Summary

• New Sorrow Lantern emerges, powered by sadness.
• Lord Premier Thaaros attacks Emotional Spectrum, causing changes.
• Sorrow Lanterns may represent Emotional Spectrum's pain or hint at new corps on the way.

Warning! Green Lantern #13 spoilers ahead!A new type of Lantern has emerged in the Green Lantern mythos and this one is powered by sadness of all things. The Emotional Spectrum is in flux all thanks to one man's mad desire to try and control the powerful force.

Ever since the United Planets' leader Lord Premier Thaaros assumed control of the Green Lantern Corps, he's been viciously attacking the Emotional Spectrum in order to claim it for himself. As the Emotional Spectrum continues to suffer, a never-before-seen Lantern gains power and puts the future of the entire Green Lantern franchise into question.

Star Sapphire's Ex Has Become the First 'Sorrow Lantern'

In Green Lantern #13 by Jeremy Adams, Fernando Pasarin, Oclair Albert, and Romulo Fajardo Jr., Hal Jordan has just escaped from Oa thanks to his greatest love interest, Carol Ferris. Unfortunately before Star Sapphire and Green Lantern could have a proper reunion, Hal was taken captive by Amanda Waller, who has officially gone to war with Earth's metahumans. Though Waller had promised to hand Jordan over to Thaaros and the Green Lantern Corps, she keeps Hal for herself, determined to crack the secret of his new Power Ring.

As sorrow consumes Nathan, the ring changes and becomes a Power Ring...

On Oa, the last few of the Resistance Corps gather in their secret base. Still playing double agent against Thaaros, Jessica Cruz checks on the Resistance and informs them that Simon and Jo have been locked up. Jessica also reveals that Thaaros has replaced the United Planets’ council with of his shape-shifting species and influencing entire worlds. Kyle Rayner, channeling numerous lights, confirms the threat Thaaros poses, saying if he controls the Emotional Spectrum, he’ll control the universe.

Back on Earth in Las Vegas, Nathan Broome, Carol Ferris’ ex-fiancee, sits in a honeymoon suite alone. He laments that he did everything right his entire life but it never worked out in his favor. Nathan wallows in sadness as he looks at the wedding ring he’d gotten for Carol before she left him to go save Green Lantern. As sorrow consumes Nathan, the ring changes and becomes a Power Ring, giving Nathan a brand-new Lantern costume with a gray color scheme and a teardrop-shaped symbol on his chest.

The Emotional Spectrum Has Been Majorly Damaged Thanks to Thaaros

When the Guardians of the Universe disappeared, control of the Green Lantern Corps fell to the United Planets, specifically its leader, Lord Premier Thaaros. Thaaros introduced sweeping changes, starting by quarantining Earth and reasg every Lantern from the planet. Hal Jordan was already skeptical of the changes, but he left the Corps for good when someone blew up the Sinestro Corps Central Power Battery, an attack that wound up killing Jordan’s good friend Kilowog. However, this would be just the first of many attacks on the Emotional Spectrum.

The death of Kilowog and the destruction of the Sinestro Corps Power Battery can be seen in Green Lantern #7 (2024)!

After Hal left the Green Lantern Corps, Thaaros began secretly ordering the destruction of other Central Power Batteries. The Blue Lantern Corps, the Red Lantern Corps, and even the sole Orange Lantern Larfleeze lost their Batteries. The coordinated attacks had a powerful effect on the Emotional Spectrum. Rather than just use the Emerald Light of Willpower, Thaaros’ private army of ‘United Planets Lanterns’ became able to channel other lights. Thaaros had hoped not only to be the sole controller of the Emotional Spectrum’s power, but to use his soldiers to access the powers of the mysterious Source Lantern.

So far, Thaaros has been unsuccessful at accessing the Source Lantern’s power but he continues to sacrifice as many of his Lanterns as necessary to attain it. As Thaaros keeps up his mad work, no one has been aware of the pain the Emotional Spectrum is more than Kyle Rayner. As a former White Lantern, Kyle intimately understands the powerful energy source. But the more Thaaros has attacked the Emotional Spectrum, the more damage he’s doing to the DC Universe, and Kyle can feel it all.

What do the Sorrow Lanterns Mean to the Emotional Spectrum?

Unfortunately, beyond seeing Nathan embracing the sadness and donning his new Sorrow Lantern costume, there’s nothing that indicates why the new corps has formed now. It is interesting to see a Lantern powered by sadness because that’s one of the few big emotions that was left out of the original handful of corps which were centered around feelings like rage, fear, hope, and love. But the Emotional Spectrum has existed for eons, so why is a Lantern empowered by sadness just coming around now?

Another possibility is that Thaaros’ damage to the Emotional Spectrum is completely resetting the way the force operates.

The most likely reason the Sorrow Lanterns are emerging now is because of the damage Thaaros has done. He’s pretty much annihilated every other corps except for the Green Lanterns. Kyle, who is essentially the Emotional Spectrum’s avatar, has made it quite clear that the energy is in pain from what Thaaros is doing. Perhaps the Sorrow Lanterns are a physical manifestation of the misery the Emotional Spectrum is experiencing, which would explain why the new Lanterns have seemingly come out of thin air.

Another possibility is that Thaaros’ damage to the Emotional Spectrum is completely resetting the way the force operates. Thaaros has eliminated every faction except for Green. But the Emotional Spectrum can’t just be destroyed, even if the Central Power Batteries that harness the various lights are. It’s possible that all of Thaaros’ destruction to the previous corps has made way for new ones to be created, making new Lanterns that embody emotions that were left out of the original seven lights.

The Sorrow Lanterns are Just the Start

It’s hard to say what lies ahead when all fans have to go off of is Nathan debuting as a Sorrow Lantern. But with the Emotional Spectrum going through a period of change, it wouldn’t be shocking to see new Lanterns start springing up. Pretty soon, fans could be seeing Lanterns that run off of joy or surprise. Thaaros has done serious damage to the Emotional Spectrum and it seems like the result is creating a new line of Lanterns. It’ll be quite interesting to see how Green Lantern reacts to his downbeat rival when the Sorrow Lantern takes flight.

Green Lantern #13 is available now from DC Comics.