White Lantern Corps

The White Lantern Corps is a fictional organization appearing in comics published by DC Comics, related to the emotional spectrum.

History
The first White Lantern Corps member was created when Sinestro of Korugar bonded with the Entity, the embodiment of life itself.[1] However, the Entity is removed from Sinestro by Nekron, and then claimed by Hal Jordan who, joined by the Flash, uses its power to rescue Superman, Superboy, Wonder Woman, Donna Troy, Ice, Animal Man, Kid Flash, and Green Arrow, who have all been turned into Black Lanterns by Nekron, as well as the Anti-Monitor. Jordan then uses the power of the Entity to revive Nekron's tether to the living world, Black Hand. The revived Black Hand regurgitates twelve white rings that destroy Nekron's body, and revive the Martian Manhunter, Aquaman, Deadman, Hawkman, Hawkgirl, Jade, Firestorm (Ronnie Raymond), Osiris, Hawk, Maxwell Lord, Captain Boomerang, and Professor Zoom.[2]

After the defeat of Nekron, all heroes that have been turned into White Lanterns are discharged from the Corps, save for Deadman, who is shown to be the only resurrected character retaining a white power ring as of Brightest Day #0.[3]

The Entity tells Deadman that it is dying, and that he needs to find the "chosen one" to replace it; this becomes Deadman's assigned task. Deadman considers Hal Jordan to be the perfect candidate, and tells the Entity to take him to him.[4] Instead of taking him to Hal Jordan, the White Lantern Ring takes Deadman and Dove to Aquaman and Mera. Aquaman explains what the White Lantern has told him: to find Jackson Hyde. Deadman questions why the Lantern has taken him to Aquaman when he should be searching for the Entity's replacement, and the ring replies that to find the new Entity, Deadman must help all the other resurrected complete their tasks. Aquaman understands what is at hand and explains to Deadman that for him to succeed, he must find and help others and explain to them what needs to happen.[5]

Meanwhile, the White Lantern is acquired by Deathstorm (the Black Lantern version of Firestorm) who, by infecting it with his essence, is able to generate Black Lantern duplicates of the twelve heroes and villains resurrected by the Entity, apparently with the goal of preventing the resurrected from completing their tasks.[6]

When his white ring reaches 100%, Deadman approaches Hawkman and Hawkgirl after their mission on Hawkworld. As a secondary labor, the Entity has asked them to live separate lives so that they may strengthen their existence, but they object. Hawkman tries to remove the White Power Ring from Deadman by force, but the Entity reduces them to white dust in front of Deadman's eyes. Meanwhile, Deathstorm and the Black Lanterns are shown delivering the White Battery to someone on Qward .[7]

Deadman commands the ring to resurrect the two heroes, but the ring refuses, saying that this is part of The Entity's plan. It is revealed that when Nekron attacked the Earth, not only was The Entity mortally wounded, but the contamination of the planet was also heightened. Furthermore, the corruption will rise up in the form of another "dark avatar" of the darkness who will try to destroy the Star City forest, which is the key to save Earth's soul. The Entity resurrects the twelve characters with different purposes. Some of them, like Hawk, Maxwell Lord and Jade, are supposed to prevent further disasters and give Deadman and the Entity more time. But five of them (Aquaman, Firestorm, Martian Manhunter, Hawkman and Hawkgirl) are resurrected in order to overcome what held them back in life (what the Hawks already did by destroying the curse that haunted them) and by completing their tasks. Thus, their life force is purified and the ring takes their essences back because they are essential in saving Earth. Deadman also has a secondary purpose: to supply the white ring with power by embracing life.[8]

Later the ring takes Deadman to the beach where Aquaman and Aqualad are battling Black Manta and Siren. There the Entity reveals to Deadman that it was the Entity that freed the Xebel soldiers from the Bermuda Triangle in order for Aquaman learn the truth about Mera. Aquaman's alliance sends the soldiers of Xebel back to the Bermuda Triangle, therefore completing Aquaman's task, but the Entity reduces Aquaman to water, to Mera's sorrow.[9]

As Martian Manhunter completes his task, he is approached by the Entity, who tells him to choose between Mars and Earth. Martian Manhunter chooses Earth, and as he returns to the planet and reaches the forest in Star City he is again approached by Deadman. Deadman pleads for forgiveness, and the Martian Manhunter replies he understands since it's "part of the plan"; the Entity then merges the Martian Manhunter's essence with the planet Earth.[10] Meanwhile, Firestorm discovers that the Anti-Monitor seeks to harvest the life energy within the White Lantern in order to grow stronger. Firestorm takes the Lantern and attempts to fight the Anti-Monitor, but is defeated. Deathstorm then brings Professor Stein out of his Matrix to taunt the two. Deathstorm attempts to turn Ronnie to salt, but the Professor takes the brunt of the attack. Angered, Ronnie decides to truly work together with Jason to avenge the Professor. The Entity then declares that Ronnie has accomplished his mission, returning life to him in a burst of white energy that obliterates the Black Lanterns, returns Jason's father to his home, and deposits Firestorm in the Star City forest. Ronnie angrily attempts to make the Entity resurrect the Professor, but is refused. Deadman then arrives demanding that he be given the White Lantern.[11]

When the "Dark Avatar" makes his presence known, Deadman is forced to collect Ronnie's essence, turning Firestorm into one of the Elementals. The life forces of Aquaman, Martian Manhunter, Hawkman and Hawkgirl are also revealed to be part of the Elementals, which guard the forest located in Star City. They have been transformed by the Entity to represent the elements of Water (Aquaman), Fire (Firestorm), Earth (Martian Manhunter), and Wind (Hawkman and Hawkgirl). These elements protect the Star City Forest from the "Dark Avatar", which is revealed to be the Swamp Thing corrupted into a Black Lantern.[12]

The Entity reveals that Alec Holland perished in an explosion in his lab, and that the present Swamp Thing is not actually Holland but rather an elemental being that thinks it is Holland as a result of absorbing his memories. The Elementals end up fighting Swamp Thing, and The Entity explains that Alec Holland must become the new Swamp Thing. While the Entity tries to familiarize itself with Alec Holland, Captain Boomerang arrives to take part in his labor; it is revealed that Captain Boomerang's mission was to free Hawk as an Avatar of War from the Lords of Chaos, because his act of saving Dove would have broken their hold on him to be his own self. However, he fails to catch the boomerang he threw and instead it is caught by Boston Brand. Because of this, Boston Brand dies and uses his final act to transfer his white power ring to Alec Holland and bring him back to life, allowing him to become the new Swamp Thing and cleanse "The Green" from Nekron's influence by destroying the corrupted Swamp Thing. As Swamp Thing, Alec Holland restores life to natural areas around the world and declares that those who hurt "The Green" will face his wrath. He also restores Aquaman, Firestorm, Hawkman, and Martian Manhunter to normal.

In the aftermath, Aquaman and Mera are reunited and are seen examining the Xebel technology, which turns out to be made from Atlantean technology. Ronald Raymond and Jason Rusch must find a way to contain their Firestorm matrix from the explosion less than ninety days hence. Hawkman discovers that Hawkgirl has not been restored to normal and goes off to look for her. Doctor Erdel's daughter Melissa begins to lose her mind, and the Martian Manhunter helps remove a piece of debris from her head. The book ends with Swamp Thing killing several businessmen who have engaged in polluting activities.

The New 52
During the events of the "Rise of the Third Army" storyline as part of The New 52, Kyle Rayner begins uniting the powers of all seven Corps to stop the latest threat, despite Kyle's uncertainty about his ability to channel the powers.[14] After Kyle has mastered the seven powers of the emotional spectrum, he is transformed into a White Lantern with the ability to destroy some members of the Third Army, and now will apparently be able to stop the threat of the Guardians of the Universe.[15] Later, Kyle and Carol Ferris arrive at the destroyed planet Korugar. Sinestro attacks them both, blaming them that his home planet is destroyed by the villainous First Lantern. He notices that Kyle has become a White Lantern and demanded that Korugar be restored, but Kyle fails to resurrect Korugar. Sinestro struggles with Kyle for the white ring, attempting to become a White Lantern himself, but the ring rejects him. The white ring then comes into the possession of Simon Baz, but he is rejected as well. The white ring then returns to Kyle's ownership.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-glng19_16-0">[16]

Powers and Abilites
Each White Lantern possesses a power ring that lets the user create white energy constructs powered by life itself. The original wielder of the Entity, Sinestro, displays the ability to eradicate swarms of Black Lanterns effortlessly and is described as "godlike". He also appears to survive a seemingly fatal wound from which he recovers within minutes.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-17">[17] When Hal Jordan wields the power, he demonstrates the ability to create additional rings and restore heroes claimed by Nekron to life.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-bn8_2-1">[2]

When Deadman possesses a white ring, he demonstrates the ability to resurrect a dead bird.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-bn8_2-2">[2] He is also able to transform the area of land devastated by Prometheus into a lush forest. However, this seems to be the work of the Entity, as Deadman had been unable to access the ring's powers himself.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-bd0_3-1">[3]

Similar to black rings, white rings initially have no charge. As the wearer embraces life again the ring rises in power level.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-18">[18] What happens when a white ring reaches one hundred percent charge remains unknown. The only thing known is that the ring as it charged itself gave Deadman the sensation that someone would die. As the ring reached 100%, it forced Deadman to meet the Hawks where the ring tasked them a second labor, however when Carter and Shiera refused to obey, both lovers were apparently reduced to white dust in the process.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-bd18_7-1">[7]

A green ring can be altered to function like a white ring if the user can master the emotional spectrum.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-glng0_14-1">[14] This version of the ring is similar to a much more powerful version of the standard green ring, and ignores the Third Army's resistance to Lantern constructs, but displays no other special properties thus far.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-glng16_15-1">[15] This white ring was unable to perform the resurrection to a planet's worth of beings that had died all at once, but it has not yet been tested on an individual basis to determine if this is a limitation of function or simply scope<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-glng19_16-1">[16] ; Kyle claimed that he can only heal rather than raising the dead, but this may be an assumption rather than a fact.

Members

 * Swamp Thing <sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-bd24_13-2">
 * Kyle Rayner
 * Hawkman
 * Aquaman<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-bd24_13-8">
 * Firestorm<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-bd24_13-9">
 * Hawk<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-bd24_13-10">
 * Professor Zoom <sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-23">
 * Captain Boomerang <sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-bd24_13-11">
 * Osiris
 * Maxwell Lord <sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-28">
 * Jade