The Best in Fictional Weaponry: The Green Lantern Ring

*Originally published on 2/20/12



When it comes to fictional weaponry, you really can't get any better than a Green Lantern power ring. These bad boys are often touted as one of the most powerful weapons in the universe and, you know what? They might be right. What the ring lacks in size, it makes up for in versatility, both in and out of battle.

The power ring is fueled by willpower and can do whatever the wielder wishes it to. If (s)he wants to create a force field, (s)he can; if (s)he wants to create a construct of a giant dragon, (s)he can; if (s)he wants to move a heavy object like a car or an oncoming meteor or missile, (s)he can. As such, the weapon's only limitation is the imagination of the wielder.

That's not to say that having such a weapon is a guaranteed victory. If you go up against someone, say a villain, who fires a beam of some sort at you, it could break through if your will power is not enough to maintain a force field. There have been several occasions where shields crack or construct weapons get broken.

Another limitation of the ring is that it has a limited charge. Back in the day, it would run out every 24 hours and would need to be recharged accordingly. More recent iterations have it operate more like a battery, where it has a set amount of energy and will drain faster or slower depending on the frequency of use and amount of energy used during each excursion.

For a while, there was also a vulnerability to things that were yellow. This was originally a weird, Silver Age plot device, but was eventually fleshed out over the years. It was said to be added as a way to keep the Lanterns in check, but was eventually revealed to be a side-effect of Parallax's imprisonment in the lantern battery on Oa, home of the Guardians who oversee the Green Lantern Corps.

As far as current day comics go, the yellow impurity is still there, but there's a workaround, rendering it more of a rookie problem than anything else.

Unlike the Sonic Screwdriver, which supposedly has limited functions, but still manages to pull out abilities at the last second, the power ring is upfront about this and it is, in fact, what makes it such a powerful weapon. It's whatever the wearer needs it to be.

It can provide protection from damage and also offers a wide array of offensive capabilities. More than that, it's a portable wiki. No joke, the ring has access to a vast array of files, allowing people to get information regarding alien species and can even act as a translator.

When people talk about super-powers they would like to have, they normally list one or two, like flight. Me, I'd take one of these as it offers pretty much every super-power there is. As such, it easily earns a spot on a list of the greatest fictional weapons.