Line #32 ComicBook/WrathOfTheFirstLantern


1	[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/rsz_comics_greenlantern_johnsfinale_1575.jpg]]
2
3	''Wrath of the First Lantern'' is the second BatFamilyCrossover of the ComicBook/{{New 52}} ComicBook/GreenLantern, and the final one written by Creator/GeoffJohns' run. Also, running from his start to his finish, this serves as a GrandFinale for Johns' work in making and working through the MythArc of modern Green Lantern comics since ''Green Lantern: Rebirth''.
4
5	[[ComicBook/RiseOfTheThirdArmy Immediately after being freed from captivity by the corrupt Guardians of the Universe]], [[RealityWarper Volthoom]], the entity who taught the Guardians about the Emotional Electromagnetic Spectrum to begin with and can manipulate it by himself without a RingOfPower, destroys the Third Army and attempts to remake reality as he wants it to be, beginning with demoralizing every Corps leader. The ensuing struggle pits every single Corps against the Guardians of the Universe and the First Lantern, including some rejuvenated enemies and allies, and serves to create a new status quo.
6
7	----
8	!!Wrath of the First Lantern provides examples of:
9	* AGodAmI: Volthoom declares this a couple times, [[spoiler:even after he's been severed from the emotional spectrum.]]
10	* BackForTheFinale: ''Green Lantern'' #20 and how! Virtually every surviving character from throughout the Johns-era lends a hand -- or in this case ring -- in the final battle against Volthoom. [[spoiler: Even Nekron makes an encore appearance thanks to a Black Lantern Hal]]. On a production level, many of the artists who worked on ''Green Lantern'' during the Geoff Johns-era return to lend a hand to artist Doug Mahnke for the finale.
11	* BackFromTheDead: [[spoiler: Hal is resurrected as a Black Lantern in the finale]].
12	* BaldOfEvil: Volthoom. [[spoiler:Shows better once he's BroughtDownToNormal.]]
13	* BatmanGrabsAGun: [[spoiler:Hal Jordan essentially summons Nekron to kill Volthoom in the finale. Absolutely no one objects to this, as Volthoom was a remorseless RealityWarper that could never be stopped or contained a second time.]]
14	* BigBad: Volthoom, overthrowing the Guardians of the Universe and destroying the Third Army to become the main threat in this series.
15	* BookEnds:
16	** [[spoiler:Johns' run began with Hal's rebirth and it concludes with his second rebirth. It even gets lampshaded in the framing device.]]
17	** Likewise, the finale closes out with a four page gatefold courtesy of ''Green Lantern: Rebirth'' artist Ethan Van Sciver. The Johns era began with his artwork and closes with it.
18	* BrickJoke: ''Green Lantern'' #20 finally pays off the long running joke of no one (characters and readers alike) knowing what the Orange Lantern oath is.
19	* BroughtDownToNormal: [[spoiler: Volthoom, courtesy of Black Lantern Hal Jordan and Nekron.]]
20	* TheBusCameBack: After years of non-appearance, [[spoiler: G'nort]] shows up after to help fight Volthoom.
21	* CavalryOfTheDead: The Indigo Lanterns channel [[GodzillaThreshold the black ring energy]] [[spoiler: in order to bring forth an Army from the Dead Zone composed of Volthoom's victims, with Hal Jordon at the head!]]
22	* ContrastingSequelAntagonist: Volthoom is this trope for the Guardians. Both wished to remake the universe in their own egotistical image, but while the Guardians despised emotions and tried to annihilate free will, Volthoom revels in emotions as they feed his power and uses his understanding of emotion to mentally torture the protagonists in ways the Guardians couldn't imagine.
23	* DarkIsNotEvil: In Green Lantern #20, [[spoiler:Hal Jordan willingly becomes a Black Lantern, but remains heroic through his re-admission to the Green Lantern Corps]].
24	* DistantFinale[=/=]FramingDevice: Green Lantern #20 is told from the perspective of a young Lantern being told the story of the fall of Volthoom and the Guardians by an elder, in the vein of ''ComicBook/WhateverHappenedToTheManOfTomorrow'' or ''ComicBook/WhateverHappenedToTheCapedCrusader''.
25	* EarthShatteringKaboom: In Green Lantern #19, Volthoom regains enough power to [[spoiler: destroy Sinestro's home planet, Korugar]].
26	* EmotionEater: Volthoom regains his strength by feeding off the emotions of the Lanterns when he shows them their alternate lives. He finds despair the most delicious. Plays into the finale where [[spoiler: Black Lantern Hal uses the previously established abilities of a Black power ring to drain Volthoom's connection to the emotional spectrum.]]
27	* EvilerThanThou: Volthoom's first act is to take back the piece of his power used to make the Third Army, destroying them.
28	* FanService: Out of all the mindgames that the various Lanterns are forced into by Volthoom, only in John Stewart's and Fatality's were the hard-light costumes removed; not to mention the R-rated scene the two have in the epilogue.
29	* ForegoneConclusion: the DistantFinale [[spoiler:is actually a FramingDevice about a newly-inducted Green Lantern asking about the story of the struggle of all the Lanterns]] before the story flashes back to the final battle against Volthoom.
30	* FriendlyEnemy: Sinestro and Hal Jordan:
31	-->'''Hal Jordan''': Were we ''ever'' truly friends?\
32	'''Sinestro''': That's the tragedy of all of this, [[LastNameBasis Jordan]]. [[YouCalledMeXItMustBeSerious Hal.]] We'll ''always'' be friends.
33	* GladToBeAliveSex: In the ''Green Lantern Corps'' epilogue, [[spoiler:John Stewart and Fatality make love while on Mogo]].
34	* GodzillaThreshold: In Green Lantern 19 and 20, [[spoiler:Hal Jordan kills himself to become a Black Lantern and escape the Dead Zone as Nekron's anchor to the mortal realm, then summons the being himself to kill Volthoom. If this had gone badly, another ComicBook/BlackestNight could have occurred]].
35	* GrandFinale: For Creator/GeoffJohns' work on Green Lantern.
36	* HannibalLecture: Volthoom proves to be adept at this trope, combining it with his reality warping powers to dissect the lives of his victims and point out their worst failures or create what-if scenarios showing how much better or worse their life could be if they acted differently.
37	* HeroicWillpower: Aside from the usual from the Green Lanterns, we have an example that goes up to eleven: [[spoiler: Black Lantern Hal Jordan manages to summon enough willpower to not only [[DarkIsNotEvil remain heroic despite being a member of the Black Lanterns]], but also [[HijackingCthulhu hijack Nekron]] for the final blow on Volthoom]].
38	* HumiliationConga: Within the larger context of Johns' narrative, arguably [[spoiler: Nekron in the finale. ''Blackest Night'' didn't fulfill his grand master plan and ''Brightest Day'' only strengthened life against any future campaigns. And now, at the close of Johns' run, he's forced to fight on behalf of the living. That this order comes courtesy of the Earth Lantern who helped beat him -- and even worse is now one of his Black Lanterns -- surely doesn't help.]]
39	* ILied: Volthoom offers Kyle a choice of realities to live in [[spoiler:and promptly takes it back when Kyle chooses one where Alex is still alive.]]
40	* ImmediateSequel: Kicks off right after ''ComicBook/RiseOfTheThirdArmy''.
41	* LeaningOnTheFourthWall:
42	** When Volthoom destroys the Third Army, he notes that it never really mattered. The comment lampshades the fact that the Army was nothing more than a plot device to set up the First Lantern's introduction.
43	** [[spoiler:G'Nort]]'s entry to the GrandFinale, his first in the ComicBook/{{New 52}}, is noted with how it was "about time" he showed up, but it was better late than never.
44	* MirrorCharacter:
45	** While it's not acknowledged in the finale, [[spoiler:Sinestro and Atrocitus are now quite alike following Korugar's destruction. Both men have lost their homeworlds to the stupidity, evil, and insanity set in motion by the Guardians.]].
46	** Likewise, [[spoiler:Sinestro's role in the destruction of Korugar is not unlike John Stewart's role in the destruction of Xanshi. If both men hadn't been so egotistical and intent on ending the crisis by themselves, then both worlds might have been saved.]]
47	** There is also the comparison between [[spoiler:Sinestro & Kilowog. They both loved their worlds & their people, but would later lose both to Sinestro's own vanity: Kilowog when Sinestro destroyed the new Bolovax Vik to try to destroy the Lanterns on it, and Sinestro who refused help against the First Lantern. Both events lead to major events in Sinestro's life as well: after destroying Bolovax Vik, Sinestro was tried and killed by the Corps, only for his soul to enter the Power Battery & meet the Parallax entity; and after Korugar's loss, Sinestro bonds with Parallax & kills most of the Guardians, and leaves for unknown space]].
48	* MortonsFork: If the Corps don't kill Volthoom, then he'll re-write space-time in his image and wipe out life as they know it. [[spoiler: But they ''can't'' kill him because he's bonded to the white light of creation and the released energies would wipe out all life anyway.]] It gets averted when [[spoiler: Black Lantern Hal is able to drain his connection to the spectrum using a Black Power Ring -- thus softening Volthoom up for the kill]].
49	* MyGodWhatHaveIDone: the Guardians themselves regarding their horrific acts [[spoiler:after Volthoom gives them emotions.]]
50	* NiceJobFixingItVillain
51	** Volthoom puts the prominent multi-colored Lanterns through emotional hell in order to harvest their despair. This, quite understandably, ends up pissing off everyone and [[spoiler: brings all the Corps into the final stand above Oa.]]
52	** Likewise, Volthoom blowing up [[spoiler: Korugar ''really'' pisses off Sinestro and leads to him siccing Parallax and his Corps on the First Lantern]].
53	* NoBodyLeftBehind: [[spoiler:When Black Hand's Black Lantern ring abandons him to go to Hal Jordan, his body disintegrates into dust.]]
54	* PostFinalBoss:
55	** [[spoiler:Once Volthoom is defeated, Hal has one more battle, against Sinestro, who wants to murder the Guardians. However, Hal wasn't trying to save the Guardians, he was actually trying to prevent Sinestro from crossing another line.]]
56	** Guy still has a little score to settle with Xar, the escaped criminal who cost Guy his first mission as a Lantern Sentinel as well as the new recruits under his wing (actually a setup by the Guardians). Guy obliterates the bastard just before he could kill Guy's family.
57	* RealityWarper: Volthoom, when he is at full strength. When he's not, he can show how peoples' lives would be if their past [[ForWantOfANail took a different turn]]. This is actually a plot point, as his imprisonment by the Guardians weakened him to the point he needed to go around finding emotionally diverse victims to charge him back up before he could remake the world in his image.
58	* TheReveal: On a light note, [[Characters/GLOrangeLanternCorps Larfleeze's oath]] is finally mentioned in Green Lantern 20. It's as [[{{Greed}} silly]] as one might think.
59	* SequelHook: [[spoiler:Simon Baz's section in the epilogue continues into ''Justice League of America'' and ''ComicBook/TrinityWar''.]]
60	** Likewise, [[spoiler: Volthoom's ring returning to his Earth following his death. This thread continues into ''ComicBook/ForeverEvil2013''.]]
61	* SoProudOfYou: Hal runs into the spirit of his father Martin, who tells him that he and Hal's mother are proud of him.
62	* SummonBiggerFish: [[spoiler:The eventual killer of Volthoom? Nekron, who is summoned and controlled by Hal Jordan, the Greatest Black Lantern.]]
63	* TooSpicyForYogSothoth:
64	** Volthoom tries to feed off of Larfleeze's emotions when he shows him how his life would be with his family back. Larfleeze is too greedy and resistant for it to work and Volthoom just gives up and leaves him alone.
65	** After first appearing to be the easiest to placate, Saint Walker turns the tables with a combination of willpower and hope, appearing to break free from the visions. This leaves a shocked Volthoom to muse that he underestimated Saint Walker - and he wagers he wasn't the first to do so.
66	* UltimateShowdownOfUltimateDestiny: It's even lampshaded that the only way this epic could end would be a showdown between [[ArchNemesis Sinestro]] and Hal Jordan. [[spoiler:And then subverted when they fight for a few panels before parting in sort-of friendship.]]
67	* VillainousBreakdown: [[spoiler:After Hal drains the entire emotional spectrum out of Volthoom, rendering him BroughtDownToNormal, he panics before his death.]]
68	-->'''Hal:''' [[spoiler:He's ''human''.]]\
69	'''Volthoom:''' [[spoiler:[[BigNo No!]] [[WasOnceAMan I am more than human!]] [[AGodAmI I am everything!]]]]\
70	[[spoiler:'''Nekron:''' [[PreMortemOneLiner You are nothing... but a ghost!]]]]
71	* VitriolicBestBuds: Sinestro admits this about Hal after the battle.
72	* WasOnceAMan: [[spoiler:Volthoom was once a human being, before he got too close to the energies being put into the eponymous First Lantern, the Great Heart, and absorbed the energies. In the end, he is returned to that same state.]]
73	* WaveMotionGun: [[spoiler:In Green Lantern 20, Mogo is used as a channeling tool for the energy of all of the Corps, which is then fired directly at Volthoom in a beam, in a kind of inverted Death Star.]]
74	* WhamLine: Revealing [[UnspokenPlanGuarantee Hal Jordan's plan]] in Green Lantern 20.
75	-->'''Hal Jordan:''' [[spoiler:[[TheGrimReaper Nekron.]] [[GodzillaThreshold RISE.]]]]
76	* WhatCouldHaveBeen: InUniverse, Volthoom uses this extensively to determine ways to push Lanterns to despair to fuel his powers, showing them how their lives could have been, ForWantOfANail.
77	* WhereAreTheyNowEpilogue: Given the DistantFinale FramingDevice of Green Lantern #20, this is used extensively in the end to discuss how various characters ended up.
78	** Hal Jordan [[spoiler:and Carol Ferris married and had a son named Martin, living to see grandchildren in their old age.]]
79	** Kyle Rayner [[spoiler:chooses to use his White Lantern abilities to help those in need, becoming a healer known across the universe.]]
80	** Guy Gardner [[spoiler:becomes a old man, shown getting into bar fights and hitting on space furries as a gray-haired veteran.]]
81	** John Stewart [[spoiler:marries Fatality and becomes a U.S. Senator.]]
82	** Simon Baz [[spoiler:retains his position as a Green Lantern of Earth, and later takes a new Earth Lantern under his wing; Jessica Cruz: the first human woman to wield a green ring.]]
83	** Larfleeze [[spoiler:is reunited with his family, giving up all his treasured possessions for them. Old habits die hard, however, and he does continue his thieving ways and start building a new hoard.]]
84	** Saint Walker [[spoiler:gains a family, and the Blue Lanterns thrive with membership rivaling the Green Lantern Corps.]]
85	** Atrocitus [[spoiler: continues to lead the Red Lanterns in their quest to avenge the wrongs of the universe, though he does it with the knowledge that he'll never truly be free of the pain of the past, and its implied he's made his peace with that.]]
86	** Iroque [[spoiler: eventually decides to remove her ring, but maintains her compassion and kindness, becoming the "most generous and loving being in the universe".]]
87	** [[spoiler:Sinestro eventually returns from his self-imposed exile and rejoins the Corps as the Keeper of the Book of Oa.]]
88	* WillingChanneler: Twice in Green Lantern #20. [[spoiler:Sinestro frees Parallax from the Yellow Power Battery so he can utilize his powers. He does, and keeps control of himself. Hal also becomes a Black Lantern specifically to return from the Dead Zone and summon Nekron to kill Volthoom.]]
89	** HijackingCthulhu: ''Both'' examples result in this. [[spoiler:Well aware of what Parallax is and a master of Yellow Energy, Sinestro manages it easier than Hal, who has to use his HeroicWillpower to overcome Nekron's control.]]

Context ComicBook / WrathOfTheFirstLantern