Green Lantern Lore Changes Forever With Permanent New Origin Story

DC reveals what happened between the creation of the Manhunters and the arrival of the Green Lanterns. The Green Lantern Corps’ origins date back billions of years to the ancient, hyper-intelligent Maltusians, who colonized the planet Oa and renamed themselves the Guardians of the Universe. Seeking to atone for a rogue scientist named Krona accidentally unleashing evil across the cosmos, the immortal Oans initially built an emotionless android police force called the Manhunters to enforce cosmic order. But the Manhunters malfunctioned and massacred an entire space sector, so the Guardians realized that true peace required living agents capable of free will and moral judgment, the Lanterns.

However, the detached Oans have manipulated their own officers for what they considered the greater good. Following Guy Gardner’s journey into the Emotional Expanse and a massive alliance forged to defeat the returning Manhunters, the various color Corps unite under a revolutionary new system. Instead of answering to the Guardians, the unified Corps now draw power from the Alpha Guardians, and they find their strength in the Chrome Lanterns: empowered ring wielders who tap into every color of the Emotional Spectrum at will while still retaining their original Corps identities.

The Guardians of the Universe spent eons watching over the universe before the Lanterns arrived, though, so there’s a lot that the power ring users still don’t know about their former bosses.

DC Reveals The Guardians’ Lost Chapter Set Before The Green Lanterns’ Creation

Green Lantern Corps #22; Written By Morgan Hampton; Art By Juan José Ryp, Fernando Pasarin, And Oclair Albert

In Green Lantern Corps #22, the wise but cryptic Book of Oa revisits a lost chapter in the history of the Guardians of the Universe, some time after they moved to Oa following “the failure of the Manhunters.” According to the Book of Oa, the Guardian Kriloth was the main reason why the Guardians traveled specifically to Oa, as he was driven by a search for emotion and inspired by the Maltusians’ divide between policing emotion and eradicating it.

Rather than solving the Maltusian’s clashing ideas involving emotion through diplomatic means, the Guardians of the Universe were shocked to discover that the Maltusian’s source of emotion wasn’t an ethereal or impalpable concept, but a physical manifestation of emotion in the form of a giant toddler, the Maltusian Child, Sula. Unfortunately, even the Guardians themselves are vulnerable to temptation, and a rogue one unleashed chaos when he attempted to siphon Sula’s emotions. The Book of Oa also reveals that it contains the essence of Kriloth.

The Book Of Oa’s New Revelation Is A Humbling Experience For All Lanterns

The Lanterns Will Never See Their Origins The Same Way Again

As the Book of Oa suggests, the entire Emotional Spectrum and every construct ever forged by a power ring is actually drawn from the dormant energy of a single, comatose Maltusian child, which recontextualizes the Guardians of the Universe from flawed yet well-meaning cosmic peacekeepers into horrific parasites who secretly drained a helpless infant for centuries to fuel their galactic empire. This twist also forcing heroes like Hal Jordan and John Stewart to confront the dark moral cost of their own powers. Heroes like Hal Jordan, Allsight Guy Gardner, and Jessica Cruz must now wrestle with the unsettling moral cost behind their own heroic efforts.

Amid this seismic upheaval, the ancient Book of Oa remains an indispensable asset to all Lanterns across the spectrum. Having recently unlocked its previously unreadable chromatic chapters through Guy Gardner’s communion as the Allsight, the tome holds far more than old cosmic laws and prophecy. The Book of Oa will likely continue to guide every Corps member with new revelations about the Lantern Corps’ past and the uncharted rules of their newly unified mechanics. That is, if the Maltusian Child Sula chooses not to demand a high price for the Lanterns’ actions over the years.

Green Lantern Corps #22 is available from DC Comics

Created By

Martin Nodell, Bill Finger, John Broome, Gil Kane, Dennis O’Neil, Neal Adams

First Appearance

All-American Comics

Alias

Alan Scott, Hal Jordan, Guy Gardner, John Stewart, Kyle Rayner, Simon Baz, Jessica Cruz, Sojourner Mullein

Alliance

Justice League, Justice Society of America, Green Lantern Corps

Franchise

D.C.