10 Most Embarrassing Comic Book Deaths
7. Abin Sur (Showcase #22, 1959)
The Green Lantern Corps is an intergalactic police force with members of various species making up their ranks. They wield green power rings, weapons that are limited only by the wearers’ imagination. These rings are so powerful, that they have been shown to allow their users to travel through space sans spacesuit or spaceship.
Given these abilities, it’s curious that Abin Sur, the Green Lantern who bestowed his power ring to Hal Jordan, crashed landed on Earth before succumbing to his injuries. Even if his ring couldn’t support him in space, why couldn’t he conjure up a giant pillow or something to soften his crash landing?
DC has tried to explain this incongruity by coming up with some elaborate prophecy that Abin Sur’s ring would fail him when he needed it most, but the guy doesn’t even try to save himself. Ryan Reynolds can make Looney Tunes-esque weapons out of green glitter glue, but Abin Sur doesn’t even try to make a parachute? Sorry DC, we’re not buying it. With the frequency with which DC reboots their properties, it is a mystery as to why this one wasn’t just brushed under the carpet. Somebody get Superboy to punch time again!