I. Hate. The. Rainbow. Lantern. Corps. It is one of the dumbest concepts I have ever seen, and it dilutes some of the best villains in comics. Seriously...

Black Lanterns - These guys were marginally okay, and a curiosity to me, because almost twenty years ago, a comic loving coworker had suggested to me that Black Lanterns would be kick-ass villains. I kind of blew the idea off, because who needs another color power ring, but I did find GL #150 with a cover showing guys with black power rings, and gave it to him. Never thought I'd see something like Blackest Night. Still, it was basically an excuse for DC zombie covers, and it didn't seem that threatening. And now a White Lantern can negate them. Very odd.

Blue Lanterns are useless. Their only power is to augment Green Lanterns, kind of like the Game Genie for the Nintendo, and yet, Blue L's are hardly ever around.

Indigo Lanterns (Indigo Tribe, actually) are too busy being written as mysterious - I consider them to be the Phantom Strangers of the Corps - they don't really do much when they're around, yet viewed by all as very powerful.

Red Lanterns are...well...they're just kind of gross, frankly. I don't really want to read a comic that centers around a guy who pukes blood as a power. Why do people think this is cool?

Orange Lanterns. Their power is greed? There is only one orange ring, and only the greediest can keep it. And that power is focused to what end? Again, kind of a useless color for the rainbow of corps.

Green Lanterns - the name has never made sense to me, except in connection to Alan Scot, but I love the GL Corps. Their power is their will, and that makes sense - a strong will is needed in a hero, if he's going to face evil. So no problem, Green Lanterns.

Violet Lanterns are the Star Sapphires. Really? When Carol Ferris was the only Star Sapphire, she was fearsome, and there was apparently only one Star Sapphire. And it was hers, because her looks made her queen of an entire alien race - Zamarons. Granted, Carol's sole purpose with the gem seemed to be to get GL to marry her (stupid Sixties), and she never made use of the fact that she commanded an entire race of space amazons to any cool ends, like invading Earth, or out-cookie-baking the Girl Scouts. But the potential was there. Now, because Carol was always smitten with GL, the SS Corps' purpose is love - nevermind that the queen of the love corps was a villainess, which doesn't send a very loving message. So thanks for effing up Star Sapphire, Blackest Night.

Last, the Sinestro Corps...this should probably be a separate blog, but here goes. WHY is there an entire corps of these guys? Is it “Sinestro was fearsome, so an entire corps with the same power is even more fearsome?” Fail. Epic, cosmic, universal fail. Sinestro was fearsome because he was just. one. guy. One guy with a yellow power ring, and an army of ringslingers, 3600 strong, were AFRAID of him. THAT is a cool villain: One guy, one ring, one of a kind, all cool. But now that’s the Orange Lantern and his power of greed. Ooo, greed - his power is that he can't share. And Sinestro is a good guy now? And not “the last of the Green Lanterns,” or “the best of the Green Lanterns,” just “one of 7200 Green Lanterns” (because TWO guys to an entire space sector makes WAY more sense than just ONE). So not only did they dilute him by making an entire yellow corps, but they neutered him by putting him back in the GLC. It’s an interesting idea, because fans are curious to see how ruthless of a hero he’ll be – perhaps a more brutal enforcer of the green will than the guy with the goofy green hands of yesteryear. But face it, what everyone is really waiting for is the inevitable moment that Sinestro goes bad again.

And P.S., the reason it was called the Sinestro Corps, instead of the Yellow Lantern Corps, like all the other colors, is because Yellow Lantern could only evoke memories of the Bizarro GL, from the golden days of Bizarro World, and as much as I loved that character, nobody could take a corps with that name seriously.

Also, whatever happened to Mongul’s search for a ring of each color? They were clearly heading in an Infinity Gauntlet direction with him and the rings, and that seemed to just die out and go nowhere. Mongul’s search for one ring of each color seemed to be the ultimate destination of the Rainbow Corps idea. Not that I thought it was a good idea, but if you’re going to put it out there, follow through. Maybe they could revisit this idea, bringing about the deadly revamp of a long lost villain: Rainbow Raider!

There was some beautiful artwork to come out of the Sinestro Corps War and Blackest Night, but that was about it. The Rainbow Corps is a bad, bad, bad idea, and I have yet to see a payoff to it. The only value to redundant characters (i.e. an entire corps with the same powers) is if one character doesn’t work, you can replace them with another character and put a different spin on it, via their viewpoints and motivations. That’s worked with the Green Lanterns for many years, but the villains should not be so easily replaceable. Great villains are not interchangeable villains. Interchangeable villains are called "henchmen," or in a more common lingo, “red shirts.” Hm, maybe “red lanterns” has a use after all.

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