Monday, August 10, 2015

Confliction of Lights

"Green Lantern: The Spectrum War"
Before there was ever a Green Lantern Corps, before there were The Manhunter Droids, The Guardians of The Universe rested their trust on one of their own, Guardian Krona. Krona sought universal observation of the cosmos and created a machine called The Monitor. Eventually, Krona was driven into madness after seeing so much of endless space and The Guardians exiled him. They then decommissioned The Monitor and used what was left of the machine to act as a remote control for their patrol droids, The Manhunters. After these droids were deemed too destructive, The Guardians shut them down and spread them throughout the universe, the Monitor's Head was then locked away in the archives of Oa, the planet owned by The Guardian's new police force, The Green Lantern Corps. After the events of "Justice League: Breached Earth", Hal Jordan-Green Lantern of Earth-assumed control of The GLC from the Guardians and began the manhunt for the former Lantern who stole The Monitor's Head, Sinestro.
Lantern Kilowag is training a group of rookie Lanterns on the rebuilt Oa training facility as Lantern Soranik escorts a traveller towards the main hall. Hal Jordan and The Guardians are discussing the possibility of stationing two Lanterns per space sector when Soranik and the traveller walk in and the traveller introduces himself as Saint Walker, the Blue Lantern. Walker tells them of a prophecy foretold on the planet his Blue Power Ring originated from. "The eye will see it all. Colors clashing, worlds inverting, a great crisis of life and death. The eye will see it all, after it lives again". The Guardians remark that this prophecy was written by the mad Guardian Krona, meaning it is simply a falsified theory. Jordan remains weary, so Hal, Walker, and a small group of Lanterns travel to Krona's prison across the galaxy. 
Hal isn't the only person leading an army, Sinestro-now the fear powered Yellow Lantern-leads a small group of Yellow Lanterns and carries The Monitor's Head. Sinestro's starship travels to planet Ryut to meet with the newfound Red Lantern Corps. Over dinner, the Red Lantern leader Atrocitus explains his army is slowly growing, but that recruitment won't stop. All of the Red Lanterns-especially Atrocitus-have suffered at the hands of The Guardians and their killer robots. Knowing this, Sinestro keeps The Monitor's Head a secret. Sinestro wants to destroy the GLC, by combining his Sinestro Corps with The Red Lantern Corps, they might stand a chance. Still Atrocitus has doubts, but Sinestro suggests they recruit the mysterious Agent Orange and strike down The Star Sapphires before the GLC can recruit more groups. Atrocitus respects Sinestro's ferocity and they toast over blood (which Sinestro refuses to drink).
While traveling to Krona's prison, Jordan asks about the other colored rings. As Saint Walker puts it: There are seven colors of The Emotional Spectrum, each assigned to a different emotion. Red is fueled by Rage, Orange for Avarice, Yellow is Fear, Green meets Willpower, Blue stands for Hope, Indigo is powered by Compassion, and Pink is set to Love. These colors conflict the same way emotions do, causing instinctual rivalries between those who wield them. The blue power of hope that Saint Walker carries can double the strength of a Green Lantern, as hope motivates will. Hal, Walker and their troop land on an asteroid sitting on the very edge of a black hole, they enter the asteroid and find the mad Guardian Krona writing in a black book. After fighting him to exhaustion, our heroes learn that the "War of Light" wasn't his theory, but the prediction of The Monitor.
Sinestro and The Monitor's Head travel to planet Ogatoo and find it's inhabitants made of solid light and worshiping a being known as Larfleeze. Sinestro learns from the Monitor's Head that the orange light of avarice possess it's wielder with unquenched envy and greed. So much so that when an Orange Lantern takes a life, they take the identity of their victim and turn them into orange light slaves. Larfleeze was a thief who killed his own team to gain sole access to the Orange light, he then killed every living being on Ogatoo and turned it into his kingdom. Once meeting Sinestro, Larfleeze fights him and tries to steal The Monitor's Head, but Sinestro strikes a deal with Larfleeze: If he and his army of orange ghosts can help destroy the GLC, Sinestro will give him planet Earth. Larfleeze accepts.
The Monitor was designed to see space and time in a way mortals could not, but it was by viewing what The Monitor saw that Krona went insane. He saw the conflict of light and emotion, he saw the struggle of gods, he saw "the open hand of creation". Hal stops him as he gets word from Kilowag. The Star Sapphire's were slaughtered by The Red Lanterns, but Kilowag's troop were able to find some survivors. Sadly, Carol Ferris-the queen of the Sapphires and Hal's love-was not found in the wreckage. Hal orders Kilowag's group to take the survivors to Oa and prepare for war. Krona uses his power to shake the asteroid into the path of the black hole. Krona then reveals that by keeping Saint Walker-the only Blue Lantern-away from the War of Light, the Emotional Spectrum might stay in tact, but Hal and Walker fight to stop Krona and escape with their troop of GLs. Krona and his asteroid are sent into the black hole.
When Hal, Walker and their troop get to planet Oa, the warship of The Red Lanterns sits outside the planet. Hal and Atrocitus agree to meet just outside the warship. Atrocitus tells Hal that his planet was massacred by The Guardian's Manhunters years ago, that he watched his wife and child die because of The Guardian's irresponsibility. Atrocitus and his Red Lanterns seek vengeance on The Guardians and expect peaceful deaths after they kill them. Before Hal can reason with him, Atrocitus begins his attack on the GLC, sending Red Lanterns down to Oa to battle the Green Lanterns. The Guardians debate on what to do from within their dome, but through a vortex come the nomadic Indigo Tribe. Led by Indigo-1, these six beings carry the indigo light of compassion. While they refuse to fight in this war, they agree to take The Guardians elsewhere. With the Guardians safe, Kilowag tries to motivate the surviving Star Sapphires to help. Jordan fights Atrocitus, but is roped in by Sinestro and Larfleeze's orange army. Outgunned, Saint Walker detects a pink light in the warship and busts in to find Carol Ferris. With Ferris able to lead, The Star Sapphires join The Blue Lantern and The Green Lantern Corps in fighting The Sinestro Corps, The Red Lanterns, and Larfleeze's Orange Army.
The GLC's side begins losing the war and they retreat into a vortex on to planet Mogo made by The Indigo Tribe. As the rest of the army prepares for Sinestro's side to cross the portal and attack, Ganthet of the Guardians explains this planet is a living creature with a Green ring inside of it, making Mogo the Living Planet a member of the GLC. With Mogo helping, the war starts to even out with both sides keeping up with each other, but Sinestro is suddenly attacked by The Monitor's Head, which has been using Atrocitus' technology to build a body. The Monitor reveals the missing part of this war, the cause. Prophecy claimed it would be the entity to cause the war, The Monitor would instrument the spark of Atrocitus' rage, the Orange Light finding Larfleeze, the Blue Lantern Battery being held on Mogo, all of it was his doing to lead to this war. Because after this war is over and the Emotional Spectrum has been burnt out by the ring bearers, The Monitor would breach the Spectrum and cause all beings capable of emotion to become mindless shells.
The Monitor flies off to "the point of creation" to access the Spectrum, but Sinestro comes to Hal Jordan, The Guardians and the Indigo Tribe. As The Guardians put it, Hal might be able to stop The Monitor by becoming one with The Spectrum, by mastering every shade of emotion. Sinestro fights Atrocitus until he listens and the rest of the Lantern Corps agree to help, except for Larfleeze who is contained by the lights of Love and Compassion. Hal dons a Power Ring from each Lantern Corps and is told to meditate until he can access The Spectrum. The rest of the corps wait with baited breaths.
As Hal meditates, he accepts every emotion. He finds rage in the form of Sinestro's betrayal, he finds avarice in his desire to be a famous hero, he finds fear in his father's death, he finds willpower in the motivation of The GLC, he finds hope in the creation of The Justice League, he finds compassion in the words of Abin Sur, he finds love in the memory of Carol Ferris. Finally, his emotions become one and Hal becomes the first White Lantern, powered by the sustaining of life itself. Now an emotionless God, Hal flies off to follow The Monitor.
The Monitor awaits outside a golden wall in space, when Hal arrives they battle and Hal defeats The Monitor by not only constructing weapons out of light, but by endowing the machine with emotions, overriding it's artificial intelligence and causing it to self destruct. The golden wall makes a sound only Hal understands and he flies back to Mogo. Hal establishes he will spend the rest of eternity protecting the Emotional Spectrum and the GLC will be led by Lantern Sonanik and Kilowag. Hal forces each Lantern Corps to a five year truce and requests The Guardians travel with The Indigo Tribe, in hopes that they may find peace within their failures. With these rules struck, Hal shares one last kiss with Carol and disappears.
Three months later, Kilowag is leaving a meeting with the GLC's new elite and entering his room in Oa's new living quarters. In his room, Kilowag is surprised to see Hal sitting on the coach and looking at old photos of the Corps. Kilowag grabs two alien drinks from his fridge, sits down next to Hal and they share a drink. Hal gives Kilowag his old Power Ring, claiming Earth needs a new Green Lantern, a better one. Kilowag agrees and swears to find a worthy replacement. After Hal leaves, Kilowag finds a message on the Power Ring. The message is from Superman who was sending Hal a wedding invitation, but with Hal being The White Lantern he cannot attend. Kilowag looks over New Oa and takes a swig of his drink. He then states the GLC oath in a song-like tone.
After the credits, Krona wakes up inside his asteroid which is lost in space. As he looks out into space, a white light breaches the darkness and appears in the asteroid. White Lantern Hal wants Krona's black book, as he has learned it is actually a powerful artifact. When Krona refuses, Hal destroys Krona and takes the black book. The black book remains floating in the empty white space of Hal's throne room, surrounded by photos of his loved ones and the towers of colorful lights.
Thank you for reading.
Superman rises to fight the greatest threat of his life in "Superman: Doom".

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