Who Are The Sinestro Corps? DC’s Yellow Lanterns Explained

With the Sinestro Corps, terror is the name of the game, and by wielding fear-powered rings as a weapon, this brightly colored group of baddies is a constant threat that never seems to let up. But who are the Sinestro Corps? And how did they get their start as the number one villainous itch that the Green Lantern Corps can never seem to fully scratch?

Developed and introduced in 2006 by the legendary Green Lantern creative team of Geoff Johns and Ethan Van Sciver, the Sinestro Corps is more than just the bad guy version of the celebrated Green Lantern Corps. Formed and championed by ex-Green Lantern, archenemy to Hal Jordan, and all-around evil alien Sinestro, the Sinestro Corps immediately became a force to be reckoned with the second they stepped into their yellow-tinged spotlight, and in one fell swoop became an important and formidable element within the greater Green Lantern mythos.

The Origins of the Sinestro Corps

After years of battling it out with any number of Green Lanterns and DC Comics superheroes alike, Sinestro eventually found himself in the Antimatter Universe, a dimension that he had visited before to craft his original fear-based ring of choice (more on that later). While there, Sinestro strikes up a bargain with the ruler of that domain, the all-powerful evil that is the Anti-Monitor. Committed to spreading fear across the galaxy, the pact between the two gives rise to an army who seize Qward, the antimatter version of the Green Lantern home of Oa, and enslave the populace (known as the Weaponers of Qward), forcing them to make yellow rings on a near constant basis.

Having helped Sinestro in the past due to their shared hatred of the Green Lantern Corps and their bosses, the Guardians of the Universe, the Weaponers of Qward pump out ring after ring, growing Sinestro and the Anti-Monitors’ fear-based army exponentially and imbuing their yellow rings with the power to traverse back into the positive realm of their mortal enemies. After being trained and reconditioned with the help of the hulking alien drill sergeant Arkillo, the Sinestro Corps are ready to fan the flames of war, and take the Green Lantern Corps down once and for all.

The Sinestro Corps Uses The Yellow Power of Fear

While the yellow power of fear was once a weapon that Sinestro wielded alone, his army harnessed the energy to create “constructs” of terror, violence and unimaginable dread to take down their foes in the most brutal of fashions. Almost entirely comprised of various villains, evil masterminds, and sadistic criminals, such as the deadly sentient virus known as Despotellis, the baby-snatching monstrosity known as Kryb, and the centuries-old sniper Bedovian, the Sinestro Corps also had another pivotal member: Parallax, the embodiment of fear itself.

Having used Parallax in the past to corrupt Green Lantern Hal Jordan, Sinestro becomes somewhat chummy with the fear entity, and exploits the “yellow impurity” chink in the Green Lantern Corps’ otherwise shining armor that limits their ability to fight yellow light if they have not confronted and conquered their fears. With his entire army able to draw on an energy source that exploits the Green Lanterns’ major weakness, Sinestro’s war begins, and with it one of the darkest times in Green Lantern lore.

The Sinestro Corps War With Green Lanterns

Traversing back into the positive universe, Sinestro and his grand army of fear assault Oa with extreme prejudice. By freeing the recently captured Superboy-Prime and Cyborg Superman from their cells on Oa and recruiting them to his cause, Sinestro inflicts heavy casualties on the Green Lantern Corps and manages to capture Green Lantern Kyle Rayner in the process. Forcibly ripping the willpower entity known as Ion from Kyle’s body, Sinestro exploits Kyle’s fear, thus allowing Parallax to wriggle its way into Kyle’s mind, corrupting him just like Hal before him and giving Sinestro yet another trick up his sleeve in his war against his enemy.

Hal Jordan – along with Green Lanterns John Stewart and Guy Gardner – takes the fight to Sinestro, but he’s unsuccessful. Sinestro and his minions are able to ambush even more Lanterns across the universe and murder even more citizens on any number of worlds, leading the Guardians of the Universe to take drastic measures to combat his overwhelming forces. Enacting a new law into the fabled Book of Oa, the Guardians authorize all Green Lantern Corps members to use lethal force against their enemies, much to the surprise of everyone involved. With the tides of war finally turning in favor of the green light, Hal is able to free Kyle from his Parallax-imposed prison, and in Coast City, take Sinestro on without the help of their depowered rings. A brutal fistfight between the three ensues and, as Earth’s heroes and the remaining members of the Green Lantern Corps continue to battle it out across the globe, Sinestro falls and is arrested; the war has finally come to an end.

Green Lanterns Have Teamed Up With Yellow in Comics

Years after the war between the green and yellow light subsided, and after numerous changes in both Sinestro’s story and how the Sinestro Corps grew into their role as the main antagonists of the Green Lantern franchise, Sinestro was no longer the almighty leader of his own Corps, a duty that was passed onto his daughter Soranik Natu, a former Green Lantern. For the first time ever, this unexpected changing of the guard allowed the Green Lantern Corps and the Sinestro Corps to throw away their differences and form an alliance to benefit the universe at large.

At first, Soranik was able to keep the partnership amicable and, with the added help of a budding friendship between rebellious Green Lantern Guy Gardner and Sinestro Corps heavyweight Arkillo, (Guy beat the snot out of Arkillo and earned his respect), began pairing up greens and yellows to search out the remaining members of the Sinestro Corps and give them a choice to either join the new alliance or face imprisonment. Things seemed to go well for a time, and as the two Corps continued with their joint missions, a new sort of hope emerged. But it was not meant to last, and as the potential future son of Kyle Rayner and Soranik Natu arrived in the present to throw a wrench into the delicate balance of the Corps’ partnership, the trust and acceptance built up over time crumbled to the ground. Absconding with what remained of the yellow army that were still loyal to her cause, Soranik took her father’s name and proclaimed herself Soranik Sinestro, thus rebirthing the evil version of the Corps that started it all.

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Despite so many other Corps of the Emotional Spectrum running around the DC Universe, it’s the Sinestro Corps that is the most formidable threat to the safety and unity of the cosmos as a whole. While they might stray to the good side of the path from time to time, it can’t be forgotten that their founding purpose is to see the Green Lantern Corps dead and buried under the weight of their own righteousness and hypocrisy, with the doctrine of fear replacing the rule of law. The organization that Sinestro built has grown beyond him, and it will be around for a long, long time.

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