Black Lantern Corps - Prominent Members

Prominent Members

At San Diego Comic Con 2009, Geoff Johns was able to discuss his reasoning behind choosing Black Hand as the leader of the new Corps, the character properties of the Black Lanterns, and his own goals in writing their depictions. Commenting on the characters being chosen to reanimat during Blackest Night, Johns said:

During the creation of Blackest Night, Johns (not being interested in or frightened by zombies) wanted to bring back the deceased characters in a way that seemed horrifying and emotionally disturbing to the living characters they encountered. To accomplish that effect, the Black Lanterns have personalities and actively seek out those who will be affected by their appearance. A prime example of Johns' use of personality distortion with the Black Lanterns is Elongated Man (typically depicted as being a "light" character that uses his detective skill to "smell" when something isn't right) looking upon his victims and remarking to his undead wife: "I smell a mystery." Johns identifies the power of the Black Lanterns as not necessarily being evil, but not being good either.

During his initial creation of the new Corps, Johns drew from information he had collected on light while taking physics classes. With the Corps of the emotional spectrum personifying life, he knew that this Corps would need to represent death. Black being an absence of light, he chose Black Hand as the leader of the Corps both for the character's name and also because of how much he enjoyed revamping villains while writing for Flash. Like the other members of the Black Lantern Corps, Johns wanted to take a different approach in his portrayal of Hand. Whereas other villains may have a particular motivation, Hand is meant to be depicted as a character who is clearly insane and whose presence makes others uncomfortable.

In Blackest Night #2, multiple black power rings attempt to reanimate the body of Don Hall, only to be prevented from disturbing his grave by an invisible barrier. As they collide with the barrier, the rings' typical command ("rise") is interrupted; the rings instead respond: "Don Hall of Earth at peace." This is the first depiction of the black power rings failing to recruit a member for the Black Lantern Corps. In an interview with IGN, Johns provides an explanation behind Dove's immunity to the black power rings: "You'll learn more about this as we go forward. But really it speaks to the nature of Don Hall. He can't be desecrated by the likes of these things. He's untouchable in death and at total peace more than any other being in the universe." Reflecting on the limitations of the rings, Johns goes on to state that, even though magic is a "joke" to the black power rings (though the undead Giovanni Zatara is capable of wielding black magic), Don is quite the opposite. Similarly, Blackest Night: Titans #1 shows Black Lantern Hank Hall unable to read Dawn Granger's emotions; her aura depicted as being white rather than a color from the emotional spectrum.

In Blackest Night: Batman #1, the spirit of Deadman is unable to prevent a black power ring from reviving his remains. Deadman attempts to possess his own corpse, but is unable to control it. During the Blackest Night panel at San Diego Comic Con 2009, Geoff Johns was asked whether the revived corpses of the Black Lanterns were speaking for themselves or if they were being controlled by an outside force. Johns declined to answer, implying that the question would be answered during the Blackest Night storyline. Similarly, while being overcome by a black power ring, the Spectre declares that he "will not be used." Prior to The Spectre's conversion, Black Hand makes note of Shadowpact members Zatanna and Blue Devil being surrounded by an aura of life. Upon scanning Phantom Stranger, Black Hand remarks that Stranger is "neither living nor dead", and notes him as a person of interest to his Corps.