75 Years, 75 Green Lanterns [DC Entertainment]

[6Foot2]

[Miscbrah]

Just out of interest, what does the Green Lantern do and why are they special?

[localzuk]

They help people to their seats in cinemas, without blinding everyone with a bright white torch - green is much easier on the eyes...

[6Foot2]

Just out of interest, what does the Green Lantern do and why are they special?

 

Wikipedia seems to have a fairly good summary:

 

Link: Green Lantern [Wikipedia]

 

...The first Green Lantern character, Alan Scott, was created in 1940 during the initial popularity of superheroes. Alan Scott usually fought common criminals in New York City with the aid of his magic ring. The publication of this character ceased in 1949 during a general decline in the popularity of superhero comics, but the character saw a limited revival in later decades.

 

In 1959, to capitalize on the booming popularity of science fiction, the Green Lantern character was reinvented as Hal Jordan, an officer for an interstellar law enforcement agency known as the Green Lantern Corps. Additional members of this agency, all of whom call themselves Green Lanterns, were introduced over time. Prominent Green Lanterns who also have had starring roles in the books include Guy Gardner, John Stewart, Kyle Rayner, and Simon Baz...

[featured_spectre]

Just out of interest, what does the Green Lantern do and why are they special?

 

Green lanterns are effectively space police. 1 green lantern has a "sector" of the universe. The universe is broken up into 3600 sectors, and there is 1 lantern per sector. They get their power from their ring, which is the "ultimate" weapon, as it is limited only by their imagination. The ring is powered by the lantern, which is in turn powered by the central battery, which is powered by the universal reservoir.

 

The ring colours have a different drawing of their power, as such:

 

White: Life

Red: Anger

Orange: Greed

Yellow: Fear

Green: Will

Blue: Hope

Violet: Love

Indigo: Compassion

Black: Death

 

Each ring is weak to another colour, with no distinct advantage over the others. Only 1 person in the universe has been able to handle all the rings, and that was Kyle Rayner, and he literally held all rings, at once.

 

The power of the ring is such that a lantern with proper training could take on superman god tier characters and win. Examples being the Anti-Monitor, Darkseid and even superman himself. They're capable of creating anything they can imagine, including radiation that can harm foes (such as kryptonite radiation against kryptonians).

[Garacesh]

That sounds a bit haxxy. Aren't superhero comics supposed to mostly be about overcoming trials, pulling back from the jaws of sudden-death and saving the world from destruction at the very last second?

 

Seems a point pointless if you can just go "Yeah, I'll summon an unbreakable cage around you. GG, we can all go home now."

[featured_spectre]

Well they have to be present...and the strength of the cage is dependent on their will power (or whatever .

 

For example, the green lantern Hal Jordan has been able to create a harness for a planet which meant superman could move the planet.

[Garacesh]

Well they have to be present...and the strength of the cage is dependent on their will power (or whatever .

Ah, so we're adding arbitrary "force of will" restrictions to physical things, then? Seems a reasonable limitation (not actually being sarcastic)

 

Okay then.. "I imagine a black hole opening up inside you for 1/1billionth of a second" - Every enemy defeated. GG. Go home. Slap a pie in the oven.

 

I'm not meaning to be a git about it (Well, I kinda am), I'm just not sure how you could have a story arc of any decent length. Let's face it, human imagination isn't exactly stunted..

[featured_spectre]

Well they could but they'd likely get sucked in too. They do train around stars and heavy gravity but they actively avoid black holes because they can't escape them, and the ring is forever lost, meaning a new one needs to be forged....which annoys the guardians.

[Garacesh]

Oh, hang on, so they can make more of them whenever they feel like, too? Not OP in the slightest xD Even if someone does have a good grumble.

 

To be fair it's probably a bit difficult to put 75 years of comic book history so condensed, but I just can't help but think the only person someone with a ring would have trouble with is someone else that also has a ring. Every other villain would just be defeated easily if all the wielder had to do was imagine a way. I guess it's not so much 'fight for the survival of the human race' as it is 'this is a puzzle I need to devise a solution to'

 

Also, to hold all that power, it does seem a bit useless to use it fighting crime in New York

[featured_spectre]

well generally the lanterns fight each other and make alliances with each other etc.

 

So the red lanterns constantly battle the green lanterns with good success, but when the blue lanterns join in, they can annul the red lanterns power with a single touch, and boost the power of the green lanterns.

 

The orange lantern can generally fight all other lantern colours to a standstill, despite being a single person (he was so greedy he killed all other orange lanterns and kept the rings for himself).

[Garacesh]

So it's a rainbow coloured game of rock-paper-scissors?

 

Why do they fight each other?

[featured_spectre]

They fight each other for power over each other.

 

Green lanterns as you expect are middle of the road (middle of the colour spectrum), so they police the universe.

 

To my understanding, there can never be more than 3600 of any colour due to the limitations of their central battery.

[Garacesh]

So tl;dr, some d00ds created a bunch of magical rings 3 for Elves, 7 for Dwarves and 9 for Men that run off a massive battery, and gave them to a bunch of people who now basically fight to take each others' power?

 

Yeah, I could probably get into that.