10 Worst Things The Green Lanterns Have Ever Done
Remember when they tried to kill all magic? Good times.
If there's one thing that's completely bizarre about the DC universe, it's the way the Green Lanterns are used. While they were initially intended as the noble can-do-no-wrong police of the galaxy, various comic runs and storylines have had them appear more like supervillains than anything else.
And when they're not terrorising the galaxy they've sworn to protect, the Green Lanterns are making the lives of their own members miserable, via a mixture of not properly training them, and not policing their own members when they do awful, awful things - unless it makes them look good to other people, of course.
Sure, being the peacekeepers for an entire galaxy is by no means an easy job. In fact, it's one that almost dictates that you do some pretty sketchy stuff along the way for the greater good. But the structure of the Green Lanterns themselves seems tailor-built to ensure that their members are forced into pretty nasty situations without any help from the people they are supposed to consider their team.
Tragically, there's no Federal Bureau of Investigation for the DC universe, because they'd quickly find that the life-ruining policies of the Green Lantern Corps often make them no better than the people they are fighting and killing much of the time.
10. Hiring The Guy Who Killed Mogo - Green Lantern Corps (Vol. 2) #60
In terms of Green Lanterns who have had it rough, John Stewart is perhaps the most overlooked of all. He's initially almost rejected out of the Lanterns because of Hal Jordan taking a dislike to him, and continues this train of misfortune through most of his superhero career - right up until he kills Mogo, in the worst move of his entire career.
For anyone not versed in who Mogo is, he's kind of a huge deal for the Green Lanterns, because he's a living planet who's responsible for sending Green Lantern rings to their new owners whenever one frees up, meaning that without him, the whole process becomes infinitely more tricky. Worse yet, John doesn't kill Mogo because he turns traitor - no, he kills him because he's been mind-controlled by a villain named Krona, meaning that he actually killed a totally innocent being.
But this can't be blamed on the Lanterns themselves, right? Wrong! Because immediately after murdering Mogo in cold blood, John is reinstated as a Green Lantern, in a move that feels undeniably sketchy as hell. Sure, he did what he felt he had to - but they also just immediately forgive his cold-blooded murder seemingly without even a chat about what happened, which is super messed up.