This has been bugging me for a while now; how are all of these rings being made and how do they work? I don't mean the explanation that "they draw on (name your own) emotion" I mean how do they actually function? Green Lantern rings are exceptionally advanced technology; basically manufactured weapons. Although they may have "supernatural" powers, the idea is that they are mechanical in nature capable of drawing on a hard to access power source.
During the SCW we saw the Sinners constructing a CPB and manufacturing rings to harness fear, but every other "Corps" so far seems to have just pulled these batteries and rings out of their arse.
- Ganthet just sort of made his ring and battery out of magic dwarf power
- Atrocitus spilled some blood and "ta-da" here's a bunch of red rings
- the Sapphires seemed to create their whole operation by "feeling" love.
Are some of the rings magic based, while others are technological, or is this just Geoff "Mr Retcon" Johns smoking the wacky stuff again and releasing another retcon of how all rings work and erasing over 30 years of Green Lantern continuity?
I always read them as advanced alien technology. Kind of like movie Kryptonian crystal technology, or something very close to it. It is obviously some mineral that has the capability of holding enormous amounts of information and energy, and is activated and controlled by touch or mental command. There's just no metal and circuitry anywhere in it. Now crystal computers are not a new concept in scifi/fantasy, they appear everywhere and GL rings can just be another example.
Sinestro Corps rings I'm not too sure about because several times before Sin Corp war we saw the assembly line of rings and batteries with random Qwardians holding things like soldering irons doing something assembly-ish.
But in opposite, The Red rings are seem to be definately magic. Just their power source is another part of the emotional spectrum instead of just random magic energy. But the rings themselves are formed by magic, and I'm sure the anger energy is captured and stored by it as well.
There is a great line in GLC, after the SCW, when it was reported that Volk and his team had destroyed the foundries on Qward. It was a small detail but showed how the Corps (in this case the Sinnestro Corps) depended on technology, production, security, etc..., to keep their Corps alive. More recently, we saw how important it was for Sinestro to have hidden a backup CPB.
By continuing to portray the rings as unparalleled technology that can only be constructed by scientifically advanced beings (rather then produced by ambiguously tapping into a cosmic force) you make the rings seem rarer, more prized and special weapons. You loose that a bit if you take away the sci-fi elements to Green Lantern and make accessing this emotional spectrum more of a spiritual ability.
Think about it this way; a Jedi can access the Force to do all types of cool Jedi things, but he still has to build a lightsaber. If he could just created one out of the Force, doesn't that make it less special and unique? I “feel” hate so, bang, there’s my hate ring. I think it’s much more interesting if you still have to create some tangible way of harnessing this power.
My "concern" (for lack of a better word) is that having the rings created by advanced technology adds an important element to them. They can be destroyed, the CPB can be taken off line, rings can malfunction or be hacked into, Alpha Lanterns can be reprogrammed, Oa can be overrun, etc.... it adds a bit of vulnerability to an army/police force that relies on equipment and strategic locations (Oa, Mogo, Sector Houses) in order to function. But if the rings are portrayed as more magical then technological, then you loose some of those sci-fi elements and move more into a mystical world.
I'd say they are just Highly advanced tech, but tech none-the-less. As has been mentioned and used as storylines in the past, they can be hacked, destroyed, reprogrammed, used as communication, used as a weapon, etc.
The more I think about this, and the more I think back, it's definitely tech. I'm not sure where I would see the magic element to it.
- The rings have the best built-in rechargable battery. Hook it to a lantern or location for a few seconds and it's recharged. (wish my mobile phone would do that)
- It's got a built-in cellphone for communication between GL's.
- And a awesome interactive solid light holo-projector.
I guess if someone were to say they were magical, then GL would not be placed with some of the major superheroes, but placed in the category of mystical people such as Dr. Fate, Alan Scott, Zatanna and those others.
Anyway, to me it seems a bit out of continuity, and yet again i have to enforce that this is just another strike of Geoff "Mr Retcon" Johns who in issue 17 actually introduced a retcon that erased over 20 years of GL continuity... this time, he seems to be going the whole hog and taking Green Lantern back to the roots of Alan Scott and stating that ALL the power rings are magical....
I'll admit that I'm guilty of being a continuity freak, but Geoff "Mr Retcon" Johns is really starting to piss me off with his current "Retcon per issue" theme of storytelling...
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