Since there's a couple of comicbook related threads in here, has anyone been reading some of the more recent things going on in DC's comic about their superheroes with magic rings which can conjure up whatever they imagine?
There's been a bunch of changes from recent years such as how the Earth's lanterns are Hal Jordan and his partnet John Stewart, the honour guard is Kyle Rayner and his partner Guy Gardner. And most of all the Green Lantern corps is back and different. Two of their greatest weaknesses: vulnerability to the colour yellow no longer applies to non-rookie corps members, and the Green Lantern corps are no longer non-lethal, they can use their rings to kill anyone the Guardians deem as enemies to the corps. Though the Guardians madea bunch of half-Manhunter Green Lanterns to make sure that the Green Lanterns Corps don't get too out of line with killing.
There's been a massive paradigm shift about what the Green Lanterns really are: they're a corps powered by one of seven emotional power sources. Green is the colour of willpower, a force of balance in the universe, that one of the oldest races in the universe known as the Oans picked as their power source, because they felt it was the best one. Now while green or willpower may be a force of balance right in the centre of the 'good' and 'bad' emotions, the Oans that use it to power their soldiers are in many ways a lawful neutral race who sees themselves as the enforcers of the universe.
The recent development is that other forces out there have discovered these powers from the emotional spectrum. The Qwardians and former Green Lantern, Sinestro who's most definitely a lawful evil, ends justifies the means individual formed the Sinestro Corps using yellow of the emotional spectrum, the colour of fear. They became a powerful corps spreading fear and terror around the universe. They almost conquered Earth and are the reason why the Green Lantern Corps are allowed to kill, when the Sinestro Corps killed hundreds of Green Lanterns and almost beat them, the war quickly changed momentum when the Green Lanterns were able to kill Sinestro Corps members.
Other forces such as the Zamorrans and the Star Sapphire Corps which uses violet the colour of love, the Controllers and their Orange Lanterns with avarice and ambition, former Oan Guardians Ganthet and Sayd with their Blue Lantern corps of hope, and the Demons of Ysmault with the Red Lantern Corps of hate and rage are other emerging forces. Somewhere there's also an Indigo Lantern Corps of compassion out there. And they all come to conflict soon, all seven corps. With a mysterious Black Lantern Corps using the dead as soldiers and the Anti-Monitor as it's power battery that no one knows anything about.
So there are colours tied to emotions and cosmic concepts. The emtional spectrum represents seven power cosmic forces. And as seemingly ridiculous as the concept might seem, they are interesting in that they all represent certain parts of the thoughts and motivations of all living beings. They are arranged as:
- Red: Hate
- Orange: Greed
- Yellow: Fear
- Green: Willpower
- Blue: Hope
- Indigo: Compassion
- Violet: Love
Much like incarnations, except they aren't exactly alignments. They're concepts that exist independant of alignments.
Heh, I was going to bring this up myself. I've actually found myself lost in the DC Comic Universe these last few weeks, loving Final Crisis, Johns work, and Morrison's old JLA trades.
What I like about the idea is that it's perfect to help differentiate one alternate prime from others, as well as look at emotional motivations for actions which hits the spirit of a PS campaign. It uses mythic concepts like balance/symmetry & magical items for the 'worthy' (you can be worthy of weilding greed or hate as well as hope and love) but outside the usual alignment wheel.
Something Geoff Johns (the current architect of the DCU) said that stuck with me was why willpower - the control/balance of emotions - was necessary for those seeking to uphold Law in the multiverse. That any emotion, whether hate or love, greed or compassion, can distort the Law. I'm not certain I agree with this, but I can see a lot of fun adventures examining this idea in a Prime where the emotional spectrum holds sway.
One being that fits in somewhat with the alignment-less idea of Love is Evening Glory, who places no moral standard on the emotion. This reminds me of those possessed by Love's power in the form of the Star Sapphires.
Throw in the Empire of Tears, add the Guardians (and the offshoots) as an interesting version LN Baern, and it just gets better.
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