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The Coolest Thing About Green Lantern Comics Is Also Their Biggest Mistake
Green Lantern is one of DC’s most venerable ideas. Originally appearing in 1940, the first Green Lantern was Alan Scott, who used his magical ring to fight evil on his own and with the Justice Society of America. In DC’s Silver Age, the Green Lantern mythos would be changed forever. Sci-fi was in and fantasy was out, and the new Green Lantern Hal Jordan became a member of the intergalactic police force known as the Green Lantern Corps. This idea for the Green Lantern proved to be very popular and decades worth of stories came from it. However, the changing tastes of comic fans would lead to it being drastically changed when an insane Hal Jordan destroyed the Corps. For years, there was only one Green Lantern, Kyle Rayner, but Jordan would come back and bring the Corps with him. Soon, a new idea was brought back to the Green Lantern mythos — the Emotional Spectrum and the Lantern Corps’ based on them.
Readers were introduced to the Sinestro Corps, the Red Lanterns, the Orange Lantern, the Blue Lantern Corps, the Star Sapphires (who had existed before but were made a part of the Emotional Spectrum), and Indigo Tribe )with the undead Black Lantern Corps, the White Lanterns, Lanterns powered by sadness, and more appearing later). All of this would lead to the blockbuster event comic Blackest Night, and the Green Lantern mythos were changed forever. While the multiple Lantern Corps’ led to some cool stories, it’s also kind of pulled the Green Lanterns away from what they once were. The Emotional Spectrum and its Corps’ have been something of a mistake, and it’s about time we all realized that.
The Various Lantern Corps’ Have Diluted the Concept of the Green Lantern Corps
I’m not going to mince words — “The Sinestro Corps War” and the resulting stories in Green Lantern (Vol. 4) were so hype. It was unlike anything that Green lanterns fans had seen before and felt like a great expansion of the Green Lanterns. Power rings were always the greatest weapon in the universe, and the whole War of Light storyline — that ran from “The Sinestro Corps War” to Blackest Night — was a great read. However, the problem became apparent as the years have gone on. Before, the amazing members of the Green Lantern Corps were the focus of the books. After, it became the power ring show. The powers and their effects on people became more important than the character, and it hurt things. One of the great things about the Green Lantern mythos is the sheer amount of cool characters — heroes like Guy Gardner, Kyle Rayner, John Stewart, Jessica Cruz, Kilowog, Soranik Yatu, and many more — gave readers so much to read about. Each Green Lantern was different and their adventures were defined by their differences as heroes and people. As the all of the multicolored Lantern shenanigans became more important, they stopped being used like they used to. They were just soldiers in the War of Light and its aftermaths, trading power rings, and joining new Corps’, becoming defined by that instead of who they were. Suddenly, comics that should have had a universe of possibilities felt small.
The great thing about the Green Lantern comics were that they allowed readers to explore the DC Universe. We were introduced to new villains, and the Lanterns had to deal with varied threats, from space pirates to warlords to psychopathic aliens. Suddenly, for a long time, all of those battles were related to the Lantern Corps’. On top of that, the sheer amount of power rings made being a Lantern less special than it was. No one can blame creators for wanting to play in a cool new sandbox or give readers stories with things that they recognize — and the War of Light idea made Green Lantern and Green Lantern Corps two of DC’s bestselling comics — but eventually, it was just a crutch. Personally, I lost interest in the Green Lantern books after a while because of the Lantern Corps’. It wasn’t until Grant Morrison and Liam Sharp came on Green Lantern and gave readers wild cosmic adventures that I came back. The multiple Lantern Corps’ and their ideas were cool for a while, but eventually, the ideas became played out and boring.
DC Overused the Emotional Spectrum
“The Sinestro Corps War” remains one of the coolest space opera-style Green Lantern stories of all time. Tales like “Rage of the Red Lanterns” and “Agent Orange” were pretty cool as well (although not as a great as what came before), and Blackest Night is a best of all time DC story. However, like any idea in comics, when you use it too much, readers get tired of it. The Emotional Spectrum became as much an albatross around the neck of the Green Lantern as it was a great story idea, and it’s only when they’ve left it behind as the focus that they’ve actually gotten good again.
Green Lantern works so well because at the concept’s core, it’s all about people facing off against the myriad threats of a cold, threatening universe. There’s literally a universe of possibilities, but for years, all we got was Emotional Spectrum shenanigans and a rainbow of power rings. DC ran these ideas into the ground, and almost destroyed the idea of Green Lantern by doing so.
What do you think of the Emotional Spectrum and the various Lantern Corps’? Sound off in the comments below.
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