Batman Has Commanded the Power of a Black, White, Yellow and Green Lantern

Batman is a champion of justice who is widely respected and admired across the DC Comics Universe, so much so that over the years he’s been worthy enough to wield nearly half of the power rings associated with the Emotional Spectrum, a feat that not many in his line of work can brag about.

Bruce Wayne’s smarts and determination to see a problem through until its end – along with possessing the inherent traits that each ring represents – makes Batman an even stronger force to be reckoned with, whether he’s a Black, White, Yellow, or Green Lantern. But what are the different rings that Batman has wielded in the past? And what are the dire situations that called for such power to be slipped onto his gloved finger in the first place?

Green Lantern Batman

Batman and Green Lantern Hal Jordan have always butted heads, mostly due to their shared stubbornness and hardheaded natures allowing neither to give the other the benefit of the doubt. They’ve hit each other and hated each other, thrown insults and traded one-liners, but one thing they can both agree on is the mutual respect they have for one another as well as the fact that they have a strong will to always push forward no matter the situation. So it’s of no surprise that one of the most common rings Batman has had a chance to wield is also the most recognizable: the willpower-fueled ring of the Green Lantern Corps.

Following the events of Green Lantern: Rebirth, Hal suggests that Bruce slip on the ring to finally let go of the death of his parents. He entertains this thought only to barely be able to contain the willpower within, leading him to construct an image of his parents before his very eyes, but quickly gives Hal back the ring stating that he isn’t ready to let that part of him go. A similar scenario happens in the pages of Justice League: Darkseid War, when Hal again gives Batman his ring to snap him out of the addictive qualities that had almost consumed him while sitting on the all-powerful Mobius Chair, a contraption that made Batman the God of Knowledge for a brief period of time. In both instances, Batman proves his will-powered worth as a Green Lantern if only for the short amount of time that he became one.

Yellow Lantern Batman

For a guy dressed as a bat that makes it his job to strike fear into the hearts of criminals and super villains alike, it might be an obvious choice to say that Batman is most suited for a yellow ring of power whose entire shtick is finding a candidate who possesses the ability to cause great fear. But being that the yellow ring is the chosen weapon for the ruthless minions of the Sinestro Corps, it might also be obvious that Batman would never accept a ring designed for one of the greatest groups of super villains of all time.

But fear is a helluva thing where Batman is concerned, and during the course of Green Lantern: Sinestro Corps War, a yellow ring specifically searches him out to recruit him to the cause, yet immediately does an about face once it realizes that Batman’s willpower trumps his power to create fear. It was a nice try by the army of fear, but based on Batman’s next brush with a yellow ring, it seems that only he gets to decide when to wear one, as seen during the events of Forever Evil. Batman, always the prepared one, uses a secretly hidden and barely charged yellow ring to fend off the onslaught of the Crime Syndicate, an evil Justice League from an alternate Earth. The fight didn’t last long, but Batman held his own until reinforcements arrived, showing yet again that he can be the champion of a power ring that is usually reserved for doing evil.

Black Lantern Batman

At the end of the universe-altering Final Crisis event, Batman had “died” at the hands of Darkseid after a battle that ended in Darkseid’s unexpected defeat. What followed was a continuity-wide event called Blackest Night, where the dead heroes of the DC Universe rose from the grave as zombie-like bearers of a new type of black ring that fed off of the energy of the death and despair surrounding their inception.

While Batman technically wasn’t dead at the time (he was traveling through time after Darkseid zapped him with his Omega Beams), a clone body of Batman was instead reanimated with the sole intention of scaring the pants off of his Justice League companions, further breaking their morale and ushering in a brutal battle between the living and the dead that was waged across every corner of the DC Universe. But once the main antagonist of the event, Nekron, was defeated, Black Lantern Batman and the rest of the army of the dead settled back into the dirt from whence they came.

White Lantern Batman

Following the events of Blackest Night, another Green Lantern related crossover called Brightest Day swept the DC Universe, where the ramifications of recently revived characters spurred a year-long maxiseries that attempted to expand on the reasons for their return to the land of the living. One of the main characters from the series Deadman, aka Boston Brand, was granted a White Lantern ring of life and told to find the champion of Earth that would act as its host.

For Deadman, it was a no-brainer as to who the champion might be. He immediately thinks that if anyone could be worthy enough to wield the power of life itself, it would be the Dark Knight. But when Deadman finally finds Batman and hands over the ring, Batman can only sustain its power and might for so long before the ring decides that while he is indeed a worthy candidate, the burden of the ring should not be on Bruce Wayne’s shoulders alone, leading Deadman back on his search for the true champion of the ring. More recently, in the Batman: Universe comic by Brian Michael Bendis and Nick Derington, Batman donned a different kind of White Lantern ring which he suggested could be a precursor to the original Green Lantern ring, a theory that isn’t explored before the white ring is finished using him to do its bidding.

So the next time Batman is described as the Dark Knight, or the World’s Greatest Detective, keep in mind that Batman also holds the title of being a Green, Yellow, Black and White Lantern, an accomplishment that reflects on him as one of the most worthy and competent champions for a power ring in the entirety of the DC Universe. And although Batman usually has his hands full saving Gotham City from its newest threat, he’ll always be an option for the different forces of the Emotional Spectrum to tap into when needed.

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