“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.” So goes Green Lantern’s sacred oath, which serves as the anthem for an entire corps of intergalactic heroes.
Long before Hal Jordan entered the scene, the moniker originally belonged to engineer Alan Scott. The Golden Age hero made his debut in 1940 and was created by Martin Nodell. He is actually somewhat unrelated to all the subsequent Lanterns. Scott’s powers were based in magic and so inspired by Aladdin that his name was almost Alan Ladd.
Created by John Broome and Gil Kane, Hal Jordan was introduced in 1959. His inception was far more science fiction based and although many members of the intergalactic peace-keeping force have come and gone since, he remains the definitive version for the majority of comic readers. However, fan-favorite Lantern John Stewart, the comic character who donned the mantle in Justice League and Justice League Unlimited, certainly gives him some hefty competition. Other notable Lanterns include Guy Gardener, Kyle Rayner, and Jessica Cruz.
Although we have gotten one tremendously disappointing Green Lantern movie in 2011, there is another one in the works. Green Lantern Corps is reportedly eyeing a 2020 release date, but few details are known outside of that.
Green Lantern is one of DC’s most fascinating and enduring heroes. The famed ring is only limited by the willpower of the wearer and whoever is in possession of this valuable weapon is one of the universe’s most powerful heroes - or villains.
Here are the 20 Weirdest Things About Green Lantern’s Body.
Some strange weaknesses
Most overpowered heroes have a weakness. Superman has his color-coded kryptonite. The Martian Manhunter is sensitive to fire.
Alan Scott couldn’t use his powers on anything made of wood.
That’s right, the ring could shield him from most things, but he could be staked about as easily as a vampire.
As for Hal Jordan, his weakness was the color yellow. He regularly seemed to forget this fact in the Silver Age comics as he struggled each issue to fight a yellow whale, stop a yellow missile, or avoid getting knocked out by a yellow lamp. More recently, the Dark Knight took on the Emerald Crusader - by painting and entire room, and himself, yellow.
It turned out that the problem was an impurity within the ring itself, created as a result of trapping Parallax within the central power battery.
Green Lantern has been a sentient planet, a squirrel, and a math equation
Green Lanterns are an interplanetary police force, meaning that humans make up a very small amount of the Corps. The organization is comprised of all manner of creature, some far stranger than others. When it comes to Lanterns, the Guardians certainly don’t discriminate and these comics have proven that heroes come in all forms.
There was Ch’p, who resembles an anthropomorphic squirrel; Olapet, who is a plant form; and Flodo Span, who was actually devoid of form altogether. Even weirder still, is Mogo, a sentient planet; Leezle Pon, an incredibly intelligent smallpox virus; and Dkrtzzy RRR, an abstract math equation.
Let’s also not forget Chaselon, a crystalline creature that was capable of speech and thought. He also used a wig and robotic arms in an attempt to blend in with humans.
He was almost played by Justin Timberlake and Bradley Cooper
Although Ryan Reynolds eventually drew the short straw, he wasn’t the only actor considered to play Hal Jordan in Green Lantern.
There were several other notable stars up for the role, including Bradley Cooper. Before the actor was cast as the voice of Rocket Raccoon in Guardians of the Galaxy, he almost suited up for DC instead. Some fans still hold out hope that Cooper will play Green Lantern in the DCEU.
Interestingly, another frontrunner was Justin Timberlake. Before the studio had it narrowed down to Timberlake, Cooper or Reynolds, it was rumored that Jared Leto, Henry Cavill and Michael Fassbender were also in the mix. Sadly, no casting decision could’ve saved that movie.
He suffered brain damage
Guy Gardner is the most unpleasant of the human Green Lanterns, although writers have toned him down over the years. It was revealed that he was also an acceptable candidate to take the ring after Abin Sur’s tragic exit, but Hal Jordan was chosen because he was geographically closer. Guy did become a Lantern eventually, but was left comatose due to an altercation with Hector Hammond.
When Guy eventually returned, he was a changed man.
He was incredibly brash and more than a little angry at the turn his life had taken. Depending on who wrote the story, Guy was either simply obnoxious or his personality change was a result of the brain damage he suffered previously.
Daffy Duck has been Green Lantern
We have already established that the power ring has been worn by all manner of creature. One you may not know about is Daffy Duck in Duck Dodgers.
The famous fowl became Green Loontern as the result of a dry cleaning mixup with Hal Jordan.
Duck Dodgers even had his own oath: “In blackest day or brightest night, watermelon, cantaloupe, yadda yadda, a superstitious and cowardly lot, with liberty and justice for all!”
Daffy Duck has parodied other heroes as well, such as when he became Stupor Duck, but this episode of Duck Dodgers was particularly spot on.
He not only fought Sinestro– though not particularly well– but also saved the group of Lanterns that the villain had put to sleep.
There is an Iron Lantern
While many comic fans have drawn comparisons between Marvel’s Iron Man and DC’s Batman, the Amalgam Universe chose to combine Green Lantern with Iron Man, creating Iron Lantern.
Harold Stark made his first appearance in 1997. He was created by Kurt Busiek and Paul Smith.
Hal Stark’s origin was a combination of Hal Jordan and Tony Stark’s, with him being a billionaire who founded Stark Aircraft. Stark crashlanded a flight simulator near an alien who wasn’t long for this world. Hal, who was injured, fashioned a suit from the alien tech to keep him alive. This suit could basically do everything that a power ring could do.
Iron Lantern was incredibly intelligent. He was inventive, charismatic and had all the powers granted by a Green Lantern ring. In other words, he was pretty difficult to beat.
He’s been possessed… multiple times
One of the more controversial story arcs of the ‘90s was Emerald Twilight. In the original comics, Hal went out of his mind with grief after his home, Coast City, was destroyed. He was so lost that he became an actual villain known as Parallax.
However, this was retconned years later, when it was revealed that Parallax was a fear entity - and the reason for the yellow impurity within the rings. It turned out that Jordan only did those terrible things under its influence.
Parallax isn’t the only powerful entity that has taken over Hal.
Following his turn as a Big Bad, he redeemed himself by sacrificing his life to reignite the sun. His soul would’ve remained trapped in Purgatory, but instead, he became host to the Spectre, the spirit of God’s vengeance.
Green Lanterns can become intangible
It turns out that there are very few limits to what a Green Lantern’s ring is capable of. It can actually render the wearer intangible, enabling them to walk through solid objects just as easily as Kitty Pryde.
This is one of the lesser-known powers that the ring possesses, but its origins date back to Alan Scott. One of Scott’s early missions involved him finding a way through “the 4th dimension” and catching some bad guys off-guard when he walked through a wall.
We know that the modern Lanterns’ rings are more based in alien science than magic, but they too have this ability. The rings are capable of pushing molecules apart and knitting them back together after the Lantern has moved through the object.
Batman has been a Green Lantern
Batman has worn a Green Lantern ring in more than one story, but the most well known is probably Batman: In Darkest Knight. This was a 1994 Elseworlds story by Mike W. Barr and Jerry Bingham.
In the story, Bruce Wayne discovers the crashed vessel of Abin Sur and takes on the mantle of Green Lantern - but you know, he’s still basically Batman with a power ring.
Bruce is probably one of the more heroes who could wield such a weapon.
Even still, he was so adept that other members of the Corps begged him to train them to be more like him. However, the Dark Knight had other plans.
Hal Jordan survived a nuclear bomb dropping on him
It has already been established that a Green Lantern’s ring enables him or her survive just about anything. This is further evidenced by the fact that Hal Jordan lived through a nuclear bomb being dropped on top of him. That’s hardly the only time that he managed to cheat the Reaper, though.
Hal also survived being blasted through a plane; getting hit by a force powerful enough to demolish a moon and even a punch from Superboy Prime.
Sure, we are talking about comics here, but by those standards, Jordan has still lived through many events that other heroes would not. Even in terms of Green Lanterns, he remains one of the most impressive among their ranks.
Doesn’t need to eat, sleep or go to the bathroom
Lanterns are often stationed for days at time, unable to take breaks for needs such as eating, sleeping and going to the bathroom. Luckily, like most things, the power ring has that under control. As long as the ring is powered up, these necessities aren’t an issue. Like most comics though, the exact science depends on who’s writing the story.
In certain issues, the ring eliminates these needs altogether, while in others, it simply handles them. For example, after Infinite Crisis, when Superboy Prime was imprisoned, the assigned Lantern was not allowed to leave their post for amy amount of time.
It turned out that the ring was capable of disposing of a person’s waste for them.
How that worked remains unclear, which is probably for the best.
Green Lanterns have super speed
It has been well established that the Flash is DC’s fastest hero, thanks to his connection to the Speed Force. Even Superman can never quite manage to beat the Scarlet Speedster in a race. Although Green Lantern is human and as such is certainly incapable of keeping up with either of them, he has been shown to be incredibly fast when he needs to be thanks to his all powerful accessory.
Again, this ability is dependent on who is writing the character, but GL has been shown to fly at speeds of Mach 10. He can also create wormholes in order to travel great distances instantly.
At one point, the rings even enabled Lanterns to travel through space faster than the speed of light.
Green Lanterns can survive virtually any environment
A Green Lantern’s ring truly is one of the most powerful weapons in the DC Universe. Aside from that fact that the ring can create any construct that wearer could possibly imagine, it also enables them to survive pretty much every environment.
The ring is capable of forming a protective shield around the Lantern.
This keeps them safe from extreme weather, blocks radiation, and even deflects bullets.
The force field can also give the wearer the ability to breathe underwater or in outer space, keeping them alive in pretty much any situation. It is however, incapable of creating real food or beverage, because as soon as the Lantern stopped focusing on the constructs, they would disappear.
Still, a Lantern has almost everything needed to sustain themself all in a single accessory.
Hal Jordan was based on Paul Newman
Hal Jordan is one of DC’s greatest heroes, so naturally artist Gil Kane took inspiration from one of Hollywood’s finest actors.
It was rumored that the Green Lantern was modeled after Errol Flynn. However, Paul Newman was actually Kane’s neighbor at one point and the artist drew Jordan with Newman in mind. Writers Gardner Fox and John Broome were influenced by the Mercury Seven Astronauts, using them to help form Jordan’s character.
Newman was not the only actor referenced by the artist. For Hal’s arch nemesis, Sinestro, Kane drew upon David Niven, mostly due to his mustache, which was perfect for twirling.
He doesn’t need to wear clothes
A superhero’s costume is one of their most iconic attributes. Superman wears his underneath his clothes, while Iron Man has been known to carry his in a briefcase. Green Lanterns have the ability to get even more creative about their superhero garb.
The fact that the ring can create any clothing that the wearer desires is pretty impressive. It has enabled the Lanterns to differentiate themselves from one another by having different costumes if they choose.
At one point, Guy Gardener’s ring ran out of juice to reveal nothing underneath his construct costume.
It is a bit odd that this works, though, considering that if the Lantern stops concentrating on a construct, it disappears.
John Stewart was DC’s first black superhero
Black Lightning is most often the DC hero granted this distinction, but really, John Stewart beat him to the punch by about five years. However, Black Lightening was the first black superhero to headline his own DC series.
John Stewart made his first appearance in December of 1971 in Green Lantern #87. He was created by Dennis O’Neil and Neal Adams. Stewart originally served as a backup Lantern for Hal Jordan after Guy Gardner broke his leg, but he has since become one of the most well-known members of the Corps. This is at least partially due to his character being the Lantern featured in DC’s animated universe.
Initially, he and Hal didn’t get along so well, but John proved rather quickly that he was invaluable to the cause.
John Stewart was modeled after Sidney Poitier
Artists often use references when creating their characters. Hal Jordan wasn’t the only Lantern modeled after a famous actor.
When creating John Stewart, Neal Adams took inspiration from Sidney Poitier.
DC Editorial initially planned on naming him Lincoln Washington.
Adams, however, felt it was a terrible name for him and John Stewart was born.
Sidney Poitier is an incredibly important actor. In 1964, he became the first black performer to win an Oscar for Best Actor, which he received for his role in Lilies of the Field. He starred in several successful films that addressed race and race relations, including To Sir, With Love and Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner. Poitier is also a writer, director and diplomat.
John Stewart’s willpower exceeds the ring’s ability
Although Green Lanterns are the most well-known color among comic readers, there is actually an entire Emotional Electromagnetic Spectrum. These emotions were each given a corresponding color: red for rage, orange for avarice, yellow for fear, blue for hope, indigo for compassion, violet for love and green for will. There is also white and black for life and the absence of it, respectively.
Even among the most strong-willed of all the Green Lanterns, John Stewart stands out as one of the best. Apparently, creating constructs is actually physically painful and John has exerted so much willpower that the ring was actually unable to accomplish his goal of recreating a star-system after it had been destroyed.
This is particularly interesting and definitely helps establish Stewart as one of the most important Lanterns in the Corps.
The first human Green Lantern was a monk named Jong Li
We’ve discussed most of the human Green Lanterns, but the power ring was initially wielded by a monk named Jong Li. He lived in China in 660 AD and became the first Green Lantern of Earth, as well as the first human Lantern to patrol Sector 2814.
Jong Li first appeared in Green Lantern, Dragon Lord #1.
Two other important and more recent human additions to the Corps are Simon Baz and Jessica Cruz, both of whom were introduced during DC’s New 52 company wide relaunch. Baz was created by Geoff Johns and Doug Mahnke. He was the first Middle-Eastern, Muslim member of the Corps. Cruz was also a Johns creation and was drawn into existence by Ethan Van Sciver.
He was almost played by Jack Black
Years before Ryan Reynolds was even in consideration for the role of Hal Jordan, there was another Green Lantern movie in the works in 2004: one that likely would’ve been even worse than the one that we got.
The Lantern in question was not even going to be Jordan or any other from the comics, for that matter. He would be a new character by the name of Jud Plato, a reality TV star, played by Jack Black.
The script was written by Robert Smigel, of Triumph, the Insult Comic Dog fame and may have featured cameos from Flavor Flav and Britney Spears.
There was even a Muppets type musical number, as well as a giant yellow villain who was a Pikachu-shaped asteroid. Perhaps it would’ve been so bad it was good?
What do you think of these facts about Green Lantern’s body? Let us know in the comments!
