Every LEGO Batman video game has introduced an increasing amount of characters from the DC universe, but the series’s best character isn’t a DC superhuman at all – it’s someone from Looney Tunes. The LEGO Batman franchise is LEGO’s main DC license, and after the initial installment, it grew to envelope most of the mainstream DC universe. Despite its impressive roster of heroes and villains, LEGO Batman 3: Beyond Gotham‘s greatest Minifigure is an obscure nod to the tragically underappreciated Duck Dodgers cartoon: the Green Loontern.
LEGO Batman 3: Beyond Gotham operates similarly to many of the other classic LEGO video games in that some characters are obtained during the story while others must be bought with in-game studs. The game also includes various optional quests across several locations that allow players to access character purchases. This is how the player can obtain the Green Loontern. First, they must complete his quest in the Watchtower, then travel to each of the Lantern Planet hubs and repeat the process.
The Green Loontern is uniquely fun because he’s a DC superhero parody. He originates from an episode of Duck Dodgers, the not-so-subtle Looney Tunes spoof of pulp science fiction star Buck Rogers. The parody-heavy show – which fleshed out the iconic Duck Dodgers cartoons of the Looney Tunes golden years – had an episode entirely built around the Green Lantern mythos. Said GL nod occurs when Daffy Duck has his laundry mixed up with Hal Jordan’s, resulting in him temporarily becoming the Green Loontern. His inclusion may seem a bit unusual since LEGO Batman 3: Beyond Gotham is a Batman-centric DC video game, and its cast is comprised primarily of other DC characters. It perfectly fits the fun nature of the LEGO series though, and is a great example of Warner Bros. blending its properties together to comedic effect.
LEGO Batman’s Best Character Is A Looney Tunes Superhero Parody
LEGO Batman 3: Beyond Gotham‘s Green Loontern expectedly handles a lot like Green Lantern, making use of his signature green energy. He can fly, shoot projectiles, fire an energy beam, smash the ground with a massive duck-hammer, and create a spherical forcefield. However, he waddles around wherever he goes, and when he flies, he paddles his duck feet like he’s swimming.
LEGO Batman 3: Beyond Gotham also brought back Joe Alaskey, Daffy Duck’s Emmy-winning voice actor from the Duck Dodgers series. The game is sadly also Alaskey’s final role before his untimely passing in 2016, and thus marks the last time the voice-acting icon played a Looney Tunes character. Despite the fanbase’s contentious reaction to LEGO games’ transition to talking characters, Alaskey is as brilliant here as he was in his prior Looney Tunes performances, and the Green Loontern makes plenty of DC universe parody jokes and Duck Dodgers references during his dialogue segments. No character is better equipped to break the fourth wall in a DC project, and with 0ne-liners like “My lawyer told me I was the star of this thing, not a second-fiddle cameo!” he steals the LEGO Batman show despite being a DC outsider.
