Rage
Not an army — a force of nature. The red light doesn't recruit soldiers; it detonates them.
Red Lanterns (2011) #1, main-cover crop. Ed Benes (cover pencils); Rob Hunter (cover inks); Rod Reis (cover colors). Artwork source & details.
With blood and rage of crimson red, ripped from a corpse so freshly dead, together with our hellish hate, we'll burn you all — that is your fate!
Rage — raw, all-consuming fury. The red light burns hottest and thinks least: it trades reason for power, and the exchange is never fair.
A red ring finds those whose anger has swallowed everything else. It doesn't ask for discipline — it asks for a target.
Ysmault — a dead, blood-soaked world where the Corps was born. Its Blood Ocean is said to hold the rage of the fallen.
Few visit Ysmault by choice. Those who do rarely leave with their composure — or their hearts — intact.
Atrocitus— founder; survivor of an ancient massacre, rage incarnate.
Bleez— a winged princess whose world was stolen; fury with a focus.
Dex-Starr— an alley cat with a grudge, a ring, and a fan club.
Rankorr— a young recruit fighting to keep his humanity inside the rage.
Zilius Zox— all muscle, all rage.
Skallox— the Corps' enforcer; betrayed, burned, reborn in rage.
Vice— the Corps' most ruthless hunter.
Laira— Honor Guard discipline, Red Lantern rage.
Guy Gardner— proof that even a Green Lantern can burn red.
A red power ring replaces its bearer's heart — the rage itself keeps them alive. Red Lanterns spew corrosive, burning plasma instead of shaping constructs.
Quirks: the rage clouds all higher thought, reducing most bearers to snarling engines of hate. But there is a cure of sorts — the blue light of hope can soothe the rage and even restore what was lost.
Long ago, the Guardians' Manhunter androids malfunctioned and slaughtered all life in Sector 666. Five beings survived — Atrocitus (then called Atros, of the planet Ryut), Qull, Roixeaume, Orphram, and Dal Xauix. They became the Five Inversions, a terrorist cell that waged war on the Guardians for centuries using cruel blood magic. They built the Empire of Tears, ruling from the prison world of Ysmault for two millennia — until the Green Lantern Corps finally brought them down and left them to rot there.
But Atros had seen his future in a Guardian's blood: himself standing over the corpses of his fellow Inversions. He fulfilled the prophecy — bludgeoning Qull to death with the first red power battery, then bleeding out the others. Their crystallized blood became the first red ring; their sacrifice fueled the Red Central Power Battery, towering over Ysmault's lake of blood. Atros became Atrocitus, the first Red Lantern.
The Corps he founded (created by Geoff Johns and Ethan Van Sciver, debuting in Green Lantern vol. 4 #25, 2007) is rage weaponized. A red ring replaces its bearer's heart — the rage itself keeps them alive, but their blood spoils from within, forcing them to spew corrosive plasma. Most Red Lanterns are mindless engines of hate. But there is hope: Ysmault's Blood Ocean can restore a Red Lantern's sanity, and the blue light of hope can soothe the rage entirely.
The Red Lantern Corps is the spectrum's warning: every emotion has a cost, and rage charges the highest price of all — your heart, your mind, and very nearly your soul.
Rage of the Red Lanterns (Green Lantern #36–38, 2008–09) — Atrocitus launches his war, capturing Sinestro and dragging him to Ysmault for a blood sacrifice. The Sinestro Corps War's aftermath becomes a four-way battle between red, green, blue, and yellow.
Blackest Night (2009–10) — Black rings rain down on Ysmault, reanimating the Red Lanterns' victims. Atrocitus fights alongside the other Corps against the dead.
Guy Gardner's Red Ring — When Guy dons a red ring, he proves that even a Green Lantern's will can burn red — and that the rage can be mastered, not just endured.
Credits refer to the illustrations shown here. Open a record for sources, adaptations and unresolved details. Some artwork and source pages contain story spoilers.
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