Note: This story contains spoilers from “Lanterns” Episode 2.
Only two episodes in, “Lanterns” has already introduced one of the most significant characters in Green Lantern history.
The second episode of “Lanterns” ends with Hal Jordan (Kyle Chandler) learning about the existence of Manhunters from John Stewart (Aaron Pierre), who was informed of the Guardians-created threat by the mysterious Antaan. Hal then suits up for the first time in the show’s main timeline and heads to space, where he visits a prison (presumably the Green Lanterns’ Sciencells, which are often located on Oa).
There, Hal comes face-to-face with Sinestro (Ulrich Thomsen), a pink-skinned, mustachioed alien who used to be a member of the Green Lantern Corps. Audiences are given a small bit of Hal and Sinestro’s backstory in “Lanterns,” but show-only fans probably don’t know just how important this character is in the DC universe.
So here’s everything you need to know about Sinestro.
Who is Sinestro?
Sinestro is to Green Lantern as Lex Luthor is to Superman and Joker is to Batman. He is Hal Jordan’s arch-enemy, his equal and opposite, his greatest foe.
Thaal Sinestro debuted in John Broome and Gil Kane’s “Green Lantern #7” from 1961 in a story called “The Day 100,000 People Vanished.” There, Hal Jordan — or, at least, Hal Jordan’s astral self (just roll with it) — is told of Sinestro’s history by the Guardians of the Universe.
Sinestro was a Green Lantern who was chosen before Hal’s time as the peacekeeper of Sector 1417, which contains his homeworld of Korugar. However, the power soon got to Sinestro’s head, and he used his power ring to rule over Korugar as a dictator in the name of order.
Like with many comic book characters, the specifics of Sinestro’s origins change depending on the writer/continuity. Originally, Broome wrote that Hal didn’t meet Sinestro until after he had already broken bad, which seemingly occurred before Hal even became a Green Lantern.
Later, the post-“Crisis on Infinite Earths” story “Emerald Dawn II” by Jim Owsley and M.D. Bright established that Hal was actually trained by Sinestro, and that he was the one who discovered his corruption when the two visited Korguar together (where civilians led a revolt against their Green Lantern). This is the most common origin for the characters today, one that establishes Hal and Sinestro as friends and makes their rivalry all the more complicated.
Sinestro would then be replaced as Green Lantern by the Korugaran revolutionary Katma Tui, who later became John Stewart’s wife.
Writer Ron Marz and artist Scott Kolins later told a story in 1999’s “Secret Origins of Super Villains 80-Page Giant #1” that shows Sinestro was never meant to be a Green Lantern at all. When an alien crash-landed on Korugar, they gave Sinestro their ring to fight off the threat that was pursuing them. Though Sinestro seemingly could’ve saved them by returning the ring after the threat had passed, he kept it, allowing the Guardians to think nothing could’ve been done to save his predecessor. It’s a twisted origin, though not one many others go out of their way to acknowledge.
Is Sinestro’s origin the same in “Lanterns”?
We know very little about Sinestro’s origin in “Lanterns” — basically, only what can be gleaned from an article read by Sheriff Kerry Kane (Kelly Macdonald).
“It says here he was a Lantern. Attempted a coup. Killed one of the bosses. It also says you were the one who took him down,” she tells Hal after hearing him talk about Sinestro in his sleep.
This diverges from the comics in a few subtle ways. Because Kerry says Sinestro attempted a coup against the Guardians (likely for thinking they did not use their power to the fullest extent), it’s unclear if he attempted to rule over Korugar in the DCU. Sinestro’s comic origin also doesn’t involve the killing of one of the Guardians, who are immortal.
Sinestro in “Lanterns” appears to be used in a Hannibal Lecter-like capacity, with Hal approaching the villain to gain information on the Manhunters.
What are Sinestro’s powers?
When the Guardians stripped Sinestro of his power ring, they banished him to the anti-matter dimension, where he ended up on the planet Qward. There, he convinced the Qwardian Weaponers to construct him a new ring — one that uses yellow energy, since Green Lantern rings used to be weak to the color yellow (again, roll with it).
Sinestro and the Qwardians trap Hal in a bubble of yellow energy in Sinestro’s first appearance, and he is shown wielding his yellow power ring for the first time two issues later in “Green Lantern #9.”
The most celebrated interpretation of Sinestro and his powers wouldn’t be established for another few decades. In the early 2000s, Geoff Johns began a lengthy run on Green Lantern (starting with “Green Lantern: Rebirth,” which resurrected both Hal and Sinestro back to the status quo) that is one of the most iconic sagas in DC Comics.
“Were we ever truly friends?” Hal asks Sinestro toward the end of that run.
“That’s the tragedy of all of this, Jordan. Hal,” Sinestro responds. “We’ll always be friends.”
During that run, Sinestro retreats back to the Anti-Matter dimension, where he and the Weaponers begin constructing a series of yellow power rings. But now, the rings have a specific purpose — just as the Green Lantern rings channel willpower, the Yellow Lantern rings channel fear. Sinestro amasses an army made up of people capable of instilling great fear (as opposed to the Green Lanterns, who are capable of overcoming great fear) that includes the Anti-Monitor, the fear entity Parallax and Superboy-Prime.
The Yellow Lanterns and Green Lanterns fought in the epic crossover event “Sinestro Corps War.” Later, Johns would establish a full emotional spectrum to join the Green and Yellow Lanterns: Violet (Love), Blue (Hope), Red (Rage), Orange (Avarice) and Indigo (Compassion).
It is unclear whether Sinestro has a yellow ring yet in “Lanterns” or if the emotional spectrum exists at all. But Sinestro is clearly ready to play on Hal’s fear that John Stewart wants to see him gone.
“Lanterns” airs Sundays on HBO and HBO Max.
