A selection of members of the Green Lantern Corps on duty, as depicted in Justice League Unlimited
The Green Lantern Corps is a fictional, intergalactic police force of Green Lanterns that existed in the pages of DC Comics, chosen to patrol the vast reaches of the Universe, fighting evil whever it could be found. It was founded by the Guardians of the Universe in the early stages of their existence, and it has lasted for over three billion years despite suffering rebellions, murder and collapses from within and without.


Publishing history
Many believe the Green Lantern Corps was modeled after the Lensman science fiction series of E.E. Doc Smith. There were many parallels between the two: both were intergalactic law enforcement agents chosen for their high moral character and willingness to do good, and empowered with an awesome weapon of alien design that also had safeguards against abuse and evil trickery. However, John Broome, who wrote the Silver Age Green Lantern stories, and Julius Schwartz, who edited those stores, have both denied any connection. Broome and Schwartz claimed to never have read the Smith stories, although Schwartz admitted that as an SF fan, he had of course heard of them.
Comic book writers were attracted to the concept of an intergalactic corps made up of Green Lanterns from various alien races. An occasional backup series in the Green Lantern comic book series, Tales of the Green Lantern Corps, featured guest writers who often penned short stories about the idiosyncrasies of individual alien Green Lanterns, who might never be heard of again.

Fictional history


Origins


The Guardians of the Universe
In the early days of the Universe, natives of the overpopulated planet Maltus (sometimes spelled Malthus) evolved into immortals of great power. They subsequently settled the planet Oa and declared themselves the Guardians of the Universe and enemies of evil after one of their own, the renegade scientist Krona, performed a forbidden experiment that had terrible consequences for the Universe at large.
Exactly what those consequences were have varied with different versions of the stories; originally, it was supposed to have unleashed Evil in the first place. Later, it was attributed to have created the Antimatter Universe of Qward. Later still, it was used as the explanation for the existence of parallel universes in the DC Universe (and the creation of the Monitor), which eventually led to the rearrangement of Time itself, as seen in the Crisis on Infinite Earths. Finally, it has been stated that it accelerated entropy, shortening the duration of the universe by a billion years.
Some of the Guardians, however, disagreed on how to deal with the chaos that had been unleashed. One group, calling itself the Controllers, separated itself from the others and favored using more violent methods to achieve their ends (a later interpretation says they left over a disagreement on how to use the Manhunters - see below). They would later found the Darkstars organization. The female Oans, feeling no need to involve themselves in the situation, also left, becoming later known as the Zamarons.
To enforce their will and guard against alien menaces of all sorts, the Guardians had created a legion of robotic sentinels called the Manhunters. However, the Manhunters eventually came to resent their servitude. They rebelled against the Guardians, eventually breaking away and forming their own robotic society where they pursued their own agenda (which often included interfering with, and foiling the plans of, the Guardians).
Chastened by the failure of the Manhunters, the Guardians decided that their newest force of soldiers for good would consist of living beings, ones who had free will and strong moral character. To arm this new legion of celestial knights, the Guardians created the Power Rings, rings of inconceivably-advanced technology that allowed their wearers to project green beams of energy that had the power to do literally anything, provided the one wielding the ring had the force of will to achieve his goals.
When recharging thier weapons, Corps members recite an oath. This oath can differ from Corps member to member but the most popular seems to be:
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!
a notably different version, created by a blind power ring holder, was:
In loudest din or hush profound, my ears catch evil's slightest sound. Let those who toll out evil's knell, beware my power: The F-Sharp Bell!
The Power Rings were invincible against anything except objects of the color yellow. The Guardians often stated that the Rings' weakness against yellow objects was due to a necessary yellow impurity that allowed them to process the green energy, though scholars (and comic book fans) often speculated that the impurity was actually designed as a mental safeguard, to prevent any member of the Green Lantern Corps from thinking himself or herself (or itself) invincible and above the rule of law. This thinking has been proven incorrect. The Battery, in addition to being a source of power, was a prison as well. The prisoner, within the Battery, was a fear elemental (Parallax) that weakened the Battery's control over the yellow coloured portion of the plasma-light spectrum. This was one of the reasons that members of the Corps were expected to be fearless. It was an attempt to prevent the fear elemental from engineering an escape.

Green Lantern latest reviews

• Comic Reviews: Green Lantern: Tales of the Sinestro Corps collected hardcover (DC Co...
  18 Aug 2008 at 3:02pm
  The collection Green Lantern: Tales of the Sinestro Corps War is something of a strange animal, serving at times as both a prelude, a chapter, and an epilogue to The Sinestro Corps War. I'm a bit disappointed in how it turned out to be necessary to read these "background" tales in order to understand the main Sinestro Corps action (how the Statue of Liberty gets broken, for one, and why Superman-Prime is suddenly half-naked mid-way through the second volume, for two); at the same time, the completist in me likes how DC has collected not just the Sinestro Corps backup stories and specials, but also the amazingly detailed Green Lantern/Sinestro Corps Secret Files.
  
  Aside from the Tales of the Sinestro Corps short stories and the Secret Files, the main thrust of this volume is four Sinestro Corps specials: Parallax, Cyborg-Superman, Superman-Prime, and Ion. The Cyborg-Superman story, written by Alan Burnett, essentially retells the Adventures of Superman #466 origin of the cyborg, Hank Henshaw, with a couple of minor retcons. It's a fun story because of the visual appeal of the Cyborg, and because the reader gets to see him throw down with Superman again, but I felt most of the content could have been blended into the main Sinestro Corps War story.
  
  Probably the best part of the Tales of the Sinestro Corps War collection is the Superman-Prime special written by Geoff Johns. Like Black Adam, "Prime" is a character who's voice Johns has spot-on, and it's a sick thrill whenever Prime is on the scene. Johns dives right into the conflicts Prime left behind at the end of Infinite Crisis, pitting Prime against another mob of DC heroes, including the Flashes who previously imprisoned him, Red Star (whose family Prime killed), and Risk (where Prime, gleefully, rips off Risk's other arm).
  
  All the while, and into Prime's battle with Krypto and then Superman, Johns keeps up Prime's whiny, woe-is-me-tone, just on this side of parodying today's fanboys, and the story is twisted goodness. The art by Pete Woods, echoing his great crowd scenes in Amazons Attack, make this special feel all the more epic.
  
  The Parallax and Ion specials are both written by Ron Marz, are essentially Kyle Rayner stories, continuations in many ways of the recent Ion miniseries. As in Ion, Marz writes a particularly morose Kyle Rayner, but it's also a Kyle that feels entirely natural, given all that he's been through. That Kyle is asked to train the new Ion, Sodam Yat, further cements Kyle's growth in the Green Lantern Corps, and I especially like the emphasis that Marz and Geoff Johns are placing on the four Earth Lanterns now being a "band of brothers," with Kyle back in the fold. There's not much in this special that isn't covered by the final issue of Green Lantern Corps in the second Sinestro Corps War volume, but I'll still take all the Marz-writing-Kyle I can get.
  
  Finally, the Green Lantern/Sinestro Corps Secret Files offers pages upon pages of tiny biographies of hundreds of Lanterns. Literally, the longest part of my read was this Secret Files. The detail here is nothing short of unbelievable, a combination of already-established stories and backgrounds on dozens of new characters. There was so much here I found myself skimming at parts, and I couldn't help but wonder if much of this was background for background's sake, or if Geoff Johns has plans for every one of the story tidbits he sprinkled through this section. If you're a Green Lantern history buff, you won't be disappointed with this.
  
  [Contains full covers.]
  
  So that's that for The Sinestro Corps War -- in retrospect, it's been quite a ride. I'll be interested to go back and read it again in a few months, possibly interspersing the Sinestro Corps tales where I now understand they go. Anyway, on now I think to some Hawkgirl, and we'll see what's next from there.---
  

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