Green Lantern Question

[Panzersharkcat]

Because I like overthinking things, I wonder why the Guardians made it so you could just slip a power ring off a Green Lantern's finger. That seems like a gaping security flaw. The ring generates a protective aura around the Lantern. You'd think it'd extend over itself and prevent itself from being forcibly removed. I could kind of see Superman pulling it off but not Batman or Robin. Also, since I started playing DCUO and rewatched the intro cinematic, I wonder why covering up a Green Lantern's ring the way Black Adam did (and Deathstroke in Identity Crisis) would force them into a willpower battle. It should just electrocute the idiot who tries that. I did see one suggestion, though, that Black Adam was crushing Hal's hand and keeping him from concentrating or using the ring to blast him. I also think a Green Lantern should be able to pull off "heat vision" if he/she wanted to since it could be seen as an extension of the aura's energy coming out of the eyes. (I suppose you could do it from the ass like a green fart attack but that seems silly.) I feel like Green Lantern should be the most offensively powerful and versatile member of the Justice League, most powerful weapon in the universe and all. Is there an in-universe reason besides the Guardians are idiots? So yeah, answer these, rip my assumptions apart, answer them while ripping my assumptions apart.

[Ahriman238]

In the Silver Age, whenever a person touched a Green Lantern he could shut down or employ that Lantern's ring, as long as his will was stronger. Some few had a will strong enough they could shut down a GL just by being in the room and focusing very hard on blocking whatever the Lantern was doing. So that's at least longtime canon.

I have no explanation for why the various GLs aren't easily the most powerful and flexible members of any superteam they're on. I blame it on the writers needing to balance characters or constantly forgetting that every single Lantern is a walking no-limits fallacy. We've seen them destroy planets with those rings, and create autonomous construtcs including constructs of other green lanterns that could make constructs of their own.

[Tsyroc]

In that video game trailer it also looked like Hal was injured prior to what we were seeing. So his arm was in a sling and Adam crushing his hand might have messed with his concentration.

The video Justice League: War had Hal controlling the ring when it wasn't on his hand. IIRC there have also been versions of GL where the ring only worked for it's designated wielder and no one else. I vaguely remember Kyle Rayner's ring being like that but I could be wrong since I know he let a younger version of Hal use it briefly.

In the comics when Kyle was Ion he was so powerful and could do so much that the took care of threats by himself that the Justice League was barely aware of by the time he finished, and that was while he was also maintaining a personal presence in the same room as the rest of the team. Of course that's an extreme since he was essentially using all the green power at the time so he was far and above a standard GL. I do remember him holding the Earth together by himself as a regular GL. So you would think that with that much power and all the creativity he had as an artist that he would be crazy powerful on the offensive. Lots of power and from all sorts of different directions at the same time.

[Batman]

What, exactly, would be the advantage of using the ring to emulate heat vision instead of the usual way?

As for me being able to nab Hal's ring, maybe the ring's AI simply didn't register me as a threat. The protective aura doesn't automatically block everything-sound and light usually go through, and you might want to ask Clark sometime about all the times his invulnerability always being on got him in trouble.

My theory is the ring relies on the Lantern for threat analysis while the Lantern is conscious, so if the Lantern doesn't think it's threat, the aura won't block it.

[Freefall]

In the comics when Kyle was Ion he was so powerful and could do so much that the took care of threats by himself that the Justice League was barely aware of by the time he finished, and that was while he was also maintaining a personal presence in the same room as the rest of the team. Of course that's an extreme since he was essentially using all the green power at the time so he was far and above a standard GL. I do remember him holding the Earth together by himself as a regular GL. So you would think that with that much power and all the creativity he had as an artist that he would be crazy powerful on the offensive. Lots of power and from all sorts of different directions at the same time.

With Kyle in particular there is a sort of in-universe explanation for at least some of his feats. In the events leading up to him gaining the Ion power, it was revealed that he had been getting subconsciously amped for a while on the remains of Parallax's power, from when Hal died during Final Night.

So basically, anything Kyle did between Final Night and the Hand of God story that seems uncharacteristically powerful could be argued as a symptom of this.

I also believe that Kyle's ring could only be used by himself, or maybe another Green Lantern. Normal people couldn't use it at all. Of course, Kyle's ring was also the first to dump the yellow vulnerability and 24 hr charge period, so it was obviously a bit different.

[Panzersharkcat]

In the Silver Age, whenever a person touched a Green Lantern he could shut down or employ that Lantern's ring, as long as his will was stronger. Some few had a will strong enough they could shut down a GL just by being in the room and focusing very hard on blocking whatever the Lantern was doing. So that's at least longtime canon.

Huh. I never knew that. So it's not Brad Meltzer making something up to wank out Deathstroke. Do you have an issue number?

I have no explanation for why the various GLs aren't easily the most powerful and flexible members of any superteam they're on. I blame it on the writers needing to balance characters or constantly forgetting that every single Lantern is a walking no-limits fallacy. We've seen them destroy planets with those rings, and create autonomous construtcs including constructs of other green lanterns that could make constructs of their own.

Yeah, that's the only explanation I can think of. Have there been any storylines where Green Lantern would fill in a role normally done by somebody else? Not like Superman and lifting stuff but something like needing to have somebody moved out of the way at super-speed without the Flash around.

What, exactly, would be the advantage of using the ring to emulate heat vision instead of the usual way?

It looks cool. Also, for a situation when a Green Lantern's hand is being crushed. A quick blast may be enough to help shklim get away.

As for me being able to nab Hal's ring, maybe the ring's AI simply didn't register me as a threat. The protective aura doesn't automatically block everything-sound and light usually go through, and you might want to ask Clark sometime about all the times his invulnerability always being on got him in trouble.

My theory is the ring relies on the Lantern for threat analysis while the Lantern is conscious, so if the Lantern doesn't think it's threat, the aura won't block it.

I guess that works. I don't think I've seen the same Lantern get shkler ring pulled off twice in the same universe. I still think it should be automatic but it works as an in-universe explanation.

[Batman]

What, exactly, would be the advantage of using the ring to emulate heat vision instead of the usual way?

It looks cool. Also, for a situation when a Green Lantern's hand is being crushed. A quick blast may be enough to help shklim get away.

We know the ring doesn't need a visible connection to its constructs to make them work-it doesn't even need line of sight. If the ring being covered/the hand being crushed prevents the ring from making constructs, what makes you think it can generate fake heat vision?

[Panzersharkcat]

We know the ring doesn't need a visible connection to its constructs to make them work-it doesn't even need line of sight.

Can't remember any instances off the top of my head. The closest I can think of is Laira, who just looks in a different direction.

If the ring being covered/the hand being crushed prevents the ring from making constructs, what makes you think it can generate fake heat vision?

That's a good point. Any idea of how a Lantern would escape, then? Electrocuting the guy is probably out of the question.

[Ahriman238]

In the Silver Age, whenever a person touched a Green Lantern he could shut down or employ that Lantern's ring, as long as his will was stronger. Some few had a will strong enough they could shut down a GL just by being in the room and focusing very hard on blocking whatever the Lantern was doing. So that's at least longtime canon.

Huh. I never knew that. So it's not Brad Meltzer making something up to wank out Deathstroke. Do you have an issue number?

Well, a prerequisite to pulling this trick off is being able to defeat a Green Lantern in a battle of wills. That's not easy.

There are a handful of instances I can remember, but the only one five minutes of google will let me put a number to is Justice League of America #56. To make a much longer story just long, it was part of the 'Crisis on Multiple Earths' annual JLA/JSA team-up, and Hal and three other heroes consumed a bunch of 'negative energy' to supercharge their powers to defeat the threat of the week (ordinary people empowered and turned evil by large quantities of negative energy) this plan suffered a setback when the affected heroes, including GL, turned evil. The JSA's Wildcat and Mr. Terrific had been paired with Hal as backup/control, so the first thing he does is dissolve the platform he was flying them around on. The other heroes seize Hal as they drop, and their combined will is sufficient to block Hal's use of the ring, so everybody falls.

Actually, it seemed the only power GL gained from the 'negative energy' was to switch back and forth between having his normal yellow weakness and the old JSA GL's weakness to wood. Naturally by the end everything was restored to status quo.

[Elheru Aran]

The general rule about Green Lanterns is that their power is only limited by their imaginations... and what they're capable of thinking of. Sometimes things just don't occur to them, like "hey why don't I just shoot the hand off the guy that's holding my ring hand", because they're more "oh shit I'm gonna get punched in the face". It is a rather major flaw in their characters; you would think the Guardians would focus a little harder upon training that out of them.

[Ahriman238]

Yeah, that's the only explanation I can think of. Have there been any storylines where Green Lantern would fill in a role normally done by somebody else? Not like Superman and lifting stuff but something like needing to have somebody moved out of the way at super-speed without the Flash around.

A couple of times. With rockets even.

Of course, GL can make his own Superman or Flash if he wants. Or twenty of each.

[Batman]

Can he/she/it? The GL constructs I'm familiar with are essentially hardlight machines-they can do incredible things, but they can do incredible things an ordinary machine could do too, if you pour 9 quadrillion dollars and a zillion years of research into it (or five minutes and about a quarter, depending on what tech base you're coming from). A score of Clarks and Wallys would require the Lantern to be able to imbue them with human-level intelligence (and, all too often, human-level stupidity). Has a Lantern ever done that?

[GuppyShark]

I'm not familiar with the arc, but one of Kyle's villains was a construct created by his subconcious - it gave every appearance of being a thinking, sentient being.

EDIT: http://greenlantern.wikia.com/wiki/Oblivion

[Ahriman238]

Can he/she/it? The GL constructs I'm familiar with are essentially hardlight machines-they can do incredible things, but they can do incredible things an ordinary machine could do too, if you pour 9 quadrillion dollars and a zillion years of research into it (or five minutes and about a quarter, depending on what tech base you're coming from). A score of Clarks and Wallys would require the Lantern to be able to imbue them with human-level intelligence (and, all too often, human-level stupidity). Has a Lantern ever done that?

Kyle once created, GuppyShark beat me to it, an evil overlord on the far side of the universe composed of his nightmares (Emerald Knights). Nero could make legions of independently operating monsters all over the city of New York, very few of them in his line of sight or under his direct control, and a couple of them took time from causing general mayhem to do legible graphitti. On another occasion, (Burn in Effigy) Kyle created constructs of Alan, Hal, John, and Guy Gardner, all of which operated independently and could create their own constructs.

Or if you're going to plead the retcons that make Kyle so special all along, Hal was, on many, many occasions, able to make construct people perfectly capable of engaging in lengthy discussion, even telling him things he didn't want to hear. Most tragically at the beginning of Emerald Twilight when he recreated Coast City and it's entire population. They may not be a perfect simulation of the person, but I'm betting they'd more than do for "dogpile that bad guy" or "get the civilians to safety."

And really, the rings were the product of millennia or R&D by the most technically advanced race in the DCU, with sophisticated AI at least on the level of a Mother Box, why should this be surprising?

[Batman]

I'm not pleading anything, it was just I didn't remember any sentient constructs. I somehow forgot about Hal recreating (after a fashion) Coast City
Well, I asked a question, I got an answer (and a pretty detailed one as well) so thanks to Ahriman and the Weird Fish Combo.