Green Lantern’s Version of Time Travel is DC’s Most Disturbing Superpower

The rules of time travel in various sources of media can be both different and confusing, but DC Comics takes the cake for having the most disturbing version of it by making it a superpower in Green Lantern. It’s common knowledge that the power rings bestowed upon the Lantern Corps can do a lot, if not anything possible. By using the fundamental forces of the universe, they can alter various aspects of reality to deliver a powerful fighting style. What’s surprising though is that an issue of The Green Lantern Corps showcases another ability the ring possesses, and it takes things to disturbing new levels.

The issue centers around Arisia Rrab, a member of the Green Lantern Corps. Like other Lanterns, she wields a ring of power and possesses the same abilities as people like Hal Jordan and John Stewart. She’s shown to have a romantic interest in Hal Jordan, but at the time, she was a young teenager. She knew that age was what separated the two of them, and the willpower she had in her desire to be with Hal is what unleashes this new ability.

The Green Lantern Corps Issue #206 by Steve Englehart shows Hal and Arisia stranded in a mine shaft without a way to recharge their rings. However, with the remaining charge left in hers, Arisia’s subconscious willpower ages her to around the same age as Hal. The ring unlocks a sort of time travel that ages her body up because of her desire to be with him. Not only that, but it also matures her mind as well, so it’s not like a 13 Going On 30 situation where a teenager is in the body of an adult. It’s similar to a reverse time machine. Instead of the traveler staying the same age while the universe around them goes backwards or forwards, the universe stays the same while she grows up. In a way, Arisia has willingly given up part of her life just to be the same age as the person she loves, Hal Jordan/Green Lantern. While on paper it might sound sweet, in practice it just feels…disturbing.

This opens up a can of worms because it brings into question the morality behind this, as Jordan knew Arisia as a teenager not too long ago. After all, Hal has known her for all the time they’ve worked together as a teenager. They’ve fought alongside each other and conversed, so it’s hard to separate the friendly relationship between the two as nothing more than just that: friendship. When she’s aged up though because of the time travel-esque ability, it makes one wonder just how exactly Hal can possibly see her as more than a friend. It’s such a fine line because even though her mind has matured to that of a full-grown woman, she was still a teenager not too long ago.

Talking about this topic can be a difficult thing. It rides a fine line for morality due to the pre-established age gap, despite Hal and Arisia being of the same mature physicality and mentality after the change. It can be even more disturbing knowing that they actually do end up with each other in the end. This is why the Green Lantern and Green Lantern Corps series have arguably the most disturbing superpower with their relation to time travel. Arisia’s transformation is just uncomfortable to think about on every level given her history with Hal, and knowing how the comic ends with them together, it begs to question just why this ability was a thing that the ring could do. Nevertheless, the change to Arisia Rrab highlights just how powerful the Green Lantern power rings can be since they can literally make their body time travel if that’s what they wish for–but it will no doubt go down as one of the most disturbing and creepy superpowers in DC Comics history.

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