Parallax (comics) - History

History

In 1994, DC Comics decided that it needed to create some excitement for Green Lantern comics. To accomplish this, it was decided to do away with Hal Jordan, who had been the primary Green Lantern since the late 1950s, and replace him with a new character Kyle Rayner. The process of replacing Jordan with Rayner was detailed in the story "Emerald Twilight", beginning Green Lantern vol. 3, #48 (Jan. 1994). Following the complete destruction of his home town Coast City by the villain Mongul, Hal Jordan descended into madness, destroying the Green Lantern Corps, killing his friend Kilowog and all of the Guardians except for Ganthet. After this, Jordan assumed the name Parallax and became a supervillain. As detailed in the crossover Zero Hour: Crisis in Time, Parallax attempted to rewrite history in order to stop the destruction of Coast City. While Kyle Rayner became the primary Green Lantern of Earth for the next decade, Hal Jordan eventually abandoned the Parallax identity and sought redemption as the Spectre.

By the early 21st century, it was decided that Jordan should be brought back as the star of Green Lanterns. DC decided to retcon Parallax/Hal Jordan's attempt to recreate the universe as being motivated by an effort to resurrect the dead and bring peace to the world; Hal eventually sacrificed his life to reignite Earth's sun after it was nearly completely eaten. The 2004 miniseries Green Lantern: Rebirth, written by Geoff Johns and penciled by Ethan Van Sciver, was put out to rehabilitate Jordan and bring him back as the primary Green Lantern. This series revealed that Parallax was actually a parasitic entity dating back to the dawn of time and born from the yellow of the emotional spectrum. The parasite was the sentient embodiment of fear, traveling from world to world and causing entire civilizations to destroy themselves out of paranoia.

The Guardians of the Universe imprisoned Parallax within the Central Power Battery on Oa using fear's opposite energy, willpower, along with the aid of one of the fear's counterparts, Ion. Parallax had lain dormant for billions of years, its true nature hidden by the Guardians to prevent anyone from trying to free it. Being yellow in color, Parallax eventually came to be referred to as simply "the yellow impurity", a flaw, whose nature was kept secret from the Corps, that made their rings useless against the color yellow: Parallax weakened its power over the corresponding spectrum; hence, only someone with the willpower to overcome great fear could master the power ring. Thus, when recruiting new Green Lanterns, the Guardians were careful to look for recruits that could do this. When the renegade Sinestro was later imprisoned in the Power Battery himself, his Qwardian yellow power ring tapped into Parallax's power and awakened it.

Since Sinestro harbored hatred for Hal, Parallax chose Jordan as its tool to free itself. Parallax apparently spent years influencing Jordan, causing him to experience increasing self-doubt as well as causing his hair to prematurely whiten at the temples. Jordan's grief over the destruction of Coast City let Parallax influence Jordan's subsequent murderous activity, his apparent killing of Sinestro (actually a hard light construct), and Jordan's destruction of the Central Power Battery.

After it was learned something amiss was happening on Oa, a task force (as shown in the Emerald Fallout series), which consisted of Guy Gardner, Wonder Woman, Captain Atom, Alan Scott, Martian Manhunter, Ferrin Colos of the Darkstars, and Arisia, ventured to Oa to discover the cause of Guy Gardner's visions of its destruction that were brought about by him wielding Sinestro's power ring (which was also fueled by the power expelled by the Guardians, their rings, batteries, or Parallax himself). On Oa, the task force confronted Hal, but he easily defeated them. Only Alan Scott and Guy Gardner were even able to manage to get a hit on Jordan. Guy proved to be the most effective against Jordan because he could absorb the energy that Jordan was using against him in the battle. Jordan still managed to quickly overpower Guy and destroy his Qwardian power ring. Jordan proceeded to send the whole task force (who were all knocked out from the beating they suffered) back to Earth.

Since Parallax was gone from the Oan Power Battery, the final power ring conferred to Kyle Rayner did not have any weakness against yellow. The young ring bearer also has some limited resistance to the fear entity's influence as Rayner is a Green Lantern who understands fear alongside with his strong will. Despite being possessed by Parallax, the positive aspect of Jordan's personality would resurface occasionally, eventually leading the infected Jordan to use Parallax's powers to reignite the Sun during the event known as "The Final Night", and later aiding the universe's greatest heroes to stop the rogue angel Asmodel from raising Hell to Earth and Heaven in Day of Judgment. Jordan's infected soul later bonded with the Spectre, who eventually expelled Parallax from Jordan. The Spectre itself left to move onto the next human host. Ganthet guided Jordan's soul back to his own body, preserved after Jordan reignited the Sun. His soul and thoughts finally gaining clarity for the first time in years, Jordan was resurrected, again taking his place as a Green Lantern. Together, Kyle Rayner and fellow Green Lanterns John Stewart, Guy Gardner, a resurrected Kilowog, and Ganthet imprisoned the parasite back in the Central Power Battery on Oa.

Despite this reintroduction of the "yellow impurity", which is now referred to as the "Parallax Fear Anomaly", the power rings' weakness against yellow no longer applies, as experienced wielders are now able to consciously recognize its source, and overcome the fear associated with it. It is still, however, a considerable weakness for new GL recruits, who must be taught the impurity's nature and how to combat it. During training, new recruits' rings may falter at times against yellow objects, and/or when a recruit is experiencing panic or fear.