Baseless Speculation!

I've been thinking about the Black Lantern Corps. I mean, they look pretty interesting and creepy. And their intro is certainly ominous. I really like the concept of the animated dead using rings of some kind.

Especially given the timing. Now that the Lanterns have the authorization to kill as needed, there might be no end to the growth of the Black Lantern Corps.

Though it occurs to me that at least some of the members must have died before the Sinestro Corps War, since they're coming out of the ground. The war casualties wouldn't have been buried yet.

You know, it's occurred to me that there's been a lot of reference/reminders to death in the arcs right before the Sinestro Corps war. Of course, there's Jade's death leading to Kyle becoming Ion. Maura's leading to Kyle becoming Parallax. Kreon's seemingly very unnecessary death during the arc that resurrects most of the lost Lanterns. Kilowog's ghostly family dinner on Mogo.

Guy's dad popped up a lot over the past few months too, come to think of it. Between the revisitation of his death in Booster Gold, the Mogo-derived flashback in GLC, and the rather surprising one line wisecrack in Sinestro Corps.

The timing makes me wonder if we'll see some of these folks again as Black Lanterns.

Well, probably not Jade, since she seems to be haunting Alan (and honestly has quite a few built in resurrection options anyway). But Kreon actually seems like a really good choice. His death was largely unnecessary (if he wasn't supposed to be brought back, why not kill him off screen or have only Boudikka have survived for initial capture? It'd still give her a reason to hate Hal) and Boudikka seems to be quite involved in the whole Alpha Lantern thing.

And there's nothing like the angst of facing fallen family members or comrades. That ought to be fun.

Though it occurs to me that I might be just assuming they're evil. I mean, sure their introduction's pretty ominous, and the animated dead are rarely good guys, but they don't necessarily HAVE to be evil. Or at least ALL of them might not be. Batman getting offered the yellow ring would appear to show that at least in the case of being afraid/causing fear, evil is not necessarily a requirement. So it's possible to have heroes qualify for red or orange as well. (Ragnell suggests Booster Gold would probably be a good candidate for an orange ring user. I agree. He's clearly ambitious and even in his more heroic moments, he's got a specific goal/self-interest in mind. There's nothing that says greedy people can't want NICE things to happen too.)

If the Black Lanterns include dead heroes/loved ones as well as dead villains, then maybe it's possible that their role in whatever's coming up will be more complicated than it seems.

Or maybe not. Maybe it's just attack of the zombie enemies of the Green Lanterns. :-)

Either way, it's awfully fun to speculate! I can't wait to see what'll happen!