Summary
The history and power source of the Red Lantern and its opposite, the Green Lantern, are explored in
Alan Scott: The Green Lantern
#5.
The Emotional Spectrum, with red on one extreme and violet on the other, plays a significant role in determining the powers and personalities of Lanterns.
Alan Scott’s heroism, unbreakable spirit, and connection to the Emotional Spectrum are reaffirmed in this issue, raising questions about the containment of the Crimson Flame.
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Warning: contains spoilers for Alan Scott: The Green Lantern #5!
DC has redefined the Red Lantern’s lore, and in the process made him Green Lantern’s true opposite. The new Red Lantern had quickly become Alan Scott’s greatest foe, a former lover turned enemy through no fault of his own. The Red Lantern is also one of DC’s most mysterious characters, but now the history of the Crimson Flame is on display in Alan Scott: The Green Lantern #5.
Alan Scott: The Green Lantern #5 is written by Tim Sheridan and drawn by Cian Tormey. Alan Scott has been saved by the Emerald Flame, a personification of his power source. It explains to him both the origin of the Emerald and Crimson Flames. The Guardians of the Universe gathered wild magic into a giant green orb and imprisoned it within a star, where it grew sentient. A sliver of its essence escaped, becoming Green Lantern’s power source. Another bit saw the escape, and grew envious and eventually succumbed to rage.
It would become the Crimson Flame.
The Crimson Flame Has Ties to the Emotional Spectrum
It Has Deep Ties to Green Lantern Lore
The Emerald Flame breaks it down even further for Alan, explaining that his abilities derive from willpower, a part of the Emotional Spectrum. The entity name checks other emotions in the spectrum, such as fear, love and anger. It explains that the Crimson Flame is powered by the red light of rage, standing on one end of the Emotional Spectrum. Being so far up the Spectrum, red blinds its hosts, robbing them of their will and identity, as seen in the numerous appearances of Atrocitus and the Red Lanterns.
The Emotional Spectrum is one of the fundamental forces of the DC Universe, equal in importance to the Speed Force and other such concepts. Structured like the traditional light spectrum, with red on one end and violet on the other, each color is assigned a particular emotion. Red, as mentioned earlier, is on one extreme end of the Spectrum, meaning it is a far more intense emotion and as such, can override its hosts’ personality, turning them into rage-fueled zombies. Atrocitus, the leader of the present-day Red Lanterns, eventually experiments with giving his minions free will, nearly destroying the Corp.
Red is not the only other color in the Emotional Spectrum that can have such an effect on its user. Violet, the color of love, also occupies an extreme end of the Spectrum and, just like Red, it can overwrite a person’s identity. The Star Sapphires, the current wielders of the Violet Light of Love, take a more hard-lined approach than fans would expect, forcibly recruiting women to the cause. Likewise, the Indigo Lanterns, who wield the Light of Compassion, lose their ability to feel other emotions, which could cloud their judgements.
Perhaps the best known color of the Emotional Spectrum is green, which, as the Emerald Flame pointed out to Alan, is the color of willpower. The Guardians of the Universe, the bosses of the Green Lantern Corps, were the first to harness the Green Light of Willpower. The Guardians attempted several times to bring order to a chaotic universe, including the Manhunters, the Green Lantern Corps and the Third Army. The Guardians’ war on magic, and the subsequent creation of the Starheart, were another such attempt.
The Starheart Links Alan Scott to Hal Jordan
The Starheart Also Ties Alan Scott to the Emotional Spectrum
When editor Julius Schwartz rebooted Green Lantern in the late 1950s, he gave the concept a science fiction-oriented spin, a radical departure from the character’s Golden Age counterpart. Alan Scott, the first Green Lantern, was a magic-based hero whose ring was susceptible to wood. He was still able to fly and make hard-light constructs, just like Hal Jordan. The two Green Lanterns would meet a few years later in the first Justice League/Justice Society crossover. For many years, there was no connection between the two heroes.
That changed in 1978’s Green Lantern #111. A crossover between Alan Scott and Hal Jordan, the story revealed the existence of the Starheart. Its story is very similar to the one the Emerald Flame recounts to Alan Scott: the Guardians waged a war on magic, and in the aftermath, gathered it all into one source, which became the Starheart. The Guardians then imprisoned it within a star, and in time it became self-aware, and yearned for escape. Eventually, a small portion broke free and traveled through the cosmos, eventually crash landing in medieval China, where it eventually found Alan Scott.
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From there, the metal from the Starheart was fashioned into a lamp by Billie, a psychiatric patient. Alan took the lamp for himself, and after nearly being killed in a train wreck, it restored him to life and gave him the powers that he is known today for. In Alan Scott: The Green Lantern, Sheridan and Tormey have hemmed closely to this original story, but have added more modern elements to it. For example: it was revealed that Billie had been in the hospital with Alan. Both were LGBTQIA+ and were hospitalized to be “cured” of their “deviancies.”
Alan Scott: The Green Lantern has redefined the character for a new era by reaffirming what made him so great in the first place: his heroism and unbreakable spirit. The Emerald Flame explains to Alan that this is what makes him a hero: his willpower. Growing up as a gay man in the early 20th century gave him a serious case of self-loathing and self-doubt. As an adult, Alan had to keep his affairs under wraps and was threatened with being outed more than once. Yet he pushes through it every time, always doing the right thing.
Fans have speculated if Alan Scott, and the Starheart, had a connection to the Emotional Spectrum, and this issue answers that with a resounding “yes.” The Emerald Flame explains to Green Lantern that strength of will is the key to his powers, and it is a drive that exists deep inside of him. The Crimson Flame is an offshoot, and through its growing anger and resentment, eventually strays to another end of the Spectrum: the Red Light of Anger. Thus far, no other piece of the Starheart has embraced another aspect of the Emotional Spectrum.
Fans have speculated if Alan Scott, and the Starheart, had a connection to the Emotional Spectrum, and this issue answers that with a resounding yes.
Can Green Lantern Contain the Crimson Flame?
Or Will It Consume Him and the Earth As Well?
The Emerald Flame explains to Green Lantern that the Crimson Flame is its opposite, in more ways than one. The Emerald Flame brings life, just as it saved Alan Scott years prior, but it tells him that the Crimson Flame will bring only death. It warns Alan that a great evil is coming, one entrenched in the Crimson Flame. As soon as Green Lantern returns to reality, the Crimson Host, a team of Soviets powered by the Crimson Flame, arrives on the scene, ready to replace the Red Lantern.
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Whether the Crimson Host is the threat the Emerald Flame warned Green Lantern about or not is unclear, but now Alan and the Red Lantern must team up to stop them. It is ironic that the Emerald Flame tells Green Lantern that the Crimson version only brought death, as it is the only thing keeping the Red Lantern alive. The Crimson Flame, much like the Red Light of Rage on the Emotional Spectrum, corrupts and destroys everything it touches, a stark contrast to Green Lantern.
Alan Scott: The Green Lantern #5 is on sale now from DC Comics!
Alan Scott: The Green Lantern #5 (2024)
Writer: Tim Sheridan Artist: Cian Tormey Colorist: Matt Herms & Hi-Fi Letterer: Lucas Gattoni Cover Artist: David Talaski