The History of Green Lantern Batman

For a long time, Green Lanterns strove to be totally fearless.  They believed that the only way to truly conquer fear was to deny it completely, and remove it from your life.  Eventually they’d come to realize that’s completely impossible, and it’s far more effective to treat fear as something necessary that you have to learn to deal with…but either way, it still puts the Lanterns at odds with Batman, who sees fear as a valuable tool to manipulate his enemies and discourage crime.  The Batman identity exists because the image, behavior, and legend of Batman scares bad guys, pure and simple.

Which is why it’s always fun to see Batman interact with Green Lanterns.  And granted, a lot of those interactions consist of them either yelling at each other, or punching each other in the face…but every one of these encounters boils down to some level of exploration of how these characters relate to fear.

Which is why it makes all the sense in the world to give Batman a power ring.

It’s such an obvious idea in retrospect, and I still can’t believe it took until 1994 for someone to run with this concept.  Batman as Green Lantern is so ubiquitous, and yet it’s only actually as old as Kyle Rayner, who first appeared that same year.

The story in question was an Elseworlds issue titled “Batman: In Darkest Knight” written by Mike W. Barr, with art by Jerry Bingham, and posed a simple question: what if Abin Sur’s ship crashed on the estate of Wayne Manor?  Bruce had just started to fight crime, and it wasn’t going well…he had the will, but not the experience to get the job done right.  But now willpower was all he needed.

He became a Green Lantern, and would change some classic moments in DC Comics history, like stopping the Red Hood without letting him fall into the vat of chemicals that would transform him into the Joker.  Some things still played out like normal, though…he arrested Sinestro for abusing the power of a Green Lantern to rule over a planet, and Sinestro was banished to Quard as punishment, only to return armed with a yellow power ring and a score to settle.

Sinestro came to Gotham looking for revenge, even going as far as to murder Joe Chill and absorb his mind, because merging with the man who killed the Waynes would make it even easier for Sinestro to hurt Bruce.  Sinestro would also be responsible for the creation of Two Face, and turning Selena Kyle into Star Sapphire.

Sinestro, and the chaos he’d sewn on Earth, kept Bruce so occupied that the Guardians had to give rings to Superman, Wonder Woman, and the Flash just to pick up Bruce’s slack.  But none of them could prevent Sinestro’s attack on Wayne Manor, or the death of Alfred.  Sinestro escapes, and Bruce takes off after him, dedicating himself to hunting down Sinestro and making him pay for what he’s done.

The world of “Batman: In Darkest Knight” would become an official part of the DC Multiverse when it was restored at the end of the 2007 series “52”, establishing the story as taking place on Earth 32.

Later in 2007, this version of Bruce Wayne would get his first real narrative focus in a decade thanks to the miniseries “Countdown Arena”, leading into the 2008 event “Final Crisis”.  The premise is that a being named the Monarch has gathered multiple versions of the same hero from throughout the multiverse…a bunch of Supermen, a bunch of Blue Beetles…and was going to make them fight each other to the death, to see which is the strongest version of each hero, and then use the survivors to form a super team that can repel the coming Crisis.  It’s kind of a cool idea, but the miniseries was only four issues long, and neither the concept nor the character pairings were given the time to be used to their full potential.  We did get to see  Bruce have to deal with talking to two Hal Jordans at once (which I’m sure is his nightmare), and it was fun to see the three of them break Monarch’s rules to goad him into a three-on-one fight.  But in the end, the fight wasn’t very good, and nothing really meaningful happened in this miniseries.  And while Bruce did in fact survive the arena, he didn’t have any part to play in Final Crisis.

The next notable mention of Green Lantern Batman would come in Grant Morrison’s “Multiversity” series in 2015.  The series included a guid book to the Multiverse, summarizing each of the 52 Universes, and in some cases updating them.  This listing established that Earth 32 was no longer a world where every DC hero was mixed with Green Lantern, but instead an amalgam universe where every hero was a combination of two unique characters.  Superman + Martian Manhunter = Super-Martian, that sort of thing.  My favorite of these new characters is Black Arrow, a mix of Green Arrow and Black Canary.  The choice of characters, the fused design, and the name all make sense while working pretty well together, and she doesn’t feel randomly thrown together like Super-Martian, Wonderhawk, and Aquaflash.

We’d have to wait until 2019 for issues 10 and 11 of “The Green Lantern” by Grant Morrison and Liam Sharp to see the Earth 32 Batman again in any significant capacity.  This time he was one of a dozen Green Lanterns from across the Multiverse, teaming up to stop yet another threat to all reality.  Unlike Countdown Arena, this appearance was totally character-focused, although certain aspects of his personality were heightened to make him a better foil for the characters around him.  Other than the main universe’s Hal Jordan, Bruce had the most interaction with the Magic Lantern of Earth 47, a very stereotypical hippie who was contrasted by Bat-Lantern’s short-tempered violence and hard stance against drugs.  The only thing we got in terms of a real continuation of the original “Darkest Knight” story came in issue 10, where we find out that Bruce has used his ring to create some sort of replica of Alfred Pennyworth, named Penny-Two, who appears to be a construct operating independently in what I assume to be the Batcave.

…now as of the time that I’m making this video, Earth 32 has shown up one more time, in the pages of “Flash Forward” #4, a mini series written by Scott Lobdell, about Wall West traveling through the Multiverse as worlds begin to collide.  We don’t see any sign of Bruce, or any Green Lantern for that matter…but we DO see a Red Lantern.  And based on the shape of his helmet, I think this might be what happened to Red Hood after Bruce prevented him from becoming the Joker all those years ago.  I kind of love this idea, if only because it’s so rare for us to get actual story content from Earth 32, and even rarer that we see a continuation of any concepts introduced back in “Darkest Knight”.

But while all that was going on, there was another version of Green Lantern Batman making waves in the DC Universe, in the form of a character named Dawnbreaker, created by Scott Snyder and Greg Capullo for the 2017 event “Dark Nights: Metal”, which introduced the concept of the Dark Multiverse.  This was a space populated by dark and twisted versions of the stories we all know, except this time they’re all fated to end in tragedy.  Case in point, Earth -32 (that’s negative 32) gave us a much darker version of the story published in “Batman: In Darkest Knight” over two decades before.  This time, instead of coming to him as an adult, the ring chose Bruce moments after the murder of his parents.  He was able to track down Joe Chill pretty quickly, but couldn’t exact his revenge, as the rings are programmed to be non-lethal.  But Bruce’s incredibly strong willpower, amplified by the hatred and darkness inside of him, managed to overwhelm the ring’s A.I., granting him the freedom to do whatever he wanted.  He killed Joe Chill, and then continued protecting Gotham City as Green Lantern, similarly executing all of his villains, and anyone else who tried to get in his way.

The Guardians and the Green Lantern Corps of Earth -32 would try to put an end to his rampage, but by that point he was too far gone.  Not only had Bruce’s actions been feeding and strengthening the darkness within him, but he had mastered the most essential aspect of a Green Lantern ring: the ability to take what’s inside of you, and bring it out into the world.  The ring had become a fire hose for the dark, violent despair churning within the heart and soul of Bruce Wayne, and even the Corps…even the Guardians…weren’t prepared to handle it.  The Dawnbreaker saw his entire world swallowed up into the void that sat where his soul should be…and then he moved on to the next Earth, proving more than a match for the main DC Universe version of Hal Jordan, and an invaluable ally to the main villain of “Dark Nights: Metal”.

So at least for now, those are the only two versions of Green Lantern Batman who’re unique, separate characters…but that’s not to say they’re the only example of Batman becoming a Lantern.  Far from it, because if there’s one thing creators at DC seem to love doing, it’s temporarily give power rings to the main DCU version of Batman.

Green Lantern #9, published in 2006 and written by Geoff Johns, saw Bruce and Hal resolve some of their long standing issues with each other, culminating with Hal letting Bruce wear his ring in an attempt to help Bruce learn to deal with the loss of his parents, directly confronting the emotions tied to their death in a much more direct way than Bruce had ever been able to before.  It may have worked, too, but this was too big of a step for Bruce to take, and he gave the ring back.

This wouldn’t be the last time Geoff Johns put Hal’s ring on Batman’s finger.  In 2016’s “Justice League: The Darksied War”, several of Earth’s heroes had become possessed by the power of the New Gods, and effectively lost the people they used to be.  Batman gained unlimited knowledge from the Mobius Chair, and wouldn’t let go of that for anything…until Hal put his ring on Batman’s finger, which effectively jumpstarted Bruce’s willpower, giving him a moment of clarity to detach himself from the chair and become his normal self again. 

It’s also worth noting that Batman has worn other color rings, in addition to green.  

In 2007, issue 17 of the same Geoff Johns run of Green Lantern saw a Sinestro Corps ring come to recruit Batman.  It was only there long enough to give us a cool shot of Batman dressed like Sinestro, before the ring rejected him due to his abundance of willpower, as well the ring’s ability to tell that he had previously worn a Green Lantern ring back in issue #9.

Batman would use a yellow ring again in 2013 during the fourth issue of the “Forever Evil” event, by Geoff Johns and David Finch.  This time, Batman takes the ring willingly as a way to fight back against an evil alternate universe version of Hal Jordan who goes by the name Power Ring…but he’s still outmatched, and ultimately has to be saved by Sinestro.  This leads to a pretty interesting exchange between the two, where Sinestro basically gives Batman a pep talk on how he’d be a truly great Yellow Lantern if only he’d apply himself.  Sinestro has such a thoroughly complete understanding of fear at this point, and he can clearly see right through to Bruce’s core, I would absolutely love to read a nice long conversation between these two characters.

Batman is also one of the dozen or so DC heroes to spend a few minutes as a White Lantern, this time in “Brightest Day” #14, by Geoff Johns and Ivan Reis in 2010.  Boston Brand, aka Deadman, was in possession of the the only White Lantern ring, and was desperately trying to find someone else to pass it on to.  He thought Batman might be the right choice, and for a very brief moment Bruce was the White Lantern…before being rejected by the ring, which then returned to Deadman.

He’d briefly become a White Lantern gain in 2019’s “Batman Universe” by Brian Michael Bendis and Derington Stewart, this time wielding an ancient prototype power ring from back before the Guardians had settled on creating the Green Lantern Corps.  The ring was faulty and broken, and ultimately ended up back in the custody of the Corps.

Now I do want to mention the brief brushes we’ve had with a Black Lantern Batman.  He first appeared in 2009, during “Blackest Night” #5, once again by Geoff Johns and Ivan Reis, and was presented as the corpse of Batman reanimated by a black ring.  HOWEVER, this Batman is a fake.  Contrary to what everyone believed at the time, Bruce Wayne was alive and lost on a time travel adventure that I do not have the time to get into here, so a fake Black Lantern Batman was created specifically to emotionally manipulate other heroes, leaving them vulnerable to attack.

We do get to see the real, LIVING Batman use a Black Lantern ring to raise an army of zombies for him to command in the post-apocolyptic world of 2020’s “Dark Nights: Death Metal”, again by Dawnbreaker creators Scott Snyder and Greg Cupulo.  It’s unclear as of me writing this where Bruce got that ring, or how he can use it while being alive, two questions I’m VERY curious about…but regardless, that brings the total number of rings worn by the mainline DCU version of Batman to six: 1 green, 2 yellow, 2 white, and 1 black.

Now that may be all for the comics, but that’s far from the end for Lantern Batman in pop culture.

There was an episode of the 2004 cartoon series “The Batman” titled “Ring Toss”, where Sinestro comes to Earth and through a wacky series of events, Batman ends up putting on Hal’s ring to fight him.  Nothing all that great happens, since the ring is almost out of power by the time Batman has it, and we don’t even get to see a cool Batman version of the Green Lantern uniform…and let’s face it, that’s half the appeal of Green Lantern Batman.

That’s a problem they correct in 2009’s “Batman: The Brave and the Bold” episode titled “The Eyes of Despero”, where Batman has to head into space to help out Guy Gardner, G’nort, and Sinestro stop Despero from turning the rest of the Green Lantern Corps into his personal army.  Bruce doesn’t get a ring this time, but they do hook him up with this awesome Bat Lantern armor.

Batman: The Brave and the Bold had a tie-in comic that told a similar story in issue #19, this time with Cyborg Superman using the Manhunters as his personal army, and a captured Hal Jordan sends his ring to Earth to get help from Batman.  We get a lot of good Bat Lantern action in this issue, including one really cool scene of Batman walking toward the reader with this forbidding inner monologue, knocking away a Manhunter while saying “No man escapes the Batman”…it’s one page, and it kind of perfectly encapsulates what this series is like.  There’s actually a lot of Green Lantern stories in both the comic and cartoon of “Batman: The Brave and the Bold”, and I’d highly recommend taking the time to read and watch them.

in 2011 Batman’s Sinestro Corps costume made it into “Batman: Arkham City”, and was originally only available through a code you got for buying a copy of the Green Lantern movie on Blu-Ray.  And then in 2014, both Sinestro Corps Batman and Darkest Knight Batman showed up as playable characters in “Lego Batman 3: Beyond Gotham”.

…and on top of all of this, there are more Bat Lantern toys than I can possibly list here.  Warner Bros finally realized that people love seeing Batman reinterpreted through the lens of Green Lantern, and are more than happy to sell you something that looks like that.

On the comic side, I’m still surprised that so much of the Batman Lantern stuff has come from the same two writers, Geoff Johns and Scott Snyder.  Both of them keep pushing this idea as hard as they can, and now maybe Scott Lobdell will pick up that baton and run with it.  I would absolutely love to see some genuine narrative continuation to the story of Earth 32, instead of just continuing to dust off Green Lantern Batman for a cameo every ten years or so like they have been.  This has become a very iconic, VERY marketable version of one of the most popular fictional characters in the world.  It’s kind of mind boggling that there’ve really only been two full issues of narrative content devoted to this concept…well, three if you count “Countdown Arena”, but you probably shouldn’t…and everything else was guest appearances and easter eggs, a page here and a moment there.  I for one believe this character deserves attention worthy of his gimmick, but what about you?  What do you think about Batman becoming a Green Lantern, or a Lantern of any kind?  And the big question: what ring do you think is the best fit for Batman?  I know my answer, and it’s not what you think…but I’ll save that for another time.