After their latest disaster, the death count for the lost Green Lanterns continues to rise, and one of DC’s brightest heroes is among the fallen.
WARNING: The following article contains spoilers for Green Lantern #4 by Geoffrey Thorne, Tom Raney, Marco Santucci, Michael Atiyeh and Rob Leigh, on sale now.
The explosion of the Green Lantern Corps’ central battery was a catastrophe for the Corps. In addition to effectively leaving the universe without its largest group of protectors, but the loss of power resulted in the deaths of hundreds of Green Lanterns.
And as Green Lantern #4 confirms, one of those lost was Arisia Rrab. As one of the more recognizable faces within the Corps, Arisia famously had a strong relationship with Hal Jordan, and she was also a unique kind of lantern. For generations, members of her family were selected to join the Corps as younger members replaced the last member of the family to wield the ring.
The revelation of Arisia’s death came when Jo Mullein was going over the records of every Lantern unaccounted for. Tragically, the dead outnumbered the missing or confirmed living, and Arisia’s name was listed among the confirmed dead. This is a major loss for the lanterns and possibly the extinction of a family line.
Arisia debuted in 1981’s Tales of the Green Lantern Corps #1 by Len Wein, Mike W. Barr and Joe Staton as the young member of the Rrab family. For at least five generations, the ring that chose their first family member had been passed down to the next generation.
Arisia’s time in the Corps was a turbulent one. She developed a crush on Hal Jordan, but their significant age gap stymied her wishes for a relationship. Then she did something unprecedented. Arisia actually used her ring to accelerate the passage of time around her, aging herself up until she was Hal’s peer and not a rookie. Her time in the cCrps also helped give her a more mature personality as time passed.
The two would have a relationship for a time, but it became strained when changes were made to the Corps. Eventually, the two broke up, but Arisia remained on Earth after a disruption to the central battery caused her to lose her powers. This period of her life was not a good one. She suffered temporary memory loss and struggled to find the conviction to return to the Corps with only a part of her identity. But even after they fully returned, her luck only seemed to worsen when she was killed by Major Force.
Promisingly, Arisia was revealed to only be in hibernation. During her time in stasis, she was used as a living battery for the Cyborg Superman before being rescued by Hal Jordan. She resumed her duties as a corpsman, but did not restart her relationship with Hal. The last time Arisia was seen was during the “Sinestro Corps War” storyline where she watched as her partner, rookie Sodam Yat, sacrificed himself to help free the Daxamites from Mongul’s rule. the event would leave a lasting impression on Arisia, who mourned Sodam’s apparent death.
Not much has been heard of Arisia since then, but she was still an active member of the Corps up until her death. However, she’s always beat the odds by going into hibernation instead of dying once, and that could very well be the case again here. While that offers a potential ray of hope for the Lanterns, the loss of Araisia and so many other Lanterns is taking the Corps through one of its darkest nights.
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