So, as a dude trying to get into DC stuff, I'm trying to get into Green Lantern lore.
That was... that was a choice I made. I thought Batman lore was thick (and I still haven't worked out that Court of Owls thing with the metals yet), but this is a straight unholy bulldozer. I mean, sure, I can look through Wikipedia and the DC wikia if I have the name of a particular character or organization, but there's so much of it even without the clear indication that what I'm reading is even complete, and nigh no way to understand what parts are actually important, must-understand information.
So: Is there a primer I can read somewhere on Green Lantern lore? "Understand the Lore in Thirty Minues or Less"? And if there isn't - well, this place is full of Green Lantern fans, if the number of OC-gets-a-[color]-ring fics was any indication. Tell me, SV: If I'm a Green Lantern fan, or writing Green Lantern, what should I definitely know? What plot arcs and characters and relationships should I definitely understand?
Thanks.
Well, the basic jist:
The Green Lantern name began with a character named Allen Scott. He was popular for a time in the forties, then faded away. Scott had a magical ring and lantern, which were the source of his powers. Sometime in the late fifties, DC decided to reboot the concept, changing it from a magical property into a science fiction property. Now the Magic Ring and lantern was a clarketech ring and lantern, though in terms of power set basically anything was allowed. The Rings were charged with an oath that goes
"In Brightest Day, in Blackest Night
No Evil shall escape my sight
Let those who worship Evil's might
Beware my power, Green Lantern's Light"
The new, Rebooted Lantern was named Hal Jordan, and he received his ring from a dying alien. The alien was a member of an interstellar peace keeping force called the Green Lantern Corp, which was full of aliens and such, each with their own ring. The Green Lanterns were run by a group called the Guardians of the Universe, big Blue headed Elf-types who are the first sentient species to evolve in the galaxy. Lantern Ring's are powered by willpower
Hal's arch-enemy was named Sinestro, and he was an Ex-Green Lantern, touted as the only Lantern to ever turn Evil. Sinestro worked with the enemies of the GLC, known as the Weaponers of Qward, who gave him a ring that was just like the Lantern's ring, except in Yellow. This was bad, because Green Lantern rings could not work on Yellow objects, and his ring ran on fear. Hal's love interest was Carol Ferris, and she would occasionally be mind controlled into becoming a villain called the Star Sapphire.
Over the next few decades, two more human lanterns were introduced, on occasions where Hal was indisposed. The first of these was Guy Gardner, and the second was a black man named John Stewart. Anyway, Hal spent those decades splitting his time between space adventures and human supervillains. Additionally, it was established that the original Green Lantern, Alan Scott, lived on a different Earth in the Multiverse.
Big changes came in the Event Comic Crisis on Infinite Earths. Hal actually did not appear in this story, but the backstory of it involved the Guardians. According to this story, the Multiverse was created when a guardian named Krona attempted to look at the Big Bang. The creation of the Multiverse also created the Anti-Monitor, the big bad for that story.
In the aftermath of Crisis, the Multiverse was destroyed, leaving only one Earth, and as such Alan Scott was retconned into existing on the same Earth as Hal. He was not a member of the GLC, but his lantern was connected to something called the Starheart, a magic force which the Guardians had accidentally created in their attempts to control magic in the universe.
A few years after the Crisis, the 90s happened, and stories where Superheroes went through great tragedies sold great. Batman got his back broken, and Superman was killed. This second event lead into Green Lantern's big tragedy. During the Death of Superman story, Hal Jordan's version of Metropolis, Coast City, was destroyed, and this drove Hal Jordan insane. He became a super villain known as Parallax, and destroyed the Green Lantern Corps so he could steal their rings. He slaughtered the Guardians of the Universe, but one managed to escape, name Ganthet. Ganthet gave the last Green Lantern ring to a man named Kyle Raynor. Kyle would be the only lantern for the next decade or so.
Hal Jordan would be the primary villain for a crossover storyline called Zero Hour, where he would try to reset the universe to undo all of the tragedies that he and other heroes had experienced. He failed, and eventually had a redemption in the crossover Final Night, where he gave up his life to reignite the sun. Hal would subsequently become the new host of the DC hero known as the Spectre. Kyle meanwhile would eventually get a power upgrade, and become Ion.
In the Early 2000s, the story Green Lantern Rebirth was published. During this story, it was revealed that Hal Jordan had never turned evil. He had actually been possessed by a creature named Parallax, who was the anthropomorphic embodiment of fear, whilst Ion in turn was the embodiment of Willpower. Prior to possessing Jordan, Parallax had been imprisoned within the Central Power Battery, and was the reason that the rings didn't work on the color yellow. Hal Jordan was resurrected, as were the guardians, and the Corps came back.
The sequel to Green Lantern Rebirth was a story called the Sinestro Corp War, which involved Sinestro forming his own corp of Yellow wielding lanterns. At this point a concept called the Emotional Spectrum became prominent in the series. The Emotional Spectrum was the idea that each color of the Rainbow represented an emotion. It went like this
Green=Willpower
Yellow=Fear
Violet=Love (These were the Star Sapphires)
Blue=Hope
Red=Rage
Indigo=Compassion
Orange=Avarice (fancy name for Greed)
A corp for each other these colors was introduced, and they teamed up together during an event called Blackest Knight, to fight against the Black Lantern Corp, which was basically made of zombies. This corp was lead by Nekron, the embodiment of Death. At the Climax of this storyline, the White entity was revealed, the embodiment of life itself.
Eventually, DC did another reboot, but the Green Lantern books at the time were very popular, and so they basically continued on as if nothing happened. Alan Scott did get retconned into another universe again though.
Anywho, another human green lantern was added, Simon Baz, but it didn't really have a huge story behind it.
Eventually, the Justice League did a storyline involving Earth-3, DC's equivalent of Star Trek's Mirror Universe. The evil heroes from that universe took over the main world. During this event, the evil Green Lantern of that universe was killed, and his Ring sought out a new host, named Jessica Cruz. After that storyline was over, and Cruz was freed from the ring's control, Cruz became another Green Lantern.
