The Green Lantern Corps includes some of the most powerful warriors in the universe, but it is more than just the power ring, because the will behind the ring is what makes a true Lantern worthy. While the original DC Comics version of the Green Lantern was a human protecting Earth, the lineage of the Corps includes heroes from across the universe. A human like Hal Jordan shares his rank alongside everyone from a sentient planet to a Daxamite demigod. There are numerous members of the Corps from Earth, but there are also members who fell from grace and became villains. Through it all, these are the heroes whose willpower allows them to wield the ring and fight the worst the universe has to offer.
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From a living planet to a Superman-level god of pure light, here is a look at the 10 most powerful Green Lantern Corps members, ranked.
10) Arisia
Arisia debuted in Tales of the Green Lantern Corps #1 (1981) by Mike W. Barr, Len Wein, and Joe Staton. She is a humanoid alien with golden skin, hair, and eyes, and with pointed ears. She hails from Sector 2815 (Graxos IV), and she is a legacy Green Lantern, as her father and other relatives served in the role before her, with two of them dying in the line of duty. Her powers as a Graxonite include healing factor and longevity, with her ring constructs only limited by her imagination and willpower.
She also used her ring subconsciously to age herself when Hal Jordan rebuffed her for her young age in Green Lantern Corps #205–206 (1986) by Steve Englehart and Joe Staton. Her power was shown when Major Force killed her, but she returned 20 years later when Hal and Guy Gardner found her cocooned, where Cyborg Superman was using her as a power source. She was deemed a powerful enough Lantern to partner with Sodam Yat, and the two helped free Daxam during the Sinestro Corps War.
9) Guy Gardner
Guy Gardner debuted in Green Lantern Vol. 2 #59 (1968) by John Broome and artist Gil Kane. He was one of the two options to be the Green Lantern when Hal Jordan ended up getting the ring, but Hal was closer to Abin Sur’s crash landing when the ring set out to find a replacement. He was a human from Baltimore and ended up as the designated backup of Sector 2814. Unlike Hal, who was a strict and honorable Green Lantern member, Guy was more of an ultra-macho, arrogant character thanks to a redesign by Steve Englehart and Joe Staton in the 1980s.
He really stood out when he wielded Sinestro’s unique yellow ring, which recharged off other Lanterns’ rings, rather than a battery, and later became the Vuldarian Warrior, shapeshifting his body into blades and guns. One of his most impressive feats of power came in “Blackest Night,” when he became a Red Lantern after he believed Kyle Rayner died, and he began destroying Black Lanterns on sight. On the other hand, he ranks below other Green Lanterns because he challenged Batman to a fight and was dropped with a single punch.
8) Salaak
Salaak debuted in Green Lantern Vol. 2 #149 (1982) by Marv Wolfman and Joe Staton. He is a four-armed Slyggian from the planet Slyggia, originally the Green Lantern of Sector 1418 before reassignment to Sector 0, which is Oa itself. He remains distinctive because he is a pessimistic creature who serves as the senior administrator and Keeper of the Book of Oa, the chronicle of every Green Lantern’s history.
The big difference when it comes to his powers is that his constructs are noted as exceptionally precise and efficient, and his willpower was strong enough to make his ring carry him through time. He even lived in the future once under the name Pol Manning. As for his Green Lantern powers, Salaak holds the rank of Clarissi, placing him next in command after the Guardians. He actually took command of the entire Corps during “Blackest Night.” He is also a “Crisis” veteran, protecting multiple sectors at once during Crisis on Infinite Earths, and even fighting the Anti-Monitor.
7) Kilowog
Kilowog debuted in Green Lantern Corps #201 (1986) by Steve Englehart and Joe Staton. He is a native of Bolovax Vik in Sector 674, a world of roughly 16 billion inhabitants who shared a communal mind. He was also a brilliant geneticist before he became a Green Lantern. He is now one of the most important and valued trainers in the Green Lantern Corps, the chief drill sergeant who has trained thousands of recruits, including Hal Jordan.
He is one of the most physically powerful of all Green Lantern Corps members, with superhuman strength, genius intellect, and species telepathy. Hal Jordan said Kilowog’s is the only ring that makes a loud boom when used, and his constructs lean on raw brute power. During Crisis on Infinite Earths, he saved 16 billion lives from his world when his planet was destroyed. He was also the last Lantern standing when Hal Jordan attacked while possessed by Parallax in “Emerald Twilight.”
6) John Stewart
John Stewart debuted in Green Lantern Vol. 2 #87 (1972) in the story “Beware My Power” by Dennis O’Neil and Neal Adams. He was born in Detroit and was a United States Marine veteran chosen as the new backup to Hal Jordan when Guy Gardner was injured. Hal Jordan then helped train him, and Stewart ended up as one of the most popular Green Lanterns in the 1990s thanks to the Justice League animated series. He is also one of the main stars of the upcoming HBO Max series Lanterns.
As for his power, he has a standard willpower ring, but Stewart’s architect’s mind and military discipline give him constructs known for being precise, structurally engineered, and methodically planned. His biggest power feat came after his wife Katma Tui’s murder, when he administered the Mosaic World on Oa, leading to the cult series Green Lantern: Mosaic (1992–93) by Gerard Jones and Cully Hamner.
5) Sinestro
Sinestro debuted in Green Lantern Vol. 2 #7 (1961) by John Broome and Gil Kane, and he was one of the first 10 villains that Hal Jordan’s Green Lantern faced in his comics. He was a native of Korugar in Sector 1417, and he was considered the single greatest member of the entire Green Lantern Corps. His entire sector was rendered nearly crime-free, and he was the mentor assigned to help train Hal Jordan, who was a rookie. However, when the Guardians learned he ruled Korugar as a dictator, he was expelled and banished.
This led Sinestro to gain a yellow ring and start the Sinestro Corps. While Sinestro was banished, the Weaponers forged him a yellow power ring, drawing on fear/antimatter energy. This deliberately exploited the yellow impurity that classic green rings could not affect. It was shown in Green Lantern: Rebirth that it was Sinestro who manipulated Parallax into choosing Hal Jordan, leading to that Lantern’s downfall.
4) Sodam Yat
Sodam Yat debuted by name in Tales of the Green Lantern Corps Annual #2 (1986) by Alan Moore and Kevin O’Neill. He is a Daxamite, which makes him close to Superman’s power levels, and is the Green Lantern of Sector 1760. His homeworld is highly xenophobic, which forbade him from making contact with any other aliens. Thanks to his role as a Daxamite, he has super strength, flight, heat vision, super-vision, and super-breath. His only weakness is to lead.
During the “Sinestro Corps War,” the Guardians made him the new host of the Ion entity, which made him the strongest Green Lantern in the universe at the time. Yat showed his power when he fought Superboy-Prime in Green Lantern Corps Vol. 2 #18 (2008), but his weakness was shown here when he ended up by a nuclear plant, and Prime impaled him with uranium rods. He survived, but he now has to wear his ring at all times so the lead in his body doesn’t kill him. In Final Crisis: Legion of 3 Worlds, he was the last Guardian of the Universe, living alone in Oa’s ruins.
3) Hal Jordan
Hal Jordan was the second Green Lantern on Earth, following Alan Scott, but he was the first to actually show the Green Lantern Corps in their glory. He debuted in Showcase #22 (1959) by John Broome and Gil Kane, and he was the Silver Age reinvention of the Green Lantern. Hal was a former Air Force pilot who was chosen by the dying Abin Sur’s ring to become the new guardian of Sector 2814, which includes Earth. He was also a founding member of the Justice League.
Hal is canonically described as possessing the strongest willpower in the universe, the trait that makes him the greatest wielder of the ring. He actually showed the height of his power when Parallax possessed him, and Green Lantern destroyed the entire Green Lantern Corps and the Guardians and absorbed the entire Central Power Battery in an attempt to rewrite history. In “The Final Night” (1996), Hal sacrificed himself to reignite Earth’s dying sun, after which his soul became the host of the Spectre, DC’s Spirit of Vengeance.
2) Kyle Rayner
Kyle Rayner debuted in Green Lantern Vol. 3 #48 (1994) during “Emerald Twilight,” by Ron Marz and Darryl Banks. He was a freelance illustrator from Earth (Sector 2814). After Hal Jordan’s fall and the Corps’ destruction, the Guardian Ganthet gave Kyle the last surviving power ring, making him the Last Green Lantern for close to a decade. His original ring did not possess the weakness to the color yellow, and his work as an artist made his constructs more detailed and imaginative than those of other Lanterns.
As Ion, he absorbed the residual energy left in Earth’s sun after Hal’s sacrifice, reaching near-godhood with reality and time manipulation. He actually resurrected the Guardians as infants and scanned the DNA of every human on Earth to find his estranged father. By giving up his Ion power, he was able to reignite the Central Power Battery and rebirth the entire Corps and the Guardians.
1) Mogo
Mogo debuted in Green Lantern Vol. 2 #188 (1985) in the story “Mogo Doesn’t Socialize,” by Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons. Mogo is a sentient, living planet and a full member of the Green Lantern Corps. He is not a being in the world he protects because he is the world. His power scales to planetary mass: gravitational control, near-limitless energy, and the ability to shape his own foliage and terrain into green constructs across an entire globe.
Mogo has the role of guiding the rings of fallen Lanterns to their new bearers across the universe. No other Lantern performs this function, which makes him essential to recruitment itself. Mogo showed his true power in “Blackest Night” when he answered the Guardians’ summons and used his gravity to drag swarms of Black Lanterns into his molten core, where they were continuously incinerated to stop their regeneration. Corps lore tied to the Sodam Yat prophecy says Mogo will be “the last to fall” in the Corps’ final battle.
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