The Lantern Corps

Another project that James Gunn has announced is Lanterns, with the ambiguity of the title we can hope that this project will include all of the Lantern Corps colors. Now should that be the case it means that we will be pulling from the Brightest Day, Darkest Night series. That would allow for the background and full introduction of each faction of the Lantern Corps. I will simply provide a brief synopsis.

Obviously the most popular and well known of the Lantern Corps is Green. Members of the Green Lantern Corps personify Willpower. The power rings choose them based on the strength of their will. They are self proclaimed guardians of the universe and act as space police. I am personally hoping that any focus on the Green Lanterns fronted by John Stewart as he is my favorite Green Lantern. I know Hal Jordan is probably where we will start, but Stewart is just so much cooler. Now if you are a green lantern fan then you certainly know the oath as it stands now, but after the Phantom Lantern storyline there was an oath that came before the one that we know now.

For logic's gift and wisdom's sake,

The bond of heart and mind we break,

From passion's pall we must awake,

Our heart's emotions we now forsake!

Now this was the oath set forth by Volthoom when he created the Great Heart and founded the original Guardians. I much prefer the oath we know now…

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!

Now as we mentioned before there are other color lantern corps, each personifying and drawing from a particular emotion. Each has its own oath and power ring, and very few actually get time and panels in the comics.

So next let's talk about the Red lantern corps, who of course draw their power from rage. They were first mentioned in the Sinestro Corps storyline. Now each of these emotions have consequences and limitations, Red lanterns are so overcome by rage that it drowns out any intelligence that was once possessed by the user. They are reduced to a very animalistic mindset with very reduced speech abilities. The main instigator of the red lantern corps is Atrocitus who was one of the only red lanterns who had complete control over himself, retaining most of his intelligence and ability to logic, reason and speak. Their oath has gone through a few variations between the comics and animated series, the core of which mostly stays the same. The animated series one is slightly less cheesy so I am going to go with that one;

With blood and rage of crimson red,

We fill men's souls with darkest dread,

And twist your minds to pain and hate.

We'll burn you all—that is your fate!

Next up are the Orange Lanterns who would also be seen as supervillains. The Orange Lanterns run off of greed. The most featured orange lantern is Larfleeze. Larfleeze personifies greed so well that he actually absorbs the souls of other orange lantern members. There is only one recorded oath for the Orange Lanterns and it is in fact a sign that the writers kind of phoned it in but it does describe the purpose of the corps pretty well;

"What's mine is mine

And mine and mine

And mine and mine and mine

Not yours"

Now that is all we are going to cover in this article or it's going to be 5,000 words so there will be a part two. We still have to cover the Black, White, Indigo, Blue Lanterns and the Star Sapphires.