Like many franchises during the Dawn of DC direction, the Green Lantern franchise has been under a new reboot period. The new direction has been slowly revealed in the Hal Jordan-led Green Lantern and John Stewart-led Green Lantern: War Journal series. In both comics, we have seen that the Green Lantern Corps and the entire universe have been under new management. The recently released Green Lantern #7 revealed a lot of details on the current state of the DC Universe, the fate of the iconic Kilowog, and teased a big event in the future.
WHAT’S BEEN GOING ON WITH GREEN LANTERN
As the Guardians of Oa began to cooperate with the United Planets the Green Lantern Corps Central Power Battery was destroyed. This left many Green Lanterns stranded where they were stationed or dead due to the loss of their ring’s power. The Guardians were also left in a death-like state due to their connection to the Central Power Battery.
With Jo Mullein leading the investigation, it was eventually discovered that Koyos and Nemosyni, two Guardians who chose not to merge their being to the Central Power Battery, were responsible for destroying the Green Lantern Corps power source. Koyos, who had become an Anti-Guardian, was eventually defeated. John Stewart then used his new ascended powers thanks to the Godstorm, a power that he obtained from the God-like Source of the Omniverse, to create a new energy source for the Green Lantern Corps to draw their power from.
Not long after this, the events of Dark Crisis On Infinite Earths would go down. In the aftermath of Dark Crisis the United Planets, who took over leadership of the Green Lantern Corps in the Guardians’ absence, made the decision to quarantine Sector 2814. This was specifically done because the United Planets declared Earth, which is part of Sector 2814, was declared a problem area due to the constant Crisis events they cause.
As we learned in Green Lantern #7, the United Planets did give the Earth Green Lanterns the option to stay in their roles but would be reassigned to new Sectors or other responsibilities. Guy Gardner was immediately assigned to hunt down Lobo while Kyle Rayner, Jo Mullein, Jessica Cruz, and Simon Baz were given different assignments.
FATE OF KILOWOG
Throughout the present-day story in the Dawn of DC’s Green Lantern series, Hal Jordan has been living in a trailer with what appears to be Kilowog as his roommate. In Green Lantern #6, when Razer paid Hal a visit it was revealed that the Kilowog that we’ve been seeing is a construct created by Hal. Hal would then reveal that Kilowog was dead.
Kilowog’s fate was then revealed in Green Lantern #7. In a flashback story, Kilowog convinced Hal to stay in the Green Lantern Corps as they both knew being a hero is Hal’s entire identity.
In their first mission working for the United Planets both Hal and Kilowog were assigned to act as Premier Thaaros’s security in his visit to Korugar. Premier Thaaros met with Sinestro to convince the Yellow Lantern Corps leader to have Korugar join the United Planets.
During the meeting three rogue Yellow Lanterns attempted to kill Premier Thaaros, even attacking Sinestro in the process. Kilowog took on the three Yellow Lanterns to buy Hal time to get Premier Thaaros to safety. Even though he was outnumbered Kilowog did not back down and sacrificed himself when the Yellow Lantern Power Battery exploded, killing him and the three rogue Yellow Lanterns.
In the aftermath, Korugar joined the United Planets and Sinestro was eventually ousted from his throne. Meanwhile, Hal Jordan and John Stewart chose to go back to the quarantined Earth while still maintaining their Green Lantern powers to a degree.
NEW EMOTIONAL SPECTRUM WAR
During the first seven issues of the latest Green Lantern series, we have been shown various examples of the DC Universe’s Emotional Spectrum being unstable. One of the biggest examples comes from Sinestro. In his attempt to regain his Yellow Lantern powers Sinestro would instead gather so much Rage that he would create a Red Lantern Power Ring for himself. This led to the latest battle in infinite Hal Jordan vs Sinestro. During that battle Batman, Superman, and other people took notice of the visible Emotional Spectrum.
It appears that the more powerful Lantern Corps members like Hal and Sinestro tap into the Emotional Spectrum the more visible this instability is shown to be. Now in Green Lantern #7 we got a hint of what may be the cause of the instability in the Emotional Spectrum. In taking over the Green Lantern Corps one of the United Planets is investigating the Corps’ new power source.
With this pointed out John Stewart using the Godstorm to replace the role of the Power Battery of Oa could be the reason. The Godstorm coming directly from the Omniverse introduces a foreign element to a foundational part of the DC Universe in the Emotional Spectrum. While the Green Lantern Corps are using it for their Power Rings source every time the Godstorm is shown it’s seen with a multi-colored design.
The Godstorm being tied to the other Lantern Cops could be possible given that in the present Razer revealed that the Blue Lantern Power Battery on Odym has been destroyed. That’s on top of the Green Lantern Power Battery’s recent destruction and the Yellow Lantern Power Battery was also shown to flare up randomly.
There are too many signs pointing to the Emotional Spectrum instability being a problem that can’t be avoided. These events happening in such a short period sets the stage for a new Brightest Day or Blackest Night type event to take place in the DC Universe.