Green Lanterns #14: 'The Phantom Ring, Conclusion'

[zapbiffpow]

Power overwhelming...in a positive way, for once. Plus, a refresher course from "The Secret of the Indigo Tribe". Check it!



The Story:

Wannabe Lantern Frank Laminski gets hold of the wildcard Phantom Ring.

For Reals Lanterns Baz and Cruz try to negotiate with him, but are drawn into a fight, They're quickly blindsided by the Phantom Ring's constant cycling of colors and unrestrained emotional spectrum output.

Just as they're on the ropes, the ring switches to the Indigo Tribe's emotion, compassion:


I don't know why, but "I never see them." is kind of hilarious.





He promptly gets his ass handed to him. I love how self-defeating it is, like Libra vanishing to nothing back in that JLA story.

Anyway, Jessica nabs the Phantom Ring and gets some reassurance vibes from it:



I wish Jess had more learning curve moments, but I guess that's not off the table yet, with the "villain possesses mentor" thing this arc had.

Still a nicely left field, non-combative resolution here, and I like the cookies callback!

For supplementary stuff, here's the Indigo Tribe's origin:



And the double plot twist of this arc:





I wonder why the League doesn't reach out to the Indigo Tribe for rehabilitation options. Lack of intergalactic extradition legislation, I guess? Is there like a superhero Senator, or something?

Comments

[coldfury]

I guess it's kind of like the Ark from Stargate: Ark of Truth. Sure, you can force people to see the 'right thing', but if you're forcing them, are you doing good things? Or are you taking their free will?

I doubt Batman or Superman would be very keen on making villains Indigo Lanterns because of that aspect.

[zapbiffpow]

Yeah, I imagine that would make a Civil War-style discussion, although I'd rather they gloss over it than read it handled poorly. How different is this method from taking someone to jail whose will is to not be jailed for the crimes they've committed, (i.e., religious extremist versus political prisoner)?

And if it is, should it be rejected outright on those grounds, or should we ship some trial rings to Arkham and watch Indigo Lantern Joker zip around the galaxy in a purple loincloth?

[shadowpsykie]

except, for Iroque, it seemed to actually work. By allowing her to feel compassion, she developed compassion. A problem for "sociopaths" is their inability, or numbness, to empathy. But once you feel something... it's kinda hard NOT to feel something... .... kinda?

[zapbiffpow]

Yeah, that's the double twist I got from this! That is, that the indigo rings actually do have rehabilitative properties.

[nyadnar17]

Also there is no telling what affect it would have on Batman's people as the vast majority have real mental problems, not just sociopathy.

[captainbellman]

I also wonder why the power of Compassion makes female-identified people look more naked.

[zapbiffpow]

Oh, that's by no fault of its own. The thing to blame here is artist tendency for titillation - on a good day, Munk's as semi-commando as Indigo-1.

No excuse for the lack of un-bethonged Sinestro during that arc, though.

[bradygirl_12]

That Special Snowflake panel...that guy with the twirly mustache looks like Snidely Whiplash. :)

[zapbiffpow]

Hey, he's also a precious special snowflake!

...I wonder if I should've made that the cut text.

[outlawpoet]

Why is he blue if he's on Indigo?

[zapbiffpow]

According to Wikipedia, electric and natural indigo have a close resemblance to blue, the second being almost indistinguishable. But here, it's probably just a small coloring misfire - consider how there's no misconception on the colors in the Johns/Mahnke version of the Indigo Tribe.