When Alan Scott, the first Green Lantern, made his debut in All-American Comics #16 (1940), created by Bill Finger and Martin Nodell, his powers came from a mystical green flame contained within a lantern, which he used to craft a ring. This power ring was magical. Those who followed were not.
With the Silver Age came test pilot Hal Jordan who became the official new Green Lantern in John Broome and Gil Kane’s comics Showcase #22 (1959). Like Alan, Hal got a ring, but this one was given to him by Abin Sur, a Green Lantern who crash-landed on Earth. This alien was a member of the Green Lantern Corps, an intergalactic police force created by the Guardians of the Universe, immortal beings who watched over the cosmos from the planet Oa.
This new Power Ring was powered by the Central Power Battery that was installed on Oa by the Guardians of the Universe, immortal beings who watched over the cosmos. Each ring is charged by a personal lantern-shaped Power Battery–which is connected to the Central Power Battery—and allows those who, like Hal Jordan, were chosen to were one, to tap into the emotional spectrum, specifically the green light of willpower.
A Power Ring is a technological object, not a magical one. It allows a Lantern to create any solid energy objects it can imagine, to fly, to be protected by a force field, to translate all languages, and to analyze data that can help the mission. One thing it couldn’t do for a long time was to have an effect on anything yellow—the color of fear.
“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.”
The Colors of the Emotional Electromagnetic Spectrum
For the longest time, there was only one corps, one fueled by willpower, the Green Lantern. The yellow impurity was Parallax, a yellow-energy being that is made of pure fear—created by Ron Marz and Darryl Banks in the comic book Green Lantern (vol. 3) #48 in 1994—that was imprisoned in the Central Power Battery. Once it was freed, the Green Lantern power ring lost its main weakness.
But this was not before the 2004-05 comics miniseries Green Lantern: Rebirth (written by Geoff Johns and illustrated by Ethan Van Sciver) that the idea was plainly introduced. As writer Johns explained it in an interview with Comics Alliance:
When I was originally working on “Green Lantern: Rebirth” and I came up with the idea that the yellow impurity was actually the power of fear and I mentioned the emotional spectrum in “Rebirth.” There’s fear, which is yellow and green’s the most pure in the center, and from there it just made sense.
From that, came the Sinestro Corps, one that was fueled by fear. Then, the other corps were gradually introduced as the Emotional Electromagnetic Spectrum continued to grow—as it was prophecied in the Book of Oa that seven colors of the emotional spectrum would be harnessed by different Corps who would go to war with each other (see the War of Light).
A Guide to the Lantern Corps:
- Green (Willpower) – Green Lantern Corps (in the future, willpower will become Gold)
- Yellow (Fear) – Sinestro Corps
- Red (Rage) – Red Lantern Corps
- Blue (Hope) – Blue Lantern Corps
- Indigo (Compassion) – Indigo Tribe
- Violet (Love) – Star Sapphire Corps
- Orange (Avarice) – Larfleeze (Orange Lantern)
- Gray (Sorrow) – Nathan Broome
With each emotional power came a different set of powers. For example, the Blue Lantern rings augment the power of Green Lanterns and can counteract the effects of Red Lantern rings.
The Black Lantern Corps, void of color, is the incarnation of Death while the White Lantern Corps brings life to the universe by combining the colors of the Emotional Spectrum.
In 2018, Scott Snyder and Jorge Jiménez introduced, in Justice League (vol. 4) #2, the Invisible Emotional Spectrum with the Ultraviolet Corps, the Lantern Corps of the unseen light.
The Emotional Electromagnetic Spectrum was at the heart of the celebrated Green Lantern comic book run by Geoff Johns and became less prevalent after he left the title. Still, it continues to expand and new colors are introduced occasionally, with new powers and dangers.