The Green Lantern Corps are the intergalactic police force for the DC Universe. The galaxy is divided into sectors, each with its own personal Green Lantern. Each Lantern is highly trained and possesses a power ring, perhaps one of the most powerful weapons in the universe. But is all of that enough?

Space is a big place. Even divided into sectors, we're talking about a large area for each Lantern to cover. Their power rings may keep them informed of where they are needed but is this really enough? Surprisingly, a thought from Larfleeze, the sole Orange Lantern controlling the power of Avarice, comes to mind.

"You can only protect what you can hold." This can be taken a few different ways but what it comes down to is, can the Green Lantern Corps truly and fully protect their assigned sectors?

Larfleeze is known for his greed over possessions but he has a good point. People are more likely to protect that which belongs to them. A person is more likely to go to extreme means to protect their family and private property. If they were assigned to protect something that didn't belong to them, how far would they be willing to go to protect that?

Greed and reward can be strong incentives. But that does not mean an Orange Lantern would be a better protector than a Green Lantern. Clearly, the Orange Lantern will only have one priority, him or herself.

We can assume the Green Lanterns are honorable and dedicated to their position. The ring choses them based on their worthiness. Their effectiveness comes into question over how much area are they assigned to cover? While there may be an extremely large number of sectors to patrol, having only one Lantern is far from practical. A Lantern may get immediate distress calls and might be able to cover incredible distances in a short amount of time but they cannot be in more than one place at a time.

We have seen newer recruits sometimes paired off with a veteran Lantern but how many Lanterns should a sector have? How would it be determined? Some sectors would most likely contain more danger than others. That doesn't necessarily mean that trouble might not venture into a more peaceful sector. Lanterns can always ask for back up from nearby Lanterns but what if they all have their hands full in their own sector? And wouldn't leaving their sector leave it vulnerable to other evil forces?

If the Green Lantern Corps are responsible for protecting their own sector, how much liability do they have? If something horrific occurs and they fail to respond or prevent it, are they to blame? Can citizens of a sector file a suit against the Lantern and/or the Corps and Guardians? There's also the matter of how involved they should be. It's no surprise that Earth would have four Green Lanterns since so much trouble seems to originate and occur there. If the Joker set off a nuclear missile that destroyed most of Earth's population, is this something that the Lanterns should have prevented or is it merely Batman's fault?

Space is a large are and with the infinite number of planets, there's no reason the Guardians can't dramatically increase the number of recruits the Green Lantern Corps contains. It was Mogo that was in charge of all the rings of the fallen Lanterns and then sent out to new potential ones. If they truly wish for peace and protecting the Universe, they need to ensure that each and every sector is safe and secure. With the billions and billions of sentient beings in the universe, there is no reason why the Guardians can't appoint more Lanterns per sector. There's bound to be more worthy individuals in the universe. The Lantern Corps should not be limited to one per species (as the exception with Earth shows this is a good idea). The question is, where should they draw the line? How involved should they get with each sector's activities? Is having more Lanterns protecting each sector a good idea or should everyone just learn to take care of themselves?

There are two lanterns per sector. And then after that Honor Guard and now the defunct Alpha Lanterns.

Would having more GL's really make a difference?

I'd say, go for 5 GLs per EACH sector and bring in a 5th to Earth!
Perhaps someone from another planet around Earth sector's :P

A quote from Green Lantern: First Flight is coming to mind (not a great GL source, but it fits), Hal basically says a GL to their sector is what a policeman is to thier precinct.
So if each sector truly was a precinct, there would be more than one or even two GL to house it and protect it but instead an entire house.

first to pose XD

I'm not the first to say it, but yeah, there are 2 lanterns per sector now. I think there have been since the current series started, or close to it.

From reading Green Lantern and seeing that Alan, Hal, John, Guy and Kyle have all been based on or around Earth and our solar system, I don't think more GL's is a better thing. If there are two GL's per sector and we have almost five for our sector...  
 
I would say double up with Green and Blue Lanterns.

From reading Green Lantern and seeing that Alan, Hal, John, Guy and Kyle have all been based on or around Earth and our solar system, I don't think more GL's is a better thing. If there are two GL's per sector and we have almost five for our sector...   I would say double up with Green and Blue Lanterns.

I always thought that localized threats were not necessarily the GLC's jurisdiction, only events crossing planetary/systemic/galactic boundaries.  Kind of like state or federal police.  That would drastically limit the number of problems they would have to deal with.  Space is big, sure, but how many of these kinds of situations could possibly be occurring at the same time in a single sector?  Not many, I bet.  Certainly few enough for the ring to detect them and the GLC to respond with a GL or two.
 
With that opinion on their jurisdiction, their responsibility is established.  If Joker blows up the world, it would be pretty horrific, but I don't think it falls to the GLC to resolve that.  Is it the responsibility of the Earth-based heroes?  Sure.  Is it the responsibility of the Earth-based GLs?  Maybe.

@HaHaManHV: I think the typo (not type-o) was intentional. ;-)   I always thought that the Green Lanterns needed more in terms of organization, not more members. I love the idea of an IAD established with the Alphas but I would like to see DC take a chance and give the Corps to someone who can write detective stories and not huge, multi-crossover, sprawling epics. A change of pace might do them good. Keep the big ideas but remember that Green Lanterns are basically space cops. 

I've always wondered from what position the GLC claims its power.   The Guardians just decided it. Can a legitimate government tell them to get the heck of their planet?  Do the Guardians sign treaties?  I  thought it would be interesting to see a ruler losing his position of power call in a Sinestro Corp member to help cement his rule with fear.  But overall I've always liked the idea of dumping the so called Guardians of the universe - they have failed miserably time and time again.  The one thing they don't seem to be able to do well is guard the universe.  They blew each crisis, they missed  the boat on both their own threats Sinestro Corp War and Blackest Night, they couldn't even stop Hal from destroying them. I like the idea that the Guardians consist of essentially a congress representing each color.

I'm not the first to say it, but yeah, there are 2 lanterns per sector now. I think there have been since the current series started, or close to it.

first to pose XD

I think this raises a valid concern considering that in the Last Will storyline of Emerald Warriors that the Guardians had not mapped out all of the universe into space sectors anyway, that there were whole places still unaccounted for and hence not 'policed'.  Even whether there are 2 GLs in each sector or not it would seem then that there needs to be at least more to account for in the duties of protecting the cosmos for the Corps.  But then again maybe the rule should be that quality instead of quantity is what consists for the GLC.  

@RedheadedAtrocitus: Exactly. I did mention a second Lantern being used in the article, just not the title. As huge as each sector is, even having two is not enough. If the $#!& hits the fan in three different areas in that sector, they're kinda screwed.

@Moonleming: Your points are spot on.

what is better than one Lantern?......... a billion Lanterns in one sector! 
You Just got Doctored!

dc just focus on earth sector that is all plus there will never be enough lantern to patrol all of space plus the guardians make some sectors off limits

there aren't 4 Lanterns for sector 2814....Guy and Kyle are Honor Guards and have no sector restrictions

I think that the biggest problem is defining how fricking huge a sector is. Based on our present knowledge the Milky Way is composed by 200-400 billions stars. For sake of calculation we assume a rather uniform density (which is absolutly not the case), the corps divide the galaxy in 3600 sectors, which means that each Green Lantern has approximatly 556,000,000 stars under his/hers jurisdiction. Even considering that many star systems in the our galaxy have more than one star, this is little too much I think.
 
Otherwwise we can assume that only the inhabitable planets (a.k.a. planets that can sustain life as we know), which number around 500 millions, this place about 139,000 inhabitable worlds under each Green Lantern responsibility. Still a ginormous number.
 
Overall I think that this i case were suspension of disbelief comes into play, the Lanterns are really too  little to be really effective. Which, propbably, indicates that the Guardians should rely heavily on local forces, leaving the Lanters free to operate as a sort of "super-national" force. Otherwise, where is the Lantern of New Genesis/Apokolips?
 

I would think that since they really are like space cops that its the same...your district is given people determined by your need. Space Sector 2814 for example wouldn't need that many as there really aren't that many sentient beings there. I would think the 4 they have already: Jordan, Stewart, Reynor, and Gardner are more than plenty for that sector.

There are two lanterns per sector. And then after that Honor Guard and now the defunct Alpha Lanterns.

Would it really matter? Also check out this amazing song I found!  

@AirDave817:  Agreed, for every Green Lantern there should be a Blue one.

I think that it depends on how many inhabited planets are in one sector, and out of those planets how much crime / chaos is created. For example after the Vega system became a system that was no longer out of bounds the guardians appointed 2 lanterns to that system alone. 
 
As far as suing the lanterns goes i think the closest I've seen is When Vrill Dox slandered the new lanterns of the Vega system as to promote his L.E.G.I.O.N, and the system were buying into it prefering LEGION protection to GL protection so John Stewart was sent there to talk things through officially. And also in the Justice League cartoon where John was called up for the destruction of a planate.

I've kind of thought more or less the same thing about all of this for a while now, but there are a few things to consider.
 
First off, the very notion of dividing the universe into equal segments breaks the very notion of the universe to begin with. IT'S INFINITE. It goes on forever, therefore there should be an infinite amount of sectors, and an infinite number of Lanterns.
 
I've never really been clear on whether the sectors are meant to represent areas of the universe as a whole or just to divide our galaxy, (having read stories that would indicate both) but even if it is just our galaxy that's being protected, that raises a whole new issue.
 
I find it just a wee bit conceited of our favourite omnipotent blue aliens to call themselves "Guardians of the Universe" and then lend their power and support to just one little galaxy. What about the rest of the universe? Do they not matter? Hell, even if each of the sectors covered an entire galaxy, that would mean only 3000 Lanterns for the whole Universe. 3000 Corps Members to police the very definition of infinity. My mind is fraying just trying to wrap my head around that.
 
Finally there's the Earth. Nevermind that there should be more Lanterns per sector to help keep the peace, how exactly is it fair that one planet, (planet not sector) ended up with four of them?
 
It's not even like these are just four random schmoes of the Corps either, Kyle, Hal, John, and Guy are four of the powerful and successful Corps members to ever wield the ring, Hal himself being universally recognized as the greatest of all.
 
These are all things that I've come to just accept as part of the Green Lantern mythos, but it's still something that makes me scratch my head every once in a while. Especially when universe-spanning story lines take place and these exact questions are either dealt with or avoided.
 
Still though, something to think about.....

Behold!
Alan Scott, the original Green Lantern's new look!
 

Because that would force Geoff Johns to admit that Hal Jordan isn't Green Jesus or the greatest lantern ever...

There are too many Lanterns already, they need to start cutting some, starting with Hal Jordan and Guy Gardner.

THIS YEAR IS GOING TO BE GREEN AND OWNED BY THE CORPS FOR LIFE

There are two lanterns per sector now, and given the crazy amounts of change we saw with the new Green Lantern announcements, I doubt that'll change with the relaunch.

And if sectors need backup, that's what the honor lanterns are for, though it's never really been clear how many of them there are beside Gardner and Raynor.

There are two lanterns per sector now, and given the crazy amounts of change we saw with the new Green Lantern announcements, I doubt that'll change with the relaunch.

And if sectors need backup, that's what the honor lanterns are for, though it's never really been clear how many of them there are beside Gardner and Raynor.

More green lanterns in a single sector would be a must for the GL corps. However, it needs to be lanterns native to the sector (i.e. Hal Jordan, Kyle Rayner etc etc - protectors of Earth).

How about an all female green lantern team corp series. It will consist of arisia, boodika, laira  and sinistro's daughter (forgot her name). anyone agree!?