War of the Green Lanterns

"War of the Green Lanterns"
250x450px Cover art for Part 1 of War of the Green Lanterns (Green Lantern vol. 4 #64)
Publisher	DC Comics
Publication date	March – August 2011
Genre	Superhero
Title(s) Green Lantern vol. 4 #63 (prologue) and #64-67 Green Lantern Corps #58-60 Green Lantern: Emerald Warriors #8-10
Main character(s)	Hal Jordan Guy Gardner John Stewart Kyle Rayner Kilowog Ganthet Krona
Creative team
Writer(s)	Geoff Johns Tony Bedard Peter Tomasi
Artist(s)	Doug Mahnke Tyler Kirkham Fernando Pasarin
Green Lantern: War of the Green Lanterns	ISBN 1-4012-3234-5

"War of the Green Lanterns" is a ten-issue American comic book crossover storyline published by DC Comics that spans across the Green Lantern, Green Lantern Corps, and Green Lantern: Emerald Warriors series. It was written by each series' writer, Geoff Johns, Tony Bedard, and Peter Tomasi respectively, and drawn by Doug Mahnke, Tyler Kirkham, and Fernando Pasarin.

The story focuses around the human Green Lanterns Hal Jordan, Guy Gardner, John Stewart, Kyle Rayner, alien Green Lantern Kilowog, and Guardian of the Universe Ganthet as they face off against their mind controlled fellow Green Lanterns and stop the renegade Guardian, Krona from taking over the universe.

Publication history

The story arc's run was between March and June 2011, starting with a prologue in Green Lantern vol. 4 #63 and Green Lantern: Emerald Warriors #7 and continuing into Green Lantern vol. 4 #64-67 and across Green Lantern Corps #58-60 and Green Lantern: Emerald Warriors #8-10.

A two-issue mini-series following the events of War of the Green Lanterns, titled War of the Green Lanterns: Aftermath, was published and ran in the Summer 2011 in place of the Green Lantern main series.

Plot synopsis

The story starts at multiple locations across the DC Universe with some events happening simultaneously between the different series. A group of Green Lanterns are on their way towards the planet Ryut to arrest Hal Jordan for working alongside Atrocitus, Larfleeze, Sinestro, Saint Walker, Indigo-1, and Carol Ferris, who have been pursuing the renegade guardian Krona. Hal and the group come across The Book of the Black and are attacked by Lyssa Drak, who starts pulling them into the book. Meanwhile on Oa, the Guardians of the Universe are conversing over how members of the Green Lantern Corps that disobey them like Hal Jordan and Sinestro, until they are interrupted by Krona, who teleports in with the seven emotional entities who possess them. With Jordan and Sinestro being the only two not to be captured by the book, in a last attempt to save themselves, they combine the energy of their rings to create an explosion, freeing Hal Jordan. The book teleports away, leaving behind only the rings of the book's captives. Hal Jordan then encounters the other Green Lanterns sent to arrest him. Unfortunately at the same time, Parallax climbs into the Central Power Battery on Oa and broadcasts out to all the members of the Green Lantern Corps "Impurity Restored". Hal Jordan hears Parallax telepathically speaking to him and is then attacked by his fellow corpsmen and is forced to flee.

Simultaneously, John Stewart, Kyle Rayner, Ganthet, Soranik Natu, The Alpha Lantern Boodikka, and Hannu head to Oa after a battle with the Sinestro Corps on Qward. However when they arrive, they find the other Alpha Lanterns floating above Oa and Boodikka as well. Shortly after, Parallax enters the Central Power Battery and the group feel his presence. While John, Kyle, and Ganthet are not immediately affected by the impurity, Hannu and Soranik are and fly off. Kyle begins to chase after them, but John stops him, saying that it's a trap. The impurity begins to take its effect and the two start to fight. Ganthet overloads his power ring trying to remove Kyle's and John's, causing Ganthet's ring to explode, taking his hand with it. With them freed from Parallax's influence, they discover that the reason they have not been affected the same way is due to their previous encounters with Parallax. Off in the distance, the three see a group of Green Lanterns forming a search party. Ganthet tells the others to run away since while they can no longer be traced by their rings, Ganthet can still be traced by his own power and makes them take refuge under the surface of Oa while he faces off against an army of Lanterns.

Also at the same time, Guy Gardner, Kilowog, and Arisia are heading to Oa to tell the Guardians about Zardor, a telepathic enemy of the Guardians who had taken over Sodam Yat. They also feel Parallax's influence and see Arisia flying. While Guy and Kilowog try to restrain her, she overpowers them as they are attacked by a group of Lanterns. Kilowog helps Guy escape, telling him to head to a place called the Green House, deciding to stay close and look over the Lanterns. Guy tries to contact other members of the Corps, but only gets through to Hal Jordan and tells him to head to the Green House. The two eventually meet up at the Green House and also come to the conclusion that their previous exposure to Parallax has helped them resist the initial effects of the impurity. However, the two begin to argue and under the effects of the impurity, begin to fight. Fortunately, their fighting causes them to drain their rings of energy and calm themselves down. The two put their differences aside.

On Oa, Krona talks to an imprisoned Kilowog, who learns of some members' immunity to Parallax's effects and uses his own power to take over Kilowog. On the Green House, Hal and Guy fall into the underground hangar containing an old Manhunter transport called, The Interceptor. They assume that John and Kyle must have also been able to resist the impurity and head off the Oa. The two reach Oa shortly; however, they are then intercepted by a group of Lanterns that make short work of The Interceptor as Hal and Guy slip away in an escape pod. The pod crashes through the surface of Oa and they meet up with Kyle and John as they hide in the bowels of Oa. The group plans to go save Ganthet, but realize that they are underpowered, until Hal reveals that he still has the rings of Atrocitus, Larfleeze, Sinestro, Saint Walker, Indigo-1, and Carrol Ferris. Hal, Guy, John, and Kyle choose the Yellow, Red, Indigo, and Blue rings respectively.

(Clockwise from the top) Kyle, John, Hal, and Guy don the Blue, Indigo, Yellow, and Red power rings.

They are then interrupted by incoming Lanterns and do their best to stop them but Kyle's ring starts to supercharge the brainwashed Lanterns' rings. Unable to stand against their super-charged enemies, they fly off to find Ganthet. When they find him, Ganthet is angry at their decisions on using the different rings since they are unprepared and ill-suited to fend off their enemies. The corrupted Lanterns clear away to make way for the corrupted Mogo.

Ganthet is quickly subdued while Hal, Guy, John, and Kyle retreat, unable to stand against Mogo's attacks. The four manage to escape into the caverns under Oa and head to the Central Power Battery underground. When they are two miles away from the battery, they come across a large facility containing various weapons and devices made by the Guardians as well as the foundry, where the Corps' batteries and rings are forged. They also come across a Green Lantern power gauntlet, originally created by Krona and the first device to harness green energy. Guy smashes the gauntlet's glass case, which alerts a creature lurking in the facility that attacks them. Kyle tells them to stand down and prove to the creature that they mean it no harm. The creature confirms their identities as Green Lanterns and hands over the Power Gauntlet to Guy before going back into the depths of Oa. John then comes across the a computer scanning the different sectors for new recruits to the Green Lantern Corps to be taken over. John says that Mogo is now more important as to stop the recruitment of more Green Lanterns and heads off, joined shortly after by Kyle. Hal and Guy continue alone on their way to the Central Battery. When they reach it, they are attacked by the possessed Guardians.

Hal and Guy are quickly defeated and taken to the Guardians' chamber. Meanwhile, Sinestro travels through the Book of the Black interacting with the memories of the book's prisoners until he is confronted by Krona, who tells him that he does not fit his purposes and shuts the book after burning the page Sinestro was in. He then explains that the Guardians have spent so long being emotionless that they are not fit to be the universe's protectors and begins to transform Hal and Guy into Guardians, using the evolving bandages that turned him into one, as Ganthet watches, strapped to a rock. Meanwhile, Kyle and John are heading to Mogo, who is sending off hundreds of rings to recruit more members. The two head down to Mogo's core until they are assaulted by more Green Lanterns, forcing them to teleport to Mogo's core. Kyle creates a construct of Mogo's friend, Bzzd, in the hope of appealing to him, but it is destroyed by the Black Lantern energy that remains trapped in Mogo's core after he absorbed a wave of attacking Black Lanterns during the Blackest Night. Krona telepathically tells John that it is too late to stop Mogo and he will bring about a wave of murder across the universe. With no other way to stop the mass of new Green Lanterns being recruited, John absorbs the Black Lantern energy and uses it to blow up Mogo's core, killing him.

The Guardians feel the death of Mogo as parts of him start to fall down on Oa, creating a psychic shockwave that disrupts the Guardians and the Green Lanterns long enough for Hal and Guy to break their bonds. Kyle and John argue over Mogo's death as Kyle tries to restart his core, but cannot and go off to help Hal and Guy stop Parallax. With Krona and the Guardians distracted, Hal and Guy run away with the Book of the Black and Ganthet. Kyle and John join them and attack the Central Power Battery as everyone else is unconscious. However, they are not able to damage it. Ganthet tells them that a combination of all the emotional rings should be able to crack the battery's shell, giving Hal and Guy the Orange Lantern and Star Sapphire rings respectively. Before they can get to Parallax, they are attacked by more Green Lanterns, forcing Hal, John, Kyle, and Ganthet fends them off as Guy uses the combined power of love and rage to extract Parallax, tapping into his love of the Corps and his hatred of his own anger to power both rings. With the other Lanterns freed, they attack Parallax en masse. Kyle uses the blue energy of his ring to free Guy of his Red Lantern ring and the four of them join the fight as Green Lanterns. However, Krona arrives with the other Guardians and the two groups prepare to face off.

While the Green Lanterns fight Krona and the entity-possessed Guardians, Hal takes Kyle to the Book of the Black and makes him draw a picture of Carol, Sinestro, Atrocitus, Larfleeze, and Saint Walker and Indigo-1 (whose ring states her real name to be Iroque) in the hopes that they will be able to access their respective entities. This frees them from the Book, but their rings reject them and choose Krona as their wielders. Empowered by their rings, Krona attacks Hal, but, inspired by Hal's speech about how he fights for the potential of the Corps despite the imperfections of the Guardians, Sinestro attacks Krona. Before Krona can attack Sinestro, however, a Green Lantern ring chooses Sinestro as its wielder. Hal and Sinestro manage to overpower Krona, and Hal kills him, releasing the entities from the Guardians. With Krona dead, the rings from the other corps return to their former wielders. However, the Guardians expel them from Oa. Also, due to his recent 'rebellion' against them by working with the other ring-bearers, coupled with his recent murder of a Guardian- something that should not be possible due to security measures in the rings-, they now believe Hal to be the most dangerous Green Lantern. Despite Ganthet's attempt to defend him, they discharge him from the Corps, taking his ring and sending him back to Earth. Hal appears on a desert highway, saying it should not end like this.

Collected editions

The series is being collected in two individual volumes:

• Green Lantern: War of the Green Lanterns (Green Lantern vol. 4 #63-67, Green Lantern Corps Vol. 2 #58-60 and Green Lantern: Emerald Warriors #8-10, 272 pages, DC Comics, hardcover, November 22, 2011, ISBN 1-4012-3234-5)
• War of the Green Lanterns: Aftermath (War of the Green Lanterns: Aftermath #1-2, Green Lantern Corps Vol. 2 #61-63, Green Lantern: Emerald Warriors #11-13, 208 pages, DC Comics, hardcover, January 24, 2012, ISBN 1-4012-3343-0)

External links

• War of the Green Lanterns Checklist at DC Comics.com
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