‘Lanterns’ Reveals Major Batman Villain Easter Egg in Episode Three

HBO’s ‘Lanterns’ has dedicated its initial three episodes to crafting a slow-burn mystery centered around Rushville, Nebraska. However, the series has also been subtly weaving in connections to Gotham City, even in the absence of Batman in James Gunn’s DC Universe.

In episode three, “OutKast,” we find John Stewart two months into his Green Lantern training, flashing back to the unusual job interview that secured him the role. During this interview, set in an abandoned shopping mall, a Guardian of the Universe, portrayed by Laura Linney, probes Stewart about his troubled past, military service, and complex feelings toward Hal Jordan, all to assess his worthiness for the ring.

Before this pivotal interview, the episode cleverly includes a detail that attentive fans have linked to a notable Batman villain. An advertisement for Janus Cosmetics appears in the background, a name familiar to comic book enthusiasts as belonging to Roman Sionis, the businessman-turned-crime-lord known as Black Mask.

Janus Cosmetics and Roman Sionis have roots dating back to Sionis’s original 1985 comic book debut, where he inherited his family’s cosmetics empire. His rush to market an untested waterproof makeup product resulted in disfigurement for customers. After losing control of the company to the Wayne Foundation, Sionis evolved into Black Mask, one of Gotham’s most notorious and mask-obsessed crime lords.

Black Mask is not new to live-action portrayals. Ewan McGregor depicted a version of the character, Roman Beauvais Sionis, in 2020’s ‘Birds of Prey.’ However, that film exists outside of James Gunn’s current DC Universe continuity, and other DC projects like ‘Batwoman’ and ‘Gotham’ have offered their own interpretations of Sionis over the years.

The reference to ‘Lanterns’ is significant as it connects to a broader narrative. The Sionis name has also appeared in set photos from ‘Clayface,’ DC Studios’ upcoming theatrical release, where signage for Sionis Industries, the parent company of Janus Cosmetics, was captured during filming. This overlap links two distinct areas of the new DC Universe through the same fictional business.

Whether this shared branding indicates that Black Mask will make a live-action appearance or if the Sionis name serves merely as connective lore, as James Gunn has done in other instances, remains to be seen. Gunn has previously expressed his desire for the DC Universe to feel interconnected through subtle references rather than forcing every project into a tightly woven storyline.

Additionally, there’s a comic book aspect that makes the connection to ‘Lanterns’ feel purposeful. In the “Blackest Night” storyline, the villain Nekron resurrects a deceased Black Mask as a Black Lantern who targets Catwoman, establishing a direct, albeit grim, link between Sionis and the Lantern mythology that the show is currently exploring.

With ‘Clayface’ set to debut later this year and ‘Lanterns’ consistently dropping Batman-related hints in nearly every episode, the connection between these two projects appears increasingly intentional rather than coincidental. Whether any of this will culminate in Black Mask making an on-screen appearance remains an open question.

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