Green Lantern #52 - the emotional entities

[dreamreaver]

Four pages behind the cut.




Greed entity = serpent from the Garden of Eden
Rage entity = a transmogrified Cain?
Hope entity = some kind of bird, Ziz? Someone actually suggested Jesus...
Compassion entity = Cthulhu lol

Yeah, the Christian mythology allusions have to be intentional.

(sucks about not getting names for the others though D: )

Also, from /co/ (ignore the blatant typos):

Comments

[crinos]

Um, why is the love entity a giant beetle monster.

Seriously, that thing is scarier looking than Paralax, did they get their assignment sheets mixed up or something?

[kusonaga]

Power animals!

[comicoz]

I don't get it, but I'd like to. Could explain why it makes sense?

[silverzeo]

Wait...So is the White Light Enity is God or not? You think someone like the Spectre would know this stuff, unless the Christian God is just like all the other gods in the comic-book mythos.

And now I notice that elements counter each other.

So Predator is...

[silverzeo]

Predator is Lilith? The creature that God made for Adam before he created Eve?

[thormonger]

Compassion implies sacrificing one's own life (not necessarily the life itself, but leading to some level of self-denial) for the benefit of others. As far as the octopus reference, here's a paragraph from the Wikipedia page on octopi:
"Octopuses have a relatively short life expectancy, and some species live for as little as six months. Larger species, such as the North Pacific Giant Octopus, may live for up to five years under suitable circumstances. However, reproduction is a cause of death: males can only live for a few months after mating, and females die shortly after their eggs hatch. They neglect to eat during the (roughly) one month period spent taking care of their unhatched eggs, but they don't die of starvation. Endocrine secretions from the two optic glands are the cause of genetically-programmed death (and if these glands are surgically removed, the octopus may live many months beyond reproduction, until she finally starves)."

The species doesn't continue without the sacrifice of the parents. the Indigo Lanterns made several references to denying their own interests for the sake of the greater good, a selfless act of love (love can be selfless, but not all love is selfless).

Or, to continue the Christian themes that seem to be being brought out in this, "Greater love has no one than this, than to lay down one’s life for his friends" (John 15:13).

[thormonger]

As the entities are loosely based on Judeo-Christian themes, the White Light Entity is probably a manifestation of God's creative energies, and not God Himself.

[comicoz]

I had absolutely no idea octopi had a life cycle like that.

I feel slightly odd to have learned something on SD...


Thanks for the info though, it makes sense now.

Re: So Predator is...

[thormonger]

If so, I can see why Adam abandoned her. What a beast... literally! :-P

[thormonger]

It's OK; the whole idea behind such sacrificial reproduction was brought to my attention via the Futurama episode where Zoidberg returns to his home planet in an attempt to mate, only to learn that every one of his species that mated died as a result of it. You learn things in the strangest places. :)

[silverzeo]

The wouldn't that make the Spectre the embodiment of rage then? Or is that Rage Enity is for the living and Spectre is for God?

[comicoz]

I managed to track down a scan of this, and looks like white (life) is a phoenix, so not sure what blue would be. An eagle?

Was a crummy scan, will have to wait until I get to the store on Friday.

[renuki]

That...that Predator!? Dude. ...he does look more scarier that the fear entity. O_O

But, yay! I was wondering if I would ever see what the entities look like and we did! Whoohooo!

...now we only need their bloody names.

[thosefew]

I got your compassion squid right here.

[thormonger]

I guess rage/hatred (Red Bull) and wrath/judgment (Spectre) are considered separate. Besides, The Spectre has always been more deliberate in his anger than the "mad dogs" of the Red Lantern Corps have been. (I'm surprised Eclipso, who was the original avatar of vengeance before The Spectre, hasn't been brought into this yet, and I still suspect that's whom The Spectre was referencing when Atrocitus tried turning him into a Red Lantern.)

[dreamreaver]

Predator represents the "obsessive/stalker/etc." component of love - or more accurately, extreme infatuation, which does drive people to do crazy things "OUT OF LOVE"

[sherkahn]

is it me or does the Compassion entity remind me of the Black Orchid?

[sherkahn]

I'm reminded of what the last version of Jekyll and Hyde on BBC said about Mr. Hyde.

When the wife of the current Dr. Jekyll was asked when was the first time she felt she could kill someone, she said that it was when she saw her first born sons. That anything that would harm them would die. And that's what Mr. Hyde was... not rage, but love: savage, uncontrollable, unyielding, unrelenting love in all it's ugly forms. Love that would consume and burn and kill those that did not give back love. I think that's the Predator.

[darkblade]

Bruce better hurry or Batman is going to drown.

[queenanthai]

Heyyyy, Warmech!

[icon_uk]

Yeah, that's my issue with it.

[bluefall]

LIKE WONDER WOMAN AMIRITE!

ahahahaha yes I'm still fucking bitter. >.<

[stig]

Pah! I found that out in David Attenborough's Life. *Old-man mutterings*

[20thcenturyvole]

Motto! I also started thinking of Jekyll when I saw the Predator. And then I got "The Lion Sleeps Tonight" stuck in my head and now I can't get it out.

[stig]

Then again, no humans feature in any of those scans, and flood/temptation/brotherly murder/holy self-sacrifice myths are all over the world and its cultures. Perhaps Johns is referring to a prototype over-arching myth that all cultures share?