Sinestro Was Right, Fear Is the Most Powerful Force in the DC Universe

To most in DC, Willpower is the strongest force in the universe and fuels the power of the Green Lanterns. What was originally thought to be the antithesis of was antimatter, what fueled the yellow energy ring wielded by Sinestro, after Geoff Johns took over the Lantern mythos and introduced the emotional spectrum the idea that Fear is what controlled the yellow rings became the standard. Fear is the strongest emotion people can use against one another, something that Sinestro and the Sinestro Corps has put forth as the most powerful force in the DC Universe — and if we’re being honest, he’s right.

Being the first user of the yellow ring before Fear was the emotion that controlled his ring, Sinestro was already feared throughout the galaxy. Once one of the most prominent Green Lanterns in the Corps, Sinestro now became the master of fear in the galaxy after he embraces it. Taking the entity of fear known as Parallax and its ideal to heart, Sinestro based his own corps off of the power of fear. While it does have an element of “of course he did” to it, it wasn’t unwise on his part. Some of the most terrifying entities in space became members of the Yellow Lanterns such as the Anti-Monitor, Cyborg Superman, and Superboy-Prime. With two of those being former lead antagonists of two different Crisis events, there is still one that rules over them all with fear besides Sinestro, and in doing so proves just how powerful fear really is.

Parallax Takes All

In the infamous Green Lantern story “Emerald Twilight”, Hal Jordan goes over the edge and becomes Parallax. Hal unwittingly became the most powerful being in the universe at the time, absorbing the being Parallax who was locked away in the central power battery on Oa. With almost every Green Lantern dead, Hal became unstoppable. His greatest feat as Parallax was causing his own Crisis event, Zero Hour: Crisis in Time. Much like the original Crisis on Infinite Earths, Zero Hour was about Hal destroying the time stream to remake it how he sought fit.

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Being able to resurrect his best friend Oliver Queen from the dead in the future before he dies in the past, Parallax was the ultimate being of evil and fear unknowingly. After a few years when Johns’ entered the Lantern mythos this became a lot more streamlined with Parallax being a parasite that had possessed Hal. It very much undid a lot of the actions Hal should be held accountable for as he’s back with no repercussions now but there were lasting elements. Hal as Parallax was something that was incredibly interesting for the character and knowing now it was the fear inside of him that powered him, it all came together, giving readers a real example of just how powerful fear in DC really is. Fast forward even more and Sinestro uses the same emotion of fear to create his own Lantern Corps modeled after himself. When you consider that Sinestro uses fear as a weapon — and knowing how fear works — you truly have the most powerful force in the galaxy.

Today Sinestro is in a much different spot currently, but he still has the right idea in terms of what the greatest sense of power is in the universe. While the green light of willpower will always win over fear for the sake of the plot, the idea of anything facing off with something as powerful as fear does make for an interesting counterpoint in our world. Now if we could just get an Earth-based bearer of the yellow ring….

Is Fear the most powerful force in the DC universe? Let us know down in the comments.