Simon Baz
Simon Baz is a male comic superhero who features in DC Comics.
Contents |
Biography
Origins
Simon Baz was a male Lebanese human born in the modern age on Earth where he lived in Detroit.
Upon immigrating to America, his Lebanese mother had taught him along with his sibling to be who they were even if people ridiculed them. During his childhood, he had a difficult time with his mother who he respected but she was very strict and put a lot of pressure on him. In response to her suffocating judgements, he rebelled leading to him engage in criminal acts that got him arrested. (Green Lanterns v1 #7) When he was 10 years old, he and his family were watching television in horror as they saw airplanes crash into the World Trade Center as part of a terrorist attack on the U.S. As a Muslim, this saw him being viewed with intense suspicion and deep hatred as they were ostracised over the years. This included one incident where he went to protect his sister from bullies that were targeting her on numerous occasions. (Green Lantern v5 #0)
As a young adult, he became involved in stealing cars and restored them in order to sell them to people. On these ventures, his best friend and partner was Nazir who helped him in these acts. On one such occasion, he stole and re-furnished a car that he intended to a seller but was not aware that the person was the owner of the vehicle. Simon got into a fight with them and was only saved by Nazir who drove in to help him escape. (Green Lanterns v1 #20)
Green Lantern
Simon eventually wakes up on a beach, where the ring shows him an entangled message from Hal Jordan and Sinestro. After that, he encounters the Justice League, who accused him of taking Hal hostage. (Green Lantern v5 #13) When the League tries to remove Sinestro's ring from his finger, the ring goes into defense mode and attacks them. In a state of panic, Simon retreats and meets up with his sister, who helps him track down the original owner of the van. (Green Lantern v5 #14) The owner happens to be the real culprit, who was trying to blow up a bridge. Before the terrorist could kill Simon, the FBI agent who interrogated him comes out the shadows and saves him. When they were about to arrest him, the Third Army attacks them, killing and transforming the terrorist. They're able to escape after blowing up the house. (Green Lantern v5 #15) Later, Green Lantern B'dg arrives in search of Hal Jordan and assists Simon in retrieving the dual message left by Hal and Sinestro. The message reveals that the Guardians of the Universe have become insane and are replacing the Green Lantern Corps with the Third Army, which will ultimately dominate the Universe. Simon learns how to recharge his ring and heads to the hospital to heal his brother-in-law's brain damage. (Green Lantern v5 #16) Simon and B'dg rescue Guy Gardner from prison and defeat the Third Army sent after him. (Green Lantern Corps v3 #16) They all meet on the moon, where Guy is sent to Oa to stop the Guardians, and Simon and B'dg enter the Book of the Black, where they encountered Black Hand. (Green Lantern Corps Annual v3 #1) Simon came to be in the Chamber of Shadows with B'dg, where Black Hand and the Templar Guardians were being held. Simon battled Black Hand while trying to free the Templar Guardians, and Black Hand pulled Simon into his ring. (Green Lantern v5 #17) Simon finds himself in the Dead Zone with Sinestro and Hal, who are also trapped there. Sinestro tells Simon that Black Hand killed him, but Hal thinks Simon can't be dead because he still has the ring on. Sinestro attacks Simon in an attempt to obtain the ring, and Simon takes out his gun and fatally shoots him. Sinestro comes back to life because they are in the Dead Zone, and he promises to get back at Simon. B'dg, with the help of the Templar Guardians, tries to retrieve Simon, and Simon's ring starts to split, with the new half attempting to go to Hal. Sinestro tackles Hal to the ground and shows him the First Lantern torturing Carol Ferris. The ring then goes to Sinestro, and he and Simon switch places with Black Hand. (Green Lantern v5 #18)
This saw him being offered a spot on the government sponsored Justice League of America with Director Amanda Waller agreeing to drop on charges on Simon in exchange for his aid on the team. He was at A.R.G.U.S. when an explosion occurred at a laboratory that transformed Dr. Arthur Light into Doctor Light. (Justice League of America v3 #5)
On one of his first assignments, he had detected presence of Parademons on Earth and was eliminating them but was unable to find the source of their attacks. Around this time, he encountered a faceless Spyral operative named Agent 37 who helped him in finding the source which was one of the Female Furies using a Father Box to bring in Parademons via Boom Tubes. Together, the two superheroes send the forces from Apokolips back through the Boom Tube and when Baz attempted to ask Agent 37 to be his partner he discovered the Spyral agent was gone with the Father Box. (Grayson Annual v1 #3)
Green Lanterns
Baz was later informed by his Power Ring of a danger to Earth where he encountered a new Green Lantern recruit Jessica Cruz with the pairing fighting against a Manhunter drone. Simon was shown to had distrusted Jessica and did not want to work with her as he believed himself to be Earth's designated Green Lantern leading to the pair unable to defeat the drone. The Manhunter turned out to had been a training unit made by Hal Jordan who tested the two new Earth Green Lanterns and determined that they were not working together as a team. Thus, Jordan decided to force the two to cooperate as the Sector's Green Lanterns but fusing their Power Battery and forcing them to work as partners whilst Hal went off to find the rest of the Green Lantern Corps. (Green Lanterns: Rebirth v1 #1) He along with Cruz were the Green Lantern's that worked alongside the Justice League. (Justice League: Rebirth v1 #1)
In Gotham City, Simon Baz and his partner Jessica Cruz were called to aid Batman when yellow fear energy from a Sinestro Corps ring was driving people mad with fear. It was discovered that this was part of the machinations of the Scarecrow who became worthy of a yellow ring and was used it to instil fear. Baz was affected by fear where all his doubts and fears infected him but he managed to fight past that by destroying Scarecrow's machine with his willpower rather than use his gun. Simon concluded that the desire for a gun stemmed from his self-doubt in his own abilities and decided that it was time to give the firearm away. (Green Lanterns v1 #17)
His sister later insisted that he become a better example for her son by getting a job and he applied to become part of a pit crew at a racing track. However, he was refused due to his past but decided to move out of his sister's home and moved to Sector House 2814 though lied by saying he was at a new apartment on Earth. (Green Lanterns v1 #34)
He began to use a superhero dating app called Caper where he met a female hero named Night Pilot. The pair slept together at his Sector House but she did not want a relationship and left afterwards. (Green Lanterns v1 #39)
Afterwards, he accompanied John Stewart as they took Teen Lantern Keli Quintela to Oa in order for her to learn about the origin behind her gauntlet. (Infinite Frontier v1 #0) Taking her to the Guardians, Simon was set to help watch over her whilst the Green Lantern Corps were helping in hosting a meeting of the United Planets on Oa. During this time, a fight emerged among the delegates from Sorcerers' World who resented the Oans for caging magic long ago by imprisoning the Starheart. The Green Lanterns managed to stop the sorcerers with the United Planets voting to admit Oa into their newly formed government but one of delegates was responsible for murdering a Guardia. (Green Lantern v6 #1)
Overview
Personality and attributes
It was shown that he had a tattoo with the Arabic words for courage on his right arm. (Green Lantern v5 #0)
He felt a great deal of tension with regards to his mother who had always put pressure on him and told him that he was never good enough. Despite this fact, he still respected her as he viewed her as his hero. Though he rebelled due to her strictness, he felt guilty for the pain he had put his family through for engaging in criminal acts that saw him being seen as a terrorist and thus leading to further persecution for his family. (Green Lanterns v1 #7)
Baz held Nazir to be his best friend and one that knew how to get under his skin. (Green Lanterns v1 #19)
Simon was afraid that the green ring was not powerful enough for him which was why he considered taking the Phantom Ring. (Green Lanterns v1 #12) According to Batman, this did not stem from his fear that the ring would fail him but rather that he was not good enough for the power ring. (Green Lanterns v1 #17) When he was sad, it was said that Simon preferred to go to bed to think over events. (Green Lanterns v1 #37)
He said that he did not like being hospitals as these reminded him of bad memories of when his best friend Nazir was in coma and nearly died. Baz claimed that the experience made him feel helpless which was why he was not fond of being in them. (Green Lanterns v1 #19)
Baz was shown to be knowledgeable about different types of cars. (Green Lanterns v1 #20)
As a Muslim, he was for being raised in the Islamic faith. Despite that, he had a tattoo even though his beliefs found them to be forbidden. (Green Lantern v5 #0)
Powers and abilities
He was an ordinary human being but one who had been chosen by a Green Lantern Power Ring. (Green Lantern v5 #0) Similar to other ring users, he learnt to use it to create disguises of other people allowing him to masquerade as a different individual for undercover missions. (Green Lanterns v1 #41)
His fear at times caused him to panic and prevented him from manifesting the sufficient willpower to achieve certain feats with his constructs shattering in the process. (Green Lanterns v1 #20)
He was able to pull back the life he gave to others leaving them slowly dying as a result. (Green Lanterns v1 #39)
For reasons currently unknown, Simon Baz has unlocked an extremely rare power among Green Lanterns known as the Emerald Sight which allowed a Green Lantern to receive glimpses of the near future. (Green Lanterns v1 #1)
Notes
- Simon Baz was created by Geoff Johns and Doug Mahnke where he made his first appearance in The New 52 Free Comic Book Day Special Edition v1 #1 (May, 2012).
- In an interview on CBR, Johns noted that, "With Simon, my dad's Lebanese, my family is Lebanese, and there's a huge Arabic and Lebanese population in Detroit. I grew up with that; our Thanksgiving we had kibbeh and hummus and spinach pie and baklava. It's just what we did, and I really wanted to create a character that harkened back to that with Simon. And there was a lot of interesting, especially post-9/11, cultural fears that could be dealt with through that character and so Simon was born from that. And I like the character, he's a little rough-and-tumble; he's not perfect. He's got a lot of flaws, but he has a great heart."
Alternate Versions
- In Justice League v3 #27 (2017), it was shown that in an alternate timeline where various members of the Justice League had children. In this timeline, Baz was responsible for killing Sinestro with him becoming the leader of the Sinestro Corps.
- In Green Lanterns v1 #46 (2018), an alternate version of Simon Baz was shown as an inhabitant of Earth-3 with this one being known as Solomon Baz. On this Earth, Solomon was a criminal getaway driver who developed a reputation in the underworld that led to him being hired to deliver explosives to a concert hall. During the journey, Solomon could not go forward with the act and abandoned the vehicle with him experiencing fear as people on his Earth did not tolerate weakness of acts of nobility or kindness. This led to him being taken as a wielder of the Ring of Volthoom where he served as Power Ring for a time before being consumed by the relic and existing within the Green Realm inside of it.
In other media
Video games
- In Injustice 2, Simon Baz was referenced in gear items that were available for Green Lantern in the fighting video game.
Appearances
- The New 52 Free Comic Book Day Special Edition v1: (2012)
- Green Lantern v5:
- Justice League of America v3:
- Justice League v2:
- Green Lanterns v1:
- Green Lantern v6: (2021)
External Links
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