If there’s one thing the Green Lanterns are known for, it’s their impressive weapon, the Power Ring. With just a bit of imagination and a massive amount of willpower, the Lanterns can use their rings to conjure up anything they need to assist in their mission to keep peace in the DCU.
But the Green Lanterns aren’t the only ones with Power Rings. Similar Corps and rings have developed over time, each with their own strengths and weaknesses. Discover how the many Power Rings in the Green Lantern mythos stack up when compared to one another.
13 The Phantom Lanterns
The Emotional Spectrum and its many powers can be channeled through the Phantom Ring, an early model prototype of the Green Lantern Power Ring. Depending on what the wearer’s feelings are, they can use any other Corps’ abilities. However, the ring has few defenses to protect its user and actually draws from its user’s life energy, killing them if they wear it long enough. While there’s potential for power, the Phantom Ring is too dangerous to be truly effective.
12 Black Lanterns
During the War of Light, Nekron sought to destroy the DC Universe by unleashing a swarm of Black Lantern Power Rings. The rings are able to revive corpses and download complete psychological profiles, turning them into twisted zombies that haunt those they were closest to in life. While the Black Lantern rings have the ability to bring back the dead, they’re more like puppets acting on Nekron’s behalf and could be disposed of with relative ease.
11 Blue Lanterns
The eternal optimists of the Emotional Spectrum, the Blue Lanterns’ rings are a great support item. When near a Green Lantern, Blue Lanterns can super-charge a Green Lantern’s power, much more than a Power Battery could. The relationship is symbiotic as Blue Lanterns’ powers are enhanced thanks to their proximity to willpower. However, with no Green Lanterns nearby, the Blue Lanterns are stuck with flight and limited build generation, making their Power Rings one of the weaker ones.
10 Ultraviolet Lanterns
Interestingly enough, the mysterious Ultraviolet Lanterns don’t actually use rings in the same way that other parts of the Emotional Spectrum do. These Lanterns use brands to access ultraviolet energy. Also, unlike other Corps, they possess the unique ability to instill powerful, negative emotions in others while also forcefully inducting them into their ranks. The Ultraviolet Lanterns aren’t the most conventional Corps in the Emotional Spectrum, but they are pretty powerful.
9 Gold Lanterns
In the future of the Legion of Super-Heroes, the team has the only Gold Lantern in existence. Kala Lour gained access to the Gold Lantern Power Ring thanks to his overwhelming self-control and has been said to be one of the most powerful ring wielders in history. However, it was also discovered that Gold Lantern’s ring isn’t a genuine Power Ring. It’s quite a weapon, but its curious origin raises a lot of questions.
8 Red Lanterns
Atrocitus and his crimson-hued army are one of the most fearsome parts of the Emotional Spectrum. When a Red Lantern Power Ring finds a new user, it drives them blind with rage and enables them to spew an acidic, plasma-like substance. Despite their power, the Red Lanterns are lost to their rage and even have their hearts replaced by their Power Rings. They’re functionally immortal, but driven mad with anger as a result.
7 Star Sapphires
Red Lanterns aren’t the only ones who can lose themselves to their power. The Star Sapphires are powered by, and driven to fight for love. However, while they are nearly as devoted to love as the Red Lanterns are to rage, they possess a bit more autonomy. Star Sapphires also possesses the ability to divine potential futures based on what one loves the most. In their more stable forms, Star Sapphire Power Rings are quite powerful.
6 Indigo Tribes
While the Indigo Tribe does have rings like their Corps counterpart, the mysterious purple collective is more known for their staffs. When in close proximity to another Lantern from any other Corps, an Indigo Lantern can ‘share’ their power and use it for themselves. A very useful power, admittedly, but unfortunately the only people who qualify for Indigo Power Rings are generally sociopaths and others who lack empathy.
5 Agent Orange
The greediest Lantern in the Emotional Spectrum may just be one of its most powerful. The primary emotion of the Orange Light is avarice, meaning there’s only ever one Orange Lantern at a time. The sole user, Larfleeze, constantly carries the Orange Lantern Central Power Battery, giving him the power level of an entire Corps. However, Larfleeze’s greed makes him unable to use his power for any truly meaningful action.
4 Alan Scott
Technically Alan Scott’s ring has nothing to do with the lights of the Emotional Spectrum, but as the original Green Lantern, his weapon has to be included. The mystical Starheart is the source of Green Lantern Alan Scott’s ring, and he’s spent decades mastering it ins and outs. It has its own rules, but nothing as limiting as many of the Corps’ are. Thanks to the Starheart’s magical properties, there’s virtually nothing that Alan Scott can’t do with his ring.
3 Sinestro Corps
Sinestro spent the better part of his adulthood with the Corps, and when he was booted from its ranks, he decided to make his own. Using the Weaponeers of Qward, Sinestro made a ring very similar to the Green Lantern’s Power Ring, but one that operated on fear rather than willpower. Sinestro’s ring requires a bit more training than that of the Green Lanterns’, but results in his members having a ring that can effortlessly draw from the universe’s collective fear.
2 Green Lanterns
When it comes to Power Rings, few can top the original. Not only do Power Rings generally only seek out the most noble candidates, the rings are rooted in willpower, the most stable light in the Emotional Spectrum. This stability has led to the foundation of the greatest army in the DC Universe. No matter how many times the Green Lanterns are knocked down, the powers granted to them by their rings always allow them to get back up again.
1 White Lanterns
The White Lanterns’ time was brief, but Kyle Rayner’s struggle to master the Emotional Spectrum revealed this Corps’ true power. The White Lantern Power Ring can access all the strengths of each other corps, with none of the drawbacks. Not to mention those with White Lantern rings also possessed the ability to heal others and even revive the dead. For those lucky enough to wear a White Lantern ring, they had truly discovered godlike strength and power.
The Emotional Spectrum’s mythos has a lot of powerful relics in it, but this is a good approximation of the Green Lanterns Power Rings rankings.