Parallax (DC)
Parallax is a comic character who features in DC Comics.
Contents |
Biography
Origin
Parallax was a cosmic being born millions of years ago and was one of the embodiments of the Emotional Spectrum where it was the manifestation of fear. In that time long ago, the creature terrorised space where its demonic parasitic presence caused entire civilizations to collapse as well as destroy themselves out of paranoia. The actions of the entity later attracted the attention of the beings that became known as the Guardians of the Universe who acted and imprisoned the creature. [Green Lantern: Rebirth]
Once captured, Parallax was placed within a box which contained the fear elemental. It became one of the many treasures that were placed on the planet Maltus that was the original homeworld of the Guardians. However, it was stolen at some point millions of years ago by a band of thieves which included the native of Ogatuu known later as Larfleeze. Taking the box though unaware of its contents, they later learnt from notes left by the scientist Krona of a greater treasure located on the planet Okaara. Moving to that world, they were chased by the Guardians of the Universe along with their Manhunter servants. Once at the Vega system, Larfleeze managed to discover the Orange Light of Avarice which consumed him and prevented the Guardians from stopping the release of that aspect of the Emotional Spectrum. Facing losses, they allowed Larfleeze to keep the Orange Central Power Battery but in exchange he was confined to the Vega system where he would be left in peace and he had to hand over the box containing Parallax. Larfleeze ultimately agreed to the decision and the trapped Parallax returned to the hands of the Oans. (Green Lantern v4 #41)
Sometime after this event, the Guardians removed Parallax from the box container and imprisoned it within the Green Lantern Central Power Battery located on Oa by using fear's opposing force namely willpower as well as its avatar Ion. After successfully trapping Parallax, the creature remained dormant for billions of years where the Guardians hid its nature in order to prevent anyone from ever freeing it again. Due to fear taking the form of yellow in the emotional spectrum, the presence of Parallax within the Central Power Battery led to the future Green Lantern Corps Power Rings being ineffective on items yellow in color due to the "yellow impurity". Due to the weakness it caused, the Guardians sought only those who had the willpower to overcome fear as these were the only individuals capable of mastering their power rings and thus took careful steps to ensure that new recruits were fearless. [Green Lantern: Rebirth]
Emerald Twilight
When the great renegade Sinestro was sentenced to imprisonment within the Central Power Battery, his Qwardian power ring tapped into the power of Parallax and awakened the ancient fear elemental. Together, the two beings plotted to free themselves from their prison and Sinestro revealed his hatred of his arch nemesis Hal Jordan which Parallax chose as the perfect tool to free itself. Thus, the entity began spending the years slowly influencing his mind by making him experience self doubt with the increasing fears lead to Hal Jordan's hair prematurely turning white by the temples. This course of actions helped shape Jordan until he reached breaking point as a result of the destruction of Coast City which fell at the hands of Mongul and the Cyborg Superman. Going mad with grief, Hal Jordan fell into a murderous rage thanks to the influence of Parallax which culminated in a destructive path to the Central Power Battery on Oa. During this time, Jordan apparently killed Sinestro in battle after the renegade was freed by the Guardians to combat Hal Jordan though unaware to many this was actually a hard light construct. The fallen Hal Jordan also destroyed the Oan Central Power Battery as well as killed the majority of the Guardians of the Universe leaving only one alive. This allowed the Parallax entity to be freed which took Jordan as its host by bonding with his soul and embarked on a destructive campaign across space. [Green Lantern: Rebirth]
In time, word came out on something happening on Oa which led to a task force consisting of Guy Gardner, Wonder Woman, Captain Atom, Alan Scott, the Martian Manhunter, Ice and Ferrin Colos of the Darkstars. This was to determine what was the source of a number of visions Gardner had recieved which showed nothing but death. The reason he recieved them, however, was because he at this stage of his life possessed a yellow power ring which fed off the residual Green Lantern energy released from the destroyed Central Power Batter and thus became more powerful as a result. When the task force arrived on Oa, they confronted Hal Jordan who easily defeated the many heroes except for Gardner whose own power ring was feeding off the ever increasing power of Parallax. In the beginning, the two seemed evenly matched but as Hal Jordan's power swelled, he quickly made short work of Guy Gardner and destroyed his yellow power ring.
Due to its freedom from the Oan Central Power Battery, the last Green Lantern Power Ring that was conferred by Ganthet on Kyle Rayner was now free from the weakness of being unable to effect objects that were yellow in color. When the universe was recreated Waverider created a rift to reenter reality and Parallax tagged along and brought Kyle with him. Parralax then brought Kyle to Oa and tried to absorb the green energy of the planet itself. Kyle and Parallax fought, but Parallax moved Kyle with his plea that he could make everything in the universe right again by recreating it. Kyle handed over his ring to Parallax but immediately regretted it and after a brief fight took it back. Parallax created a power ring duplicate of Kyle's dead girlfriend Alex DeWitt and promised to restore her to life when he remade the universe, but Kyle stood firm. He knew the only way to deal with Parallax was to cut off the source of his power, so he overloaded Oa with emerald energy until it exploded. (Green Lantern v3 #0) Parallax came to Kyle Rayner's apartment and asked for his power ring back, telling him no one could replace him as Green Lantern and that it was time his life got back to normal. Kyle refused, and after a long fight Parallax defeated Kyle. Just as he reclaimed the ring Ganthet appeared with former JLAers Aquaman, Flash III, Green Arrow, Hawkman and Martian Manhunter. Parrallax defeated the heroes and when Ganthet summoned Superman Parallax bested him too. Kyle finally talked Parallax down, and Parallax realized he could never go back to being Green Lantern and he gave up the ring. Ganthet then merged with Parallax and they flew off. (Green Lantern v3 #64) Hal Jordan as Parallax next appeared to Earth's heroes and told them he was ready to save the Earth from the Sun-Eater. He needed to redeem himself, so he sacrificed his life to absorb the Sun-Eater and reignite Earth's sun. (Final Night v1 #4) After entering the afterlife, Jordan also aided the heroes of the world in combating the threat of the rogue angel Asmodel who intended to raise Hell onto Earth and Heaven itself. The Spectre-Force merged with Parallax and Hal Jordan’s soul. The Spectre chose Hal as the new spirit of vengeance but also wanted to keep Parallax under wraps. (Day of Judgement v1 #5)
Rebirth
After dying, Hal Jordan was selected to be bonded with the Spirit of Vengeance known as Spectre but was still had his soul infected with the Parallax entity. The Spectre told Jordan the truth about his time as Parallax and its nature as a dangerously powerful fear elemental. At the same time, Kyle Rayner had returned from a journey in space and came to the Justice League of America's headquarters whereupon he told Green Arrow about journeying to the edge of the universe where on the tenth planet he learnt from the natives of a world that orbited the star Pagallus about the history of the creature Parallax. The return of Parallax led to the Justice League and Justice Society of America arriving at the rebuilt Coast City where they attacked the creature but their attacks are inhibited due to the fear casting abilities of the entity. However, the intervention of the Spectre turned the tide of battle as the powerful being managed to overwhelm Parallax and remove it from Hal Jordan's soul. Whilst Jordan's soul was going into the afterlife, Parallax was deprived of a host body and attacked the Oan Guardian Ganthet who had arrived on Earth to fight the fear elemental which had infected former Green Lanterns with mad paranoia.
Despite the possession, Ganthet's actions allowed for him to steer Hal Jordan back to his corporeal body that was resurrected and located on the Moon. Returned to the living and with his soul now free of Parallax, Hal Jordan's thougts were clear for the first time. Emerging as a mortal and alive now, he returned to his place as a Green lantern with his hair by the temples returning to its natural brown color. During this time, Hal Jordan also discovered another shocking deception from his time as Parallax as he encountered a living Sinestro who revealed his ties with the fear elemental as well as how the creature used its powers to form a hard light realistic construct of Sinestro for Jordan to kill. A fight emerged between the two which culminated in the renegade retreating into the anti-matter universe. Together with Rayner, the two went to Coast City where alongnside John Stewart, Guy Gardner, as well as Kilowog managed to free the Parallax-possessed Ganthet where the creature was imprisoned once more within the Central Power Battery on Oa. [Green Lantern: Rebirth]
Sinestro Corps War
The arch renegade Sinestro later managed to form an entire corps consisting of fellow users of yellow power rings. As part of their plan, they staged an assault on Oa where they freed the captive Hank Henshaw and Superman Prime from the Sciencells whilst at the sametime freeing Parallax from the Oan Central Power Battery which was also secretly boobytrapped before the Sinestro Corpsmen escaped. During the devastating galactic conflict known as the Sinestro Corps War, a Qwardian power ring manages to capture Kyle Rayner and transports him to Qward in the Anti-Matter universe. Once there, he was brought before Sinestro himself who reveals to him the true origin of the Ion entity that was inside of him whereupon he removes the creature from the Human. After which, he was taken to the Qwardian Central Power Battery where he was taken over by Parallax as its latest host and revealing its ties to the Sinestro Corps as well as it being a member of the reborn Anti-Monitor's Heralds of Fear. Once within its new body, it took its place with its fellow Heralds which included Sinestro, the Cyborg Superman and Superman Prime. [Green Lantern: Sinestro Corps Special #1 (Aug, 2007)]
It was at that point that various members of the Green Lantern Corps attacked Qward in their attempt to rescue their comrade Kyle Rayner. Amongst their ranks included Hal Jordan, John Stewart and Guy Gardner as well as other Green Lanterns who are attacked by Parallax which kills some of their ranks before transporting them to Qward. [Green Lantern (vol. 4) #21 (2007)] They are later rescued by the Lost Lanterns but during the battle, Parallax murders Jack T. Chance by making him experience the repressed memory within him of his abusive family. Whilst this was happening, Kyle Rayner was forced to watch everything that Parallax was committing which culminated in the fear elemental meeting its host within a room constructed from Rayner's own memories. Kyle managed to transform into Ion and battled Parallax by conjuring up a power ring as well as his own costume. After battling Parallax for a while, Rayner was able to stab the creature with a pencil as well as manages to regain his sense of self-worth by seeing a portrait of his mother that he had painted several years ago. Upon defeating the fear elemental, Kyle walks into the painting where he was transported onto a field where he walks towards a bright green star in the sky. (Tales of the Sinestro Corps Presents: Parallax v1 #1)
Whilst the battle was being fought in Kyle Rayner's mind, Parallax continued its activities on the physical world and accompanied the Sinestro Corps during an assault against Earth itself. At this point, he was about to kill Hal Jordan's brother and his family whereupon Jordan arrives to combat the entity just as his power ring was about to run out of its charge. Attempting to aid Rayner and free him, Jordan reminds him of how Kyle's mother was on her deathbed and was not fearless. Just then, Parallax absorbs Hal Jordan into its body where its power increases two fold by the power of its two hosts. Reshaping its body, the creature transforms its costume into yellow colors and incorporates elements of Hal Jordan's costume when he served as Parallax's host. As the battled continued, Guy Gardner arrived with the painting of Kyle's mother which when combined with Jordan's help, Rayner was able to fight Parallax and together the two Green Lanterns managed to free themselves from the fear elementals control. Not defeated but devoid of a host body, Parallax in its true form attacked Hal Jordan, Kyle Rayner, Guy Gardner and John Stewart in order to possess them all until the two exiled Guardians Ganthet and Sayd arrived who helped the Green Lanterns by imprisoning the entity within their four respective Power Batteries. (Green Lantern v4 #24)
Parallax came to be transported to planet Ryut where a cloaked villain trapped the fear entity in a kind of energy bubble and chained it to a monolith bearing the symbol of fear. (Green Lantern v4 #53)
Later, when Hal Jordan, the Flash, and the rest of their allies try to find the emotional entities, they locate Parallax and the Scarlet Speedster becomes the latest host for the fear entity after it senses the hero's concerns for Jordan's safety. By inhabiting the living generator of the Speed Force, Parallax is even more powerful by combining the extradimensional energy the speedster creates with its own powers. Despite this, the embodiment of fear still desires Hal Jordan as its host as they fight. However, an intervention by the mystery villain prevents Parallax's attempts, and reveals that Jordan now has the skills to resist it anyway. As the embodiment of compassion, Proselyte, began to free the Flash from Parallax's control by reigniting his emotion for compassion over his fear. The embodiment of hope, Adara, began fighting the cloaked villain, who reveals that all this is actually a ruse so that he could capture them all — which he does — revealing himself to be the renegade guardian Krona.
When Krona attacks Oa, he places Parallax inside the Central Power Battery, restoring the yellow impurity and giving him control over almost all Green Lanterns. Fortunately, Hal, John, Guy and Kyle are able to resist Parallax's influence due to their past experience with it, using the rings of the other six Corps to fight off Krona's forces long enough for Guy using the rings of the Red Lantern Corps and the Star Sapphires simultaneously to tear the Central Power Battery's shell away and remove Parallax.
Parallax is being hosted by Sinestro again as he has plans to rule the universe with fear. (Hal Jordan and the Green Lantern Corps v1 #1) The power of Parallax is increased by Sinestro to one thousand percent of the power of fear to face Hal Jordan, who has returned as Green Lantern. (Hal Jordan and the Green Lantern Corps v1 #6) Before Sinestro attacks him, he discovers too late that his and Parallax's powers have decreased due to Soranik Natu rescuing people from being imprisoned and escaping with them. Hal then uses his energies as a living construct to incinerate the Fear Warlord. Sinestro tries to use Parallax's powers to stop Hal, but fails as Hal destroys the base of the Sinestro Corps, Warworld, seemingly killing both Sinestro and Parallax in the process. (Hal Jordan and the Green Lantern Corps v1 #7)
In the aftermath, Parallax was freed and sought revenge against Sinestro for imprisoning him. (Superman v4 #30) Parallax later emerged on Earth where he began possessing a number of children and abducted them in order to increase fear in Metropolis. This was in an effort to draw out Superman so that the fear parasite could defeat him. Superman willingly allowed himself to be possessed but Parallax in his new host body was confronted by Sinestro. (Superman v4 #29) Sinestro took the fear entity to Qward where he and the Qwardians that served him attempting to exorcise the beast so that the Korugarian could claim his power once again. Superman managed to defeat the creature but noticed the fear Parallax had at being imprisoned by Sinestro again. As a result, the Man of Steel placed Parallax in a yellow ring and sought to deliver him to the Green Lantern Corps to be safe from harm. (Superman v4 #30)
Overview
Personality and attributes
During the time of the Sinestro Corps War, Parallax made use of many of the memories of Kyle Rayner and in a mad state, told individuals in battle that he was special when he was the last Green Lantern and that he would become the last Green Lantern again. (Green Lantern: Sinestro Corps Special v1 #1)
Sinestro came to be the one being that Parallax came to fear and had a hatred for the Korugarian for imprisoning him and using his power. (Superman v4 #30)
Powers and abilities
The sheer power to generate fear meant that Parallax was capable of causing entire civilizations to collapse and destroy themselves as they fell into paranoia. It was capable of infecting living beings with fear causing them to turn on their comrades and allies unless they were cured of the maddening paranoia. [Green Lantern: Rebirth] Its great power allowed it to cause its victims to experience their most deepest and darkest fears; even those that are repressed by the individual. By making its enemies relive those memories, it was able to cause the death of the subject. (Tales of the Sinestro Corps Presents: Parallax v1 #1)
Whilst it was able to travel through space on its own power, it typically found hosts which it parasitically possessed. [Green Lantern: Rebirth] Those living beings that became hosts to the parasitic entity were typically powerless and forced to observe the creatures activities; being trapped within the flesh of their own bodies whilst Parallax fed on its destructive actions. [Tales of the Sinestro Corps Presents: Parallax (2007)] The great power of the creature allowed it to take over almost any form of living being ranging from Humans to strong willed Green Lanterns and even powerful immortal beings such as an Oan. [Green Lantern: Rebirth] Parallax was also not strictly confined to taking over a single host but was able to take over multiple beings into himself; thus increasing his power by the number of hosts he had absorbed. [Green Lantern (vol. 4) #24 (2007)]
Being a creature of the emotional spectrum, Parallax was capable of controlling light to similar yet higher feats of those accomplished by the Green Lanterns. This allowed it to create realistic hard light constructs which it accomplished by making a duplicate of Sinestro for Hal Jordan to kill in battle. Furthermore, it was capable of creating other constructs with its abilities which it was able to do so with both the green light as well as the yellow light. [Green Lantern: Rebirth]
It was revealed that the entity was the source of the yellow impurity within the green light used by the Green Lantern Corp where this was referred to as the Parallax Fear Anomaly. (Green Lantern Corps: Recharge v1 #4)
Notes
- Parallax originally appeared as an alternate identity for Hal Jordan that was created Ron Marz and Darryl Banks where he made his first appearance in Green Lantern v3 #50 (March, 1994).
- The character later came to be made into a separate entity by Geoff Johns and Ethan Van Sciver with this occurring in Green Lantern: Rebirth v1
- In 2009, Parallax was ranked in IGN as 92nd Greatest Comic Book Villain of All Time.
Alternate Versions
- In Booster Gold v2 #2 (2007), an alternate version of Parallax appeared in the altered timeline. In this version of events, the Sinestro Corps formed years earlier where Tomar-Re came to be Parallax's host.
- In The Multiversity: The Society of Super-Heroes: Conquerors of the Counter-World v1 #1 (2014), an alternate version of Parallax appeared in the reality designated as Earth-40 in the restored Multiverse. Parallax the Fear-Thing was shown as being a dragonic being in service to Count Sinestro.
- In Convergence: Green Lantern/Parallax v1 #1 (2015), a version of the Parallax infected Hal Jordan appeared that had been taken from the pre-Flashpoint reality. This version was recovered by an incarnation of Brainiac that had miniaturized various cities from the Multiverse of the Zero Hour. Parallax loses his powers and Hal Jordan returns to his senses. Wanting to atone for the crimes and sins he committed, Hal has himself jailed within the 8th Police Precinct, and is visited regularly by Kyle Rayner. Hal Jordan becomes Parallax again after the dome of Telos releases the city in which Kyle Rayner as the Green Lantern is the only thing standing between Hal Jordan as Parallax and the oncoming doom Parallax plans to unleash upon Electropolis. Parallax confronts Deimos, sick of being trapped on the planet but is attacked by the latter. When Deimos claims that nothing can stop him, Parallax attacks and chastises him for using his powers for his own selfish needs and destroys him. Afterwards, he threatens Telos to return everyone to their respective universes, but all the power Deimos took is suddenly released and will shatter the multiverse. Parallax offers to save them but Telos stops him, refusing to let Parallax cause another Zero Hour-level event. Parallax chooses to go back to the Crisis on Infinite Earths with the pre-Crisis Flash, pre-Crisis Supergirl, and the Pre-Flashpoint Superman and Lois Lane, to help prevent it from collapsing the multiverse, and to also redeem himself for the actions he has committed. Brainiac senses that the group were successful.
In other media
Films
- In Green Lantern, Parallax appeared in the setting of the 2011 live-action film where he was voiced by actor Clancy Brown. He resembled a large dark mass with yellow energy and a head. His origins were traced to the Guardians of the Universe where one of their number named Krona became corrupted by the yellow energy of fear thus transforming him into Parallax. As this entity, he began absorbing the life force of others by feeding on the fear of living beings. This was the case until he was defeated by Green Lantern Abin Sur who imprisoned him on the world of Ryut where he remained trapped deep on the world. A crashed vessel containing survivors inadvertently found him and their fear empowered Parallax thus freeing him from his imprisonment. From there, he went into space to get his revenge on Abin Sur and mortally wounded him at his space station. Abin Sur managed to escape though a fragment of Parallax had embedded itself in his flesh and he would crash on Earth. The Ungaran perished but not before his ring went to Hal Jordan and his body was being studied by the military where Hector Hammond got infected by the piece of Parallax. This fragment of the entity empowered Hammond with psionic abilities and he became Parallax's pawn who attacked the Green Lantern. Parallax himself arrived on Earth to consume the world where he devoured Hector Hammond along with others succumbing to his onslaught. This was until Hal Jordan as Green Lantern destroyed Parallax by luring him into the Sun.
- In Green Lantern: Beware My Power, Parallax appeared in the setting of the animated film where he was voiced by actor Nolan North. This version was an alien parasite created by Sinestro to infect a weakened Hal Jordan following his capture. Initially, Parallax was simply meant to bend Jordan to Sinestro's will but instead twisted his mind and empowered him whilst Sinestro submitted to it and became its acolyte. Parallax intends to use Jordan's body to obtain godhood, but the latter was killed by Green Arrow.
Video games
- In Infinite Crisis, Parallax was referenced in the setting of the MOBA video game as one of the special abilities of Sinestro where he launched at enemies and caused them to feel fear.
- In Injustice, Parallax appeared as a support card in the setting of the mobile version of the fighting video game.
- In DC Legends, Parallax was referenced in the setting of the mobile video game in Kyle Rayner's backstory.
- In DC Universe Online, Parallax appeared in the setting of the MMORPG video game.
Appearances
- Green Lantern v3: (1994)
- Green Lantern: Rebirth v1:
- Green Lantern v4:
- Green Lantern: Sinestro Corps Special v1: (2007)
- Tales of the Sinestro Corps Presents: Parallax v1: (2007)
- Sinestro v1:
- Superman v4:
- Hal Jordan and the Green Lantern Corps v1: (2016)
External Link
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