Welcome back to another edition of Demanded Characters. September is the month when all the trees turn colors, from green to red, yellow, and orange; then fall to the ground and get readded to the black soil. We stand now on the edge of the Blackest Night, and all the Corps coming up to become part of a war. The Green Lantern corps is no longer the Corps in the universe, and it is time for the DCUC to explore other options, so this week lets take a look at the history of the Corps, and then the alternate color choices. In the following weeks we will look at members from the new corps.
Last week it seems like most of our readers want both a classic and modern version with some nice chrome paint.
So what is the Green Lantern Corps?
In the past the Green Lanterns were simply the police of the DCU. Their history and story have evolved and they have become both the biggest threat and biggest protector of all the people in the DCU. Last year’s Sinestro Corps War and this year’s new Blackest Night event will bring the Corps again into the DCU spotlight.
In the past the only Corps the readers of the DCU knew was the Green Lanterns. A group of little blue Smurf-like guys appointed themselves as the protectors of the universe. They decided that willpower would be their strength and they would not allow emotion to cloud their ability to protect the universe. They first created the Manhunters, who were robotic soldiers, to police the universe for wrongdoing. They found a problem with their protectors: as with most machines, they lacked the ability to reason, which led them to absolute justice, something the Guardians could not allow. The Manhunters went to war with their creators, and were banished and replaced by the Green Lanterns.
This new group of space police enjoyed a long history of heroes who fought against evil in almost every sector of the universe. They were trained like soldiers and held to a strict moral code. This new Corps was armed with a weapon, but nothing so conventional as a blade or firearm: it was a simple ring. The green rings gave the wearers the ability to create anything their mind could imagine. The only limit to the power of the ring was the imagination and willpower of the wearer. There were moral limits put into the new members of the Corps: they would not be allowed to use the ring to commit any evil or immoral acts. The rings did have one flaw; they were unable to combat anything yellow in color. For centuries the Green Lanterns traveled through space, protecting planets that did not even know of the Corps’ existence.
When Abin Sur crashed on earth his ring sought out a replacement, and found what it thought was a fearless man, Hal Jordan. Hal was given the ring and trained to be one of the Corps, but his problem was that while he was a great soldier in the Corps, he had a problem following orders blindly. This trait is something that got him kicked out of his Earth’s armed forces. After years of service he went crazy. What most people did not know about the yellow weakness was that is was not only a weakness, but an entity inside the central battery called Parallax. Parallax was a creature that preyed on fear and corrupted Hal. During a battle along side Superman; Hal’s home, Coast City, was destroyed. When Hal asked the Guardians to help him restore the city, they refused. This, combined with the power of Parallax, sent Hal on a rampage. He went straight towards OA, the home of the Guardians, killing any Corps member who got in his way. He grabbed as much power as he could and tried to not only remake his own city, but recreate the entire universe to correct all past mistakes. After the attack, the Guardians started dying off. Before they were completely gone they were able to make and give one final ring to a new Green Lantern: the last of his kind, Kyle Rayner. The next event was known as Zero Hour and put the whole DCU against Hal Jordan.
Kyle was unsure of his power and ability, but he fought alongside the great heroes like Batman and Superman. He even had to help Hal’s old friend Green Arrow bring down Hal during Zero Hour. Hal was thought of as a villain for his actions and though most did not trust him, when Earth’s sun ran out of power during Final Night, he died reigniting the sun and saving Earth. This power was released into the universe and slowly siphoned off to Kyle, who was unaware of it. This was what would eventually lead to the rebirth of the Corps and the Guardians. This was not the end of Hal’s journey; he became the host for the Spectre, the judge of the dead in the DCU. While most did not know of Hal being around, he was still a force in the DCU. For years Kyle was thought to be the last Green Lantern, until he found out he had the ability to create and copy his own ring. He started to slowly rebuild the Corps, giving a ring to his girlfriend Jade, one to John Stewart. He eventually realized that his power was growing to the point where he was able to recreate, and he gave the energy to the central Battery on the recreated OA, the home planet of the Guardians.
The rebirth of the Guardians, from the power released by Kyle, and the return of the Corps; led to the Story line of Rebirth. Not only did this story see the return of Hal Jordan to the side of heroes, but it also brought with it Sinestro. Hal separated himself from the spirit if the Spectre, and rejoined the living Green Lanterns to stop the Parallax monster. Sensing the danger brewing in the DCU, the Guardians knew it was time to put the Corps into full swing.
Now the Guardians are colder then ever, and the Corps is full of rookies. The task master drill sergeant of the Corps Kilowog is back training the rookie "poozers". The Earth Lanterns are now 4 strong: the level headed John Stewart, the crass Guy Gardner, the creative thinker Kyle Rayner, and their fearless leader Hal Jordan. When the Corps was reborn; Parallax, instead of being in trapped in the central battery, became contained within the four lanterns of the Earth Green Lanterns.
With the Corps reformed a new threat was born, something that was unknown until this year. The crash landing on Earth by Abin Sur was not an accident; he was looking for something or someone. The Black Hand is currently a mystery in the Secret Origins of the Hal Jordan, and his role in the DCU is uncertain; but there are hints that he is tied in some way to the Black Lanterns and the Blackest Night. In the wake of the Sinestro Corps war, new Corps are starting to pop up all over the universe, in all the colors of the spectrum. While the Green Lanterns are supported by willpower, the Yellow Lanterns of the Sinestro corps are powered by fear, and the Star Sapphires are motivated by love. We have also seen a new groups of Lanterns that are motivated by anger, and the rage of the red Lanterns seem to be the newest threat to the DCU.
It is uncertain how long all these Corps will be around, but you can be sure that the creations from the Mind of Geoff Johns are amazing. They have great backgrounds and the art of the books is stunning. While the DCUC is not a Green Lantern line, I don’t see how some of the characters from the upcoming line could be left out. Names like John Stewart, Kilowog, Jade, the Black Hand, Guy Gardner, Kyle Rayner, and the Guardians themselves are all great candidates for the DCUC. Don’t forget some of the newer characters like Atrocitus, Star Sapphires, the Anti Monitor, and Sinestro Corps Superman or Mongul.
So what do you think: Who from the Green Lantern’s cast should be in the DCUC ?
Some pictures Courtesy of comic vine
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