...and now a little in-universe ring history. Any data corrections are welcome.
When Green Lantern Abin Sur crash-landed on Earth and sustained fatal injuries, he commanded his power ring to find a worthy successor. It chose test pilot Hal Jordan. Accepting the responsibility thrust upon him, Jordan wore Abin Sur’s ring and became the Green Lantern of space sector 2814 (SHOWCASE # 22).
During a battle with Evil Star on planet Oa, home base of the Guardians of The Universe and their Green Lantern Corps, Jordan’s ring was yanked off of his finger and blown apart. The Guardians subsequently provided him with a new ring to replace it (GREEN LANTERN Vol. 2 # 37. On the letters page of GREEN LANTERN # 40, editor Julius Schwartz specifically addressed a reader’s comments on the matter by stating that the new ring was an identical duplicate of Abin Sur’s, and that the Guardians had backed-up and ported over the original ring’s memories and data into the new one. This would be borne out in future stories—see below.).
During another battle with Evil Star on Oa, Jordan’s ring was again taken from him and destroyed. Jordan subsequently made brief use of a second ring during the battle, which Evil Star also destroyed. This second ring was actually Abin Sur’s original ring (destroyed by Evil Star in GL # 37), whose fragments Jordan had collected, reassembled, and charged prior to the battle, since he had anticipated that Evil Star would again try to destroy his ring. The Guardians subsequently recovered and reformed the shattered pieces of both rings into an identical duplicate of Jordan’s original (GREEN LANTERN Vol. 2 # 44). Thus Jordan’s second ring (given to him in GL # 37) contained the memories of Abin Sur’s ring, while his third ring (given to him in GL # 44) was now also partially constructed from the physical remains of Abin Sur’s ring, as well.
Some time later, Jordan was approached by a “Professor Cally”, who claimed to have invented a special filter to attach to Jordan’s power ring in order to prevent the yellow wavelength of light from reaching it, thus eliminating the ring’s weakness to the color yellow (a weakness due to a necessary yellow impurity in the construction of the ring). After successfully using this filter for a full week, Jordan’s ring began to malfunction, and then finally stopped working entirely. It was subsequently revealed that the ring’s yellow impurity would gradually fade away and cease to exist without regular exposure to the yellow wavelength of light. Worse, “Professor Cally” was actually Commander Calibax, an alien space-pirate who had previously escaped Jordan and fled to Earth, and had then tricked Jordan into accepting the filter device so as to disable his ring and leave him powerless. Unarmed, Jordan still managed to defeat Calibax, and noted that his ring would need to be replaced by the Guardians, which it ostensibly was, rather than merely being repaired (GREEN LANTERN Vol. 2 # 68).
Jordan wore his V1-style ring until the Guardians recalled the Green Lantern Corps to planet Oa to provide them with new and improved power rings (GREEN LANTERN/GREEN ARROW # 90). This new ring again had all of the memories and data from Abin Sur’s ring ported into it (or perhaps the “new” V3 ring was a redesigned and reshaped version of Jordan’s previous V1 ring itself, rather than being an entirely separate ring), including the alien wizard, Myrwhydden, who had been imprisoned by Abin Sur in his ring, years prior (ADVENTURE COMICS # 460). Since all of the data from Abin Sur’s original ring had been backed-up and ported into the three replacement V1 rings Jordan had used after Abin Sur’s ring was destroyed (the replacements from GL # 37, # 44, and ostensibly, # 68), Myrwhydden was also transferred into Jordan’s new V3 ring.
Jordan wore this V3-style ring (which later morphed without an on-panel explanation into the more familiar V2 circa GL # 121, and was sometimes drawn as a V1 by both Keith Pollard and George Tuska during the span of GL # 160-171, as it also was in occasional guest-appearances drawn by other artists in various other series) until he decided to quit being Green Lantern. The ring was then given to backup GL John Stewart (GREEN LANTERN Vol. 2 # 181-182, 185). At the end of the Crisis on Infinite Earths, the dying Tomar Re, Green Lantern of sector 2813, passed his ring to John Stewart so that Hal Jordan could get his own back (GREEN LANTERN Vol. 2 # 198, with the art depicting it as a sort of V2/V3 hybrid—a separate GL symbol-piece atop a V3-ish tri-band).
The captions (rather mistakenly, all things considered) refer to this ring as as the one given to Jordan by Abin Sur, which, as noted, had technically been destroyed in GL # 37, then merged with pieces of another destroyed ring (the identical replacement Jordan had used from GL # 37-44) in GL # 44. This third ring was then rendered powerless in GL # 68, and seemingly replaced with an entirely new one. However, Jordan’s new V3 ring, introduced in GL/GA # 90 (apparently the same ring Jordan used up through GL # 181–despite its notable change in design, circa GL/GA # 121–,then given to Stewart), was also ostensibly another brand-new ring, as well.
However, if the ring seen from GL # 69-89 was actually just a repaired version of the ring seen from GL # 44-68, rather than an all-new replacement (since the previous ring Jordan had used up until GL # 68 was itself was partially fashioned from the remains of Abin Sur’s ring), this may not necessarily be incorrect. The replacement ring from GL # 44, containing portions of Abin Sur’s ring, may have been used by Jordan up through GL # 68, repaired after its yellow impurity had faded away, refashioned into the “new” V3 from GL/GA # 90, then changed its shape into the V2 (circa GL/GA # 121, since the V3 ring had an established ability to change its appearance). Continuity-wise, this would allow for portions of Abin Sur’s original ring to have survived through numerous reincarnations.
That all being said, Jordan had worn no fewer than five different rings (including Abin Sur’s original), by this point, with only one replacement ring specifically being said to have incorporated portions of the original, destroyed ring. So, referring to the ring being used by Stewart at that time (and then given back to Jordan) as the one originally given to Jordan by Abin Sur is...something of a stretch, to say the least.
Along with its memories and data, portions of Abin Sur’s ring may well have survived through at least four distinct incarnations/reconstructions (from SHOWCASE # 22 through GL # 37; then from GL # 44 through GL # 68; then from GL # 69-89, assuming that the previous ring was simply just repaired instead of outright replaced; and then from GL/GA # 90 until its final destruction in ACTION COMICS WEEKLY # 634–see below), and possibly even a fifth, considering the unexplained V3-to-V2 transition in the artwork, circa GL/GA # 121. However, Jordan’s V3 ring from GL/GA # 90 was often specifically described as a “new” ring, albeit one which contained the memories of his original, so it’s unclear whether or not Jordan actually carried Abin Sur’s ring (or various reconstituted versions of it) for most of his career.
On a somewhat-related note, in ACTION COMICS WEEKLY # 614–a dubious Peter David story which revealed that Abin Sur’s ring had given Jordan a “psychic lobotomy” in order to comply with Abin Sur’s request for a totally fearless successor—, Jordan mistakenly describes his current ring as having been Tomar Re’s. It is specifically noted that the memories and data of Abin Sur’s ring are now inaccessible, since the database stored within the central power battery on Oa has been destroyed along with the battery itself (in GREEN LANTERN CORPS # 224). As noted, in GL # 198, Jordan’s ring—supposedly still possessing the memories of Abin Sur’s ring— was given back to him, and Tomar Re’s ring was given to John Stewart.
Either way, this plotline is technically incorrect. It had been previously established that even a destroyed ring’s memories could be retrieved by the Guardians and ported into a new ring. Indeed, the rings could also tap into the data stored in the Book of Oa (repository of the Guardians’ knowledge and history, which apparently had NOT been destroyed along with the central battery), and the central power battery on Oa retained a record of all Green Lantern rings’ data and memories, for the purposes of review and/or transfer to other rings when needed. While the destruction of the battery would certainly have precluded Jordan from accessing another ring’s data, it had been clearly established that the ring he was using at the time of ACW # 614 still retained the data from Abin Sur’s ring.
Jordan continued to wear his old V2-style ring in action as Green Lantern, even after the disbanding of the Corps and the destruction of the central power battery (GREEN LANTERN CORPS # 224), which left only Jordan, John Stewart, Guy Gardner, and Ch’p’s rings functioning. However, Jordan’s ring was soon after destroyed in combat with Lord Malvolio, a half-human madman who’d murdered his own father (an alien Green Lantern) and stolen his ring (ACTION COMICS WEEKLY # 634-635). Jordan seemingly killed Malvolio and took his ring in order to return home to Earth. Malvolio’s ring was a V1-style (which Jordan took note of at the time), but his “death” was actually a ruse, and his master plan hinged upon Jordan taking his ring, for purposes unknown. This plot thread was never followed up on, but, in the wake of “Emerald Twilight”, many longtime readers assumed that Malvolio’s ring was perhaps responsible for Jordan going mad and destroying the Corps.
Jordan subsequently wore Malvolio’s ring throughout the slow rebuilding of the Corps, but then Coast City was destroyed. Jordan went mad with grief, and sought to take the Guardians’ power in order to recreate his lost hometown (GREEN LANTERN Vol. 3 # 48-50). After absorbing the power of the central battery and becoming the villain called Parallax, Jordan contemptuously destroyed his old ring, but the pieces were recovered by Ganthet, the last surviving Guardian, and reformed into a new (V2-style) ring. This reformed ring was presented to artist Kyle Rayner, who became the last of the Green Lanterns.
Years later, when Earth was menaced by the fear entity called Parallax, Green Arrow revealed that Jordan had given him a spare (V1-style) ring, in case of emergency. By this time, Jordan had died saving the Earth, and had now been resurrected and revealed to have been corrupted by the Parallax entity, resulting in the events of “Emerald Twilight”. The restored Jordan took possession of the spare ring, and resumed his role as Green Lantern (GREEN LANTERN REBIRTH # 1-6).
...and then a bunch of other wacky stuff happened. And I guess Jordan created a new ring for himself out of pure willpower. And Geoff Johns rewrote a bunch of the GL lore to include a ridiculous “emotional spectrum” of Lantern corps and other such poppycock completely at odds with the established lore. Since my sweet spot is the original canon from 1959-1994, the modern era is pretty much a blindspot, for me.
When Green Lantern Abin Sur crash-landed on Earth and sustained fatal injuries, he commanded his power ring to find a worthy successor. It chose test pilot Hal Jordan. Accepting the responsibility thrust upon him, Jordan wore Abin Sur’s ring and became the Green Lantern of space sector 2814 (SHOWCASE # 22).
During a battle with Evil Star on planet Oa, home base of the Guardians of The Universe and their Green Lantern Corps, Jordan’s ring was yanked off of his finger and blown apart. The Guardians subsequently provided him with a new ring to replace it (GREEN LANTERN Vol. 2 # 37. On the letters page of GREEN LANTERN # 40, editor Julius Schwartz specifically addressed a reader’s comments on the matter by stating that the new ring was an identical duplicate of Abin Sur’s, and that the Guardians had backed-up and ported over the original ring’s memories and data into the new one. This would be borne out in future stories—see below.).
During another battle with Evil Star on Oa, Jordan’s ring was again taken from him and destroyed. Jordan subsequently made brief use of a second ring during the battle, which Evil Star also destroyed. This second ring was actually Abin Sur’s original ring (destroyed by Evil Star in GL # 37), whose fragments Jordan had collected, reassembled, and charged prior to the battle, since he had anticipated that Evil Star would again try to destroy his ring. The Guardians subsequently recovered and reformed the shattered pieces of both rings into an identical duplicate of Jordan’s original (GREEN LANTERN Vol. 2 # 44). Thus Jordan’s second ring (given to him in GL # 37) contained the memories of Abin Sur’s ring, while his third ring (given to him in GL # 44) was now also partially constructed from the physical remains of Abin Sur’s ring, as well.
Some time later, Jordan was approached by a “Professor Cally”, who claimed to have invented a special filter to attach to Jordan’s power ring in order to prevent the yellow wavelength of light from reaching it, thus eliminating the ring’s weakness to the color yellow (a weakness due to a necessary yellow impurity in the construction of the ring). After successfully using this filter for a full week, Jordan’s ring began to malfunction, and then finally stopped working entirely. It was subsequently revealed that the ring’s yellow impurity would gradually fade away and cease to exist without regular exposure to the yellow wavelength of light. Worse, “Professor Cally” was actually Commander Calibax, an alien space-pirate who had previously escaped Jordan and fled to Earth, and had then tricked Jordan into accepting the filter device so as to disable his ring and leave him powerless. Unarmed, Jordan still managed to defeat Calibax, and noted that his ring would need to be replaced by the Guardians, which it ostensibly was, rather than merely being repaired (GREEN LANTERN Vol. 2 # 68).
Jordan wore his V1-style ring until the Guardians recalled the Green Lantern Corps to planet Oa to provide them with new and improved power rings (GREEN LANTERN/GREEN ARROW # 90). This new ring again had all of the memories and data from Abin Sur’s ring ported into it (or perhaps the “new” V3 ring was a redesigned and reshaped version of Jordan’s previous V1 ring itself, rather than being an entirely separate ring), including the alien wizard, Myrwhydden, who had been imprisoned by Abin Sur in his ring, years prior (ADVENTURE COMICS # 460). Since all of the data from Abin Sur’s original ring had been backed-up and ported into the three replacement V1 rings Jordan had used after Abin Sur’s ring was destroyed (the replacements from GL # 37, # 44, and ostensibly, # 68), Myrwhydden was also transferred into Jordan’s new V3 ring.
Jordan wore this V3-style ring (which later morphed without an on-panel explanation into the more familiar V2 circa GL # 121, and was sometimes drawn as a V1 by both Keith Pollard and George Tuska during the span of GL # 160-171, as it also was in occasional guest-appearances drawn by other artists in various other series) until he decided to quit being Green Lantern. The ring was then given to backup GL John Stewart (GREEN LANTERN Vol. 2 # 181-182, 185). At the end of the Crisis on Infinite Earths, the dying Tomar Re, Green Lantern of sector 2813, passed his ring to John Stewart so that Hal Jordan could get his own back (GREEN LANTERN Vol. 2 # 198, with the art depicting it as a sort of V2/V3 hybrid—a separate GL symbol-piece atop a V3-ish tri-band).
The captions (rather mistakenly, all things considered) refer to this ring as as the one given to Jordan by Abin Sur, which, as noted, had technically been destroyed in GL # 37, then merged with pieces of another destroyed ring (the identical replacement Jordan had used from GL # 37-44) in GL # 44. This third ring was then rendered powerless in GL # 68, and seemingly replaced with an entirely new one. However, Jordan’s new V3 ring, introduced in GL/GA # 90 (apparently the same ring Jordan used up through GL # 181–despite its notable change in design, circa GL/GA # 121–,then given to Stewart), was also ostensibly another brand-new ring, as well.
However, if the ring seen from GL # 69-89 was actually just a repaired version of the ring seen from GL # 44-68, rather than an all-new replacement (since the previous ring Jordan had used up until GL # 68 was itself was partially fashioned from the remains of Abin Sur’s ring), this may not necessarily be incorrect. The replacement ring from GL # 44, containing portions of Abin Sur’s ring, may have been used by Jordan up through GL # 68, repaired after its yellow impurity had faded away, refashioned into the “new” V3 from GL/GA # 90, then changed its shape into the V2 (circa GL/GA # 121, since the V3 ring had an established ability to change its appearance). Continuity-wise, this would allow for portions of Abin Sur’s original ring to have survived through numerous reincarnations.
That all being said, Jordan had worn no fewer than five different rings (including Abin Sur’s original), by this point, with only one replacement ring specifically being said to have incorporated portions of the original, destroyed ring. So, referring to the ring being used by Stewart at that time (and then given back to Jordan) as the one originally given to Jordan by Abin Sur is...something of a stretch, to say the least.
Along with its memories and data, portions of Abin Sur’s ring may well have survived through at least four distinct incarnations/reconstructions (from SHOWCASE # 22 through GL # 37; then from GL # 44 through GL # 68; then from GL # 69-89, assuming that the previous ring was simply just repaired instead of outright replaced; and then from GL/GA # 90 until its final destruction in ACTION COMICS WEEKLY # 634–see below), and possibly even a fifth, considering the unexplained V3-to-V2 transition in the artwork, circa GL/GA # 121. However, Jordan’s V3 ring from GL/GA # 90 was often specifically described as a “new” ring, albeit one which contained the memories of his original, so it’s unclear whether or not Jordan actually carried Abin Sur’s ring (or various reconstituted versions of it) for most of his career.
On a somewhat-related note, in ACTION COMICS WEEKLY # 614–a dubious Peter David story which revealed that Abin Sur’s ring had given Jordan a “psychic lobotomy” in order to comply with Abin Sur’s request for a totally fearless successor—, Jordan mistakenly describes his current ring as having been Tomar Re’s. It is specifically noted that the memories and data of Abin Sur’s ring are now inaccessible, since the database stored within the central power battery on Oa has been destroyed along with the battery itself (in GREEN LANTERN CORPS # 224). As noted, in GL # 198, Jordan’s ring—supposedly still possessing the memories of Abin Sur’s ring— was given back to him, and Tomar Re’s ring was given to John Stewart.
Either way, this plotline is technically incorrect. It had been previously established that even a destroyed ring’s memories could be retrieved by the Guardians and ported into a new ring. Indeed, the rings could also tap into the data stored in the Book of Oa (repository of the Guardians’ knowledge and history, which apparently had NOT been destroyed along with the central battery), and the central power battery on Oa retained a record of all Green Lantern rings’ data and memories, for the purposes of review and/or transfer to other rings when needed. While the destruction of the battery would certainly have precluded Jordan from accessing another ring’s data, it had been clearly established that the ring he was using at the time of ACW # 614 still retained the data from Abin Sur’s ring.
Jordan continued to wear his old V2-style ring in action as Green Lantern, even after the disbanding of the Corps and the destruction of the central power battery (GREEN LANTERN CORPS # 224), which left only Jordan, John Stewart, Guy Gardner, and Ch’p’s rings functioning. However, Jordan’s ring was soon after destroyed in combat with Lord Malvolio, a half-human madman who’d murdered his own father (an alien Green Lantern) and stolen his ring (ACTION COMICS WEEKLY # 634-635). Jordan seemingly killed Malvolio and took his ring in order to return home to Earth. Malvolio’s ring was a V1-style (which Jordan took note of at the time), but his “death” was actually a ruse, and his master plan hinged upon Jordan taking his ring, for purposes unknown. This plot thread was never followed up on, but, in the wake of “Emerald Twilight”, many longtime readers assumed that Malvolio’s ring was perhaps responsible for Jordan going mad and destroying the Corps.
Jordan subsequently wore Malvolio’s ring throughout the slow rebuilding of the Corps, but then Coast City was destroyed. Jordan went mad with grief, and sought to take the Guardians’ power in order to recreate his lost hometown (GREEN LANTERN Vol. 3 # 48-50). After absorbing the power of the central battery and becoming the villain called Parallax, Jordan contemptuously destroyed his old ring, but the pieces were recovered by Ganthet, the last surviving Guardian, and reformed into a new (V2-style) ring. This reformed ring was presented to artist Kyle Rayner, who became the last of the Green Lanterns.
Years later, when Earth was menaced by the fear entity called Parallax, Green Arrow revealed that Jordan had given him a spare (V1-style) ring, in case of emergency. By this time, Jordan had died saving the Earth, and had now been resurrected and revealed to have been corrupted by the Parallax entity, resulting in the events of “Emerald Twilight”. The restored Jordan took possession of the spare ring, and resumed his role as Green Lantern (GREEN LANTERN REBIRTH # 1-6).
...and then a bunch of other wacky stuff happened. And I guess Jordan created a new ring for himself out of pure willpower. And Geoff Johns rewrote a bunch of the GL lore to include a ridiculous “emotional spectrum” of Lantern corps and other such poppycock completely at odds with the established lore. Since my sweet spot is the original canon from 1959-1994, the modern era is pretty much a blindspot, for me.
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