Sinestro Corps War - Story and Character Changes

Story and Character Changes

"Sinestro Corps War" introduced the Sinestro Corps in full after allusions to them throughout the post-One Year Later Green Lantern title. Sinestro received a major thematic overhaul as a result of his leadership of his eponymous Corps, with parallels drawn with Adolf Hitler and Nazi Germany. Green Lantern villains Superboy-Prime (later Superman-Prime), Cyborg Superman and the Manhunters became members of the Sinestro Corps. The Anti-Monitor also made his first reappearance since his death at the conclusion of Crisis on Infinite Earths in 1985 as the "Guardian" of the Sinestro Corps and later the power source of the Black Lanterns. Superboy-Prime was renamed Superman-Prime during the event. Ostensibly to illustrate his coming of age in the story, Geoff Johns mentioned the ongoing legal dispute over the Superboy name as another reason for the character's new name.

Some changes were also made to the heroes during the course of the storyline. The role of Ion passed from Kyle Rayner to Sodam Yat, making Yat the "strongest Green Lantern in the universe" as a result according to Johns. The Book of Oa was rewritten by the Guardians to institute 10 new laws for the Green Lantern Corps, the first of which authorized lethal force against the Sinestro Corps. The rebirth of Coast City, the process of which had been seen throughout Geoff Johns' run on Green Lantern, as "the City Without Fear" was used to symbolically represent Hal Jordan's journey towards acceptance after his resurrection. The second volume of the story's collection revealed that the original plan was for both John Stewart and Guy Gardner to be possessed by Parallax, with artwork of them facing off against Hal Jordan. However, in the midst of the story planning, Johns realized this would make Parallax's possession of Kyle less effective and the segment was dropped and redrawn.

Green Lantern #25 expanded on the "emotional spectrum" concept and introduced five new color-based corps of similar structure to the Green Lanterns and the Sinestro Corps. These corps each draw from different emotions, corresponding with the seven colors of the rainbow (red for rage, orange for avarice, yellow for fear, green for willpower, blue for hope, indigo for compassion and violet for love). Ganthet and Sayd, two Guardians of the Universe who were exiled during the course of the war, were shown as developing the corps that corresponds to the color blue and the emotion hope, while the Anti-Monitor becomes the power source for an eighth color-based corps, the "Black Lanterns", who represent death and the "absence of human drives and emotions". The issue also laid the foundations for the 2009 event Blackest Night, something the creators had been working towards since early 2007.