Warning: Spoilers for Green Lantern Corps #1 ahead!Green Lantern’sweirdest weakness was just turned on its head inGreen Lantern Corps#1. This first issue is more than a showcase of the fantastic characters who compose the Corps; it has, in my opinion, the perfect panel that not only defines the Corps' entire ethos but does so by turning the Green Lantern’s silliest weakness into its greatest strength. What a way to start DC’s brand-new Green Lantern series.
InGreen Lantern Corps#1 by Morgan Hampton, Jeremy Adams, and Fernando Pasarin, the Corps struggles to protect a universe in which the Emotional Spectrum runs amok. When a surge of fear energy erupts on the planet Tamaran, Sinestro, once again a Green Lantern, shows his mastery of a Green Lantern’s willpower.
“Being a Green Lantern isn’t about never showing fear. It’s about overcoming it,” he declares, passing harmlessly through a yellow fear construct in a hugely symbolic moment for Green Lantern fans, asyellow was once the entire Corps' greatest weakness.
Green Lantern’s Weakness To Yellow Is Completely Turned Around in a Single Moment
Green Lantern Corps#1 by Jeremy Adams, Morgan Hampton, Fernando Pasarin, Oclair Albert, Arif Prianto, and Dave Sharpe
When the Green Lantern franchise was rebooted in 1959’sShowcase#22 by John Broome, Gil Kane, Joe Giella, and Gaspar Saladino, Hal Jordan replaced Alan Scott as the titular character. The Green Lantern artifact no longer hosts a mystical green flame; it’s now a battery bequeathed to Halby the dying alien Abin Sur. Readers first encounter the Green Lantern’s strange Silver Age weakness here, with Abin Sur saying,“Once you have the battery, you will have power over everything - except what is yellow.“Abin Sur explains that this is because there is a “yellow impurity” in the Lantern.
As a longtime Green Lantern fan, I’m utterly in love with this moment.
While this weakness seems reasonable enough for a generic comic book character, it quickly became apparent in Hal Jordan’s early adventures how ludicrous it was for the titanic powers ofthe Green Lantern ringto be stopped by anything yellow. I would be remiss if I didn’t point to the now-iconic scene in Frank Miller and Jim Lee’sAll-Star Batman & Robin, the Boy Wonder#9, in which Batman renders Hal powerless by confronting him in a room where everything, even Batman and Robin, has been slathered in yellow paint. It’s hilarious - but ridiculous.
The Birth of Green Lantern’s Emotional Spectrum Gave Yellow a Whole New Meaning
Green Lantern: RebirthChanged the DC Universe Forever
It wasn’t until Geoff Johns and Ethan Van Sciver’s revolutionary run on 2004’sGreen Lantern: Rebirththat this “yellow impurity” would be retconned into one of the greatest elements of modern Green Lantern lore. In issue #3, Johns and Van Sciver debut the now iconic Emotional Spectrum, which gives the Green Lanterns their powers. The team also introduces Parallax, a being of yellow fear energy. Imprisoned in the Central Lantern Battery,Parallax was the “yellow impurity” all along, as fear weakens and poisons willpower;it was Parallax’s influencethat prevented the ring from working on anything yellow.
“Parallax” was originally Hal Jordan’s villainous identity after he destroyed the Green Lantern Corps in Ron Marz, Darryl Banks, and Romeo Tanghal’sGreen Lantern#50; this iconic ’90s story was later retconned, as DC revealed that the Parallax entity was manipulating Jordan and ultimately possessing his body.
This genius narrative twist still defines Green Lantern lore to this day. Iconic Green Lantern elements that weaponized yellow, like Sinestro and the Antimatter Weaponers of Qward, can now be seen as metaphorical clashes between the forces of fear and the willpower necessary to overcome it. Modern stories have even explored what it means to wield the yellow light of fear:Green Lantern 2021 Annual#1 by Ryan Cady, Sami Basri, and Tom Derenick shows how fear can motivate one to surpass their limits when Jessica Cruzis given a Yellow Lantern ring.
The Entirety of Green Lantern Is Summed Up in One Page
Adams, Hampton, and Pasarin Begin a New Era for the Green Lantern Corps
All of this context and history is distilled into one single, perfect panel inGreen Lantern Corps#1: when Sinestro passes through the yellow barrier, it is a literal metaphor for moving past one’s biggest fears. As a longtime Green Lantern fan, I’m utterly in love with this moment. It takes what used to be a Green Lantern’s greatest weakness and turns it into strength by showing what the color signifies and how it no longer affects the Lantern Corps. This single panel perfectly captures the Green Lantern ethos:the ability to overcome great fear.
The Green Lantern Corps Is Now Stronger Than Ever, So Please - Don’t Let DC Ruin the Team
DC’s new Green Lantern series is almost here, introducing an exciting new team dynamic for the universe’s most renowned intergalactic police force.
The Green Lanternfranchise has run the gamut from silly space opera to sci-fi police procedural, but I’d argue that the core conceit of willpower vs. fear gives the series its everlasting appeal. Ever since Johns and Van Sciver’s contributions, the world of Green Lanternhas exploded into an entire rainbow of emotional symbolism, turning encounters of brightly colored aliens into color-coded philosophical conflicts. Nothing sums this up better thanGreen Lantern Corps#1,which manages to convey the entire concept of theGreen LanternCorpsin a single, perfect panel: the old yellow weakness now recontextualized into unfathomable strength.
Green Lantern Corps#1is available now from DC Comics.
Green Lantern
Green Lantern is the name given to multiple enforcers of intergalactic justice in the DC Universe. Green Lanterns can harness the cosmic energy of willpower, and create unique spectral objects to face off against their enemies. Though some Green Lanterns have assisted with the Justice League, they primarily belong to the Green Lantern Corps.
