The 15 Dumbest Superhero Retcons Of All Time

So, it didn't go:

1. Coast City is destroyed

2. Go crazy

3.

4. Profit?

I'll be shocked if all the new Lantern Corps survive Blackest Night.

The Sinestro Corps and the Star Sapphires are a given to stick around.
Larfleeze seems to be popular.
The Red Lanterns are goofy, but Atrocitus seems like a pet character of Johns.
The Blue Lanterns seem rather pointless, but maybe that's just me.
The Indigo Tribe gets my main vote to be sent to oblivion.
And the Black Lanterns days are numbered.

Well it was the activation of all the other spectrums that prompted the black energy/Nekron to manifest. It's quite possible that some of the spectrum Corps will be gone, and the rest severely reduced in numbers to keep this from happening again.

The Star Sapphires have also had their CPB destroyed by the Black Lanterns. This puts their survival into doubt.

The Blue Lanterns are essentially power boosters for the Green Lanterns. They can recharge a drained ring to double its normal capacity as well as heal both body and spirit and so far it seems only the Blue Light can counter the poison that is the red light and remove a red ring. Their weakness is that for their rings to make constructs and function normally they must be near a green ring.

I can see Atrocitus being the sole Red Lantern, however this presupposes that Guy Gardner gets cured of the red ring he will be getting next month, unless he perishes.

Sinestro......he might perish at the end of Blackest Night but his Corps may live on.

Take the Magic: The Gathering 'What Color Are You?' Quiz.

It would've been much easier to simply write, "That's true. I DO hate the idea of the Emotional Spectrum."

Not to mention how Peter was getting jerked around so much when he was doing the Captain Marvel series.

Take the Magic: The Gathering 'What Color Are You?' Quiz.

That's because the light is the actual object, the emotion is merely the power source. You can have more power sources than implemented uses after all. Every car needs a source of power to run, but you don't need to build a car for every power source that exists. They also like to explain certain emotions as blends like sadness being a mix of Fear and Love.

I suspect they'll all remain in one form or another. They'll probably scatter to their various sectors rather than bunch up as giant armies, but there's no reason to outright destroy them. The Sinestro Corps continues to exist for just that reason. They stopped being an army and were turned into more of individual criminals (ie GL 2897.2 requesting help apprehending local Sinestro Corps operative). You can play the same game with the Red team and Larfleeze is just a single villain to use as necessary. The new "good" teams are small enough to be a minor factor in the future. The blues can take a pilgrimage to spread hope, but there's not enough to pair 1:1 with the greens anyway. Likewise, the Indigo will go back to wandering. Its not like anyone ran into them before.

The blacks on the other hand will be interesting. Obviously they won't continue to run as they are now, but I'll be curious to see where they end up. I suspect their battery will be destroyed and Nekron packing, but I doubt they'll vanish forever. My guess is that Black Hand, being like Ion, will retain a certain degree of autonomous power and will be able to raise the dead in a limited fashion. You have to shut down Nekron of course, but there's no reason you couldn't keep the Black Lanterns around on a smaller scale.

I don't think that's really true. Nekron seemed to get his foot in the door the same way he originally did. In both of his stories, his glimpse into our world appears to be triggered by the death of a Guardian. I really don't think their numbers need to be reduced. They just need to be scattered. They're great fodder villains, and space is an awfully big place for them to hide.

I wonder if Carol will join with Predator and become the last Sapphire (and possible a hero this time around). There's still plenty to see with the Sapphires. I sincerely doubt Johns has forgotten Atrocious's prophecy.

The new characters who have actually gotten some, ah, characterization will stick around. I hope, at least, anyway. But yeah, outlook not so good for the armies.

Curious to see what happens with the characters that have been killed by Black Lanterns.

The Blackest Night Prophecy states that the spectrums will rise and there will be a war of light, and then will come the Blackest Night. My take on this that the arising of the Black energy is to compensate for the spectrum energies aka life energies being so ascendant.

In the Sinestro Corp War, the Guardian who becomes Scar was fried by the Antimonitor and the black energies/Nekron likely latched onto her. I doubt the death of the Guardian that used his life force to banish Super Brat Prime was the catalyst.

As to Atrocitus and his Prophecy to Hal about Hal going renegade due to the Guardians taking his true love away.......prophecies are best taken with a grain of salt, and demons speak with forked tongues. His prophecy to Hal was designed to help shake Hal's confidence in the Guardians and play on his fall from grace when parallax got ahold of him, IMO.

Take the Magic: The Gathering 'What Color Are You?' Quiz.

one and two are in order.the part that is missing is "suddenly want to destroy all of existence because he couldn't prevent the destruction of his city." which i would assume would be in three.

that part is the bit that never happened in emerald twilight.it did however have Hal decide that he was going to get the power to bring his city and it's people back.

to that end he defeats the Corps,but leaves them alive,if stranded in space.the implication at the time being that he plans to come back and get them after he succeeds.

he does kill Sinestro,who has been resurrected by the Guardians to take down Jordan.this is pretty much an amazing slap in the face from the Guardians,who have shown him no sympathy after his loss,instead scolding him for using his ring to recreate a simulacrum of coast city.

Jordan wants to use their power to resurrect innocent people he has failed to save,and instead he sees them using it to resurrect a scum ball that the Corps felt the need to take the unprecedented step of executing.

then he finally does the truly messed up and irredeemable thing,killing Killawog.mind you he is probably just thinking"one more person to resurrect"

his transformation to Parallax seems to leave him oddly emotionless at that point.the Hal Jordan seen leaving Oa at that point does not seem to be the same one that left,he appears transformed by the process.it is later revealed that the other Green Lanterns were left to perish in space(though they turn out not to have after all.

it is not till craptacular Zero Hour that Hal is revealed to be the big villain of the story.even then he is only destroying the universe so he can make a perfected version that will not have pain,death,and suffering.

now mind you,Emerald Twilight was far from perfect.i did however like the basic premise of it,first that super heroes are still human.and that after extraordinary bad events,they can get extraordinarily mentally screwed up.

i get so sick of seeing"he just lost Coast City".just!?!?i suspect that the people that were out of town during Hiroshima's bombing felt pretty messed up when they found out their home city was a smoking ruin,and they were not even in a position to defend it.

almost every silver age super hero had their city,it was a big part of their mythos.they lived there,they protected it form all threats.losing his city should have been a big deal to Hal.to be honest he never seemed so human to me as when he seemed to be taking it's loss so hard

second.i liked the idea of asking what happens when someone who's defining characteristic is willpower,something that can be defined as tenaciously fighting for something through all adversity until you see it to completion,is screwed up in the head and applies his willpower in a mentally unbalanced way.

Hal Jordan had an unreasonable desire born from grief and loss.he had what should have been an unachievable goal,and through pure willpower he got to a point where he should have been able to accomplish it.

the main problem i have with the story is how it ended with Hal's odd transformation.if it was me i would have jumped from him getting the power,to him resurrecting the citizens of Coast City.then i would have had that sort of massive violation of the natural order reek pure havoc on our planet.in that moment Hal could finally look at his actions clearly,and then do what is needed to fix it.that would result in him sacrificing his power,perhaps his life also.or he could survive and just get the psychological help he clearly needed.

my guess is they get resurrected,along with the population of Coast City.

Here's the original plan for Emerald Twilight:

Originally "Emerald Twilight" was scripted by Gerard Jones and according to Previews Vol. III #8 (Aug 1993) and the November 1993 Comics Scoreboard, was to involve two sets of the extraterrestrial altruists known as the Guardians and Hal Jordan, a member of their intergalactic police force, the Green Lanterns, having to choose which set was real. DC Editorial reportedly thought that this story was not interesting enough to draw new readers. Then-publisher Paul Levitz, along with senior group editors Mike Carlin, Dennis O'Neil, and Archie Goodwin, as well as GL editor Kevin Dooley, plotted the "Emerald Twilight" story, which was eventually given to Ron Marz to write, that eventually saw print.

The fake Guardians would restore Sinestro to lead the GLC and it would become more militaristic. Hal was the only one that knew these Guardians were fake but had to prove it as well as dodge the Corps hunting him until he could. His ring would be destroyed, but he would then realize that all his exposure to the emerald power over time including his entries into the CPB changed him so that he doesn't NEED the ring. Also there was going to be a revelation that the Guardians caused Hal's father's death so that he would become more fearless to be a better GL. Hal wins the war, Sinestro and the fakes are beaten but Hal refuses to trust the Guardians, changes his name to the Protector and leaves.

Take the Magic: The Gathering 'What Color Are You?' Quiz.

If you dislike the slightest trait of a storyline, it's easy to simplify it in a very absurd way. Like this:

1. Resurrect dead hero!
2. Give everyone multi-color rings!
3. Create the Multi-Color-Ring Rangers!!!
4. Taste The rainbow, sell skittles, and profit!

Considering the success of Rebirth, the Sinestro Corps War, and Blackest Night, it actually does lead to profit!

But yeah, it's ok to admit that past stories were silly or poorly conceived and let the new generation of writers give their take on it. That's part of the industry. And if someone wants to try to do the same with Johns' work in a couple decades they can. I don't really give a **** so long as it's well-written, and so far Johns and Gibbons and Tomasi haven't disappointed me with their work on the Green Lantern books.

How big of a "villain" did he turn into, though? Here is a synopsis of what happened in Emeral Twilight (from the wiki site)

In Green Lantern #46, as part of the "Reign of the Supermen" storyline, the extraterrestrial villain Mongul teams up with a Cyborg Superman that had been passing himself off as the real Superman. They use a series of bombs to destroy Hal Jordan's home city of Coast City with the intention of using the area as one of four way-stations for a giant engine that would ultimately transform Earth into the massive spaceship Warworld. Hal Jordan returns to the city to find a massive fortress-engine standing in the ruins of his home and furiously attacks, hearing the voices of those killed crying out in his mind. The voices fall silent when Jordan defeats Mongul in battle. Hal also witnesses the return of Superman, who has defeated the Cyborg elsewhere in the city.

In issue #47, he teamed up with Green Arrow for a completely different mission, and at the end of the issue, his thoughts once again turn to Coast City.

Issue #48 began with Hal in the center of what used to be Coast City, clutching the remains of a doll - the only physical evidence of the seven million people who once lived there. In a moment of pure anguish, Hal uses his power ring to re-create Coast City, down to the people who had previously died, including his father. When his ring’s energy runs out, one of the Guardians of the Universe contacts him via a holographic projection to tell him he is in violation of one of the principal rules of the Green Lantern Corps, which forbids Lanterns from using their rings for personal gain. Enraged, Hal siphons off the energy from the projection and makes his way to the Guardians’ planet Oa, with the intent of bleeding off all the energy from the Main Power Battery in order to permanently re-create Coast City. Issue #49 saw him going up against various members of the Green Lantern Corps, each of whom fell against Hal, until he got to Oa. Hal steals the rings from each defeated colleague and leaves them for dead. (note by starsman: Hal is way better than to think he left everyone for dead, he just defeated them and left them defeated, think the
"left for dead" part is a bit of an exageration.)

Issue #50 sees Hal battle the renegade former Green Lantern Sinestro on Oa, who had been previously imprisoned in the Main Battery, but released by the Guardians to stop Jordan. Jordan kills Sinestro, as well as his fellow Green Lantern Kilowog. The Guardians, having realized that their cause was lost, had given all their remaining energy to the Guardian named Ganthet, who become the sole Guardian after this energy transference resulted in the death of the rest of them. Hal takes all the energy in the Central Power Battery, and when he emerged from it, he has a new costume and takes the name Parallax.[1]

Now, notice that the only reason he is doing this is not to go conquer the world, it's just to resurrect the city with the power he knows he can have but is not allowed to use. You can be sure, if Batman thought he had the power to resurrect his parents and make that gun not fire in the past, he would stop at nothing to do it. Hal thought he could make them exists again even if only an illusion.

Oh and contrary to your previous statement, among the dead was his own father.

Hal never got much chance to be much of a villain because after this he was jumped by every hero that found about what he did. Had the guardians left him just use the power and be alone in solitude on a faked up Coast City, its very likely he would ha come to his senses after a while.

Again, you compare him to other heroes that have lost more, but few had the power to do anything about it or simply never grew any real attachment to their loss (superman, growing in earth, identifies more with Humans than with Kryptonians.)

I don't think that was really the intention of the writers. It came across that way, but I think they intended for it be more along the lines of him needing to make amends by bringing back the city and everyone in it and anybody that gets in his way is just something to be brushed aside. He didn't set out to destroy the universe so much as the universe being colateral damage.

Welp, just off the top of my head, he could have let Ra's al Ghul resurrect them in the Tower of Babel arc, but he didn't, probably because he knew he'd be doing a further disservice to their memory by compromising himself.

Superman's dad just died. You don't see him trying to set himself up as god and damn everyone else.

I said if HE was able to do it. We know he would not let, specially a villain, do it.

How did he die? Makes a world of difference.

You said it yourself. Prophecies are best taken with a grain of salt. Just because it says the spectrums will rise before the black descends doesn't mean the spectrums rising will actually cause the black to descend. Specifically, its Scar's death that seems to give Nekron the chance to act in this world. I really don't think the creation of the lights was the trigger; specifically because Nekron could act before the red light was even harnessed.

And back to the prophecy thing; just because they're meant to shake up the recipient doesn't mean they're simply lies. The prophecies of the Inversions appear to happen, just not in the way you initially assume. I'll be really surprised if in some way, the Guardians don't take Carol away and Hal isn't forced to fight them. It just may be for reasons other than the ones assumed from the way it was presented.

There have been multiple occasions when the Waynes were brought back or the possibility came up, and it always ends up showing the world being a better place for their deaths, because it would be worse without Batman.

Not really, because there's the question of where to stop. Who gets to say whose tragedy is more deserving of rectifying? And what gives that person more of a right than anyone else to say so?

well again,my first statement was regarding the storyline of emerald twilight and not the storyline of zero hour.being lumped together in continuity does lump them together as a single story.

and i am sorry,but "he is a cop,he should know what comes with the job" is crap.what,like signing up for a job means you are prepared for any emotional catastrophe that could come with it?utter nonsense.if a cop had his family killed in front of him by a vengeful criminal,would you just tell him to suck it up?"hey.you should have known this sort of thing might happen"?how the hell do you prepare for losing your hometown and protectorate?

as for the "tons of heroes",even if true,so what?some fictional characters were written differently by different writers,who cares?

even then John Stewart lost a planet under his protection and became suicidally depressed for a while.if i recall right Martian Manhunter cracked up and was shapeshifting parts of his body to resemble his dead family while self deluded into thinking they were still alive.

if starfire has not suffered comparable emotional turmoil,it may just be that she was rather poorly written.then again maybe her species due to cultural or physiological reasons is incapable of clinical depression and extreme psychological dysfunction.

and Superman?the guy lost his family and world before he could form memories.i can understand the guy being interested in his heritage,of honoring his roots.but should he even remotely be experiencing emotional trauma for deaths he did not experience and can not recollect?i doubt it.

What comes with the job as a Green Lantern is life and death on a galactic scale. You don't really prepare for it. You just don't flip out and try to set yourself up as god if you fail.

In comics, we have a term for those who use personal tragedy as justification to become arbiters of life and death. It's "villains."

to your first statement,i can thing of one story besides tower of babel where the issue came up.the JLA story where Oracle is trying to save them while the universe is falling apart,and is ordered to stop wasting time trying to save one mans parents and get back to the job of saving the universe.

the tower of babel has Ras trying to bribe Batman with them after first using them as a distraction.Batman makes the right choice of course.then again Batman has had some time to,if not come to piece with their death,at least accept it as a reality.

your second point is entirely true of course.then again the whole point of the Emerald twilight story is that Hal is in no psychological shape to deal with that sort of acceptance of the natural order.

er,you do not prepare for crap that a person could never reasonably be expected to deal with rationally,but if it happens you just do not go crazy?

and in reality we have terms like psychotic break due to extreme emotional distress.