Let's make some Justice Leagues, part 5

(Continued from part 4)

            Now that I have talked about the big three of Superman, Batman, and Wonder Woman, I will continue into the other typical slots for the Justice League, and one of the big traditional parts of the group has been the inclusion of a Green Lantern, a space cop with a magic ring that can create green force fields in the shape of anything the wearer can think of.  They are chosen for their great willpower (courage) and are pretty cool in their own right, because rings of power are awesome.  Especially when colorful and worn to fight evil aliens.

In brightest day, in blackest night,
No evil shall escape my sight.
Let those who worship evil's might,
Beware my power, Green Lantern's light!!!

4) The Lanterns

            This is pretty easy, Earth has 5 Green Lanterns just pick 3 of them.  And let me bring up this gripe: Can we get a girl in this category?  Why is there no female Green Lantern?  And Aliens do not count.  Whatever.

            I find the latest addition to the ranks, Simon Baz to be 'meh'.  I have yet to really dive into his stories having heard that he was some kind framed for a crime and is now trying to clear his name... Which I would just show everyone that I have a Green Lantern ring and say something to the effect of, "I am gonna go play Captain Kirk, you all can stew in your Earthly bullshit while I bang beautiful blue skinned women out among the stars while kicking space pirates in the teeth with a magic force field.  PEACE."  But since Simon is a dipshit he decides to hang out on Earth for... Reasons.  His mask looks really stupid, and the fact that he carries a handgun is also stupid.  That being said he should probably be on team just to give him some time and space to develop in relation to other heroes.  I want to give him a fair shake, and a chance to not wear a stupid mask and carry a gun that would be meaningless to the sorts of alien monsters he fights with his magic ring.

I actually cited this guy's design as one of the big issues I take with New 52.  That being said, maybe he can be fixed.

            An obvious pick is Jon Stewart, who is popular from the "Justice League" cartoon that was on thru the 2000's.  I would go so far as to say that more people know of him as the Green Lantern than any of the others because of his involvement with the series.  While the comic iteration is very different and responsible for some of the worst decisions any superhero has ever made including the complete destruction of a planet (on two occasions) he shows remorse and aspires to be a better person.  Jon illustrates one of the harsher personality types that get Green Lantern rings: a will to do good, but also hard headed and prone to catastrophic failure when that hard headedness picks the wrong plan to go forward with.  John has his own fan base, and is a good pick to be an icon of the DC Universe.

He is also a Marine, making him one of the very few superheroes with a military background.

            Now to pick between the other three: Hal Jordan, Kyle Rayner, and Guy Gardener.  Kyle, being my favorite should be the shoe in, as he is a young artistic character that started at the bottom of the hero latter, getting recruited in a back alley while his buddy was 10 feet away puking.  Kyle attained godhood and then used that power to remake the Green Lanterns and then joined back up as a rank and file member designated "Torchbearer" to mark his importance to the rest for his service... unfortunately DC turned Kyle into some kind of rainbow god, like he just unlocked the Elements of Harmony, so even though he was the last and greatest Lantern of the universe for decades, and was the only Lantern for a generation of readers (myself included) he is now kind of out of play for being too epic.

He actually had several uniforms while in service, aside from the wide mask his costume is most in flux.

Kyle is most known for his elaborate constructs.  The character was an artist and that allowed the writers and creators of the comic to justify massive and elaborate things from giant gorillas, to teddy bears, sumo wrestlers, power armor... it made the stories a lot of fun to read, and I imagine very fun to work on.  To see some examples, follow this link.

            On the other end of the scale is Guy, a hard drinking, thick skulled, and comically dickish character that is a hell ton of fun to have on any team because he adds to the dynamic, rather than filling a role.  He countermands orders, he questions authority, and he gets shit DONE.  He was a big wheel in the last season of "Batman: Brave and the Bold" and is mostly seen as the dirty cop who does the jobs no one else will take by the Guardians (the leaders of the Lantern Corp) so it tickles me to think of guy getting stuck on Earth while the other choice, Hal Jordan (one of the most boring characters in DC) is off in space trying to do... stuff, mostly politics involving the various other Lanterns, the Reach, and other space crap that no casual reader could ever hope to keep up with.

He especially doesn't get along with... Everyone...

            So we have Jon Stewart, Simon Baz, and Guy Gardener (who I like to think was sent to Earth by the Guardians with a note saying, "We hope he doesn't fuck anything up too much"). 

 

But Batman even more especially.

(Continued in part 6).

Intro to Comics: Green Lantern (Updated)

(Originally I wrote this last June for Facebook, this is the expanded version)

            Ever heard about Green Lantern?  Green Lantern is a comic book hero who is going through a renaissance as of late, and if you haven't heard of him yet, you will soon, as they are about to make a movie about him staring Ryan Reynolds (Van Wilder is going to be one of the noblest and most powerful superheroes in fiction).

Many others exist, but Hal Jordan remains the definitive iteration of the brand

            "But who is Green Lantern?"  You may be asking this having inexplicably not clicked off this blog for something else to fritter your attention away with.  Green Lantern is an Air Force pilot, Hal Jordan who discovered a wounded alien while out testing a new plane, the alien gave him a magic ring powered by its wearer's own will to do good and justice, more importantly it was powered by a giant battery of green energy that took the shape of a lantern.  For some reason Hal Jordan did what so many stupid people do when they get super powers, they named themselves after what gives them their power, assuring that any jerk off who wanted to kill him knew of at least one weakness right off the bat.

            The ring had the power to make force fields in the shape of anything Hal could imagine, allowed him to fly through space fast enough to journey among the stars, and the ring could translate alien languages.  All of this power was entrusted to him because with the ring their came a great responsibility, that to the Green Lantern Corp.  A paramilitary organization run by the oldest sentient creatures in the universe The Guardians (who I kid you not, look like not-cute, grumpy, blue skinned, Jewish gnomes).

Protectors of peace and justice, or cereal mascots?  You be the judge.

            In recent times other organizations devoted to other lanterns have grown into being, the red Lanterns are fueled by rage, and are led by Atrocitus, the last survivor of a massacred world, killed by the negligence of the Guardians.  Well, not so much negligence as murdered by one of them to prove a point.  See, there is a super villain, one of Green Lantern's most powerful enemies, called Krona.  Krona was a Guardian who wanted to explore the creation of the universe, the origins of life, and most importantly the power that came from emotion, in doing so he invented the Green Lantern rings and batteries.  The rest of the Guardians, being very much afraid of what an overly emotional guardian could do became devotees of logic and striped themselves of emotion, and tried to use their army of robots to make Krona submit to emotional cleansing.  Krona captured a robot and reprogrammed it to kill Atrocitus' world, and they did without question.  Krona cried for the loss of life, but he did it to prove the point that you need living beings to protect the universe, rather than those who would, do to a slight programming change, kill a planet.  I think he could have gotten his point across another way, but yeah... break some eggs I guess.

Rage, cause the first thing I think of when I see this guy is: wronged party.

How Krona escaped looking like a lumpy midget I cannot tell you.

Hal fighting a Manhunter robot, because apparently causing a planetary genocide wasn't enough to get all of them recalled from regular use.  Who knew the guardians run their organization like Firestone Tires.

            The Orange Lanterns consist of a single individual, Larfleeze who looks like a warthog crossed with Gonzo of "The Muppet Show", and he is greed manifest, his desire to own the whole of creation allows him to be the single member of his Corp but with a legion of enslaved ghosts of previous members at his disposal.  Essentially, everytime he kills someone, their spirit becomes his slave.  Sadly, it is implied that the rings energy makes him do this, that in reality he just wants his family back, and that desire is so strong it drew the Orange Ring to him.  He is the best character introduced in DC in the last 20 years.  Go read anything that has him in it.  Right now.

Seriously, best character in years.

            Yellow Lanterns are fueled by fear, both their own fears (be it inadequacy, death, failure, or of chaos) and the fears of those they fight, they are run by a former Green Lantern, Sinestro.  Sinestro was the brother in law of the alien who gave Hal Jordan the ring, he was highly decorated, but operated by a characterture of Machiavelli using his green light of will to spread fear.  Ultimately they threw him out of the Corp, and he founded his own army and tried to kill the bejeezes out of everybody.  Just so you realize how crazy self centered and powerful he is, his Yellow Lantern Corp, is officially called "The Sinestro Corp".

            Blue Lanterns are the heralds of hope, they are led by a Guardian who left the Green Lantern Corp because he feared that their will to change things for the better had left them blinded to visions of a greater tomorrow.  Currently they are mostly an army of individual prophets, the most powerful member being Saint Walker, who is able to sooth the soul of even Larfleeze and Atrocitus (it is revealed that both of them secretly desire to be blue lanterns).  These are the purest good guys out of everybody, sadly their powers are very limited.  Since they were created to help the Green Lanterns remember their mission to make a better tomorrow, they really only have the ability to fight when in proximity of a Green Lantern Corp member, though when they are they are juggernauts.

Only group that is unequivocally good guys.

            Indigo lanterns (because why throw out a color that was invented by Isaac Newton just so their would be seven colors in a rainbow, never mind the fact that 7 is a prime number and doesn't appear in any natural system)... Anyway Indigo is the lantern of compassion, they are a recluse society that have no names and seek to act as silent guardians to the whole of the universe.  Cause the first thing I think of when I think 'compassion' is a secret hidden base, a language that is coded so that even a Lantern Ring can't translate it, and the habit of brainwashing bad guys for a 'greater good'.  I think that they might be fibbing and might actually be the color of whatever emotion prompts you to join a cult.

Apparently this is what the color Indigo looks like.  Who knew?  I call it light purple in my day to day life.

            Violet Lanterns are powered by love, and are led by a group of women who wish to grant the healing light of love throughout creation, though they are a bit brain-washy about the whole idea, even more so than Indigo, they cage people in giant crystals that rewrite one's soul so as to be brimming with love.  They are also the weakest of the Lanterns overall, prone to infighting and always hard up to find a power source for their rings, as for some reason it seems that love is fading throughout the universe.  Probably because love shouldn't brainwash.  Gotta like the costumes though.

Also kind of a sexist organization, as the membership is entirely women.

            I like Green Lantern because he wears what he is supposed to be a metaphor for as his super power.  Green Lantern is the fictional personification of the idea of thinking of great things and bringing them into being through sheer will, through a desire to make the world greater.  I frequently joke that President Obama would be a blue Hope Lantern, that JFK and FDR would be Green Lanterns, and that other people throughout the world would serve as good examples in history of trying to reshape the world without magic rings.  Comic books are supposed to be parables, myths, and legend that we can use to talk about big aspirations and ideas in a very cartoonish fashion.  Green Lantern does that well.

Add caption

In brightest day, in blackest night,

No evil shall escape my sight

Let those who worship evil's might,

Beware my power... Green Lantern's light!