The first Black Lantern — death's herald.

Black Hand

William Derek Hand was born into death: his family ran the funeral home and coroner's office in Coastville, and the boy grew up with an unhealthy fascination for the grave. As an adult he built a device that drained residual energy from Green Lantern power rings, becoming the Silver Age villain Black Hand — a C-list crook with a gimmick, first appearing in Green Lantern vol. 2 #29 (June 1964, John Broome and Gil Kane; the character was named for Batman co-creator Bill Finger).

Geoff Johns saw something darker in him. In the rewritten Secret Origin, Atrocitus himself came to Earth hunting the being destined to be the vessel of the Black — and found William Hand. The Spectre later disintegrated Hand's hand (Green Lantern: Rebirth #1, 2004), but death kept calling. In Green Lantern vol. 4 #43 (July 2009, Johns and Doug Mahnke), Hand murdered his own family, took his own life — and rose as the first Black Lantern, Nekron's herald on the living plane.

During Blackest Night (2009–10), Black Hand raised the dead across the universe — Martian Manhunter, Aquaman, Hawkman and Hawkgirl among them — charging the Black Central Power Battery with every stolen heart. He dug up what appeared to be Batman's skull and commanded the fallen by name: "Rise." He was Nekron's anchor to the world of the living, and when the White Light finally came, it was Hand's connection that had to be severed. No villain in Green Lantern history traveled further: from joke criminal to the embodiment of death itself.

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Blackest Night #0 (2009), closing story page, first panel. Ivan Reis (interior pencils). Artwork source & details.