all, too: "Crazier than The Joker, Deadlier than Ra's Al Ghul." He's since become one of Gotham City's most power-hungry villains, with an ego as vast and gnarled as the Batcave's walls. As cool as it'd be to see that character introdcued in Lanterns, though, I don't fully think that this was a stealth nod to his arrival. This show already has a potential villain with a "Black" moniker that we're waiting to see. (Also worth noting that Zack Snyder reframed as "Janus Corp." for Justice League, with Ewan McGregor's take on Black Mask introduced in Birds of Prey.)
I Think It's More Of A Nod To The Roman God Who Inspired Wonder Woman And Hawkman Villains
In Roman mythology, Janus is often depicted as a double-faced being, and has been known to be the god of concepts such as beginnings, endings, time, transitions, duality, doorways, gates, passages and more. Speaking to "beginnings," Janus is where January got its name.
Lanterns' central story and relationship between Hal and John pretty much speaks to all of those elements, both on the macro and the micro. There's the duality of two Green Lanterns vying for the same ring, as well as the (albeit complicated) transition of authority between them, which obviously also speaks to starts and finishes. The episodic format also plays into it, given all the flashbacks, and the further duality of the 2016 and 2026 timelines.
The Wonder Woman villain, created in 2021 by Michael W. Conrad, Becky Cloonan and artist Andy MacDonald, was expressed through a split between a male representing the past, and a female representing the future. Plus, Lanterns co-creator Tom King took over writing the solo Wonder Woman book after Conrad and Cloonan's line concluded, making the connective tissue feel even more germane.
So if Janus Cosmetics actually was only meant to be a nod to Roman Sionis' Black Mask existing in the DCU, then it's one hell of a coincidence that everything elsem entioned above worked out so well.
Other Uses Of Janus In DC Lore
For what it's worth, the name Janus has come up in other DC works as well. Doom Patrol introduced a Doctor Janus, a planet named Janus was introduced in 1991's Legion of Super-Heroes Annual, and Top 10's Linda Burnett is an interation of Janus in a world where the Roman Empire was never toppled. An 11-part 1989 crossover featured all of DC's government and military agencies being duped into in-fighting over a piece of falsified intel, the titular "Janus Directive."
The last example I'll mention is the only other one that I think would actually fly as legitimate DCU connective tissue. Alton Janus was introduced in Justice League: Generation Lost as a minion of Maxwell Lord working as a King within the organization Checkmate. That group was made DCU official in Peacemaker, and James Gunn did seem to imply Checkmate tethers those worlds together. Although I'd rather see the actual organization making an impact, as opposed to just the Janus surname being the only tie-in.
Other minor examples exist, and I'm sure there are also some relevant details that I whiffed on mentioning earlier. So feel free to comment with any key info you all can think of, as well as your undying agreement with my thoughts.
Stay on the lookout for more answers, clues, easter eggs and more when Lanterns airs new episodes every Sunday night on HBO and HBO Max at 9:00 p.m. ET.
