DC Universe Online steps into the next thrilling chapter of its grand Light & Rain storyline with Fearful Day, and fans of the Green Lantern mythology and the emotional spectrum as a whole are in for a treat. Not only does this new chapter bring the bigger-than-life planet Lantern Mogo into the mix, but it tasks players with racing to help Luzia find her missing sister as the threat of the powerful and mysterious Sorrow Lantern looms overhead. ComicBook had the chance to speak with DCUO Creative Director Al Rivera and DCUO Senior Narrative Designer Paul Reed all about the next chapter of this story and what it sets up for the game, as well as what went into creating a brand new Lantern Oath that will not only be canon in the game but also the comics, and you can check out even more details on that and more in our exclusive Fearful Day featurette in the video below.
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Fans can jump into Fearful Day right now, and those who do will discover a new mission that will take them to the living Lantern planet Mogo. You’ll be able to experience this at level 20 or above, and the missions there will take you all the way to Mogo’s core. That’s not all though, as there will be a new raid titled Defending Mogo, which will have you joining up with Hal Jordan to investigate the rogue Yellow Lantern Corps activities on Mogo.
While Defending Mogo is an 8-player experience, Protecting Mogo is a 4-player experience, but you’ll still have key moments from Defending Mogo and will face off against Qwardian defenses and Amon Sur. There’s also a new solo instance, Hidden Lantern Village, which takes place in a Blue Lantern settlement on Mogo and will even have you encountering Star Sapphire Carol Ferris. Making this all even better is that DC Universe Online has also introduced Cross-Faction Grouping, allowing you to create a pre-made group and run content as a team. That even means your buddies who are on opposite moral alignments can take on events with you, and you can access this through the Social menu. Without further ado, let’s get to some questions.
Matt Aguilar, ComicBook: Why do you think fans gravitate towards Green Lanterns as a concept and as characters, and what did you want to highlight about them specifically in this storyline?
Paul Reed – Senior Narrative Designer: I think the melding of traditional superheroic adventure with some great elements from space opera is a big draw for fans. In a way, the Green Lantern mythos has grown up with science fiction since the days of the Silver Age. As SF grew as a genre, Green Lantern stories did as well.
We’ve been keeping that blend of SF and Superheroics in mind as we’ve worked on making the Lantern tales for DCUO. The setting is an awesome example of that blend – Mogo, a sentient alien planet and a superheroic space cop!
Al Rivera – Creative Director: The Lantern mythos has changed greatly over the years. The stories really caught my attention with the introduction of the Emotional Spectrum. To me, at least, this was a deconstruction of the human condition. Who among us hasn’t felt powerful feelings of rage, compassion, hope or fear. The rings were a literal and figurative symbol of how we feel in the brightest and darkest of times. If you ever felt uncontrollable anger and just wanted to scream, or maybe you had a moment in your life when all you had was hope to carry you through it. Maybe you faced an impossible obstacle and you got through it by sheer force of will. The Lantern Corps made your strongest emotions tangible. There is a line in one of the Green Lantern animated shows where Hal Jordan is fighting Atrocitus, and losing badly. One Oan says, “He cannot fight on, he has not the strength”. Then another Oan says, ‘He may not have the strength, but does he have the Will’. To me, that really resonated. Not only did it perfectly encapsulate the source of Hal Jordan’s power, but it tells everyone that no matter how bad things get, you can accomplish the impossible, if you just set your mind to it. That we all have that potential inside of us. I don’t know what is more heroic, relatable or more human than that.
MA: While I love the Earth-based Lanterns like Kyle Rayner and Guy Gardner, I tend to really love the more eccentric and out-there Lanterns like Ch’p, Salaak, Kilowog, and of course, Mogo. What can you tease about Mogo’s involvement in the story and other Lanterns fans might see as the story continues?
PR: Mogo’s a big part of the story – it takes place on his surface, after all! Things aren’t going so good for the big guy – all of the battle and destruction that took place recently has taken its toll, and he’s become a Gray Lantern as a result. That chaos is going to further complicate the story, because as we know, the Black Lanterns are secured in his planetary core. What could that mean for the inhabitants of Mogo and for the future of our heroes?
Other Lanterns are going to Mogo to do what they can to suppress any potential threats, but their opponents aren’t going to make it easy on them… and that, as they say, is where the fun begins.
AR: Mogo is being put through the ringer. Before Light and Rain: Fearful Day, Mogo was playing hosts to hundreds of refugees. Mogo protected them and fed them. Then Amon Sur tried to infect Mogo with Fear. This made Mogo weak, which Lyssa Drak tried to take advantage of. When Luzia Cavalera’s sister is killed by Lyssa Drak, and she becomes a Gray Lantern, Luzia’s grief overwhelms the planet, and Mogo turns Gray. The sky opens up and it rains – Mogo is crying. With Mogo weakened, it gives the opportunity for a powerful evil to rise. That’s where the next chapter picks up. We will continue to see Mogo go through emotional transformations throughout the Light and Rain story arc, in this and upcoming chapters.
MA: The Sorrow Lanterns are a relatively recent addition to the Lantern mythology, and you actually had the chance to create their Lantern Oath first before the comics. That’s an incredibly rare and incredibly cool thing to take part in. What was the most challenging aspect of coming up with that, and how did you arrive at the finished product?
PR: We looked at the existing oaths for other Lantern Corps – how they were worded, the “mission statements” present in each, and the tones the oaths established for each Lantern Corps. We saw that most of the oaths followed a rhythm, sort of like space hero haiku, and so we wrote a few oaths that followed that rhythm and reflected the overall tone and direction of Gray Lanterns. After a few tries, we landed on the Gray Lantern oath we use in DCUO.
MA: What appealed to you most about the Sorrow Corps as a concept, and what can you tell us about the Sorrow Lanterns we’ll meet in the game?
PR: The Emotional Spectrum that Lanterns gain their powers from is big, and covers a wide range of feelings, but there are a lot more out there to explore. For me, Sorrow is often a byproduct of many emotions present in the existing Lantern Corps. The first Gray Lantern in the comics “went gray” as the result of a broken heart – sorrow (gray) felt after the loss of love (violet).
“Misery loves company” is a thing, especially on Mogo. In previous tales, a great number of refugees took shelter on Mogo, only to be caught in the crossfire in battles between multiple Lantern Corps. That devastation led many of them to places of great grief and sorrow… and the Gray Lanterns. As more people succumb to their grief, many of them are going gray alongside Luzia and Mogo.
AR: Currently, there is no “Sorrow Corps”. In the comic, there is currently only one Gray Lantern, Nathan Broome, aka, Sorrow. If there were more Gray Lanterns, I don’t imagine that they would organize, but the current run of comics is still new and the story is still developing. So, we will see how the DC story evolves.
I think grief is an incredibly powerful emotion. I’m actually surprised it took this long for us to see this emotion manifested as a Lantern. So many characters in DC have suffered great loss and I could see them falling to this color of the emotional spectrum. It’s hard to not think of a DC character that hasn’t felt this. Most of us have felt this, or will feel this at sometime in our lives. If we love, we will feel grief – it’s a package deal. It’s part of the human condition, and that is why I think it is very important to explore. When we are grieving, we can be inconsolable, irrational, angry and lost. We would do anything to get back the person we lost.
As Luzia’s gray wave spreads across the planet, Mogo and everyone on the planet is becoming overwhelmed with grief and sorrow. They are all turning gray, and this is manifesting in different ways. There is one area on Mogo now named the Valley of Sorrow which is particularly treacherous. At this moment, only Luzia is a true Gray Lantern. Our heroes do not yet know how this gray energy will interact with the rest of the Emotional Spectrum. That is what we will start to explore in the next chapter.
MA: Luzia has had quite the journey over the course of her story in the game, and now, because of the tragic death of Esperanza, she becomes a Grey Lantern. What can you tell us about Luzia’s journey as a character to this point, and what can you tease about her next chapter as a Grey Lantern and how Esperanza’s death affects her moving forward?
PR: Luzia, like the players in DCUO, was empowered by Exobytes. Over the course of her career, she went from hero to vigilante, from vigilante to villain, and from villain to the Indigo Tribe, a Lantern Corps dedicated to the power of Compassion.
Like many Indigo Tribe members, Luzia was a former villain on a path to redemption, aided by her Blue Lantern sister Esperanza, and heroic mentors like John Stewart and the Atom. She was finding her way back to heroism when tragedy struck in battle on Mogo. The death of her sister at the hands of Lyssa Drak drove Luzia to the deep depths of sorrow, and she transformed into a Gray Lantern as a result.
Luzia’s story is far from over…left unchecked, the “Gray Wave” of energy from the Sorrow portion of the Emotional Spectrum could consume the hearts of every living being in the Multiverse. It’s up to the players and their allies to bring an end to that wave, before it’s too late.
AR: As Paul mentioned earlier, in the comics, Nathan Broome became the first Gray Lantern from a broken heart. Our Gray Lantern was born from grief – the tragic loss of her sister, Esperanza – the only family Luzia knew, and the only one who stood by her in her darkest hour. So Luzia, who was on a painful path of redemption as an Indigo Lantern, has now lost everything. It was her connection to compassion, and the guilt of her past, that left her vulnerable to the gray energy. And now she is consumed by grief. And that grief is spreading across the planet as a gray wave of sorrow. While the player and their allies struggle to contain this energy, others seek to take advantage of it. Mogo has been weakened by sorrow, and a great evil brews.
Luzia is the central figure of the Light and Rain story arc. The name Luzia is a combination of the Spanish words “luz” (light) and “lluvia” (rain). She is literally the Light and the Rain. In Portuguese, Luzia literally means “Light that is born at Daybreak”. Like all of us, Luzia has the capacity for great light and great darkness. Right now, she is lost and still on her journey through grief. We will see where that journey takes her.
To find out what happens next, stay tuned for Fearful Day: Aftershock on August 12, 2025, which introduces a brand-new event for Fearful Day content, a new open world boss, new challenges and rewards to chase after, plus, a bonus cutscene of the consequences of Fearful Day’s aftermath leading into the next chapter.
DC Universe Online’s Fearful Day is available to play right now, and you can check out even more details right here.
Have you jumped into Fearful Day yet, and what did you think of the new Lantern Oath? Let us know in the comments, and you can talk all things gaming and DC with me on Bluesky @knightofoa!
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