Who Are The Black Lanterns, DC’s Deadliest Power Rings?

When it comes to Green Lantern villains, there seems to be more brightly hued foes running around than colors in a Crayola box. Battling against enemies that have the ability to wield the various elements of the Emotional Spectrum such as the rage-fueled Red Lanterns, or the avarice consumed Orange Lanterns, the space cops known as the Green Lantern Corps do their best to hold back the forces of evil from destroying the universe at every turn.

But during the events of the Blackest Night, the Green Lantern Corps went toe-to-toe with a group of enemies that seemed nigh unstoppable at the time, an undead force known as the Black Lanterns. Commanding the ultimate power over death itself, these resurrected ex-heroes wield DC Comics’ deadliest power rings and by extension are the most brutal and lethal Corps this side of mainstay Green Lantern villains, the Sinestro Corps.

First hinted at in The Sinestro Corps War finale, then further developed and utilized by legendary Green Lantern series writer, Geoff Johns, and his usual Lantern artistic duo of Ethan Van Sciver and Ivan Reis, the Black Lanterns initially invaded the DC universe as the prophetic event of Green Lantern lore known as the Blackest Night finally descended upon the universe, causing chaos and death on a galactic scale never seen before. Headed by their herald, Black Hand, the Black Lanterns were brought to heel by their true master, Nekron, Lord of the Unliving, as he unleashed an undead army across the cosmos that even the mightiest of heroes had a hard time defeating.

And while the goal of Nekron and his Black Lanterns was to essentially wipe all life from the universe, the power rings given to his soldiers were the perfect tools of destruction in his ultimate conquest. Being the deadliest power rings of all, and rivaled only by the ultimate power wielded by the fabled White Lanterns, the Black Lanterns’ power set stems from all things death and decay, a problem for literally every living organism across all sectors of the universe.

Whether using their zombie-esque ability to bite and infect a living host which in turn converts the sad soul into one of their own, or brandishing the ability to resurrect friends and loved ones from the grave, necromancer-style, the Black Lanterns quite literally use the power of death to combat their foes by not only physically attacking them via their power rings, but also launching an all-out assault on their minds and emotions tied to the very people they choose to resurrect. Mix in the ability to see and then consume the emotional aura of any victim they set their undead sights on, and the Black Lanterns immediately shoot to the top of the villainy scale simply because they have no qualms about sucking the life out of their enemies by any number of techniques at their disposal.

With the threat of the Black Lanterns now a distant memory, it can’t be denied that their deadly power and overwhelming numbers really gave the DC Universe – and the Green Lanterns that help protect it – a run for their money. And although recent events like Death Metal brought back the iconic ring if only for a brief moment in time, they still stand tall as the deadliest power rings in the entirety of the cosmos and it’s unlikely that’s going to change anytime soon.

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