Green Lantern Just Permanently Rewrote Its 'Violent Lanterns' Lore

In the Green Lantern mythology’s emotional spectrum, violet-colored energy is powered by love. Just like Sinestro’s yellow ring that's powered by fear, a singular Violet Lantern, officially known as a Star Sapphire, predated the emotional spectrum’s official debut. Carol Ferris is best known for receiving this mantle, though this initially came with being brainwashed. Years later, the Zamarons established an entire corps of Star Sapphires by fashioning the Violet Lantern power battery.

Except for Carol (in full possession of her faculties) serving in the Justice League Unlimited, the Star Sapphires have largely been sidelined from the DC Universe in recent years. However, the Violet Lanterns’ lore was just rewritten in the pages of the Green Lantern Corps comic book series, and this new development has major ramifications for the entire Green Lantern property.

The Predator Is No Longer The Love Entity

Green Lantern Corps (Vol. 4) #21, Written By Morgan Hampton, Art By Juan José Ryp

Every emotion on the emotional spectrum has a corresponding entity. For love, that’s The Predator, which went missing from the emotional expanse after the Manhunters were defeated in Green Lantern Corps. Guy Gardner, who is currently the Allsight and able to directly interact with all these entities, went searching for Predator in Issue #20 and found it in the Cave of the Deceased in Oa’s Phamosa Jungle with a collection of bodies in stasis. Even weirder, Predator was no longer glowing with violet energy.

After the fight between Guy and Predator was broken up, Adara, the entity of hope, explained that ever since it and the other entities were born, they have “roamed the universe. Consuming and inducing our emotions among all sentient life. A state of symbiosis with eternal returns.” The tradeoff is that it’s “limiting” for these entities to be confined to just one emotion, and Predator in particular has struggled with the “consumption of love.” This is why it has often veered into “obsession and control when true unconditional love was hard to come by.”

However, there is a process foretold in the Book of Oa called The Cleanse, which allows the entities to voluntarily surrender their powers and immortality. Predator is now the first of them to undergo The Cleanse, and as such can experience myriad emotions and has a finite lifespan ahead of it. Butcher, the entity of rage, shared that the love energy will now “latch on to a mortal being with strong levels of that emotion,” thus birthing the new love entity, though it will not be an “easy adjustment.”

What Does This Predator Shakeup Mean For Carol Ferris And The Alpha Lanterns?

Green Lantern Corps #21 ends with where the love energy has gone and who controls it a mystery, but it’s hard to imagine this turn of events not affecting Carol Ferris, who is currently the only Violet Lantern. Carol has been keeping busy in the main Green Lantern comic book searching for the Eight Aspects of Love, so perhaps the traveling love energy will factor into the storyline. From there, the new love entity could be chosen, whether it’s Carol herself or someone else.

Going with Carol would certainly make for a drastic visual contrast with the other emotional entities, who are all giant creatures of some kind. However, turning her into the new love entity would likely only be temporary so as not to disrupt the core Green Lantern status quo too much, particularly her relationship with Hal Jordan. So that would still leave the mystery of who or what will permanently replace Predator.

Then there’s the matter of the new Alpha Lanterns, i.e. the representatives from each Lantern corps who are bonded with their corresponding entity. Because of the Predator’s disappearance and Carol’s journey elsewhere, there’s currently no Violet Lantern on the roster. One logical possibility is that once the new love entity is chosen, Carol will bond with it and become an Alpha Lantern. On the other hand, if the new love entity’s emergence leads to the Star Sapphires being reformed, then perhaps someone else will become its host, leaving Carol to continue her adventures normally.

Green Lantern Corps #21 is now available from DC Comics.