Tuesday, April 10, 2012

Take a look at that poor little empty spot on my third finger

Now, as we all remember, Batman is very good about taking Green Lantern rings away from...well, Green Lanterns. He's got an entire display case of them in the Batcave, and he puts ten of them on when he wants to really get his point across with the Riddler or Clayface. We've seen the Dark knight take a power ring away from Hal Jordan:


Panels from Justice League v.2 #1 (November 2011), script by Geoff Johns, pencils by Jim Lee, inks by Scott Williams, colors by Alex Sinclair, letters by Patrick Brosseau


He's grabbed one off the tightly clenched yet silky soft knuckle of Kyle Rayner:


Panel from The Batman Chronicles #15 (Winter 1998), script by Kelley Puckett, pencils by Joe Staton, inks by Bill Sienkiewicz, colors by Rob Schwager, letters by Ken Lopez


He even stole my Green Lantern ring! Boo! Bad Batman! Sniffle!



So, I believe my point has been made: Batman is very very good at stealing Green Lantern rings. (And he probably even has a red one too, possibly with a severed finger inside it.) But the question we must ask...really, it must be asked...is "Can anybody and everybody just grab a Green Lantern ring whenever the heck they want?

And the answer is, yeah, probably yes they can.

Of course, Superman can do it...especially Comrade Russkie "What If Superman's Rocket Landed in the USSR?" Red Son Superman:


Panels from Superman: Red Son #3 (August 2003), script by Mark Millar, pencils by Kilian Plunkett, inks by Walden Wong, colors by Paul Mounts, letters by Ken Lopez


Sure, but he's Superman. He's the Man of Steel! (Oh wait, no, that was Josef Stalin.) But how about if somebody else tries to take a Green Lantern ring away from the greatest Green Lantern of them all (no, no, not G'nort!)? How about if it's Apokalyps's top press agent...Glorious Godfrey?


Panels from Adventures in the DC Universe #4 (July 1997), script by Steve Vance, pencils by John Delaney, inks by Ron Boyd, colors by Tim Harkins, letters by Bob Le Rose


Well, sure, he's Glorious Godfrey. He's a minion of Robert B. Darkseid. Now, does that mean that just around anybody can take a Green Lantern ring, even from the toughest of their warriors, Guy Gardner?



Panels from Justice League Quarterly #5 (Winter 1991), script by Mark Waid, pencils by Mike McKone, inks by Andrew Pepoy, colors by Gene D'Angelo, letters by Bob Pinaha


Yep! Yes, she can. So, the moral of the story? If you have a Green Lantern ring...it's probably best left in your safety deposit box.


2 comments:

Erich said...

Is it just me, or is the Glorious Godfrey scene squished down to a single pixel for anybody else?

Also, I can't wait for Sally's reaction to this post!

SallyP said...

Well, Batman never got Guy's ring...but Ice did! And way back when, two yahoos took Hal and Guy's rings, and were making racoon suppers from the energy.

I kid you not.

But I actually like the way that Geoff Johns has retconned it so that it is VERY hard for anyone other than a Green Lantern to use a Ring. It's possible...but as Green Arrow found out, it sure ain't easy.