Lantern's Light

Moving away from politics and current events for a bit....

When I was an active comics collector, one of my favorite titles was Green Lantern. For those unfamiliar with the character, GL was a test pilot named Hal Jordan who was recruited to become one of 3600 interstellar police officers throughout the universe by the group's founders, the mysterious Guardians of the Universe.

As a member, he was given three things: a power battery, shaped like a green lantern; a uniform; and a ring which, when charged at the battery, would emit a green energy that could be shaped and commanded by his will and imagination into anything he desired. A good deal of the time, GL used that ability to create giant, verdant versions of familiar objects: boxing gloves, fans, arrows, you name it.

That, of course, led to a question: Why use the power that way? I had my own theory--the ring was limited, as described, by the ring-bearer's will and imagination...but I figured it was also limited by his knowledge and abilities. He could create and manipulate those objects because he knew how they worked. He couldn't create a weapon that would vaporize an opponent because he had no idea how such a device would work...or even if it were possible.

Over time, I had to give up that theory as the writers came up with ways to use the ring that Hal Jordan couldn't possibly have understood (in one case, he used it to turn himself into a robot in order to enter a room filled with deadly radiation). But I always thought it was a logical limitation on his power...and one that would differentiate the various members of the Green Lantern Corps as they came from differing backgrounds and planets.