Red, Yellow, Green, Violet and Blue… What Kind of Lantern are You?
Geoff Johns has been spinning a tale of epic proportion across the entirety of the DC Universe, and it will hopefully pay off in this summer’s Blackest Night. Until then, readers have been given a rebooted origin story of Hal Jordan, and are currently being fed the origin stories of the rainbow corps of lanterns. We’ve seen the birth of the Red Lanterns in their blood spewing conversion, and continue to see the Yellow Lanterns and their baby stealing ways in Green Lantern Corps, but it isn’t until Green Lantern #36 do we see how the Blue and Violet Lanterns get their powers.
Last time out: The Red Lanterns attacked members of the Green Lantern Corps, and made with the prisoner Sinestro. Atrocitus is heck bent on proving to Sinestro that he is the most powerful Lantern of them all by taking away anything and everything Sinestro has ever cared about. This plan not only includes draining Sinestro’s blood to power the Red Lantern rings, but to destroy Korugar, and kill Sinestro’s daughter.
DUM… DUM… DUUUUUUMMMM!
Yes, Sinestro has a daughter hidden away somewhere, that we’ve never met before. Or have we? Since Johns hasn’t delivered up a new Sinestro origin story, we can only go off the facts we’ve learned from Emerald Dawn II, and the various other retcons of this villains history. It’s an interesting plot device, but one that seems flung at the reader just like rebooting Hal Jordan’s origin to include Atrocitus and Sinestro appearing in Jordan’s first adventure. Perhaps the unknown daughter is Katma Tui, and we’ll see her reborn before this series is out. Little bits and pieces added here and there to make the backstory and buildup of Blackest Night that much more interesting.
Or at least we hope the build up to the final chapter of the John Green Lantern Trilogy pays off and really is the Earth-cracking story we all want it to be. And after it is all over, let’s hope DC sticks with the fall-out some time before dumping it all in favor of the next writer’s whims.
Those other things that will hopefully stick around for a bit longer are the introduction of all the other Lanterns. When the Red Lanterns attacked the GL Corps, it looked like all was lost until Broo’Dee Walker (a great Star Wars character name if I ever heard one), arrives to save Hal Jordan, by giving using Hal’s hope to Power Up Hal’s ring to well over 200%. I didn’t know the rings could be powered beyond 100%, but it an interesting function of the power device. The Blue Lantern is able to remove the red rage from the remaining Green Lanterns, and then commands Hal to accompany him to Odym, the home of the Blue Lanterns, to meet with Ganthet and Sayd, formerly of the Guardians of the Galaxy.
The creation of the Blue Lantern Corps is a very interesting one. Instead of instant conversion, or a hibernation conversion like the Violet Corps (seen later in the issue), the Blue Lanterns take as much as three days to explain to the candidate what it means to be a Lantern of Hope for the entire universe. The selection process began with Boo’Dee, the Blue Lantern of Sector 01, who in turn selected the Blue Lantern of Sector 02. I don’t know if it is intentional or not, but the second Blue Lantern looks a lot like Ganesha (minus the multiple arms). I doubt this is an attempt to be sacrilegious, as perhaps the Blue Lanterns represent something more god-like and universal just like the Hindu god.
This is further proven to Hal Jordan when the two Blue Lanterns alone are able to save an entire solar system from a star going supernova by turning the clock back on the sun and making it new again. I say alone, but in reality the power of the Blue Lanterns is derived from the hope contained in those around them. These Lanterns are able to channel this energy into whatever needs fixin’.
Apparently, the key to saving the universe from the upcoming apocalypse is to have Hal Jordan accompany the two Blue Lanterns in a rescue attempt of Sinestro. As evil has Sinestro has become, there is still some “hope†that he will change his ways. With the atrocities we’ve seen come from Sinestro during the Sinestro Corps War, I really doubt there is anything redeemable, and Hal Jordan appears to believe the same thing. But he does agree, and before too long, it is revealed that while Hal Jordan may be the greatest Green Lantern, he could potentially be the greatest Blue Lantern, as his many struggles over the years (GL to Parallx, to The Spectre, to his return to life) have given hope to those who matter most.
This is an interesting offer made by Warth (the second Blue Lantern), and I wonder if Hal Jordan will seriously consider the offer. On the one hand it would free up this particular title to feature Kyle, John, or Guy once again, and on the other it could lead to a title change if the offer is accepted. It would certainly be a bold move by DC, much like Marvel’s decision to change The Incredible Hulk to The Incredible Hercules.  I believe readers need to know more about the Blue Lanterns, as there does appear to be something hinky about their powers, before the big decision is made. i doubt we’ll see this happen anytime soon as Blackest Night will surely run until the end of the year.
Having read the latest Green Lantern Corps and Green Lantern back to back, I certainly enjoyed Green Lantern #36 much more. While the GLC is trying to tell a story of the troops, Green Lantern is a story told on a huge scale. The Sinestro Corps War took everyone by surprise, and I doubt Blackest Night will have the same success. The writing by Johns, with fantastic art by Ivan Reis, makes the journey getting to the next major story that much more interesting. Green Lantern #36 earns 4 out of 5 Stars.
89/89
17 Comments
PLease let Hal become a Blue Lantern….it would please all the poeple who were pissed by his return (und him taking back tha maintitle) and all the ones who are still fans of him (and evry other Lantern – except for Guy – who exists)….
As I remember, Ganesh was God of Wisdom, Remover of Obstacles…and also that he got his Elephant’s head because the other one got cut off by his Dad, so that as a child he would not KILL ALL THE OTHER GODS because of childish vigour and whatnot. Cute kid, eh.
A lot of people of the Hindu belief are fine with referencing their Gods, just so long as nothing particularly offensive or disrespectful happens. At no point does Johns actually say “This Is Ganesha, He’s Really An Alien”; reader can infer that if they wish, or it could be part of the large and ineffable net of coincidence that surrounds everything. Johns is clever that way.
And, the idea that humanity wasn’t just guiding themselves by the Pole Star but by a planet teeming with Elephant-People is kind of awesome.
My greatest hope is that Blackest Night’s ressurected heores and villains warrant more tie-ins with DC titles then Sinestro Corps War that only had guest appearances.
I’de love to see the Titans and Teen Titans deal with their ressurected teammates and the Bat-Familly having to deal with an evil life absorbing Bat-Man? That’s just good TV.
JSA Vs. Kal-El of Earth 2, Bart Allen and Conner Kent Vs. Teen Titans… the possibilities are endless.
Well, Hal has already wielded both green and yellow…
Far-fetched as it may be, maybe by the end of Blackest night he will end up being all at once? Kinda “White Lantern” sort of thing?
Ok, it’s really nerdy, but with the spectrum of emotion taht is already established… if you go with how colored light works, black would be the lack of emotions, and white would be the combination of all the ‘colors’ of emotion…
Ok, it’s a stretch, but still… my nerd sense has been tingling after reading this issue…
That’s an interesting idea…
I don’t think it is tenable for DC to sustain so many ongoing color corps, Unless a new Rainbow Brite monthly is in the works: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=35cRCGy8n54
I’m guessing this whole shebang will end up with a single remaining Lantern per color. The exception would be the existing Green Lantern Corp which gets to keep their whole army since willpower is not an emotion in the first place.
Or as Tecrogue suggested, all the colors/corps will converge into a White Lantern. But hasn’t that been done somewhere else already? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rXu0Jx7gO6g
My money’s on Soranik Natu as Sinestro long lost daughter.
Y dont u think Blackest Night will work Stephen, i mean if anybody can pull off Blackest Night its Geoff Johns. He has turned GL around and hes gonna do it with The Flash-Rebirth. I cant wait for Blackest Night
The problem with blackest night is everyone has built it up in their minds so much that it can’t possibly achieve what the masses expect. The other problem is as soon as Johns is finished with whatever he is doing at DC and moves on, everything will be undone.
1) The Earth Lantern who seems the best fit to be a Blue Lantern to me would be John.
2) Willpower is not an emotion and no Johns apologist will ever convince me other wise!
The other problem with Blackest Night is that I pitched the idea back when we were in the middle of Sinestro Corps. I recall referring to it as “the War of 42,000 Rings” or something like that. And you didn’t like it even then, Stephen.
OK, Steve McSheffrey, let me try. It’s not that willpower is an emotion, it’s that it’s the CENTER of the emotional spectrum. It is the balance of all emotion. The willpower to overcome emotion (see the Guardians, who wanted to keep emotion out of things for a long time).
So, the point is not to convince you that willpower is an emotion, but that’s it’s the balance of emotion.
How’s that?
In all futurs the Green Lantern Corps ceased to exist at some point, will it die at the end of Blackest night along the rest of the corps spectrum? Will it leave only a few Lantern powering their ring with their own willpower/emotion?
Oh please no…..we already had a universe without a corps…
But it’s really interesting, how the fans come up with own ideas…
Of course it will be impossible by Johns und Blackest Night to please the fans and it will be disapointing (at least after it’s now a mega-event -.-), but I think despite that it will be fun….but i hope, that Johns is allowed to do, what he wants, ’cause I think that the Infinite Crisis was weak (or not so great), ’cause Didio didn’t give Johns a free hand
I see what you’re saying but i think with the tremendous amount of praise and fans Johns has brought GL, I doubt any writer would have the balls to just erase it immediately. I know its gonna happen sooner or later but, not within the first 2-3 years after Johns moves on. Hype can be a very bad thing also, but im gonna keep my fingers crossed…
Geoff Johns really let his affection for Hal show through in this issue. Why Superman isn’t the first choice for leader of the blue lantern corps is beyond me. I mean yea I know “why” he can’t be a blue lantern, but jeez they couldn’t have just some sidenote of dialogue like “Yes Kal-El of Krypton or Superman of Earth as you know him was our first choice, but the universe told us he would reject our offer…”
Found the link. I pitched it, right there, before SCW even started. Blue and Red Rings and everything. Johns owes me money!
http://www.majorspoilers.com/archives/1564.htm/
(Heh, kidding.)