History Franchise / GreenLantern

[[caption-width-right:349:The humans chosen to be a Green Lantern, clockwise from the top left: Hal Jordan, John Stewart, Alan Scott, Guy Gardner, and Kyle Rayner]]

[[TheGoldenAgeOfComicBooks Created in 1940]], the original Green Lantern was a railroad engineer named Alan Scott, who fashioned his ring and lantern out of a magic metal called the Starheart. However, [[TheSilverAgeOfComicBooks in the late 1950s]] DC Comics revamped the title with a sci-fi bent, reimagining the hero as cocky test pilot turned [[SpacePolice space cop]] Hal Jordan, who was given a [[RingOfPower Power Ring]] by a dying alien who crash landed on Earth (and was just one of many extraterrestrial peacekeepers serving the wise [[TheOmniscientCouncilOfVagueness Guardians of the Universe]]). What most people know of the character originated during this era: the villainous Lantern renegade Sinestro, the living planet Mogo, alien drill instructor Kilowog, and aerospace entrepreneur/love interest Carol Ferris. Occasionally, Jordan would pass his ring off to other humans, like stoic architect and former U.S. Marine John Stewart or [[JerkWithAHeartOfGold lovable jerk]] Guy Gardner. Alan Scott would also return, first as an [[AlternateUniverse Earth-2]] counterpart to Hal, then after continuities got merged in the ''CrisisOnInfiniteEarths'' he became a respected elder hero with only the loosest connection to the Corps.

* ''Green Lantern'' (written by Johns), starring Hal Jordan [[spoiler:and Sinestro, who was re-inducted into the Green Lanterns against everyone's wishes. Although Hal had been expelled from the Corps, Sinestro has recruited him as a sidekick for non-Guardian-sponsored missions - including going against the Guardians themselves.]]

The Green Lanterns are also frequent members of versions of the JusticeLeagueOfAmerica, with Hal, John, and Kyle part of different incarnations of the main team and Guy Gardner in JusticeLeagueInternational. Alan Scott is also a founding member of the JusticeSocietyOfAmerica, which is either the League's predecessor or its Earth-2 counterpart depending on the era.

** [[spoiler: In a recent issue it is revealed that the Manhunters didn't go bad at all, but were reprogrammed by Krona to commit the massacre.]]

* BerserkButton: Don't try to pry into Larfleeze's past. It won't end well. And don't even think about either mentioning Mongul's name in front of Arkillo or asking about his necklace.

** And now, in the Red Lantern series of the DCU reboot, he's trying to get a lieutenant, saving at least one more corpsman from this trope.

* TheCape: As far as post-Crisis DC continuity is concerned, Alan Scott was amongst the first to exist.
* CaptainEthnic: John Stewart, although he has outgrown it.

*** This happened to Kyle AGAIN in the first issue of Green Lantern: New Guardians, where [[spoiler:rings from every Corps identified him by name in front of a crowd of people]].

** While not generally invoked in the comics, this could actually be justified by the fact that the Lanterns all draw their power from the same source. It would actually make sense if the fewere Lanterns there were, the more powerful they became, and in fact the fewer members a Corps has, the more powerful they seem to be individually, down to Larfleeze who is literally a one-man Corps.

** John Stewart is NOT dating Fatality, despite her borderline obsession with all things John Stewart; even BEFORE she was in the Star Sapphire Corps and still out to kill him she had no problem with stripping near nude/ completely nude and grinding against his lap... while he HAD a girlfriend!

* FaceYourFears: GreenLanterns are the lanterns who "possess the ability to overcome great fear", so this is a big theme at some points.

*** TheLancer: Guy Gardner or John Stewart, depending on who you're asking.

*** TheSixthRanger: Kyle Rayner

** The "New Guardians" alliances - face it; they're practically {{Sentai}} teams[[note]]The new team hasn't been fully established, so for the moment we're only guessing at who takes what role in that version.[[/note]]:

*** TheHeart: Saint Walker in both incarnations

* GodForADay: When GreenLantern Kyle Rayner became Ion, a being with all the power of the entire GreenLanternCorps, he tried to use his new might to feed starving children in Africa, heal his friend's back-injury, restore his girlfriend Jade's powers, etc, until Superman advices him to back down because people around the world have started to worship him as a god. Soon after he sacrifices the power so that the Guardians of the Universe and the Corps can live again.

* HeelFaceBrainwashing: The Indigo Tribe can take individuals of dubious morality and turn them into peace-loving hippies, whether they want to be or not.

* HumanAlien: Green Lanterns Sodam Yat (from Daxam) and Zale (from Bellatrix) look exactly like a Caucasian and African human respectively.

* KickTheDog: Though he is being portrayed more sympathetically, Sinestro does occasionally do this to remind readers that while he might be justified in questioning the Guardians' authority, he is still a villain. [[spoiler: He killed Red Lantern Laira just when it seemed like Hal might have calmed her down and ''taunted Hal about it'']] and more recently he [[spoiler: stabbed Ganthet]].

** Invictus, a minor, but recent, villain. He's an angel.

* LukeIAmYourFather: ''Green Lantern Corps'' reveals [[spoiler:Soranik Natu's father is revealed to be Sinestro. Apparently, Natu's mother thought that being the daughter of their planet's dictator would screw her up, so she was put up for adoption]].

* MustMakeAmends: In The DCU, we had Hal Jordan completely lose his sanity and decide to fix his failure to save Coast City... by killing the Green Lantern Corps [[spoiler:([[They came back]])]], killing Sinestro [[spoiler:(He came back)]], and then killing the universe [[spoiler:([[it came back]])]]... so he could remake reality "right". Fittingly, after all this nonsense, he got better and went on to try and make all of that right, and ended up sacrificing himself to save the world (of course, he came back). Then a few years later, Geoff Johns retconned the whole thing to Jordan being possessed by a killer space bug made out of fear, but...

** And in [[TheMovie The 2011 Green Lantern]], he actually makes a drill [[spoiler: and literally drills through Parallax, the physical embodiment of fear/despair,]] all the way to space/THE HEAVENS! That ShoutOut pretty much summed up the entire second season of Gurren Lagaan.

** This was changed after the {{New 52}} reboot. Fatality now sports a much more modest update of the Star Sapphire uniform, complete with pants.

* SuperpoweredEvilSide: Carol Ferris/Star Sapphire, also Dr.Polaris.

* TheWorfEffect: In ''Green Lantern: Rebirth'' and ''Sinestro Corp Wars'', the first thing Sinestro does upon showing up is beat the hell out of Kyle Rayner, even on the latter occasion when Kyle has a huge power boost. This is done just to make Sinestro look badass.

* BeyondTheImpossible: The Guardians made sure that it would be physically impossible for a lantern to kill one of them. When [[spoiler: Hal Jordan kills Krona]] they are shocked and afarid.

!!Tropes this series has named:
* GreenLanternRing
* StuffedIntoTheFridge

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* HumanAlien: Green Lanterns Sodom Yat (from Daxam) and Zale (from Bellatrix) look exactly like a Caucasian and African human respectively.

** And according to the modern take on the ComicBook/{{Legion of Super-Heroes}}, [[spoiler:Sodom Yat will be the last Green Lantern in the 31st Century]].

* TookALevelInBadass: Johns has pulled this with a number of characters. Sinestro went from being a good arch-enemy to Hal and already badass to becoming a full-blown MagnificentBastard. Sodom Yat gaining the powers of Ion, even Black Hand gaining his own superpowers pre-Blackest Night was a nice level up in bad ass.

** See also, UnfortunateImplications
* TheWorfEffect: In GreenLantern Rebirth and The Sinestro Corp war, the first thing Sinestro does upon showing up is beat the hell out of Kyle Rayner, even on the latter occasion when Kyle has a huge power boost. This is done just to make Sinestro look badass.

* CompletelyMissingThePoint: When Saint Walker asks that he not be treated as special by the Blue Lantern recruits just because he was the first, they start talking about how even his humility sets him apart.

** Anyone possessed by an emotional entity tend to follow the emotion in charge rather than their own logic. Parallax in particular loves turning decent people into terrorizing [[CompleteMonster monsters]].

** And according to the modern take on the LegionOfSuperheroes, [[spoiler:Sodom Yat will be the last Green Lantern in the 31st Century]].

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-->''In BrightestDay, in BlackestNight\\

Beware my power... Green Lantern's light!''
--->''—[[BadassCreed The Green Lantern Oath]]''

** The "New Guardians" alliances - face it; they're practically {{Sentai}} teams[[hottip:*:The new team hasn't been fully established, so for the moment we're only guessing at who takes what role in that version.]]:

* WhamEpisode: "War Of The Green Lanterns" - [[spoiler:Fallen Guardian Krona re-corrupts the central battery with Parallax, turning the entire Lantern Corps (Save Ganthet & the 4 human Lanterns) into his slaves, and infecting the Guardians with the other emotional entities; John kills Mogo to stop anymore brainwashed Lanterns being recruited, which leads to Sinestro losing his yellow ring and rejoining the Green Lantern Corps, whilst Hal kills Krona (Which shouldn't be possible due to the Guardians using failsafes to prevent the Lanterns from turning on them) to free the other Guardians, who dismiss him from the Corps to protect themselves in case he went rogue]].

!!Specific stories/miniseries:

* ''TheDeathOfSuperman'', ''ZeroHour'', and ''FinalNight'': Though not strictly Green Lantern stories, they collectively chronicle Hal Jordan's FaceHeelTurn and ultimately [[spoiler:RedemptionEqualsDeath (don't worry, he came back)]].
* ''Hard Traveling Heroes'': The well-known team-up of Green Lantern with Green Arrow, when the series tackled social issues of the time.
* ''The Road Back''
* ''SinestroCorpsWar''

-->''In [[BrightestDay brightest day]], in [[BlackestNight blackest night]]\\

''Green Lantern'' is a classic [[DCComics DC Comics]] SuperHero and one of the first to embrace the concept of a LegacyCharacter. Compared to other heroes, Green Lantern has the unique ability to create objects out of [[HardLight solid green light]], whose forms are limited only by the character's imagination. In addition, he can [[FrickinLaserBeams fire energy blasts]], [[BatmanCanBreatheInSpace fly in deep space]], [[FlyingBrick generate force fields]], and [[UniversalTranslator translate (almost) any alien language]]. All this is provided by a quasi-technological [[ImportedAlienPhlebotinum Power Ring]], that [[HourOfPower must be recharged every 24 hours]] with a lantern-esque [[PowerSource Power Battery]]. [[WeaksauceWeakness Oh, and it can't work on the color yellow]] (usually).

* ''Green Lantern'' (written by Johns), starring Hal Jordan [[spoiler:and Sinestro, who was re-inducted into the Green Lanterns against everyone's wishes. Although Hal had been expelled from the Corps, Sinestro has recruited him as a sidekick for non-Guardian-sponsored missions - including going against the Guardians themselves.]]

* ''TheDeathOfSuperman'', ''ZeroHour'', and ''FinalNight'': Though not strictly Green Lantern stories, they collectively chronicle Hal Jordan's FaceHeelTurn and ultimately [[spoiler:RedemptionEqualsDeath (don't worry, he came back)]].

* ''BlackestNight''
** ''BrightestDay'': Again, not strictly a Green Lantern story, though it does spin out of one and the Lanterns do take part.

* AIIsACrapshoot: Before forming the Green Lanterns, the Guardians tried a lil' automated help with the android Manhunters, who were so good at their job... [[spoiler:they annihilated all life in Sector 666]]. After dispossessing the Manhunters, the Guardians proved they never learn by creating the cyborg [[InternalAffairs Alpha Lanterns]].

** And now, in the Red Lantern series of the DCU reboot, he's trying to get a lieutenant, saving at least one more corpsman from this trope.
* BeyondTheImpossible: The Guardians made sure that it would be physically impossible for a lantern to kill one of them. When [[spoiler: Hal Jordan kills Krona]] they are shocked and afarid.

* BreakingTheFourthWall: John Stewart, throughout the "Mosaic" series. He's constantly addressing the reader, and once even notices that he's been drawn by a fill-in artist.
-->John Stewart: ''Why do I suddenly look so different?"

* TheChooserOfTheOne: The Rings individually seek those who can overcome great fear, and Mogo helps them determine moral individuals.

** Green Lantern John Stewart can become this, when needed.

** It should be noted, though, that the power of a Green Lantern relies solely on the creativity and skill of the individual corpsman.

*** In fact, this is literally true in the case of the Orange light which LexLuthor stated is most effectively wielded by one person.

* DangerDeadpan: Hal Jordan in the ''JusticeLeagueTheNewFrontier'' miniseries.

* ElementalRockPaperScissors: Sort of. Each of the rings seen has different powers, and interacts with other rings in different ways. For example, Orange can absorb Green constructs but not Violet or Blue. Blue supercharges Green and nullifies Red, but is close to useless on its own. Yellow is devastating to a Green Lantern that hasn't figured out how to overcome fear, and so forth and so on.

* HeterosexualLifePartners: Kyle and Guy; so much so that when it looks like [[spoiler: Kyle has died in ''BlackestNight'', it crosses the DespairEventHorizon for Guy and he accepts a red ring, then goes completely AxCrazy [[BerserkButton berserk]] on just about everyone around him]].

** The Lanterns also get along famously with TheFlash family: Alan Scott and Jay Garrick, Hal Jordan and Barry Allen, and Kyle Rayner and Wally West.

* HolyHalo: Green energy shields, at that. Occasionally, the GL insignia on each member's chest will project a holographic logo, which is meant to emulate the police sirens during a chase.

-->...and four cycles later, in the recreation complex, Katma Tui realized that for the first time in many years' service, she had heard a Guardian make a joke. She felt vaguely uneasy for the rest of that day.

* LoyalPhlebotinum: Power rings will choose their successors when their wielder dies. Though more recently it has been revealed that Mogo actually helps direct this process.
** Hal Jordan is one of the notable exceptions. Abin Sur actually triggered the search mechanism as he was dying and had a chance to introduce himself to Hal.

* MagicMeteor: Hector Hammond found meteor rocks and used their powers for evil.

* MysteriousBacker: The Guardians of the Universe.

** Alan Scott as well. Early on in Kyle's run as Green Lantern, Alan got him on the right track with how to use his ring and accept his position.

* OneGenderRace: The Zamarons and the Guardians could be considered this. They're really from the same race, the Maltusians, with the Zamarons being the females who decided to defend and fight for love and the Guardians being the males who decided to maintain order, but they live in totally separate societies and don't interact unless it's to butt heads. Kyle Rayner, when resurrecting the Guardians, chose to make half of them female in the process, and they've been that way in the comics since (although Geoff Johns retconned it so the Guardians were always half-female).

* TheParagonAlwaysRebels: Sinestro. Hal pre RetCon.

* ThePsychoRangers: The Sinestro Corps.

* Really700YearsOld: Arisia

* SecretKeeper: Tom Kalmaku in TheSilverAgeOfComicBooks.

** In one {{JLA}} story, Kyle's mind wound up in the body of the MartianManhunter. Upon mastering the Manhunter's shapechanging powers, Kyle transformed himself into various other fictional Martians, such as [[LooneyTunes Marvin The Martian]] and [[JohnCarterOfMars Tars Tarkas]].
** The form taken by a host of the Butcher bears more than a passing resemblance to [[{{Warhammer40000}} Khorne]].

* StoryReset: Often....very often...
* StuffedIntoTheFridge: Happens to Kyle's first girlfriend Alex [=DeWitt=] at the hands of Major Force in the {{Trope Namer}}. Also the inspiration for the site WomenInRefrigerators.

* SurvivalMantra: When Green Lanterns are hard pressed and in danger of succumbing to their fear, they can draw strength from remembering their oath and often, the worshipers of evil's might will once again learn the hard way to beware their power.

** The series originally had tendencies toward this anyway, though lapsed into ValuesDissonance now. Carol was originally unambiguously Hal's boss, and was never shown to be less than competent at this. Tom Kalmaku was an Inuit, not only entrusted with Hal's secret identity, but also the source of his power and, in one story, fills in as a replacement Green Lantern. Both of these characterizations date back to the late 1950s.

* ArtAttacker: The Tattooed Man has the power to bring his tattoos to life.

* EveryoneHasAPowerRing

* CoolOldGuy: Alan Scott.

[[TropeCodifier The]] [[SpacePolice Space Cops]].

* DarkIsNotEvil: The modern take on Sinestro explores this, as far as him wanting to instill "order" throughout the universe as the motive for his villainy, which often plays out like a XanatosGambit.