As a longtime Green Lantern fan I pride myself on my knowledge of the Green Lantern Corps and it’s cast of characters. And I’m old school; some of my favorite members of the Corps are Tomar Re and Charley Vickers.
One of the coolest parts of Green Lantern back in the day was the back ups that put various alien GLs into the spotlight. Honestly, one of the reasons I picked up those issues as a kid was because I knew I was going to meet a new Green Lantern.
And of course I always tried to know as much of the back story for the Earth Green Lanterns as I possibly could. I knew who Kari Limbo was and what her relationship was to both Hal Jordan and Guy Gardner. I knew the reason why both John Stewart and Guy Gardner were selected as backups for Hal Jordan. And I’m sure that my mom humored me by pretending to listen to as I detailed each origin.
But that brings me to the current state of Green Lantern.
With The New 52, a huge cosmic reset button was hit and most of DC’s characters. So Superman and Wonder Woman started over as did the Justice League and Teen Titans. But there were two notable exceptions; Batman and Green Lantern.
So with Green Lantern, you’ve basically got Hal Jordan, Guy Gardner, John Stewart and Kyle Rayner all becoming Green Lanterns within a five year span. So basically every 15 months, Earth got a new Green Lantern.
Here are some questions I have about Green Lantern now.
Why does Earth have so many Green Lanterns? Back in the day, Hal was the Green Lantern with John and Guy as backups. Hal quit, John took over. While John was Green Lantern, the Guardians of the Universe activated Guy Gardner. Hal then inherited Tomar Re’s ring and Kyle was the last Green Lantern for awhile.
But I don’t understand how, in such a brief period of time, there ended up being four Green Lanterns from Earth. And that’s not even getting into Simon Baz.
It’s not like there’s a precedent, where every planet has four Green Lanterns or even two Green Lanterns. So I don’t understand why that’s the case for Earth, other than fan service.
But speaking of numbers…
When did the GLC expand to two GL’s per sector? So Abin Sur was pretty much the solo patroller of sector 2814 and when he died Hal got his ring. And Hal wasn’t trained by the other GL in 2814, he learned things from Kilowog and Sinestro.
But at some point, the Guardians decided to expand to two Green Lanterns in every sector. And as far as I know, 2814 is the only sector that has two Green Lanterns from the same planet.
(Wait, I think that Rann also has two Green Lanterns, right?)
Anyway, when did this expansion happen and why? I mean other than to justify having so many Green Lanterns from Earth.
That’s really just it. Two questions I wish I could get answers to in regards to Earth Green Lanterns. It’s kind of bothersome to not know the answers, because it would come in handy sometimes. Like when Sinestro is teasing John Stewart about who is second in command when Hal’s away. It’d be nice to know.
Well, that’s it for this week. Since it’s Wednesday go out and get some fresh new comics from your local comic shop.
