Stand straight, poozer!
The Green Lantern Corps’ top drill sergeant, Kilowog, has a habit of calling all fresh-faced recruits “poozers.” It’s a term of both antagonism and endearment; the outer space equivalent of Gunnery Sgt. Hartman's “maggots” in FULL METAL JACKET.
Anyway, you better believe Hal Jordan was a poozer when Kilowog was training him in his early days. Though Kilowog’s been in the Corps for longer than Hal has in continuity, he actually debuted much later in the comics (in the mid-80s) to be subsequently retconned into Hal’s past with the EMERALD DAWN mini-series. Tragically bookending that story, Kilowog also factored prominently into EMERALD TWILIGHT (where a Parallax-possessed Jordan wiped almost all of the GLs.) Kilowog was the last to stand against his former pupil’s rampage, blocking him from the central Oan battery.
In many ways, Kilowog is the heart of the Corps. He actually became almost literally so during the years of the Corps’ tragic inactivity. In LEGACY: THE LAST WILL & TESTAMENT OF HAL JORDAN, Kilowog’s vengeful spirit was reconstituted into a ghostly “Dark Lantern” by a cabal of bitter ex-Lanterns. Using black magic rituals, they composed this being out of green willpower energy and let him loose to get revenge on Jordan. Hal was actually the Spectre at that time and their confrontation ended in forgiveness instead of vengeance, for once. Pieface, Hal’s old sidekick, was given their power to then rebuild Oa and the Great Battery, planting the seeds for the rebirth of the Corps that we’re all enjoying, right now.
== TEASER ==
You just can’t have the Corps without Kilowog. Not long before the order was reconstituted, Kilowog’s Dark Lantern form was transformed into his regular old self by another metaphysical working; this time conducted by Kyle Rayner and contrarian Gaurdian of the Universe, Ganthet.
Michael Clarke Duncan will be voicing Kilowog in the forthcoming GREEN LANTERN movie. From the looks of it, he’ll be the gruffest of the rookie Hal Jordan’s mentors, acting as a hard case taskmaster to whip the poozer into shape. Seeing as how this will be Hal’s movie and there’s only so much screentime for everybody, I don’t expect too much of Kilowog’s life will be explored outside of the usual training exercises. However, there’s one bit of trivia about the big lug that you might appreciate knowing…
What do you think Kilowog did before he joined the Corps? Was he a sergeant in the army of his own planet, Bolovax Vik? Maybe he did something just like as manly, like chopping alien trees? Nope. Neither. Kilowog spent a lot of time in the lab! Of all things, he was a genetic scientist. Unless he barked order at his lab assistants, I suppose the ring freed sides of his personality that were previously untapped.
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