Villain Profile: Black Hand

I was originally going to finish this off with a member of the Sinestro Corps, but after looking through the character list I learned that, really, the only memorable member of the Sinestro Corps is Sinestro himself. Well, that’s not true, there have been a few memorable characters that have donned the Yellow Ring, The Anti-Monitor, Mongul, and even a version of Batman, but these are all characters that have been known before and after their inclusion in the Corps. So, instead of doing an SC member that not a single person knows like Arkillo or Amon Sur, I’ll instead cover the character that was responsible for one of the biggest DC Stories in recent years, the “Blackest Night,” and someone I've mentioned a couple of times this week, Black Hand.

And the dead shall rise.

Pretty much from the get go, William Hand was a pretty messed up fellow. His parents were coroners, and it would seem that the Hands career had a pretty severe psychological effect on their son. William was obsessed with death, to the point where it’s heavily implied that he… well, suffers from necrophilia. If you don’t know what that is, good for you, don’t look into it. For those that do know what that is, yeah, Will Hand is a pretty screwed up SOB. As a cherry on top of his messed up Sunday, he developed a habit of referring to corpses as “pretty.” At first, Hand tried to control his less than normal impulses by getting into taxidermy. Show of hands, anyone else think that this makes about as much sense as a car thief becoming an auto mechanic to stop thinking about stealing cars? Yeah, that’s what I thought. His parents finally caught on to their son’s… special issues when he killed the family dog so he could turn it into a creepy ornament. From that point on, Hand spent the rest of his developing years in psychiatrist’s offices. Rather than trying out the techniques that his shrinks suggested to ‘cure’ himself, he just learned to hide the most obvious signs of his disturbing predilection, and just accepted his place as the Hand’s black sheep.

A few years later, the alien Atrocitus was brought to Earth by the Green Lantern Abin Sur. Atrocitus was able to escape the GL and set about tracking down the one prophesized to initiate the end of life in the Universe, a being simply known as The Black. Atrocitus built a device that tracked down the Black, revealed to be William Hand. He attacks Hand, believing that the “black power” is literally in Hand’s flesh, but is stopped by Green Lantern Sinestro and Sur’s successor, Hal Jordan. During the fight, Hand is encouraged by a “mysterious voice” to steal the device that Atrocitus used to track him down. Hand steals the device and then runs off while the two GL’s fight Atrocitus. A short time later he breaks into a hospital morgue and tries to steal a body. Before he can get away with the body and do something horrible with it, he’s stopped by a security guard. Hand uses the device to kill the guard. He rather creepily states that “the death was good.” Creepy little weirdo.

Well, we're boned.

The voice that commanded him to steal Atrocitus’ device very quickly takes over Hand’s deeply disturbed mind, making him hate Green Lanterns. He takes one of his parent’s body bags and fashioned a costume out of it, becoming Black Hand. It’s a somewhat disturbing in joke about him being the Black Sheep of the Hand family. Apparently Hal’s about as dense as the civilians of the DC universe, as he never realizes that William Hand whom Atrocitus attacked with an energy absorbing weapon, and Black Hand who uses an energy absorbing weapon are the same person. Come on, Hal, they both have Hand in their name. He couldn’t have made this easier if he tried. After several years of causing crimes, getting caught, escaping, and then doing disturbing things to dead bodies, Hand’s destiny finally arrives. While being transported to prison, Hand is hit with a surge of energy that kills his guards, allowing him to escape. He starts having visions of a dead world called Ryut and a Black Power Battery. Hand wanders across a desert, hearing Death calling out to him, instructing him to reclaim the souls of all those that died in the DC Universe. Hand finally arrives to his family home, and... cleans house. And by that I mean he murders his parents and brothers, and then kills himself. The evil Guardian of the Universe, Scar, arrives and states that the deaths of the Hands “pleases him,” and regurgitates a Black Power Ring. The ring flies to Black Hand and reanimates his body. Hand swears to use his new power to extinguish the light for his new master.

He spies on Hal Jordan and BarryAllen as they pay their respects to the recently fallen Batman, at his unmarked grave. Once they leave, he digs up Batman’s body while reciting the Black Lantern Oath. “The Blackest Night falls from the skies, / The darkness grows as all light dies, / We crave your hearts and your demise, / By my black hand --- The dead shall rise!” He takes Batman’s skull, and proclaims that no one escapes death. He then uses Batman’s skull for two reasons, 1.) To demoralize the DC Universe’s heroes, and 2.) To create more Black Lantern Ring. Black Hand’s army quickly grows, as fallen Heroes and villains are revived to serve the Black Lantern Corps, and others fall at the Black Lantern’s hands. Every time a Black Lantern kills someone and removes their victim’s heart Kali Ma style, it causes the Black Power Battery on Ryut to increase in power by .01%. Once it finally hits 100% the Battery teleports to Earth, right on top of the Hand Mortuary. On the ashes of Hand’s former home, Hand’s master, Nekron, rises. His revival causes more Black Rings to fall, and even living heroes are now vulnerable to their influences. So long as they’ve died and returned to life at least once. The Flash and Hal Jordan just barely escape when the Flash jumps the two of them two seconds into the future.

Not sure if this is worse or better than that
Venom pic I used in Mac Gargan's post.
Either way, more nightmare fuel.

Black Hand and Nekron are ultimately defeated when Hal Jordan unites with the Entity, the physical embodiment of life itself. The new White Lantern uses his powers to transform and revive several heroes and villains as White Lanterns, Black Hand included. Why is that important? Black Hand was essentially the “Entity” of the Black Lantern Corps. The GL’s have Ion the being of Will, the Sinestro Corps have Parallax the being of Fear, the Red Lanterns have the Butcher the being of Hate, and so on. By reviving Black Hand, the Black Lantern Corps was deprived of its Entity. Black Hand barfs up several more White Lantern Rings, reviving more heroes and further weakening Nekron and the Black Lanterns. They’re weakened to the point that the Anti-Monitor, a powerful cosmic being trapped within the Black Power Battery to be used as a power source, escapes and destroys Nekron. As the dust settles, Black Hand is taken by the Indigo Tribe and transformed into one of its members. And so the bringer of Death is imprisoned, for now.

Black Hand has drawn power from a number of different sources. His original weapon was an energy absorbing device designed by Atrocitus. The device absorbs energy from either a Green Lantern power ring, or from the residual energy left on items that were manipulated by a GL’s constructs. This weapon was eventually replaced by a Black Power Ring. The Black Ring gives Hand the standard Lantern Corps powers, flight and Hard Light constructs. It probably would give him the ability to create a protective aura around himself, if, you know, he wasn’t an intelligent corpse. The ring lets Hand regenerate at an absurd rate, healing him if he’s decapitated or destroyed. The black ring is rooted to Hand’s hand, making it all but impossible to remove. Once he was revived, he was forced into being an Indigo Tribe member, giving him all the powers of an Indigo Tribe.

Black Hand has never been used outside the Comics. Most likely because of the graphic subject matter involved with the character. Hard to show a character that is so grossly obsessed with Death and Decay. It seems like Green Lantern: The Animated Series might have tried to adapt the story, what with including all but two of the Lantern Corps, and various characters implying that a greater threat is coming. If so, it’s a shame we couldn’t have seen it. Although, such hints could just be my wishful thinking. He is an unlockable character in Lego Batman 3: Beyond Gotham, but they don’t delve into the characters origin.

Black Hand is a deeply disturbing character. His obsession with Death does make him the perfect character to be the Avatar of Death itself. It is interesting to note that Black Hand was originally a D-List, gimmicky criminal. He was reworked after “The Infinite Crisis” into the sadistic, death obsessed sociopath that would gladly kill all live in the Universe.  And, I mean, he’s a super powered Zombie. What’s not to enjoy about that? He’s the Bringer of Doom, the Destroyer of Life, the very Avatar of Death itself, Black Hand, the original Black Lantern. Next time, The Flash Season 2 opening review.

 http://vignette4.wikia.nocookie.net/greenlantern/images/8/87/Green_Lantern_Vol_5-11_Cover-3_Teaser.jpg/revision/latest?cb=20120701201609

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Hero Profile: Indigo-1

Today we’ll be looking at Indigo-1, the leader of the Indigo Tribe. Their Light is the Indigo Light of Compassion. One of the biggest questions surrounding this character is, is she really a hero? The nature of her Light really does make one question the actions of the wielder, and if one can be forced into being a superhero. But enough of a preamble, let’s get to it.

That staff is one of the most dangerous weapons
in the universe. Simple, but effective.

The leader of the Indigo Tribe was once named Iroque. Not much is known about her history except that she was once a very selfish, conceited person, and that she is somehow connected to the death of Green Lantern Abin Sur’s daughter. Which makes it a little weird that the two somehow became friends after that, but then she became a very different person when she donned the Indigo Tribe Ring and Staff. I’ll go into greater detail in a bit, but the short version is that the Indigo Light of the Emotional Spectrum forces its host to feel compassion/empathy over all other emotions. So someone who is a cold SOB before having the ring becomes the most caring and sympathetic feeling person in the universe.

We’re first introduced to Indigo-1 and her tribe just before the start of the Blackest Night. She and her tribe are walking across a desert somewhere in Sector 3544 when they see a Green Lantern and Sinestro Corps Warrior fighting in the distance. The two have an intense battle for several minutes before breaking off. The GL was injured, and the SC flew for cover. Indigo-1 and her tribe came upon the injured GL. He warns the group to stay away from him, so as to not attract his attacker’s attention. Which is pretty noble, when one considers he was bleeding out at the time. Indigo-1 says something to the GL, but it is in an unknown language. The GL tries to get his ring to translate what she said, but her dialect is not one that the GL’s ring could translate. When you consider the fact that Green Lantern rings are connected to the book of Oa, which has nearly every language in the DC Universe catalogued within, you can probably understand why this freaks him out a little. Indigo-1 kneels down beside the GL, places her hand on his heart, and says “Will.” This somehow causes her to draw energy from the GL, which Indigo-1 uses to create a simple hard-light construct, which she then uses to smother the GL. He struggles for a bit before passing out and dying. The Sinestro Corps member then comes out of hiding, and tries to blast her into oblivion with Yellow Energy. Indigo-1 doesn’t flinch, her staff absorbs the SC’s energy, her power ring then exclaims “Fear,” and creates a Yellow Light construct of a horrible monster that causes her attacker to flee.

Like most Lantern Corps, it's
a very diverse group.

A short time later, the Blackest Night occurred. Heroes and villains from across the DC Universe are given by Black Lantern power rings, transforming them into the zombified Black Lantern Corps. Sensing the impending doom, Indigo-1 and her immediate number 2, Munk, travel to Earth to aid the heroes GL Hal Jordan, The Flash and The Atom, who were being mobbed by Black Lanterns. Using Hal’s Green Energy as a battery, Indigo-1 obliterates the Black Lanterns and then teleports the group away to the Hall of Justice. While there, Indigo-1 explains a bit about what’s going on. It’s the pretty standard “In the beginning there was darkness” story. Darkness fought light, darkness shattered light, which then became the seven lights of the Emotional Spectrum. Red for rage, Orange for greed, Yellow for fear, Green for will, Blue for hope, Indigo for compassion, and Violet for love. She then explains that only through combining the seven lights together could they hope to defeat the Black Lanterns once and for all. So the plan is to get one lantern from each group together and combine their lights to hopefully create the White Light of creation, and destroy the Black Lanterns. Easy-peasy. Hal goes with the Indigos, while the Flash and Atom stay back to try to keep things sane on Earth. They quickly gather Carol Ferris of the Star Sapphires, Sinestro of the Sinestro Corps, and Saint Walker of the Blue Lantern Corps. The last two, Atrocitus of the Red Lantern Corps and Agent Orange aka Larfleeze, are on Larfleeze’s world of Okaara, fighting each other.  Atrocitus wanted the Orange Central Power Battery to augment his own power. They’re distracted by a group of Black Lanterns, and are then saved by Indigo-1 and the other Lanterns. The Seven Lanterns, Munk had left a short time ago to reinforce Oa, travel to the planet Ryut where the Black Lantern Central Power Battery was held. Unfortunately, the Lantern had already been moved. Where you might ask? To Earth. Where else? They follow the Lantern to Earth and “Let their powers combine,” as Kwame from Captain Planet used to say. Unfortunately, their combined light proved insufficient to destroy the BL Power Battery. Things took a turn for the even worst when the Black Lantern Leader, Nekron, revives more heroes and villains into Black Lanterns, and is even shown converting living people into Black Lanterns. Apparently those that “cheated” death, i.e. just about any character in comics that has died once and been brought back, are susceptible to Nekron’s rings. Wow, they’re screwed. They’re able to hold things off long enough, somehow, for “the Entity” to appear on Earth. The Entity being the physical embodiment of life itself. Hal fuses with the Entity, revives several Black Lanterns, transforming them into White Lanterns, and then uses their power to revive the villain Black Hand, who was Nekron’s candidate “tether” to the living world. Without Black Hand, Nekron is defeated and the Black Lanterns ultimately destroyed. After that, Saint Walker is the first to note that Indigo-1 and the rest of her tribe are gone. We then see a long line of Indigo Tribe Members traveling across the universe, with a shackled and chained Black Hand at the tail end. And thus another member is added to Indigo-1’s tribe.

Indigo-1 and the rest of her tribe draw their power from the Indigo Light of Compassion. They have a Power Ring, but instead of having a Lantern, they have a staff that recharges their ring. Indigo-1’s ring gives her the standard Lantern Powers; flight, shield projection, language translation, and the creation of Hard-Light constructs. Indigo-1 and her tribe also have their nifty staves, which can absorb energy from other Lantern Corps and redirect it for the Tribesmen to use. They can also teleport vast distances, and heal others, provided they are compassionate. The trade up is that those they heal are forced to feel the pain they’ve inflicted on others. So there’s some pluses and minuses to their powers.

Don't mess with her, it get's messy.

Let’s talk about the biggest minus of the Indigo Tribe. As part of their bonding ritual, the perspective Indigo Tribe member is forced to feel nothing but compassion. The ring blocks out all other emotions, transforming its host into a being of compassion. Because of this, perspective members need to be as amoral and selfish as possible. Why? Because if they are even the least bit compassionate beforehand, they’re unable to “shut-out” the other emotions. Which makes using the staff, the Indigo Tribe’s primary weapon, much more difficult. The staff, which lets them absorb other Lantern Energy and repurpose it, works because the Indigo Tribesmen is immune to the emotion they are absorbing. Without this immunity, they’d be overloaded by the overwhelming emotion they’re trying to absorb, be it rage, love, or hope. So yeah, not feeling anything else is kind of important.

Like the other Lantern Corps, Indigo-1 and the rest of her tribe need to recharge their rings by placing their ring in their staff and reciting an oath. Interestingly, their oath has yet to be translated into English. It reads, “Tor lorek san, bor nakka mur, / Natromo faan tornek wot ur. / Te Lantern lo Abin Sur, / Tann lek lek no—Formorrow Sur.” Pretty intelligible, but we can assume that Abin Sur is rather important to the Indigo Tribe.

Indigo-1 and her tribe haven’t had an appearance in film or television. I assume that had Green Lantern: The Animated Series continued beyond the first season we would have seen the introduction of the Indigo Tribe, and possibly an adaptation of “The Blackest Night” story, but alas, it shall never be.

  She was a playable character in Lego Batman 3: Beyond Gotham. She and the most iconic members of the other six Corps were captured by the alien supercomputer Brainiac to shrink Earth and add it to his collection. Through the course of the game, Batman and the Justice League overload the machine, which transports Indigo-1 and the others back to their home worlds. The player goes to the Indigo home world of Nok, controlling Martian Manhunter, Cyborg and The Flash. To their surprise, Indigo-1 and her tribe are rioting and destroying stuff. We learn that when Indigo-1 was transported back to Nok, the Indigo Central Battery was damaged. Without the Indigo light, Indigo-1 and her Tribe reverted to their previous, violent and selfish personalities. The Battery is repaired by the end of the level, and Indigo-1 travels with the others back to Earth to save the day. It’s an enjoyable level and game.

From what I’ve seen of Indigo-1 and her tribe, she’s an interesting character. Her history, criminal and possible killer turned superhero, is rather interesting. You don’t see too many characters that are “forced” into being superheroes. Some heroes are forced into being villains, but the inverse is rare. And, when one considers how her ring is influencing her personality, it does make you wonder how heroic Indigo-1 really is. Is she really heroic, given that she’s being ‘forced’ to feel different than she really wants to. Something to think about, if nothing else. She’s the compassionate nomad, the sort of purple sort of blue sort of hero, the leader of the Indigo Tribe, Indigo-1. Next time, I’ll be looking at the bringer of Blackest Night, William “Black” Hand.

 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indigo_Tribe#/media/File:Indigo01.jpg

 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indigo_Tribe#/media/File:IndigoTribe_01.JPG

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Villain/Hero Profile: Star Sapphire

Sorry that there’s been a bit of a gap between these posts. I’ve just started a new job and I’m still getting used to the scheduling and the new routine. It’s rather difficult for a creature of habit like me to change said habit. Now that I’ve gotten out of the way, on with the show.

Crime never looked so good.

Love sticks, yeah, yeah. Love stinks, yeah, yeah. And few people know this better than the subject of this latest post, Carol Ferris, the Star Sapphire. Unlike the other characters I’ve mentioned this week, Carol has been flying around and causing trouble since Hal’s earliest days as a Green Lantern. She’s his main love interest, and is also one of his most dangerous enemies when she’s got her Star Sapphire powers. Let’s get to it.

Carol Ferris and Hal Jordan have been on again, off again for about as long as Rogue and Gambit of the X-Men have been. Their dads, Carl Ferris and Martin Jordan, had been friends for ages, Martin even worked as a test pilot for Carl’s aircraft design company. Their kids most likely would have been as well, had it not been for an unfortunate accident. When the two were eight, they had the great misfortune of witnessing Martin’s death. There was a mechanical malfunction, and Martin crashed into the desert near Coast City rather than risk lives crashing near the City in the hopes of getting aid faster. Martin died in the desert, which drove a wedge between Hal and Carol. They remained friends, but there’s always a certain level of awkwardness when you blame your friend’s father for your father’s death. Carol and Hal went on to be top notch pilots, but Carol unfortunately had to give up that dream rather early. Her father, constantly blaming himself for the death of his best friend, was working himself into an early grave. Rather than see her father commit a long drawn out suicide, she took over Ferris Aircraft and more or less forced her father into retirement. A short time later the new CEO made Hal Jordan one of her first hires.

The two have always had a pretty intense attraction for each other, but have fought if off due a number of different reasons. As adults it was because Carol refused to date her employees. Around this time Hal was inducted into the Green Lantern Corps, and was thus a little too preoccupied to chase Carol as much as he would like. Sometime after that Carol was chosen for a higher calling. A group of alien Amazons, rather uninspiringly called the Zamarons (They inverted two letters, how lazy,) chose Carol as the new Star Sapphire. In their culture this is something like a “Queen’s Champion,” and comes with a number of benefits. Namely, having the quazi-mystical Star Sapphire Gem inserted into her body and being given Green Lantern like abilities. This transformation made Carol susceptible to the Zamarons mental control, and when they learned that 1.) There was GL on her world, and 2.) That their new champion was in love with him, they sent their Star Sapphire on a rampage. She and Hal battled for years, Carol often losing her memories of the events after being seperated from the Star Sapphire by Hal, but that gem continued to find its way back. It’s like the One Ring, if it was powered by Love instead of Sauron energy. She and Hal were continually on again and off again as she slipped back and forth from his archenemy to his boss, but things seemingly ended when she started dating and then married a fella named Gil. I cannot find his last name, for some reason.

Have glowing eyes ever been a good sign.

Over the years it’s revealed that the Star Sapphire is itself a sort of living entity, which used Carol and other women as an Avatar, or living suit, in order to effect the physical world. The Star Sapphire developed something of an obsession with Hal Jordan, wishing to destroy her nemesis emotionally as well as physically. So when she learned that Hal had a new main squeeze in the form of fellow test pilot Jillian “Cowgirl” Pearlman, she abandoned Carol and possessed Jillian. While happy she was freed from the constant possessions, Carol’s personal life took something of a hit when she realized that she was still in love with Hal. She divorced her husband, as it wasn’t fair to him for her to stay when her heart wasn’t in it. After sifting through her broken memories of her time as the Star Sapphire, she finds Hal and fills him in on the things she’d learned from her resent separation from the stone. Apparently, the Zamarons were originally a sort of female warrior cult among the alien beings that would become the Guardians of the Universe. They split off when the Guardians swore off all emotions save Willpower, and set about a warrior religion around their chosen emotion, Love. Funny how they claim to charish love, but do their damnedest to keep two people apart. Any who, as they’re in the middle of their discoveries, Jillian attacks. Hal is able to fend her off with some help from Carol, and they’re able to subdue her. Just after that, a group of Zamarons appear through a portal. They state that they’re going to take Carol and Jillian as the first of their new Corps. While Hal held the Zamarons off, Carol was able to get the stone away from Jillian, but the two are immobilized in violet crystals by the gem. Hal is given an ultimatum by the twisted rock, announce who he cares about more, so the stone could take her as its new host. Always one for option three, Hal kisses one of the Zamarons, which somehow convinces the stone to abandon the two women it knows for sure Hal has feelings for, for the complete stranger. Rocks are dumb. The Zamarons are forced to retreat, as the stone reacts poorly to its new host.

On Zamaron, the warrior women agree that Hal was in the right. He showed then that the Star Sapphire stone was simply too much power for one being to hold at any given moment. And, they further agree that while the Guardians may have been onto something with the whole “Magic Rings” thing. The Star Sapphire stone is shattered and used to create a new batch of Lantern Rings. They scatter their power rings, much like the GL Corps, to find folks with that fit their criteria for the new Star Sapphire Corps. Wouldn’t you know it, one comes back to Earth for Carol. It offers her a place among the new Star S Corps, as the leader of the Star Sapphire’s Army. She initially refuses the Ring, but the Star Sapphire Ring talks her into it, after showing her visions of the destruction that is to come during the “Blackest Night,” and heavily implying that Hal will not survive the “Night” if Carol is not there leading the Zamarons. She then accepts the ring, becoming an all new Star Sapphire. Since then, Carol has been an ally of the GLCorps, and fought alongside them on a number of occasions. From reluctant villain to true hero, it’s a heck of a journey.

Uhm... Carol I think you forgot a part of your costume.
Kind of big, important section of the costume.

Carol’s powers are derived originally from the Star Sapphire Gem, and later a Star Sapphire Ring. Both give her the standard Lantern Corps abilities, flight, energy barriers, creating Hard Light Constructs and so on. The Violet light comes with some unique abilities, like teleportation, the ability to hone in on ones loved ones even across the great distances of space, and even resurrecting the recently deceased, provide that someone who loved them is willing to give a little power to the ritual. The Violet Light is also immune to things like the rage inducing effects of the Red Lanterns, and the energy absorbing powers of Agent Orange, but there is a trade up. It’s revealed that those Lantern Corps that are farther from the middle have a very high risk of being controlled by their rings. If we look at it ROY G BIV style, that means that the Sinestro (Yellow,), Green, and Blue Lantern Corps have little to no ill effects on the user, everybody else has a draw back. The Reds are filled with bestial rage, Agent Orange is constantly greedy and hungry, the Star Sapphires can be consumed by intense jealousy and also rage, and the Indigo Tribe I’ll talk about tomorrow. So because of this Star Sapphires need a great deal more mental control over themselves than their GL counterparts. Carol is also a top notch pilot and business woman.

Once in a 24 hour period or so, Carol needs to recharge her ring by uttering the Star Sapphire Oath, “For Hearts long lost and full of fright, / For those alone in blackest night, / Accept our ring and joing our fight / Love conquers all – with violet light!”

We’ve seen Carol in both her civilian form and as a Star Sapphire on a few occasions. She’s usually seen as the main love interest of Hal, and/or one of his greatest enemies as Star Sapphire.

She was largely a background character in Justice League and the sequel show Justice League: Unlimited. Like Sinestro she usually appeared to be the bad guys counter to John Stewart’s Green Lantern powers. She’s never addressed by her real name, but show creators have stated that they intended this Sapphire to be Carol. She and Sinestro are the main reason that Lex Luthor and his cronies survived the resurrection of a new and improved Darkseid during the series finale. They use their rings shielding abilities to keep everyone from suffocating. She joins in the fight against Darkseid and his parademons, and is last seen running off when the JLA gives the bad guys a few minute head start before being apprehended.

It's pretty sad that the Lego Batman 3
is the only other "Appropriatly" outfitted
version of Star Sapphire that I can find.

We see her again in Green Lantern: The Animated Series. She begins as Hal’s long suffering boss and potential love interest, who is unfortunately stood up in the opening episode because Hal had to fly into deep space to battle the Red Lanterns. She’s seen again in “In Love and War,” where she is abducted by the Zamarons in a bid to capture Hal and his team. She’s given a spiffy Star Sapphire Ring, which gives her powers, and also grows out her hair...for some reason. She's taken to Zamaron via portal to see Hal. This is where she learns that Hal is Green Lantern, as she see him in his GL costume but was told she was being taken to the one she loves. And Carol also points out how idiotic it was that Hal’s tiny mask fooled her. They’re initially very happy to see each other, but things kind of hit the fan when she sees Hal had a Zamaron Star Sapphire fawning over him. The show claims that the new power went to Carol’s head, making her act erratically, but personally I think that she’s known Hal long enough to know that Hal + Girl = Hal doing something that he shouldn’t. They’re able to talk her down, and then everyone learns about the Star Sapphires methods. Namely, they encase men in Violet Crystals and use them as a power source. The Zamaron Queen, Aga’po, claims it’s to keep their loved ones safe, but Carol counters that by stating that keeping your loved one from doing what they need to isn’t love but selfishly keeping them from their duty. She returns the ring and then is sent back to Earth. She returns in “The New Guy,” where she breaks up with Hal, since his GL duties always need to come first. She returns in “Love is a Battlefield,” because of the new Anti-Monitor. The Anti-Monitor wishes to know if Love is stronger than Hate and goes to Zamaron. Carol is chosen as Loves champion, she has a great line about wanting to finish this quick as “the buffet closes at 8.” She’s set to fight Hate’s champion, Atrocitus. She’s able to call Hal in for backup as well. They’re able to defeat Atrocitus, but the Anti-Monitor is unimpressed. She leaves to destroy more suns, and fulfill her dark designs. The episode ends with Carol returning to Earth, keeping her ring, and promising Hal that she’ll “See [him] around the universe.” Had the show continued, I’m sure we’d have seen her again.

The last appearance I will mention is in Justice League: Doom. In it, she’s hired by criminal mastermind Vandal Savage as part of a scheme to destroy the Justice League. With Vandal’s help, and the contingency plans Batman devised in case his teammates went rogue, she attacks Hal psychologically. They set up an elaborate ruse, using highly advanced machines and a modified form of the Scarecrow's fear toxin to make Hal believe that he was unable to save the foreman of a mine during a terrorist attack. The Foreman was named “Carol” and designed to resemble Carol Ferris. The Fear Toxin plus a little verbal assault by the real Star Sapphire caused Hal to completely lose his powers. Batman arrives a short time later and tells Hal about how Star Sapphire set him up. Carol and Hal duke it out in the rematch against Vandal Savage and the Legion of Doom, and while Carol gets the upper hand again, Hal overpowers her. He catches her as she falls, takes the Star Sapphire Gem from her, and laments the fact he is always hurting her. I fell it’s interesting to note that of all the attacks, Star Sapphire’s on Hal was the only one that was non-lethal. Which kind of fits her MO. She’s interested in making Hal suffer, and while she wants to make it hurt, I don’t think she has it in her to kill him. Love dies hard.

The “love interest is also an enemy” thing has kind of been done to death, but considering that Carol Ferris and Hal Jordan have been around since the 60s, I am pretty confident that they’re one of the ones that started it. So I’m willing give them a pass on it. I will say that my favorite version is the Justice League: Doom, as it encompasses her best elements. She’s so furious at Hal that she wants him to hurt, but still seems to have enough feelings for him to not want him to die. The Green Lantern: TAS version is a close second, as Carol’s dry wit got more than one chuckle out of me. So yeah, it’s safe to say that I like this character. She’s the Violent Violet Vixen, the warrior of Love, she’s the original Star Sapphire. Next time, the champion of Compassion, Indigo-1 of the Indigo tribe.

 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Star_Sapphire_%28comics%29#/media/File:StarSapphireJLU.JPG

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 http://greenlantern.wikia.com/wiki/File:Justice_League_Doom_Star_Sapphire.png

 http://vignette3.wikia.nocookie.net/lego/images/4/4e/Starsaphire.png/revision/latest?cb=20141105205140