Green Lantern Corps/Reboot

The Green Lantern Corps was once a group of interstellar law enforcement agents acting under the direction of the Guardians of the Universe. The Guardians were one of the first races to evolve following the creation of the universe. The Guardians and their agents have existed for billions of years and existed until the late 20th century, when they would - with one exception - apparently be slaughtered by Hal Jordan, one of the "Green Lanterns", and the last ring came into the possession of Kyle Rayner, who would encounter the Legion on several occasions.

In the 30th century, a group of criminals would discover how to tap the GL energy, until they were stopped by the Legion, a time-travelling Rayner, and Rayner's descendent, Cary Wren.

This article is not a complete history of the Green Lantern Corps and the Guardians of the Universe. Rather, it provides context for events in which the Legion or Legionnaires took part, or which have affected their timeline.

Guardians' GL Corps

The beings known as the Guardians evolved on the planet Oa in the centre of the universe. As a young race, they developed a thirst for knowledge about the universe around them. One scientist, named Krona, built a device that would let him look back at the origin of the universe, but when he tried, he saw a pair of hands cradling the nascent universe - an illusion of the Guardians', who were attempting to prevent their own history being altered by showing themselves as 'more powerful the further into the past you looked. Further attempts on Krona's part to get round this by looking to the far future would result in a billion years of life being drained from the beginning by the entropy of the Omega Point, and Krona was dispersed in punishment for his crime.

In repentance for this, the Guardians' attempted to create a force for good in the universe. Their first attempt, the robotic "Manhunters", rebelled and were deemed a failure, although they would escape destruction until the late 20th century.

Following the Manhunters, the Guardians realized that they needed live agents, and using a "power battery" on Oa, they founded the Green Lantern Corps. Each member, 3600 in all, was responsible for a certain sector of space. Earth was in sector 2814.

This lasted until, in the late 20th Century after several setbacks, the Corps was apparently destroyed for good, and all but one of the Guardians - Ganthet - were seemingly killed by an insane Hal Jordan, who then absorbed most of the Lantern power and took the name Parallax.

The last known Green Lantern ring would be placed by Ganthet in the hands of Kyle Rayner, a freelance artist, who would become the last known Green Lantern. He would, often in combination with other heroes of the period, combat Jordan several times, including one time when Jordan attempted to recreate the universe and was only partially stopped by an assemblage of heroes - while only minor changes took place up to the 20th century on Earth, they had only limited knowledge of deep space and the future, and so the 30th Century, while including a Legion of Super-Heroes, would be significantly altered.

In the aftermath of this event, Rayner destroyed the planet Oa to prevent Jordan from tapping the energy within further.

Rayner would later encounter a group of time-lost Legionnaires when the Emerald Eye sent them back to the late 20th Century. What became of the ring is unknown, and records of Rayner as a Green Lantern would be lost - although some of his work as an artist would survive, with a sculpture created by him, entitled "Sorrow" standing in Legion HQ, and he is believed to have sired at least one child with an unknown mother.

In addition, after the Imperiex War, he would be amongst the JLA members used as templates for the Warworld self-defence program's hardlight holograms.

Although Oa, the Guardians, and the Corps were later restored, their further activities past the 21st century were unknown to the Legion. At some point in the intervening 1000 years, Oa was destroyed again.

Criminal Corps

In the late 30th century, a group of criminals would discover how to tap the Lantern energy which remained at the centre of the universe, where Oa had once stood, to create limited versions of GL rings:

• Tomar Ro, the leader - a Xudarian, who designed the tap on the energy where Oa had been.
• Dalena Barr, a confidence trickster
• Flary P'Kari, a multi-crime offender - including murder, kidnapping, extortion and "a host of other crimes".
• Nytoro Borin, a Lortian and criminal since childhood.
• Renno, a Star Pilot and hired muscle, possibly a robot or cyborg.
• Din Collus, a career mercenary, cyborg and strategist
• An unnamed Sklarian Raider and former assassin.
• Sparak, the sole survivor of a colony on Reetus, thief and serial killer.

Initially posing as heroes, trading off the historical GL Corps, they proceeded to embark on a high-profile series of thefts, escaping from the Legion after a skirmish outside the Louvre.

During the Louvre episode, however, Rayner landed in 30th century London, UK, after a fight with Grayven threw him a thousand years forward in time. Arrested by the Science Police due to the association with the criminal Corps, he (after a brief misunderstanding with Live Wire and XS) was taken to Legion HQ where Cosmic Boy, one of the Legionnaires to have met him in the 20th century, greeted him.

After Cosmic Boy briefed him and the Legion on the criminal Corps' known background, Rayner, XS and Invisible Kid scouted the location of Oa and, after discovering their cloaked ship, were defeated by the criminal Corps. When Tomar Ro attempted to use Rayner's ring, however, he could not - as it was genetically linked to Rayner - and it disappeared shortly afterward, when the 30th century Ganthet - observing events without directly involving himself - took the ring, and gave it to Rayner's 30th century descendant, a human female living homeless in London called Cary Wren.

Wren - along with a second, larger, group of Legionnaires, who had grown concerned at their teammates' failure to respond - then fought the criminal Corps, and Wren, with her ancestor's help, destroyed the energy tap which empowered them, leaving them powerless and easily captured.

Wren then returned the ring to Rayner, and Brainiac 5 sent him back to the 20th century. Green Lantern v3 #97-99

Later events

Rayner would later be a character in a computer game the Legionnaires played Legion of Super-Heroes v4 #119, and they would encounter a hardlight hologram of him, along with many other JLA members, on Warworld The Legion #12.

No further Legion encounters with the real Rayner or any other Green Lanterns are known of.