Atrocitus
| Atrocitus | |
|---|---|
| File:Atrocitus.png Atrocitus. Promotional cover art for Final Crisis: Rage of the Red Lanterns #1, by Shane Davis. | |
| Publication information | |
| Publisher | DC Comics |
| First appearance | First appearance: Green Lantern (vol. 4) #25 (December 2007) Chronological first appearance: Green Lantern (vol. 4) #29 (May 2008) |
| Created by | Geoff Johns Ethan Van Sciver |
| In-story information | |
| Place of origin | Ryut |
| Team affiliations | Red Lantern Corps The Five Inversions The Empire of Tears |
| Abilities | Red Power Ring, Superhuman Strength and Durability |
Atrocitus is a fictional character, an alien supervillain in the DC Comics Universe. Created by Geoff Johns and Ethan Van Sciver, Atrocitus is an enemy of the Guardians of the Universe and Sinestro, their former Green Lantern. He first appears in Green Lantern (vol. 4) #25 in a two-page "War of Light" spread,[1] and made his chronological first appearance in Green Lantern (vol. 4) #29 as a prisoner of Lantern Hal Jordan's predecessor, Abin Sur.[2]
Fictional character biography
Green Lantern: Secret Origin
When the rogue Manhunters rampaged through Space Sector 666, Atrocitus was one of only five beings in the entire sector to escape death. He and the other four survivors formed a terrorist cabal known as the Five Inversions, bent on the destruction of the Guardians of the Universe and all who served them, with Atrocitus serving as their leader. The Five Inversions performed a ritual which allowed them to peer into the future and discover the prophecy of the Blackest Night, which decreed that all life in the universe would end. Forming an "Empire of Tears", the Inversions attempted to destroy the Guardians, but were defeated and imprisoned on the planet Ysmault.[3]
Some time later, Abin Sur began making periodic visits to Ysmault, and began to ask questions regarding the Blackest Night.[2] Sur even went so far as to free Atrocitus from his imprisonment so that he could lead the Green Lantern to Earth, the prophesised birthplace of "the black" that would one day end the universe. Taken to Earth by starship, (due to fellow Inversion Qull predicting that Sur's ring would one day fail him when he most needed it) and bound by energy restraints created by Sur's ring, Atrocitus instilled fear in his captor, allowing the yellow impurity to seep into his willpower constructs and weaken them enough to allow him to break free. After slashing the Green Lantern in the chest, mortally wounding him, Atrocitus jumped from a point high in Earth's atmosphere to escape Sur's failing ship.[4]
Encounter with William Hand
After landing near an airbase, and killing an unspecified number of Air Force troopers, Atrocitus recited what would later become the oath of the Red Lantern Corps, and performed a ritual that told him the name of the herald of the Blackest Night: William Hand.[5] Atrocitus created a device using stolen gun parts that acted as a cosmic divining rod, and used it to lead him to Hand. Once he tracked down the human who, it was said, would play a prominent role in the coming of the Blackest Night, he attacked, and planned to take Hand's innards back to Ysmault. Before his plan proceeded, however, Sinestro and rookie Green Lantern Hal Jordan intercepted him, spiriting William Hand to safety. Atrocitus used his newly-constructed device to sap the power from their rings, leaving them with only their wits to defend them from the master of the Five Inversions.[3] Sinestro was able to restore their rings' powers through his power battery, but Atrocitus still had the upper hand. Just as he was about to crush Sinestro with a power shovel, Jordan used his ring to blow up the yellow vehicle, which surprised Atrocitus greatly, as he believed Green Lantern rings did not work on anything colored yellow. Defeated, Atrocitus was contained by Sinestro, and brought to Oa.[6] He was later returned to Ysmault by Sinestro, where he prophesied that Sinestro's home planet Korugar would soon erupt into chaos and disorder.[7] Through this act, it was implied that it was Atrocitus who planted the seeds of Sinestro's later fall from grace.
Rage of the Red Lanterns
In the aftermath of the Sinestro Corps War, Atrocitus was seen forging a Red Lantern power battery, utilizing the power of rage. He said that his first new victim would be the one who called himself "the greatest Green Lantern:" Sinestro, who had long since abandoned the Green Lantern Corps to forge a Corps in his own namesake. He also murdered Qull of the Five Inversions, a fellow member of the Empire of Tears and the one responsible for telling Abin Sur the prophecy of the Blackest Night (which caused the Guardians of the Universe to continue the Empire of Tears' incarceration on Ysmault, rather than transfer them to Oa's sciencells, closer to the enemies of the Five Inversions), by bludgeoning him with the power battery. In this way, the first power battery was christened with blood.[8]
Atrocitus murdered the other members of the Five Inversions, using their blood to create red power rings, power batteries, and a Red Central Power Battery on Ysmault. Atrocitus soon donned his new red power ring, becoming the first Red Lantern. He recruited many other individuals from across the universe who possessed great anger and hate, including former Green Lantern Laira. Many of them had been wronged by the Sinestro Corps, and Atrocitus promises them that the Red Lantern Corps will eradicate Sinestro himself. He led his new corps in an assault against Sinestro while he was being transferred by some members of the Green Lantern Corps from the Oan Sciencells to his home planet of Korugar for execution.
The Red Lanterns interrupted a deadly fight between Sinestro's forces and the Green Lanterns, killing members of both sides without discrimination. Atrocitus personally slew the long-standing Green Lantern Remnant Nod. Eventually Sinestro was captured and taken to Ysmault for execution, and Hal Jordan, who faced Atrocitus previously, was left for dead in space.[9] After bringing Sinestro to Ysmault, Atrocitus nailed the former Green Lantern to a cross to await his execution at his own hands. However, unlike the Guardians, who preferred a quick execution, Atrocitus wished to make Sinestro suffer first by taking revenge on everything he has ever cared about. His targets included Korugar, and Sinestro's previously unknown and hidden daughter, whose identity Atrocitus had learned through his blood prophecies.[10]
When Hal Jordan and the Blue Lanterns arrived to recover Sinestro, Atrocitus revealed another prophecy to Jordan: that the Guardians will one day take his greatest love, and he will become a renegade once again because of their actions. Although Sinistro believes that Atrocitus's prophecy could be a form of reverse psychology to instill fear in Jordan of his past actions during under the influence of Parallax. After rescuing Sinestro, the Blue Lanterns began to leave, but Jordan wanted to go back for Laira, whom Sinestro killed to save Jordan. In a burst of outrage, Jordan prepared to carry out Sinestro's death sentence himself, against the wishes of the Blue Lanterns. The rage that Jordan felt drew Laira's red ring to him, converting Jordan into the newest member of the Red Lantern Corps.[11] Jordan attacked the Blue Lanterns and Sinestro, until Saint Walker managed to get a Blue power ring onto his finger. The blue ring negated the effects of the red ring, restoring Jordan to normal. Jordan then attacked Atrocitus, using the power of the blue and green rings to make the red one explode in his face. Defeated, the Red Lanterns retreated to the dark side of Ysmault, where Atrocitus performed another blood ritual, seeking to discover the location of the Blue Lanterns' homeworld.[12]
Blackest Night
During the Blackest Night limited series the Lost Lanterns came to Ysmault to retrieve Laira's body, but were opposed by Atrocitus and the Red Lanterns. During the conflict, several black power rings descended onto Ysmault, resurrecting the bodies of Laira and Atrocitus's fellow Inversions.[13] The reanimated Qull ripped out Atrocitus' heart; However, because Red Lantern rings effectively replace their wearer's hearts, the attack did not kill Atrocitus.
Atrocitus later appeared on Okaara to steal Larfleeze's power battery.[14] However, Hal Jordan, Carol Ferris, Sinestro, Saint Walker, Ganthet, Sayd, and Indigo-1, save the two from Black Lanterns and stop Atrocitus. He was then brought back to Ryut, where his rage subsided into grief for his lost world. He agreed to help in the fight against the Black Lanterns, but promised to kill the Guardians when the conflict was over.[15] Following the Black Lantern central power battery to Earth, the Corps leaders combined their lights to form the white light of creation, which, despite Indigo-1's claims, failed to destroy the battery, instead making the force behind it stronger.[16] Ganthet then duplicated the leader's rings, in an attempt to bolster their forces. The duplicate of Atrocitus' ring found it's way to Mera, temporarily inducting her into the Red Lantern Corps.[17]
Powers and abilities
Atrocitus wields a Red Lantern power ring similar to that of a Green Lantern's, save that it is powered by rage rather than willpower. The full extent of a red power ring's powers has not been revealed, but it is stated in Final Crisis: Rage of the Red Lanterns that the red ring acts as their heart and pumps their rage tainted blood out of their body through their mouth. Hal Jordan proved capable of creating constructs with the ring, but it is unknown if Atrocitus has this capability as well. It is also shown[10] that the ring's red energy corrupts the auras of other power rings and burns them away, possibly corrupting the ring beyond the ability for a Lantern to use. Unlike the other members of the Red Lantern Corps, whose rings reduce them to being mindless raging beasts, leaving them unable to create and maintain energy constructs as do Green and Blue Lanterns, Atrocitus is in full control of his mental faculties while wearing his ring and may not be affected in the same manner. However, the Red Lantern's corruptive energy can be overcome and purified by the Blue Lantern's energies.[9]
Atrocitus possesses superhuman strength and durability; strong enough to toss a construction digger and durable enough to withstand bullets.[18]
Atrocitus's association with the Empire of Tears granted him a great deal of shamanistic magic, which he used to forge the Red Lantern rings and divine the location of William Hand.[5]
References
- ^ Green Lantern (vol. 4) #25 (December 2007)
- ^ a b Green Lantern (vol. 4) #29 (March 2008)
- ^ a b Green Lantern (vol. 4) #33 (July 2008)
- ^ Green Lantern (vol. 4) #30 (April 2008)
- ^ a b Green Lantern (vol. 4) #32 (June 2008)
- ^ Green Lantern (vol. 4) #34 (August 2008)
- ^ Green Lantern (vol. 4) #35 (October 2008)
- ^ Green Lantern (vol. 4) #28 (March 2008)
- ^ a b Final Crisis: Rage of the Red Lanterns one-shot (October 2008)
- ^ a b Green Lantern (vol. 4) #36 (December 2008)
- ^ Green Lantern (vol. 4) #37 (January 2009)
- ^ Green Lantern (vol. 4) #38 (January 2009)
- ^ Green Lantern (vol. 4) #45 (September 2009)
- ^ Green Lantern (vol. 4) #47 (October 2009)
- ^ Green Lantern (Vol. 4) #48 (November 2009)
- ^ Blackest Night #5 (November 2009)
- ^ Blackest Night #6 (December 2009)
- ^ Green Lantern (vol. 4) #31 (April 2008)
