No, this title is not contradicting the last lesson. Stick with me and you’ll understand.
Everyone who has ever picked up and read a comic book has formed some sort of opinion on who the most powerful superhero is. Usually it comes up with friends in discussions like, “So, who would win in a fight, Wolverine? Or Batman?”
Sure, those two are from two entirely different comic universes, but still the questions get asked.
But when it comes to “who’s the most powerful” I think many people would probably say Superman. He’s one of the most well known and he is definitely one of the most straightforward in terms of powers and power levels. Not many heroes can out punch Superman.
However, if I may offer my own opinion… without starting a war with comic book readers with differing opinions… I think the Green Lantern is the most powerful. Or at the very least, has the potential to be the most powerful.
Hey hey, guys… simmer down. I said it’s just my opinion. You don’t have to agree.
Here is why I vote for him and a little Green Lantern back ground to boot. The Green Lantern is part of a larger group of heroes known as the Green Lantern Corps. They are basically a large group of space police that protect the entire universe. It is broken into 3600 sectors (3599 actually, but that’s another story), with each sector protected by at least one (or more) Green Lanterns.
The Green Lantern’s power comes from a ring he or she… or it… wears. The ring channels energy though it, a green energy, and is controlled by the users will. A Green Lantern is limited only by his or her will and imagination.
Other than that, the ring user can literally do anything.
Anything.
If she can think of it, she can do it. If he can imagine it, he can do it. If they have the will, they can make it happen.
Fly. Turn invisible. Make objects out of energy. Teleportation. Phasing. Simulate super strength. Anything.
Manipulate matter.
Anything.
Manipulate reality.
Literally anything the user can both imagine and have the willpower to do.
Of course, there is the loophole. It’s limited by the imagination and will. And let’s face it. Most of us are either pretty weak willed or completely lacking in imagination.
In reality, the Green Lantern is limited by how he or she sees or understands reality. The Green Lantern is limited by his or her “world view.”
How does he see things? Understand things? What does that cause him to do? How does it cause him to think? What strategies will he devise because of that? How will that guide his use of the power?
Let me give you some great Green Lantern examples.
Hal Jordan. He’s the icon. The Green Lantern by which all other Green Lanterns are measured. He was an Air-force fighter pilot turned test pilot. He has no fear. He is focused. He is efficient. So when he uses his ring, this is how he uses it. He keeps it simple. He does what is needed to get the job done. He likes to make boxes and spheres and hammers and such. However, he also is the one Lantern that can do some of the more amazing things. Turn invisible. Phase through solid objects. Create dimensional gateways.
He finds the most efficient way to do something, then does it. No waste, no mess, no fuss.
Kyle Rainer. He was an artist. Everything he makes is a work of art. He makes comic book characters. Anime robots. Mecha. Gun-toting bikini girls. Ninjas. And all of them are works of art and works in progress. He never just does something and sticks with it. Each construct is newer, better, more imaginative, constantly being made and remade. He’s an artist, and he creates like an artist. Never satisfied with what he’s done.
John Stewert. The architect. Everything he makes is precise. And they have substance. He makes something from the inside out. It isn’t just a shell or an illusion of an object. He makes it as though it has substance… as though it’s the real thing. You could dissect it, and see the internal workings and constructs.
Guy Gardner. He’s the angry guy. Raw. When he uses the ring it doesn’t so much project energy as it leaks energy. With him, the energy is like water in a dam waiting to burst through. He doesn’t attack with creativity. He attacks with power. As much as he can, all the time. No finesse. No art. Just raw power unleashed.
Kilawog. He was an alien scientist. He looks sort of like a humanoid hippo on steroids. For some reason, his ring is the only ring that makes noise. Of course, it’s not the ring, it’s him. There is something about him, about the way he sees things and approaches things that causes that ring to make noise when no ones else does. Everyone else goes silently about their business. But not Kilawog.
There are many other Green Lanterns I could have talked about, but these are the main and most recognized Green Lantern characters.
It occurred to me that the significance of a Green Lantern wasn’t his or her ring and power, but his or her world view.
That is the one thing that’s different. They wield an equal ring with the same power, same energy and same potential. But each user is more or less successful or seemingly powerful or effective compared to each other.
All rings are created equal.
But not all users.
And as I was thinking about this, I realized that this is exactly how people are. We are not limited by the possibilities around us. Especially not in the modern age of globalization and global communication. Instead, we are limited by ourselves. By how we see the world.
We are limited only by our world view.
We are who we are in large part because of how we see the world. Where were we raised? Who raised us? With what values were we raised with? With what experiences were we shaped?
But more importantly, are we capable of seeing past any of that so that we can understand that all of our world views are limited and incomplete and therefore are limiting us?
That doesn’t make them bad or evil. Just limited.
Sometimes, we go a direction because someone told us we weren’t capable of going in another.
It might not have been true.
My wife is a nurse. When she was in nursing school there was an instructor who told her she would never make it as a nurse. She wouldn’t be any good and she should just quit.
My wife could have listened to that. Instead, she didn’t. She graduated and has gone on to consistently be one of the most recognized and competent nurses in any department she has worked. I say this not because she is my wife. I say this because of the commendations she has received for nursing excellence as voted by both peers and patients. The hospitals she has worked at have received numerous letters and messages from patients saying how much they loved her or how great she was with them and how much they appreciated her skill and attitude.
Of course, I think she’s great because she’s both kind and totally smokin’ hot.
But what do I know.
In the end, my wife could have experienced none of that success if she had listened to the person who was telling her what she couldn’t do, instead of believing in herself and what she could do.
She didn’t let that instructor shape her view of herself and therefore damage her world view.
Of course, my wife’s world view IS damaged. But only in the same way all of our world views are damaged.
We only rise as far as we think we can. If we didn’t know any different, we would go farther. Be more.
You know why students in Korea and China and other Asian countries are often ahead of our students here in America? Especially in areas of languages and math? It’s because their school system pushes them harder sooner.
We see that and think, “oh, poor kids.” Why? Cause we all hated school.
Do you think their kids see it that way? Oh, they might hate school also. But only for the same reasons we did. They don’t realize they are being pushed harder. They see it as normal.
A person will go as far as they are expected to go. We then draw a line at that expectation and try our darndest to not go past it.
It’s a shame, really. Because we are capable of so much more. Of being, so much more.
All it would take is for us to realize that we are all like Green Lanterns and that the only limit is that which we place on ourselves.
