10 Surprising DC Characters Who Became Lanterns

Published Aug 9, 2026, 11:00 PM EDT Emedo Ashibeze is a tenured journalist and critic specializing in the entertainment industry. Before joining ScreenRant in 2025. he wrote for several major publications, including GameRant. Green Lantern lore doesn’t solely preach the Corps themselves. It’s also rife with unlikely characters who have worn various Lantern rings. Because the rings are powered by emotion, almost anyone can qualify; what matters is the strength of the particular feeling a ring is looking for. Over the course of DC history, different characters (heroes and villains alike) have wielded Lantern rings, however temporary. Most of these instances come during Blackest Night, in which Nekron reanimates the dead as his Black Lanterns and turns them against the living. However, some characters have worn other colors of the spectrum during and outside Blackest Night, some multiple times. 10 Superman Superman is a man of many rings. Apart from wearing black in Blackest Night and eventually white after the Entity freed all Black Lanterns, Superman has also donned yellow and green. And both, more than once. He wore the yellow ring of fear twice: in Injustice: Gods Among Us and Superman #19. The yellow ring is attracted to Superman for his ability to instill fear in others, as is Parallax when he possesses him in Superman #19. Superman’s green ring was obtained under quite unusual circumstances. Superman Prime One Million inherits the ring of the last Green Lantern. And in the Elseworlds Superman: Last Son of Earth, a human Clark — rocketed to Krypton as an infant and raised by Jor-El as Kal-El — unearths a dead Green Lantern on an archaeological dig, and the ring judges him worthy. 9 Batman No character outside the Corps proper has been a Lantern more often, or under more colors, than the Dark Knight. Batman has worn an Emotional Spectrum ring no fewer than a dozen times. In Blackest Night, a clone corpse mistaken for Batman’s is recovered and turned into a Black Lantern, before briefly becoming a White Lantern in Brightest Day Green is the color he has worn most: in Green Lantern: Rebirth, to confront his parents’ death through Hal Jordan’s ring; in The Batman animated series, to fight Sinestro; in Elseworlds Batman: In Darkest Knight, where he essentially substitutes Hal Jordan as the custodian of Abin Sur’s ring and Earth's Green primary Lantern. Batman nearly becomes a Yellow Lantern in Forever Evil. There, a Sinestro Corps recruitment ring latches onto him before departing to detect his willpower and prior green contact. Before leaving him, though, it reshaped his costume into a Corps uniform. 8 Mogo It is no secret that Lanterns come in all shapes, sizes, and physiology. That doesn’t mean some wielders will cease to baffle onlookers. Mogo, the biggest Green Lantern, is a prime example of such a Lantern. As a living planet, Mogo controls the elements and ecosystems in and around him. This includes, but is not limited to, weather, chlorokinesis, and gravity manipulation. Interestingly, people have been on Mogo without realizing it’s a Green Lantern. A case in point is Bolphunga the Unrelenting in Mogo Doesn’t Socialize. Bolphunga chases glory by seeking out Mogo. He lands on the planet, searches in vanity, and plants bombs as he leaves, hoping to flush out the so-called “Mogo.” His shock from aboard his spaceship is priceless when Mogo disables those bombs and appears as a Green Lantern. 7 Scarecrow In DC lore, no character is more famous for manipulating fear than Jonathan Crane, also known as Scarecrow. It may explain writers Geoff Johns and Ivan Reis’ choice to make him the candidate for a fear-powered Yellow Lantern ring in Blackest Night; Batman might have been a candidate, but he was dead at the time. In that event, Scarecrow’s Yellow Lantern is short-lived after his ring is stolen by none other than an avarice-driven Orange Lantern Lex Luthor. Of course, Scarecrow long after sought to reunite with the power of fear the ring gave him. Much later, when he gets his hands on it, he learns the ring’s mechanisms and uses this new resource to manipulate people’s fears even more. Yellow rings had sought Scarecrow even before Blackest Night. In that first instance, the ring of the slain Amon Sur (Abin Sur's son) flies to Earth in search of Crane, only for Hal Jordan and John Stewart to intercept it on its way to Arkham. 6 Wonder Woman Diana has wielded different rings at various points in the comics. A dead Wonder Woman is claimed by a black ring in Blackest Night and fights for the Lord of the Unliving, Nekron. This is the case until the violet ring finds her, and she becomes a Star Sapphire. More recently, in Tom King’s Wonder Woman #34, Diana wields John Stewart’s Green Lantern ring. She becomes its host after the villain Matriarch kills Stewart and takes his ring; Diana seizes it mid-battle and defeats Matriarch with a single punch. During that fight, she also reveals something interesting: Lantern rings have always called to her. So although she had previously worn only a violet Star Sapphire ring, she possessed the requisite willpower for the Green Lantern ring to deem her a worthy host. 5 Mera Mera, wife of Aquaman and Queen of Atlantis, has hardly been one to be calm in battle. But perhaps her most ferocious moments in the comics came during her stint as a Red Lantern in Blackest Night. Fueled by the rage of her husband and son (the latter murdered at the hands of Black Manta), she ferociously fights Black Lantern Wonder Woman in Coast City. The savagery of that fight isn’t unnoticed. The Red Lantern Corps are impressed with Mera and make her a member. Now in red, she sequels a battle with the Black Lanterns. She nearly dies from the destructive effects of the ring, save for Saint Walker’s assistance with his blue ring, as it's the only ring known to nullify the red ring. 4 Flash Like several other Justice Leaguers, Barry Allen’s time as a Lantern came during Blackest Night. Unlike them, though, he dodged being a Black Lantern — and one of Nekron’s minions — and instead was given a blue ring. With the blue ring, Barry is one of the seven deputized ring-bearers assembled by Ganthet against Nekron, one for each color of the spectrum. The others are: Diana’s violet love, Scarecrow’s yellow fear, Lex Luthor’s orange avarice, Mera’s red rage, Atom’s indigo compassion, and Ganthet's own green will. Hope is what powers a blue ring, and Barry's purpose is to carry it at speed. But a blue ring is nearly inert on its own; its strength is amplifying a nearby green ring and healing. 3 Lex Luthor Lex Luthor is known for his cold-blooded self-interest. Thus, it surprised few readers when the avarice-powered orange ring chose him during Ganthet's mass deputization in Blackest Night. True to his and the ring’s nature, Lex immediately tries to acquire other rings: first robbing Scarecrow of his yellow ring and going after Mera’s red, albeit unsuccessfully. His greed becomes too much even for Larfleeze, the sole Orange Lantern and the embodiment of greed itself, who tells him he has gone too far and beats him for it. Lex’s display is actually consistent with the lore of the ring. Greed needs something left to want, which is why the Orange Lantern Corps has room for only one member. 2 Supergirl Supergirl’s time as a Lantern doesn't come during Blackest Night. It manifests in Red Daughter of Krypton, the New 52 crossover by Tony Bedard, Yildiray Cinar and Emanuela Lupacchino. Here, one of nine red rings Atrocitus has sent out to find the angriest beings in the universe is drawn to Kara after she flies off the handle and brutally beats down Lobo. The Corps Kara joins is headed by Guy Gardner’s faction, who now exercise jurisdiction over Sector 2814. Under Gardner's tutelage, Kara learns the dos and don’ts of the red ring. Well aware of the consequences of removing the red ring — it has replaced the heart; thus, removing it equals death — she does remove it much later and survives. But not before doing serious damage to foes, particularly the Diasporan fleet and Worldkiller-1. 1 Green Arrow Green Arrow (Oliver Queen) briefly swapped the bow and quiver for a power ring in 2005’s Green Lantern: Rebirth #4. The power ring in this case belonged to Hal Jordan, who lay dead in the Watchtower, under guard from Oliver Queen and Kyle Rayner. When Sinestro attacks, Kyle visibly struggles to prevail, forcing a desperate Oliver to wear Hal’s ring. But he fumbles his attempt to recite the oath and charge the ring. Sinestro makes the mistake of mocking him and a dead Hal. Furious, Oliver converts his rage into will and shoots a single green arrow construct from his ring into Sinestro’s chest. To date, readers of this comic have one question about the encounter, and it's not why Oliver nearly collapses after one single construct. It’s why and how rage could be transformed into the will to power a green ring. Created By Martin Nodell, Bill Finger, John Broome, Gil Kane, Dennis O'Neil, Neal Adams Cast Ryan Reynolds First Appearance All-American Comics Alias Alan Scott, Hal Jordan, Guy Gardner, John Stewart, Kyle Rayner, Simon Baz, Jessica Cruz, Sojourner Mullein Alliance Justice League, Justice Society of America, Green Lantern Corps Movies Green Lantern