Hero Profile: Saint Walker

Have you guessed what this week’s Theme is? If you haven’t gotten that it’s a Lantern Corps theme week, then, wow, I don’t think I could have been more obvious if I tried. I don’t want to bring anyone down, but seriously, four types of Lanterns in a row. I think the only way it could have been more obvious is if I'd gone with my original plan and presented them in ROY G BIV style. But enough of that, let’s get onto today’s topic.

I'd follow him.

Hope is a powerful emotion. Even more so than Greed or Hate. Hope help someone to keep going even when it feels like the whole world is against them. Hope is like a candle, it can protect someone for the dark, but one needs to keep it safe or risk letting it go out. The guy who best exemplifies this is Bro’Dee “Saint” Walker, the universe’s first Blue Lantern. Let’s get to it.

Bro’Dee Walker (Aliens have weird names) was a priest on the world of Astonia. He was a deeply religious man, which is kind of surprising given the dire straits his planet was in. Astonia’s sun was dying, I'm talking like in the final weeks before the star went out completely. Walker refused to accept that his planet was doomed, even while his civilization burned around him, and decided to take his family on a spiritual journey, of sorts. Astonias had a sacred mountain, one that was prophesied to present a savior in a time of need. The Walkers trekked across their world to this mountain in the hopes of fulfilling this prophesy. On the way, Walker watched as his wife and children died as his planet inched closer and closer to its doom. In the end, Walker made it to the top of the mountain, and found it empty. Now, this would probably have broken just about anyone else, but Walker refused to give up hope. Walker came to the conclusion that he was the prophesied savior. A pretty big jump in logic, but hey, sometimes you have to be your own hero. He traveled down the mountain and delivered his message of hope to his people. Thankfully, this drew the attention of Ganthet and Sayd. They were Guardians of the Universe that broke away from their fellows and were in the process of creating a new Lantern Corps, centered on Hope. They used their powers, augmented by the hope of the Astonians, to “heal” the Astonia’s sun, making it about 8 Billion years younger, thus saving Walker and his people. Ganthet and Sayd presented Walker with a Blue Lantern Ring, making him the first official member of their new Corps. His people also named him a Saint, which he took up as his new name.

Saint Walker is taken to the Blue Lantern home world, Odym. After a rather short orientation and training period, Walker set out and recruited the second member of the Blue Lantern Corps, Brother Warth, who is a space Man Elephant. I keep finding the weirdest aliens in the various Lantern Corps. A short time later he came across the Green Lantern Corps and Hal Jordan, after the group had been pretty brutally beaten by the Red Lantern Corps. He was attacked by GL’s Kilowag and John Stewart, both of whom had been driven into a berserk rage by the Red Lantern’s influence. Walker was able hold off and cure the two Green Lanterns, as well as several others whom were also driven nuts by the Red Light. When one of the GL’s tried to question Walker about himself and what the heck is going on, he instead kind of… sort of… kidnapped Hal. He brought Hal to Odym, re-introduced him to Ganthet and Sayd, and taught Hal all about the Blue Lantern Corps. After the intros were out of the way, Walker and Warth volunteered to accompany Hal in reclaiming the prisoner he lost in the battle with the RL’s, Sinestro. While they traveled across the universe to the Red Lantern home world, Ysmault, they came across a world in a similar situation that Walker’s once was in, their old sun was dying. Much to Hal’s astonishment, Walker and Warth were able to reignite the dying star, regressing it back to a young blue star.

He was schooling Red Lanterns
even before he got his powers.

Hal flew ahead, got to Ysmault, and was promptly captured by the RL’s, as the corrupting red light sapped his ring of much of its power. He was held along with Sinestro, and was horrified to see his former friend and GL, Liara as a Red Lantern. His and Sinestro’s bacon were saved by the timely arrival of the Sinestro Corps, and the Blue Lanterns. Their presence restored Hal’s ring back to full power, and a huge fight broke out. During the melee, Hal was attacked by Liara. Sinestro “saved” Hal by killing Liara, much to Hal’s fury as he was getting through to Liara. His rage at this latest act cruelty, and all of Sinestro’s previous dickish behavior, drew a Red Ring to him. He was transformed into a Red Lantern, which sapped Walker and Warth’s power. Blue Lanterns need a Green Lantern to reach their full power, so since Hal was technically not a GL any more, they were pretty screwed. Rather than be crushed by how doomed they were, Walker thought outside of the box. He rushed Hal and slipped a Blue Ring on his finger. The healing Blue Light cancelled out the Red, transformed Hal into both a Green and Blue Lantern, and helped restore Walker and Warth’s power. The three were able to beat back the Red Lantern’s and escape. Since then, Walker has been a steadfast ally of Hal and the rest of the Green Lantern Corps. Granter, he’s got a vested interest in being near a Green Lantern, but that’s not why he does it. Even without a GL, Saint Walker is driven to be a beacon of Hope in his chaotic universe, no matter what.

Saint Walker’s power is derived from his Blue Lantern Ring, and the Blue Light of Hope. Of the Seven Lights of the Emotional Spectrum, the Blue Light is technically the most powerful, but it needs a Green Lantern in close proximity in order utilize its full potential. By himself, Walker is only capable of flight and creating a protective field around himself. Walker is able to use his protective field to increase his physical strength as well, which does give him more of an edge. It’s explained that while hope is powerful, one needs to have strong willpower to act upon said hope. When near a Green Lantern, Walker can heal wounds almost instantly, and create hard light constructs. The Blue Lantern Light also enhances Green Lantern power as well, so everyone wins when Blue and Green work together. As mentioned above, a Blue Lantern is powerful enough to reduce a sun’s age by billions of years when near a GL. The Blue Lantern Rings also greatly weaken Lanterns on the opposite end of the spectrum, namely the Red Lanterns and Agent Orange.The Blue Light has consistently been shown to be the only thing to cure a Red Lantern of his/her Ring's alterations, and to fight off the constant hunger that Agent Orange suffers from.
         About once a day, Saint Walker needs to recharge his ring by putting it in his Blue Lantern and say the Blue Lantern Oath. "In Fearful Day, in Raging Night / With strong hearts full our souls ignite / When all seems lost in the War of Light / Look to the stars, for Hope burns bright."

Like Larfleeze and Atrocitus, Saint Walker has really only been used once in DC Media. Again, he was only made back in 2008, so that’s not too shocking.

If you thought seeing a tentacle headed alien and
elephant-like alien saving a sun would be the weirdest
thing I plan on talking about, you haven't seen anything yet.

In Green Lantern: The Animated Series episode “The Lost Planet.” He’s the only being living on the sentient world of Mogo by choice. He encounters Razer, Hal’s Red Lantern ally, and the two fight. Despite not having a power ring yet, Walker is able to easily dodge Razer’s attacks, and does his best to convince Razer to reevaluate his life. He’s also show to have the Green Lantern Ring that Hal and company are looking for, but he returns it, claiming that his path lies elsewhere. We see Walker in the episode “Invasion,” where we learn a little more about him. Despite his apparent confidence, he’s wracked with fear and confusion. Mogo tells Walker to climb his highest peak to learn his destiny, a nice nod to his comic origins. While he climbs, he sees the Red Lanterns arrive on Mogo to recruit some of Mogo’s prisoners. He wants to fight Atrocitus, to take vengeance for his home world, which had been destroyed by the RLs. Mogo encourages Walker to keep climbing. He does begrudgingly listen to Mogo, and finds a Blue Power Ring and Battery waiting for him. He returns in the midseason finale, arriving alongside Mogo to help fight off the Red Lantern invasion. In the second half of the series, in “Blue Hope” he’s become something of a mentor to Razer on Odym, training the confused young man to be a little less angry. Things go a little nuts when it’s discovered that the antagonists of the second half of the series, the Manhunters, get a boost from the Blue Lantern Light, much like GL’s do. After fighting off a squad of Manhunters, it’s decided that the Blue Lantern Central Battery will be shut off until the Manhunter threat is dealt with. Walker is understandably a little depressed that the Blue Lanterns have to wait a while before they can spread their light, but he, again, doesn’t give up hope.

I like Saint Walker. The fact that he’s one of the most powerful, and at the same time weakest, Lanterns in the universe adds a nice angle to the character. Which, again, is a lot like hope. It’s incredibly powerful, but at the same time rather weak. I’ve always been kind of… “Meh” on characters that have a lot of religious symbolism, (I mean he climbs a mountain, achieves enlightment and becomes a messiah, I think just about every religion has a story about someone doing basically that,) but it seems to work for Walker. The fact that he’s also a very humble hero does earn him a lot of points in my book. He’s the Great Blue Hope, the Shining champion of the weak, he’s Saint Walker the Blue Lantern. Next time, love hurts, especially when it's powering a Star Sapphire. 

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