WARNING: This post contains spoilers for the current run on Green Lantern, primarily the issues pertaining to the current Secret of the Indigo Tribe story arc!

One of the discussions I like to have with people is what Lantern Corps you think you would be in. For me, I see myself as a potential candidate for three of the Lantern Corps: Red, Blue, and Indigo. The thing is, I do have a tendency to be a very angry person, but with age and maturity, a lot of my inner rage has been quelled. I get irritated a lot, but it really takes a lot to make me genuinely mad, and I tend to get over my anger pretty quickly, because it’s just not healthy for anybody.

The whole vomiting blood thing probably isn’t too healthy either.

Next up, the Blue Lantern Corps. I’m an optimist, and tend to think things will always work out for the best. The problem is, while I would describe my default state as “jolly”, happiness really isn’t properly represented on the emotional spectrum of the Green Lantern mythos, so hope is probably the next-best thing.

Also, how can you not be happy when you get to hang out with a space elephant!?

But the part of the emotional spectrum that actually corresponds to me the most is compassion, because I’m a very compassionate person. A little overly-so, sometimes. I’ve had to harden my heart a bit in recent years, or at least tried to, and it’s really hard. I naturally want to help people, so the knowledge that I can’t always do that or the fact that doing so is just counterintuitive to my interests kind of kills me a little inside. This is why I would never be a member of the Indigo Tribe, because the secret of the Indigo Tribe is that they’re actually all some of the worst, most evil killers and sociopaths in the universe, beings completely devoid of compassion who the rings brainwash into feeling constant compassion.

These guys, evil? GET OUTTA TOWN!

The Indigo Tribe was actually founded by Abin Sur, the Green Lantern who passed his ring onto Hal Jordan, as a means of combatting the Guardians of the Universe, who are currently on a beeline for pure evil. They were actually his answer to the Green Lantern Corps, meant to replace them as the protectors of the universe. And one of the recent members was Green Lantern villain and one of the key players in Blackest Night, Black Hand.

Dude, this compassion stuff just mellows you out, bro.

During the events of Green Lanterns #9 and #10, the Indigo Tribe was temporarily deactivated, and Black Hand was able to act of his own free will instead of a compassion-filled drone. He spent his time trying to get away from Nok, the Indigo homeworld, until the Tribe was reactivated, and all of the Indigo Rings started going back to their prisoners, including Hand. Panicked, Hand fell of a cliff, dying on impact. However, fate has more in store for this villain, as a familiar artifact came back to him.

That’s right, Black Hand is once again a Black Lantern, and he seems to be bound for Earth. Now, what he’s planning to do is unclear, and honestly, I’m not interested in speculating about the events that will transpire as a result of his return to the Black Lantern Corps at this time. What I am interested in is one little phrase said after his demise:

For those not in the know, Lantern Basics #1, for the seven colored Lantern Corps, is that a ring will immediately start looking for a person in its sector suitable to possess it should its bearer die. That means that if Hal Jordan were to kick the bucket (again), the ring would immediately look for somebody from Space Sector 2814 with a great enough amount of willpower to replace him. Now, I’m not saying that this person has to be from Earth, but considering that the Red Lantern of sector 2814 is a motherfucking cat, anything’s possible. Especially when you remember that the primary recruitment criteria for the Indigo Tribe is being a merciless, heartless, sociopathic killer, which Earth has in spades. We call them supervillains.

Pick a murderous psychopath, any murderous psychopath!

Now, I realize that Blackest Night is long over, and that the Lantern Corps are not deputizing random Earth heroes and villains to go to war anymore, but the fact is that turning a previously-established villain into a member of the Indigo Tribe has a lot of potential. This being the rebooted DC Universe, however, there’s a lot less to pick from, and lots of the characters that I would select are too important to get rid of right now. See, there’s a fine balance to this kind of thing. You need to not only pick a character who would be interesting as an Indigo Lantern, but a character who wouldn’t really be missed if they WERE turned into one. So, here are three random picks of mine.

1. Arnold Wesker, The Ventriloquist

This picture sums up why I will never read Batman: The Dark Knight. Any book that reintroduces Arnold Wesker, the weasley little Ventriloquist, as a roided-up muscle man using a police officer’s corpse as a puppet, is trying way too hard to be interesting. It also sums up why I think he’d be a good first pick. See, pre-reboot, the Ventriloquist was dead. He actually reappeared as a Black Lantern during Blackest Night, but he had been replaced by Peyton Riley, a new female Ventriloquist. Honestly, I don’t know much about the character, but I found the idea of turning the Ventriloquist into a legacy character to be pretty cool.

Plus, I think we can always use more interesting female villains.

But people had gotten used to a comic book universe without Arnold Wesker, so taking this much more savage version of the character and turning him into an Indigo Lantern would be an interesting prospect.

2. Etrigan

This isn’t going to happen, of course, but it’d be fucking cool if it did. Etrigan hasn’t appeared in the modern age of the New 52, but in Demon Knights at least, the immortal demon from Hell actually acts the part, and is quite distinctly evil. Assuming the passing millennia haven’t tamed the beast, I think it would be interesting to see if the Indigo Tribe COULD convert a denizen of the eternal flame to their cause. Etrigan’s always been a prisoner anyway, so this would only add to that aspect of the character, and how Jason Blood would be effected would also be interesting. I feel like that since the Green Lantern Corps deals with the entire DC Universe, their mythos should probably interact with the magical side of it a little bit more often.

3. Ganthet

Ok, I’m kind of cheating here, since the Guardians don’t belong to any sector, but I’d still like to see this happen. Ganthet’s always been an interesting character in the Green Lantern mythos. Basically, imagine you have a really, stiff, boring, uptight family, trying to mold you into something you don’t want to be, but there’s this one uncle who will sneak you candy when nobody’s looking (and maybe a Playboy when you’re a little older). The Guardians of the Universe are that family, and Ganthet’s that cool uncle. Gathet’s been bounced around a bit, starting as a Guardian, temporarily being taken over by Parallax, helping revive the corps, leaving the corps to start the Blue Lanterns, and then returning to the Green Lanterns during Blackest Night. As I’ve touched on before, the Guardians have now brainwashed Ganthet to be an uncaring asshole just like them.

As for why I would want Ganthet to become an Indigo Lantern, well, this is pretty simple. The Guardians are unfeeling, and becoming more and more heartless by the minute. Since the Indigo Tribe was made to combat them, wouldn’t it make sense if one of them could be recruited into their ranks? Seems like it would be a much-needed power boost. Additionally, maybe being brainwashed by a different party could somehow lead Ganthet to going back to his old, cool uncle self, something I think all the fans would love to see.