By [ad_1]
DC’s Dark Knights of Steel raises the question if Green Lantern can kill Kryptonians, but there’s a surprising history of Lanterns taking on Superman.
WARNING: The following contains spoilers for Dark Knights of Steel #1, on sale now from DC Comics.
The Elseworlds tale Dark Knights of Steel presents a medieval vision of the DC Universe and one that’s ruled by Jor-El, Lara and their Kryptonian children, as the various DC heroes have been reimagined to serve as Arthurian figures in this alternate universe. However, the Kryptonian regents are certainly not without their enemies, with Green Arrow and a Green Lantern looking to violently overthrow their rule by assassinating the king. And as the two emerald warriors put their murderous plans into motion, this raises the question if a Green Lantern can even kill a Kryptonian. While it may seem novel, that question has been addressed in passing multiple times in the canonical DCU.
As teammates on the Justice League, Green Lantern and Superman have fought each other on more than one occasion, be it through one of the heroes suddenly going out of control or in a disastrous misunderstanding. Whether it’s Red Son‘s memorable instance of the Green Lantern Corps nearly trapping the Soviet Superman in a prison of an infinitely growing number of energy walls to the New 52 Hal Jordan being able to knock a younger Superman around with his constructs from his Power Ring, the Man of Steel is not completely invulnerable to Green Lantern’s tactics and attacks. The cliffhanger ending of Dark Knights of Steel #1 — by Tom Taylor, Yasmine Putri and Wes Abbott — is a prime, if bloody, example of this when Green Lantern crafts a Kryptonite-tipped arrow which Green Arrow then shoots into Jor-El’s eye, seemingly killing him.
During the 2003 miniseries Green Lantern: Rebirth, John Stewart was temporarily corrupted by the fear entity Parallax and faced off against the entire Justice League. When Superman attempted to talk him down and bring him back to his senses, John responded by poking the Last Son of Krypton in both eyes with energy constructs, visibly hurting Superman and leaving him immobilized for much of the remaining fight as he recovered. This suggests that if a Green Lantern could push the attack further, they might be able to kill Superman in this way.
Green Lanterns have also shown the ability to use their Power Ring to create synthetic Kryptonite which, while not quite as effective as the real deal substance, has still shown the ability to drain and eventually kill any Kryptonians in the immediate vicinity. Hal displayed this ability before Crisis on Infinite Earths in DC Comics Presents #26, by Jim Starlin and Marv Wolfman. Years later in Superman: The Man of Tomorrow #13, by Louise Simonson and Paul Ryan, Kyle Rayner created synthetic Kryptonite after learning the formula for its chemical composition from Martian Manhunter when facing a rogue Superman with the Justice League. While dangerous to him, Superman observed that Green Lantern needed to maintain his concentration to continue to reproduce the synthetic Kryptonite’s radioactive effects, leading him to summon robot duplicates to distract Kyle and stop the synthetic attack.
Superman may be one of the most powerful superheroes in the DCU but Green Lanterns have shown themselves capable of stopping him if given the opportunity to either target Superman’s eyes or the time and concentration to fashion synthetic Kryptonite with their Power Rings. And though King Jor-El may have just discovered this the hard way, Dark Knights of Steel is sure to have Green Lantern square off against more vengeful Kryptonians as the story continues to unfold, with potentially different strategies for a Green Lantern to stop a Superman.
About The Author
[ad_2]
