Red Lantern Corps
The Red Lantern Corps is an organization that features in DC Comics.
Contents |
History
Origin
The Red Lantern Corps consisted of Power Ring bearers of the red light of rage in the Emotional Spectrum with them being created by Atrocitus. (Green Lantern v4 #28) Their origins were detailed in a prophecy within the Book of Oa that concerned the coming Blackest Night where it spoke of a war of light being fought amongst seven corps with the Red Lanterns being among them. (Green Lantern v4 #25)
After the Sinestro Corps War, Atrocitus came to kill his fellow Five Inversions member Qull and used his flesh to fashion the Red Lantern Power Battery. (Green Lantern v4 #28)
The origins of the Red Lantern Corps resides deep in the annals of history and are linked to the actions of the Guardians of the Universe. Long ago, before the immortal Oans created the Green Lantern Corps, they made use of robotic enforcers called the Manhunters that were tasked with policing the universe. This army of machines were a capable fighting force but lacked emotion such as compassion or empathy making them ultimately limited in their actions. During their tour of duty for their masters, a flaw developed in their programming that led to a tragedy. The Manhunters went rogue and attacked Space Sector 666 which led to a massacre of the inhabitants. Believing that the best way to protect life from harsm was by eliminating it, the Manhunters descended and murdered billions of inhabitants before being stopped by their masters. Ultimately, only five beings survived and vowed revenge against the Guardian's and their servants; calling them a terrorist cell named the Five Inversions. Forming the tyrannic Empire of Tears, they attempted to get their revenge in their private war against Oa through the use of their black magic and skills in precognition. Despite their attempts, they were ultimately defeated by the Guardian's and it was decided that they were to be imprisoned on the throne world of Ysmault.
The Guardian's began the process of eliminating stray magic that existed in the universe and led to the Five Inversions imprisonment for centuries. Their world was barred by the Manhunters successors, the Green Lantern Corps but a crashed ship led to Green Lantern Abin Sur coming to the world in order to save the survivors. It was there they he met Qull of the Five Inversions who told him the prophecy called The Blackest Night as well as how Sur would die; against the wishes of his comrade Atrocitus. These actions led to the Five Inversions imprisonment on Ysmault to be permanent rather then be transfered onto the Sciencells on Oa. Abin Sur later attempted to gain the aid of Atrocitus to find the source of "the Black" that would bring about the Blackest Night but these actions ultimately led to his death and Atrocitus was imprisoned back on Ysmault.
War of Light
It was only after the Sinestro Corps War that events began to change. With his plan to escape from the Oan Sciencells thwarted due to Qull's perverted games, Atrocitus decided on a new approach on how to get his revenge. Murdering his comrade Qull, he used his blood to forge the Red Central Power Battery in order to create the Red Lantern Corps. Using Ysmault as a base of operations, the Red Power Rings were sent forth around the universe where they sought those with great rage in their hearts whereupon they were turned into fearsome Red Lanterns. One such members was former Green Lantern Laira who was converted after she felt rage for the death of her comrade Ke'Haan. Assembling his corps on Ysmault, Atrocitus used them in his plans to get revenge on the ones who had most wronged him; the Guardians and their servants along with the greatest of the Green Lanterns namely Sinestro himself.
Atrocitus began sending Red Lantern rings across the universe, hoping to raise an army and destroy his jailers. Among those who received a ring were Vice, the most ruthless of the Corps, Dex-Star, a feline alien, Bleez, a woman who had been tortured and raped by the Sinestro Corps on Ranx the Sentient City, and Laira, a disgraced former Green Lantern. However, upon accepting the rings, their hearts were rendered useless and spoiled the blood from within, causing them to expel it in violent manner that burned anyone who touched it. Additionally, the Red Lanterns were reduced to an almost animalistic state, with only Atrocitus appearing to be in full control of himself. Once Atrocitus assembled a sufficient force, the Red Lanterns went to capture Sinestro, who was being transferred to Korugar for his execution. At the same time, the Sinestro Corps launched an ambush on the Green Lantern escort to rescue their leader, only to be in turn ambushed by the Red Lanterns. They killed any Green Lantern or Sinestro that stood between them and Sinestro, finally taking Sinestro and a number of his corps captive. Their mission complete, Atrocitus ordered the Red Lanterns back to Ysmault. (Final Crisis: Rage of the Red Lanterns v1 #1)
Returning to Ysmault, Atrocitus had Sinestro bound and tied to a giant Red Lantern symbol, as he began torturing him, Atrocitus vowed to use his blood to form new Red rings for his Corps. He would then use those new rings to help destroy Korugar, the Sinestro Corps, and the Green Lantern Corps. Sinestro was not intimidated. Further incensed that he was unable to frighten Sinestro, Atrocitus used the heart of a dead Sinestro Corps member to learn his enemy's secrets. The ritual showed the truth to Atrocitus, who vowed to destroy the one thing which Sinestro had hidden from all others—his daughter. (Green Lantern v4 #36) Soon, Hal Jordan and the Blue Lantern Corps arrived to rescue Sinestro. Atrocitus and the Red Lanterns ambushed Jordan, which were soon joined by the survivors of the Sinestro Corps trying to free their leader. Though the Blue Lanterns were able to drain the power from the Yellow Power Rings and begin calming some of the Red Lanterns, Atrocitus roared that he knew their weakness. Sinestro soon killed Laira as Jordan was getting through to her, driving him to a rage and try to kill his former mentor. A Red Ring soon attached to Jordan, bringing him under Atrocitus' control and revealing the Blue Lanterns weakness. The power of hope may be extraordinary, but it is nothing without the willpower to make it happen. Revealing that Blue Lanterns need an active Green Lantern and Green Lantern Ring to tap into their power. Saint Walker placed a Blue Lantern Ring on Jordan, neutralizing the toxic effects of the Red Ring and destroying it. Sinestro and his Corps escaped in the chaos, leaving Atrocitus and the Red Lanterns to flee to the other side of Ysmault, where he intended to locate the homeworld of the Blue Lantern Corps and neutralize the threat they presented.
Red Dawn
After obtaining Krona's corpse from the Guardian Ganthet, Atrocitus faced a dilemma, the death of Krona had absolved the cause for his rage and thus left him without purpose. Atrocitus realized that he may lose control of his Red Lantern Corps. To prevent that from happening, Atrocitus resolved to restore the members of the Red Lantern Corps their sanity and with it their ability to think for themselves, he then gave them a new goal to punish the guilty. (Red Lanterns v1 #1) He decided to choose an individual to be his equal and right hand, on whom to bestow his or her full mental faculties. (Red Lanterns v1 #2) Ultimately, he decided to choose Bleez for this role thus restoring her former mental faculties. (Red Lanterns v1 #3) However, he soon came to believe she may have manipulated him into doing this. At the same time on Earth, after watching his brother being beaten to death, a young Englishman named Jack Moore becames a Red Lantern. (Red Lanterns v1 #4)
By this point, the Red Lantern Corps were dying as a result of a loss in rage and in the disappearance of the Butcher entity. According to Atrocitus, a prophecy of the future spoke of a Red Dawn whereby it was determined that their survival was linked to Earth. (Green Lanterns v1 #1)
Overview
In many respects, the Red Lantern Corps are similar to the Green Lantern Corps but instead of using willpower as the focus of their power they instead made use of hate, anger and rage.
It was said that their power was drawn from the other end of the Emotional Spectrum with the bearer's rage being unfiltered and unchecked. (Green Lantern v4 #25)
As the power of rage consumed and drowned the intelligence of the users, the average Red Lantern was left in a barely animalistic mindset with limited speech abilities and lacking any ability of abstract thought and understanding. Thus, they were unable to feel any other form of volition except for endless rage with them driven by hatred and a dim memory of his past life. Instead, they focused on the circumstances forcing them to hate in the first place. However, it was possible to restore a Red Lantern to their previous mental acuity through the use of shamanistic magic. (Red Lanterns v1 #3)
The oath of the Red Lanterns was:
- "With blood and rage of crimson red,"
- "ripped from a corpse so freshly dead,"
- "together with our hellish hate,"
- "we'll burn you all,
- "that is your fate."
One type of Red Lantern that was created by the Rage Mother were the Berserkers that were honored as being true warriors for being mindless combatants that were consumed by fury. (Sinestro v1 #23)
Red Lanterns were empowered by the use of a Power Battery where they channelled the red light of rage. (Green Lantern v4 #28)
Members
- Atrocitus : survivor of the massacre on Ryut, he was recruited into the terrorist cell known as the Five Inversions where he learnt their magic. Ultimately, he was imprisoned on Ysmault with his comrades but revealed a prophecy to Abin Sur that led to his release. On a mission to stop the Blackest Night, Atrocitus broke his restraints and was responsible for Abin's death but was imprisoned by Sinestro and Hal Jordan. Afterwards, he was freed where he killed his fellow Inversions and used their blood to make the Red Lantern Corps.
- Bleez :
- Abyssma :
- Antipathy :
- Bleez :
- Dex-Starr :
- Fury-6 :
- Haggor :
- Nite-Lik :
- Ratchet :
- Skallox :
- Vice :
- Zilius Zox :
- Rankorr : Jack Moore
- Guy Gardner :
- Kara Zor-El :
- Judge : Sheko was a judge on Primeen, who held and embraced that role for decades. Unfortunately, years of service had shown her that her home planet's justice system had become a shadow of its former self, serving the corrupt and wealthy over the common person. When she found herself in a position of passing judgment on the prince of the royal family, guilty of numerous crimes, Sheko was shot by her own bailiff, who had been secretly bought off by the king. Nearing death, a Red Lantern Ring found Sheko and allowed her to become a Red Lantern. She then killed the prince, the bailiff, and the noble onlookers, before she proceeded to bring out her own brand of justice on her world. Soon, Sheko was brought to the attention of a divided Red Lantern Corps. The leaders of both sides, Guy Gardner and Atrocitus, wanted to recruit her to their respective groups. Sheko refused to join either side, instead demanding to hear all sides of their stories before she made a determination. (Red Lanterns v1 #30)
Notes
- The Red Lantern Corps were created by Geoff Johns and Ethan Van Sciver where they made their first appearance in Green Lantern v4 #25 (January, 2008).
In other media
Television
- In Green Lantern: The Animated Series, the Red Lanterns make their first animated appearance where their origins were the Forgotten Zones in Frontier Space that were devastated by the Oan's out of control Manhunters. This sparked Atrocitus to forge his Red Lantern Corps that harnessed rage but were not feral angry creatures like their comic counterparts. They started a war with the intention of destroying the Guardians and remained antagonists for the first half of the season until the defeat of Atrocitus. In the aftermath, a truce was forged where the Guardians vowed to make reparations for their damage done by their Manhunters.
- In Justice League Action, the Red Lanterns appeared in the animated television series in the episode "Rage of the Red Lanterns". They were led by Atrocitus with their ranks consisting of Zilius Zox, Dex-Starr, Bleez and Skallox. A number of their newly forged Power Rings were stolen by Lobo who used them to create a conflict with the Justice League but they ultimately allied with the heroes to fight against Lobo who had empowered himself with a cosmic relic.
Video games
- In DC Universe Online, the Red Lantern Corps were introduced in a patch as enemies to both the hero and villain faction with DLC allowing players to create a Red Lantern character.
- In Injustice 2, the Red Lanterns were referenced and seen in cameo appearances in the fighting video game with Atrocitus being a playable character. Their leader was Atrocitus who created the corps following the destruction of his home planet by the Sinestro Corps
- In DC Legends, the Red Lanterns appeared in the setting of the mobile video game. During the Massacre of Sector 666, the Mahunters killed all but five inhabitants of Sector 666. Among those survivors was Atros, who rebranded himself Atrocitus and sought vengeance against the Guardians of the Universe. He eventually created an inversion of the Guardians' Green Lantern Corps, harnessing rage instead of will.
Appearances
- Green Lantern v4: (2008)
- Red Lantern v1:
- Sinestro v1:
External Link
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