Each Green Lantern possesses a power ring and power lantern that gives the user great control over the physical world as long as the wielder has sufficient willpower and strength to wield it. The ring is one of the most powerful weapons in the universe, and can be very dangerous. While the ring of the Golden Age Green Lantern (Alan Scott) was magically powered, the rings worn by all subsequent Lanterns were technological creations of the Guardians of the Universe, who granted such rings to worthy candidates. These individuals made up the intergalactic police force known as the Green Lantern Corps.
After World War II, when sales of superhero comic books generally declined, DC ceased publishing new adventures of Alan Scott as the Green Lantern. In 1959, at the beginning of the Silver Age of Comic Books, DC editor Julius Schwartz assigned writer John Broome and artist Gil Kane to revive the Green Lantern character, this time as test pilot Hal Jordan, who became a founding member of the Justice League of America. In 1970, writer Denny O'Neil and artist Neal Adams teamed Green Lantern with archer Green Arrow in groundbreaking, socially conscious, and award-winning stories that pitted the sensibilities of the law-and-order-oriented Lantern with the populist Green Arrow. Several cosmically themed series followed, as did occasional different individuals in the role of Earth's Green Lantern. Most prominent of these are John Stewart, Guy Gardner, Hal Jordan and Kyle Rayner.
Each of the Earth's Green Lanterns has been a member of either the Justice Society of America or the Justice League of America, and John Stewart was featured as one of the main characters in both the Justice League and the Justice League Unlimited animated series. The Green Lanterns are often depicted as being close friends of the various men who have been the Flash, the most notable friendships having been between Alan Scott and Jay Garrick (the Golden Age Green Lantern and Flash), Hal Jordan and Barry Allen (the Silver Age Green Lantern and Flash), and Kyle Rayner and Wally West (the modern age Green Lantern and Flash), as well as Jordan being friends with West.
Awards
The series and its creators have received several awards over the years, including the 1961 Alley Award for Best Adventure Hero/Heroine with Own Book; and Academy of Comic Book Arts' Shazam Award for Best Continuing Feature in 1970, for Best Individual Story ("No Evil Shall Escape My Sight", Green Lantern vol. 2, #76, by Dennis O'Neil and Neal Adams), and in 1971 for Best Individual Story ("Snowbirds Don't Fly", Green Lantern vol. 2, #85 by O'Neil and Adams).
Writer O'Neil received the Shazam Award for Best Writer (Dramatic Division) in 1970 for his work on Green Lantern, Batman, Superman, and other titles, while artist Adams received the Shazam for Best Artist (Dramatic Division) in 1970 for his work on Green Lantern and Batman. Inker Dick Giordano received the Shazam Award for Best Inker (Dramatic Division) for his work on Green Lantern and other titles.
In Judd Winick's first regular writing assignment on Green Lantern, he wrote a storyline in which an assistant of Kyle Rayner's emerged as a gay character in Green Lantern #137 (June 2001). In Green Lantern #154 (November 2001) the story entitled "Hate Crime" gained media recognition when Terry was brutally beaten in a homophobic attack. Winick was interviewed on Phil Donahue's show on MSNBC for that storyline on August 15, 2002 and received two GLAAD awards for his Green Lantern work.In May of 2011,Green Lantern placed 7th on IGN's Top 100 Comic Book Heroes of All Time.
Powers and abilities
Each Green Lantern wields a power ring that can generate a variety of effects, sustained purely by the ring wearer's imagination and strength of will. The greater the user's willpower, the more effective the ring. The upper limits of the power ring's abilities remain undefined, and it has been referred to as "the most powerful weapon in the universe" on more than one occasion. The Weaponers of Qward say that every weapon has a weakness and the weakness of a green lantern power ring is its wearer (though some argue that this is its strength). Across the years, the rings have been shown capable of accomplishing almost anything within the imagination of the ring bearer. Stories in 2006 retconned the ring's long-established ineffectiveness on yellow objects, stating that the ring-wielder need only feel fear, understand it and overcome it in order to affect yellow objects (however, it is a learned and practiced ability, making it a weakness to some Green Lanterns), giving retroactive credence to the explanation of the ring's real but surmountable weakness to yellow.
Power rings as used by various wielders have exhibited (but are not limited to) the following effects:
Constructs of green 'solid-energy,' which can vary from microscopic to tremendous in size and/or complexity and are limited by the imagination of the ring's wielder. This can be used to attack, defend, or to grab targets (Pre-Crisis, the rings generated telekinectic skills without constructs, if needed).
Force field generation, a somewhat protective aura (limited by user's willpower) used to shield the wearer from the rigors of the vacuum of space. This provides a breathable atmosphere for the user as well. Contrary to older canon, a Green Lantern ring currently does not automatically protect its wearer from harm but must be willed to do so (previously, an unconscious wielder generated a protective force field automatically).
Generation of mental "earplugs" to block out telepathic communication and manipulation.
Rendering targets invisible.
Lights and beams of various intensity and colors, such as destructive plasma and harmless multicolored lights.
Movement capabilities:
Flight, including flight at speeds beyond that of light, although this creates an enormous expenditure of energy.
Relatively instantaneous transport across the galaxy and other distances through generated wormholes
Teleportation (an ability that has not been used in quite some time and may be outside the ability of modern Green Lanterns)
Pre-Crisis, the rings allowed for travel faster than the speed of light.
Time travel, though several power rings are needed to complete this.
The rings can act as semi-sentient computers and accesses information through its connection with the Book of Oa; the rings have problem-solving skills but they cannot make decisions or take actions on their own, and must be given directives by the wearer:
Translation of nearly all languages (originally, this was accomplished by using willpower, but this has changed in the modern era to be a function of the rings themselves).
Communication between ringwielders, regardless of distance apart
Diagnostic capabilities, allowing the user to see in X-Ray, diagnose illnesses, and identify materials.
Mental powers of various stages:
Telepathy
Hypnosis, including projecting the target's thoughts onto constructed maps
Creation and emission of certain types of radiation, including simulated wavelengths, such as kryptonite
Placing humans into a state of suspended animation and pulling them out of it
Changing the state of targeted matter and the wearer:
Allowing targets and the wearer to phase through solid objects
Rendering the wearer and targets invisible
Accelerated healing of wounds, protection and treatment from viruses and biological attacks and certain surgical procedures including reattachment of severed limbs and digits. More advanced medical procedures may be performed manually and are limited by the wearer's knowledge of medicine. Pre-Crisis, a wearer could instantaneously reinvigorate limbs that had not been used in years, so someone bedridden for years could walk as though their muscles had not atrophied.
Virtual shape-shifting by generating a hard-light holographic disguise around the ring bearer.
"Digitizing" the wearer to absorb them into the ring where they can live in a wearer-generated "world" of their own nearly indefinitely.
Pre-Crisis, a ring could alter a being's molecular size (including shrinking to an atomic level), evolutionary stage (such as turning a target human into an ape), or distort specific targeted areas of the body (slowing the Flash down by making his upper torso too large for him to run).
Pre-Crisis, a wearer could animate non-living matter and make the target do whatever is willed.
Pre-Crisis, the rings could create a construct of a ring that a "non-Lantern" could use for 4 hours at a time (as opposed to 24) without a great effort of will.
Pre-Crisis, a ring could create multiple copies of its wearer if certain conditions were met; each copy had the capabilities of the original wearer.
In Green Lantern: First Flight Sinestro was able to "reconnect synapses" in the brain of a dead criminal in order to extract information via a kind of guided discussion.
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