u/Extreme_Sail

Source: Evolution of the Enterprise

*From left to right, pencils by Gil Kane, Neal Adams, Mike Grell, Alex Saviuk, Joe Staton, and Dave Gibbons*

As the premiere of Lanterns approaches, I wanted to argue for a potential (likely) Hal mask that features his eyes, with some art from major, long-running pencillers across Green Lantern vol 2. (1960 - 1988) to set the scene. I always dislike the argument of giving white eyes to a character like GL in the live action format just because it's "comic accurate." Let's break that down, shall we?

A). White eyes were primarily used when the character was drawn at a distance, from medium shots to long shots, where economy of art yielded greater returns. However, any time there was a close-up of his face there was a good chance we'd see greater detail and his eyes. This wasn't always the case, but certainly when the artist wanted to convey greater depth or nuance of emotion and expression. Or when they were just comfortable enough to draw detailed eyes all the time (see Joe Staton and Dave Gibbons)

B). In the live action format, with a real life person on screen, wearing a domino mask - not a full face mask, but a domino mask - then the white eyes would look weird and uncanny as hell. Eyes are a part of an actor's repertoire so limiting their ability to express in that way makes no sense. Handicapping filmmakers from using their actors to their greatest potential makes no sense. Again, they aren't wearing a full face mask or a helmet where there is less contrast between the reality of a flesh and blood person and the uncanny, inhuman element of whited-out eyes.

C). Examples might help. Robert Pattinson's performance in The Batman would have been all the lesser for using white eyes just because. Instead, we get something incredibly raw and powerful and human. These characters are people under the mask after all.

On the flip side, there's Deadpool vs. Wolverine. Deadpool works with whited-out eyes, and eyes that emote even; of course, he's wearing a full face mask - no uncanny contrast. Whereas Wolverine's cowl had whited-out eyes and it unfortunately look very goofy and silly, particularly when Hugh Jackman is giving it his all trying emote but the cowl just doesn't let him.

I welcome any discussion below on the topic, I'm very interested to see if there's a case for someone like a domino mask-wearing Green Lantern to have white eyes in live action.