Lanterns has made the Green Lantern mythos hotter than they’ve been in years. In fact, I can pinpoint the last time – the Geoff Johns-written return of Hal Jordan, when Green Lantern and Green Lantern Corps were the hottest books in the land. Old-time Green Lantern fans have an all-new fandom to help discover the adventures of Hal, John, Guy, Kyle, Alan, Jessica, Simon, Kilowog, and the rest. One thing that a lot of people wanted to see out of Lanterns was hints at the multiple Corps’ that debuted back in the Johns days. While we some tantalizing rumblings of them, the minds behind the show are keeping that card close to their vest.
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While we didn’t get the Corps’, we did get the oath, which each Lantern recites when they charge their ring. John even got to create his own oath, one that underlined the personal journey he took over the course of the show. The oaths of each Lantern Corps do the same for these organizations, acting as their rallying cry and a mission statement. Each oath is integral to understanding them and their place in the greater DC Multiverse.
9) The Green Lantern Corps
We’ll start with the one that everyone knows, the one from the Green Lantern Corps. The Oans came up with the idea for an intergalactic police force with the robotic Manhunters, but their destruction of Sector 666 saw the Guardians decide to go with sentients instead of robots. The Corps brought together the best beings from the across the universe, giving them the greatest weapon of them all, powered by their indomitable will. The Green Lantern oath is as much an exclamation as anything else, a battle call for the entire force.
“In blackest day, in darkest night, no evil shall escape my sight, let those who worship evil’s might, beware my power: Green Lantern’s light!” It’s a promise to the people of the universe – that when times are at their worst, there will always be a Green Lantern there ready to fight against evil. It’s meant to inspire the downtrodden and stir the soul of the Lanterns, reminding them that theirs is a never-ending battle. It’s simple and to the point, and the various Corps’ have aped its structure in various ways.
8) The Ultraviolet Corps
The Ultraviolet Corps debuted years after the rest of the Emotional Electromagnetic Spectrum. It was the brain child of modern-day DC Comics architect Scott Snyder, during his landmark 2018-2020 Justice League run. The run centered around the Legion of Doom and the Justice League trying to unlock the secret powers of the multiverse. One of these was the Ultraviolet Spectrum of emotion, all the things that we hide from the rest of the world – the angst, the sadness, all of the dark pains every living being experiences at one time or another. Sinestro was the first to wield this power, eventually recruiting John Stewart into the Corps.
The Corps’ oath goes a little something like this – “By shield of day, and shield of night, we feed and grow, beyond all sight, your darkest self shall be our knight, wield the sword of unseen light!” It speaks of the hidden things inside all of us growing, using that power to fight back against the universe. Its wording also reveals how the ring works – it brings out another side of you, possessing you with your own darkness as your jailer.
7) The Indigo Tribe
Some of the Lantern Corps’ are quite different from the others, with the most unique being the compassion-powered Indigo Tribe. It all began on the planet Nok, which had become the center of a slavery-based empire. For years, freedom fighters worked from within to break the power of the slavers to no avail. Then Green Lantern Abin Sur turned up. Sur teamed with rebel leader Natromo and the two of them freed the people of the planet. During the conflict, the two of them discovered the indigo-colored energy of compassion. They forged a ring and Sur left the planet, returning with a woman named Iroque, giving her the ring. It changed her, filling her with compassion, and the Indigo Tribe was born.
Sur would continue to bring killers and the worst of the worst to the planet. They would be inducted into the Tribe, with villains like Sinestro and Black Hand would find themselves in the group at various times. Members of the Indigo Tribe end up learning another language, and the oath is in that tongue – “Tor lorek san, bor nakka mur, Natromo faan tornek wot ur. Ter Lantern ker lo Abin Sur, Taan lek lek nok–Formorrow Sur!“ However, there has been no known translation of it. It talks about Natromo and Abin Sur and a Lantern, but no writer has decided to tell readers what it really means.
6) The Blue Lanterns
The Blue Lantern Corps is often looked at as the weakest Lantern Corps. The blue light of hope doesn’t work the way that the other energies do, but that makes sense because hope is unlike any of the emotions on the spectrum. It’s about faith and working towards the future, helping to support the weak and those out on the front line of the fight. The constructs they create are meant to sooth and their ring can be used to regenerate cellular structures, allowing them to heal anyone. It also will give its bearer superhuman strength and durability when they need it, the power of hope strengthening their resolve in a literal way. Blue Lanterns and Green Lanterns work especially well together, with the blue light strengthening green constructs. Hope burns brightest when more people are together and the blue light’s power underlines this.
Their oath taps into their place as the embodiment of hope – “In fearful day, in raging night, with strong hearts full, our souls ignite, when all seems lost in the War of Light,
look to the stars, for hope burns bright!” The Blue Lanterns were created by Ganthet and Sayd, the two of them fearing the horrors of the then-upcoming War of Light. The oath is part mission statement, part origin story.
5) Orange Lantern
This is going to seem weird, but Larfleeze starred in the greatest Christmas comic ever, a holiday that is (sort of) antithetical to greed. The orange light of avarice is one of the most powerful of the various Corps’ because of its nature. There is only ever one Orange Lantern at a time, with the bearer of the ring being the one who killed the last bearer. However, that doesn’t mean there isn’t an Orange Lantern Corps. Every former Orange Lantern is made into a construct, all of them under control of the latest ring-slinger in orange.
The Orange Lantern oath is the simplest of them all. It’s only one line – “What’s mine is mine and mine and mine and mine and mine and mine! Not yours!” This one line is everything the orange light of greed is all about. Avarice is all about the desire to get as much as possible while giving as little as possible and this oath perfectly outlines that. Each Orange Lantern not only wants everything, they believe that it is their right to have it.
4) The Star Sapphires
The Star Sapphire first appeared in the Golden Age, when one of their stones came to Earth and possessed a woman. She was never given a civilian name and mostly battled the first Flash, Jay Garrick. In the Silver Age, another Star Sapphire would come to Earth, this one bonding with Hal Jordan’s girlfriend Carol Ferris. It was learned that the Star Sapphires were created by the Zamarons, a female offshoot of the Oan race who left their world when the Guardians started to give up their other emotions, experimenting with the violet energy of love. They joined the fight in the War of Light, with Carol getting a new ring and helping to build a new Corps dedicated to using the power of love.
Carol is currently acting as Star Sapphire again as a member of the Justice League and the rest of the Corps is out there in the stars, living their oath – “For hearts long lost and full of fright, for those alone in Blackest Night, accept our ring and join our fight, love conquers all with violet light!” The Star Sapphires exist to bring the light of love to every corner of the cosmos, to let every heart glory in it.
3) Red Lanterns
Atrocitus was one of the victims of the Manhunters, imprisoned with the rest of the demons of Ryut by the Guardians, where they could never tell the story of their destruction. His rage grew in leaps and bounds over the centuries and he eventually learned to manifest the red light of rage, birthing the Red Lantern Corps. At first, red rings were the most unique among the Emotional Electromagnetic Spectrum. Only Atrocitus maintained control over his own mind and could create constructs. The others became ravening rage monsters, the red light giving them terrible strength, and letting them puking burning blood on their foes.
Eventually, the other members of the Corps would gain more traditional Lantern Corps powers as well; while they were no longer controlled by their rage, they were always angry when using their power. Their oath was everything you could expect it to be – “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!” Atrocitus created them for one reason – to destroy Sinestro, who he felt represented the “order” espoused by the Guardians of the Universe. Their oath shows exactly what they care about – destroying everything in the universe in their rage.
2) Sinestro Corps
The yellow light of fear was discovered by Sinestro after he was banished from the Corps, in the anti-matter universe of Qward. He didn’t think to create a Lantern Corps at first, using the power to become the greatest enemy of the Green Lantern Corps. He was eventually placed within the Central Power Battery, where he met the fear entity Parallax, realizing the true power the yellow light could give him – the strength to enforce order across the cosmos. He “died” at the hands of Hal Jordan, but returned when the truth about Parallax was revealed. He built his Corps in the months after the Green Lantern Corps’ rebirth, unleashing the Sinestro Corps on the universe in “The Sinestro Corps War”.
Since then, the Sinestro Corps has fought with and against the Green Lantern Corps, all while trying to use fear to create their perfect universe of order. Their oath is basically the same as the Green Lantern one – “In blackest day, in brightest night, beware your fears made into light, let those who try to stop what’s right, burn like my power Sinestro’s might!” – because Sinestro created them to do the same job, just with fear instead of will. It’s a warning to anyone out there spreading chaos of any kind – the yellow light of fear was coming for you.
1) The Black Lanterns
The Black Lantern Corps was, upon its birth, the largest Lantern Corps ever, with trillions of Black Lantern swarming the universe like flies to a fresh battlefield. Created by Nekron, one of many personifications of death, it harnessed the black energy of the cessation of life. Black Lanterns didn’t show the same powers as other Lanterns; they didn’t use constructs butthey were completely indestructible as long as their ring was intact and would heal from any attack. If they had superpowers in life, they would keep them in death. Later users of Black Lantern rings showed the power to control the dead and harness black energy for constructs, but for the most part, Black Lanterns just used what they already had to eat the hearts of the living.
The Black Lantern Corps had an oath, one that outlined their terrifying purpose – “The Blackest Night falls from the skies, the darkness grows as all light dies, we crave your hearts and your demise, by my black hand, the dead shall rise!” They care nothing for the living other than their hearts, a force of death sweeping through creation and putting the light of love out. Their oath was their mission statement, as chilling as a horde of them are running at you.
Do you like John Stewart’s Lanterns modification of the Green Lantern oath? What do you think of the other oaths? Leave a comment in the comment section below.
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