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Absolute Comics - Justice Rising

Bion
Space Sector 3120
300 Miles Above The Surface

Jessica Cruz dropped out of transluminal flight and into a warzone.

Or at least the staging area for one.

An armada of long, jagged warships circled the planet of Bion. The holographic display hovering just above Jessica’s eye scanned and relayed information to her. They were each two hundred meters long and eighty meters wide and every single one was fully armed and operational, dropships and fighters inside them ready to deply. Loaded for bear, as they might have said in another time and place. Ready for invasion.

To people in this part of space, the brutal designs of the ships were a common sight. They were the hallmark of the New Men of Rann. Compared to the old empires and republics of the galaxy, the Rannians were indeed the newest kids on the block. Which meant they had something to prove. This wasn't their first attempted conquest, and Jessica was sure it wouldn't be the last.

Warning! Target lock inbound!

Jessica’s display flashed over two dozen aiming computers that had her in their sights. She threw up an emerald shield to offer cover from any impending attacks. As powerful as her shields were, they would only serve as temporary protection. This armada had enough firepower to desolate the surface of the planet below.

Incoming dispatch.

“Receive,” she said aloud.

The HUD expanded to form a holographic monitor. A long-faced Rannian with pointy ears and slicked back black hair stared at her coldly. He wore the uniform of a naval officer with chest full of medals and badges indicated his rank.

“This is Green Lantern Cruz, 2814.2,” she announced before he could speak. “I am here to inform you of your unlawful encroachment into neutral space. Your fleet is in direct violation of the Arctrus IV Accords--”

“You have two minutes to jump back into transluminal speed, Lantern,” the admiral snapped. “Or every ship at my command will open fire.”

Jessica squeezed her fists so hard the knuckles cracked. His arrogance bothered her more than it should have. She'd dealt with plenty of pompous military men, men that seemed to take small pleasure out of trying to intimidate a Green Lantern. They just had to show they were tougher than her. And every time they tried, they always failed miserably. She wondered if Hal had this problem? Probably not. When Jessica spoke again, it was just above a whisper.

“Thirty seconds,” she said softly. “You and your navy have thirty seconds to start a full-burn out of here, or I will make you pay.”

The admiral raised an eyebrow. He touched a badge on his tunic.

“Admiral Aco to the fleet. All ships, on my order you are to open fire on the enemy combatant.” He took his hand off the badge and smiled at Jessica. Her HUD began to rapidly flash target lock after target lock. Too many to count. “One minute and a half, Lantern. My entire fleet against just you. I hardly think that’s a fair fight.”

“Agreed,” Jessica said as her eyes glowed green. “You should have brought more ships!”

---

Six Months Later
Oa
Space Sector 0001

To Hal, the best part of Oa was the view from space. The light from the system’s star reflected off the surface and bathed the entire planet in an emerald glow. The sight always reminded Hal when he would watch The Wizard of Oz as a kid. It struck him as a hell of a coincidence that the emerald plant, Oa, was so close in name to Oz. But he’d seen a lot of that in his three plus years traveling the void. Synchronicity, someone once labelled it. Coincidences in places where there shouldn’t be any. Some people took it as a sign of deeper meaning, that there was some grand architect working behind the scenes. For Hal it was just proof that even in the vast expanse of the universe there were only so many combinations of words and numbers you could go through in every tongue.

He flew past the emerald bastions as he began his descent. Oa, for all its power in the universe, was barely the size of the moon that orbited around Earth. Its main purpose was to house the corps’ nerve center and no piece of land went to waste. Every single part of the surface was covered by some building or fortification. Chief among those was the main citadel Hal was currently flying towards. He was just one of dozens of Lanterns coming and going in the air above Oa.

Hal touched down on the landing pad at the Citadel’s entrance. He was heading in when he stopped at the sight of a familiar face.

“Boodikka,” he said with a wave of his hand.

The tall, purple skinned alien turned at the sound of her name behind called. She flashed a smile when she saw Hal and walked over to him. While Hal was tall for an earthling, Boodikka had almost six inches on him.

“Lantern Jordan, what brings you back to the shop?”

“I have been summoned,” Hal said with a smirk. “By his Excellency.”

“Oh, no,” she laughed. “You’re in trouble…”

“Probably didn’t polish my ring to his standards.”

Boodikka cleared her throat and lowered her voice. “Have you… heard anything about Cruz?”

Hal shook his head. “No. The last time I was here -- two months ago -- the Lamplighters said her ring hadn't activated its legacy protocol.”

“And they couldn’t send a homing signal?”

“They sent one. It was never answered. She’s somewhere out there," said Hal. "Or at least her body is, separated by the ring."

"There is no way Jess would ever part with her ring." Boodikka shook her head. "She'd fight to the death over it rather than give it up."

"She's alive," said Hal. "But where?”

“Let me know as soon as you hear anything,” said Boodikka. “I have to go.”

They said their goodbyes and Hal headed into the Citadel. He passed more Lanterns on his journey but he didn’t stop. Many of them he either didn’t know well enough to speak to, or he didn’t know them at all. Oa always reminded him just how far from Coast City he was. A Lantern that looked like a giant slug slithered by and grunted a greeting at Hal as he passed.

Hal slowed his gait as he passed the Wall. It stretched across the expanse of the Citadel and inscribed on it was every Lantern who had fallen in the line of duty. He saw the last name etched on the stone wall was one he knew well, even if he had never known the man. Abin Sur, Lantern 2814.1, was Hal’s direct predecessor.

“You’re late, Lantern Jordan.”

The yellow eyes of Senior Lantern Thaal Sinestro, bore into Hal from behind his office desk. Hal stood at attention before him and reminded himself to not say anything rash. Sinestro rose from his desk and walked around it to face Hal. He was maybe an inch taller than Hal, close enough in height that Hal didn’t have to adjust his head to look into his eyes. Sinestro ran a thumbnail across his mustache.

“I am less than thirty seconds late,” said Hal.

“Early is on time, on time is late, and late is unacceptable,” said Sinestro, repeating a mantra Kilowog loved to use. “You’ve had that drilled into your head since training. Any reason you’d like to give for your tardiness?”

“I stopped to look at the Wall,” snapped Hal. “To make sure my partner hadn’t been added to it.”

Sinestro stared long and hard at Hal. It was small, but Hal saw his expression soften just a little.

“And if you had found Lantern Cruz’s name there among the fallen?” he asked softly. “What would you have done?”

“Kill every single bastard responsible for her death,” said Hal. “Just like you did when they murdered Abin Sur.”

Sinestro smirked and walked back behind his desk.

“You saw the scraps of that Rannian war fleet, Jordan. Cruz more than made them pay for any harm they could have caused her. And as far as justice against the people or Rann? Let me deal with that. Let’s talk about why you’re here.”

Sinestro held his ring out. He projected a star system map in front of them. It showed a large yellow star with a smattering of planets orbiting it. Sinestro zoomed in on the largest planet in the system.

“This is Cromica C21,” said Sinestro. “If you look up the very definition of the word ‘backwater’ in the Encyclopedia Universum, you’ll find a picture of Cromica C21. It was never even given a name, just an identifier based on its relative location within the system. Since the beginning of intergalactic travel this system has been little more than a scenic detour through unincorporated space. Until six years ago, that is.”

“What happened six years ago?”

“They discovered dark matter reserves on Cromica C21 and its moons. Corporations swooped in.”

“So it’s a boomer?” asked Hal.

Sinestro nodded his head curtly. “Correct. The planet never had any true natives, but there were pioneers living on the planet for various reasons. Some for religion and others running for something. Mining teams flooded the system, along with all the different facets of a boomer economy.”

“Prostitutes, gambling, narcotics, loansharking,” said Hal. “If it's illegal, they're dong it. Where do I come in?”

“Since it’s unincorporated space no particular faction has right to it. At least for now. It’s in the process of forming a planet-wide government and peacekeeping force, but that takes time. Reports are the crime and corruption are becoming an issue. They’ve appealed to the GLC to send a temporary peacekeeper.”

“I can handle that no problem.”

“There is one issue,” said Sinestro.

Sinestro zoomed the system map out. Hal could see that the system lay within a few light days away from Kree Empire space.

“That’s going to be a problem,” said Hal. “The Kree don’t recognize our authority.”

“Yes, but they aren’t suicidal,” Sinestro replied. “They won’t let us patrol their empire, but they know better than to invade a system under GLC protection. They're a lot older than Rann. They know how the rules and respect them. But still. Don't be afraid to flex a little Lantern muscle.”

Hal didn’t comment. It reminded him of a movie. A boomtown -- boomer system, in this case -- plagued with lawlessness and greed. And then a stranger rides in to bring law and order.

“Sounds simple enough,” he said.

Sinestro’s mustache twitched as he smirked. “Famous last words, Lantern Jordan.”

---

???
Space Sector ???

“... This is Jessica Cruz, Green Lantern 2814.2… come in Oa. This is Jessica Cruz, Green Lantern 2814.2.”

Jessica stood on a sand dune and looked out across the vast expanse of desert. She saw three glowing suns overhead, each one in a different stage of setting. She had no idea where she was or how she’d gotten there. She remembered the fight against the Rannian warships. Something during the fight hit her. It didn’t reflect off of her like other blasts did. She felt a coldness creeping through her body and then a bright light and…

Then she woke up here.

“Ring, power status.”

Insufficient Charge. Please charge ring to proceed.

That was impossible. She’d fully charged her ring before leaving to confront the Rannian fleet. Even with all the power they drew, a power ring could keep its charge for weeks at a time. How had it died so quickly? As the suns started to dip below the horizon, the stars came out. For the first time since waking up, Jessica became truly worried. She’d been a lantern almost three years now and had traveled across the universe to entirely new and different galaxies. She thought she’d seen it all. But the stars looking down on her, those indifferent stars above. They were completely foreign to her.

Jessica Cruz was stranded and truly lost.

Absolute Comics - Justice Rising

C H A R A C T E R C O N C E P T P R O P O S A L

THE GREEN LANTERN CORPS

^{_{♦ HAL JORDAN ♦ JESSICA CRUZ ♦ KILOWOG ♦ SINESTRO ♦}}

C H A R A C T E R C O N C E P T:

---

^{"He might have gone on living but he made one fatal slip/When he tried to match the ranger with the big iron on his hip."
-- Marty Robbins}

Billions of years ago the universe was a dark, violent place. The New Gods, the Eternals, the Kree, and the Kryptonians and a dozen other worlds were engaged in a murky multi-sided war that never ended. Whole planets were destroyed for the purposes of strategy, whole races wiped out in the name of peace.

After nearly a million years of war, an armistice finally arrived. Both sides met on the planet Oa, center of the known universe, and began peace talks mediated by the native Oans, a race well-regarded for their neutrality during the great war. A century of negotiations finally led to peace on all sides and the creation of a peacekeeping organization. This force, independent of any planet or intergalactic government, would be responsible for enforcing both the peace of the universe and the terms of the war treaty. The Oans were proclaimed the guardians and overseers of this force. With the harnessing of a simple ring dependent upon the user’s force of will and ability to deal with fear, the Green Lantern Corps was born.

In the present day, the Corps operates throughout the universe with thousands of “Lanterns” in thousands of sectors of space. They are equal parts warrior, law enforcement, and diplomat. From dismantling slave rings to conducting high-stakes mediation, the Corps continues to uphold the peace and security of the universe independent of the great universal powers. But being independent does not mean that they are without their own agenda and their own goals.

C H A R A C T E R M O T I V A T I O N S & G O A L S:

---

I want to turn the GLC into a more hardcore organization, more martial than it's been in the past. Instead of the waves and waves of redshirts that the GLC is in the comics, I want each Lantern to be a potential force of destruction on their own. I've been reading a history on the Texas Rangers recently and I am really seeking inspiration in the idea of doing the GLC as a space western. They'll act as a combo of Texas Rangers and space marines. Peacekeepers who are trained to handle countless functions and scenarios, but they serve nobody's agenda but their own. They are powerful enough that they are essentially a political force unto themselves. They're going to be scarier and more aloof, and more powerful. In this version of space, you got guys like Thanos and Galactus and Annihilus running around so they need to be beefed up to keep them in check.

C H A R A C T E R N O T E S:

---

Hal Jordan -- "Mad, bad, and dangerous to know."
Sinestro -- "Whatever exists without my knowledge, exists without my consent."
Jessica Cruz -- "I just don't want to be killed for lack of shooting back."
Guy Gardner -- "Go west, young man."
Kilowog -- "You gotta hit 'em to hurt 'em."
Salaak -- "In the hands of politicians, grand designs achieve nothing but new forms of the old misery."

P O S T C A T A L O G:

---

Boomtown

1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.

Wagon Train

1.
2.

Absolute Comics - Justice Rising

C H A R A C T E R C O N C E P T P R O P O S A L

THE GREEN LANTERN CORPS

^{_{♦ HAL JORDAN ♦ JESSICA CRUZ ♦ KILOWOG ♦ SINESTRO ♦}}

C H A R A C T E R C O N C E P T:

---

^{"He might have gone on living but he made one fatal slip/When he tried to match the ranger with the big iron on his hip."
-- Marty Robbins}

Billions of years ago the universe was a dark, violent place. The New Gods, the Eternals, the Kree, and the Kryptonians and a dozen other worlds were engaged in a murky multi-sided war that never ended. Whole planets were destroyed for the purposes of strategy, whole races wiped out in the name of peace.

After nearly a million years of war, an armistice finally arrived. Both sides met on the planet Oa, center of the known universe, and began peace talks mediated by the native Oans, a race well-regarded for their neutrality during the great war. A century of negotiations finally led to peace on all sides and the creation of a peacekeeping organization. This force, independent of any planet or intergalactic government, would be responsible for enforcing both the peace of the universe and the terms of the war treaty. The Oans were proclaimed the guardians and overseers of this force. With the harnessing of a simple ring dependent upon the user’s force of will and ability to deal with fear, the Green Lantern Corps was born.

In the present day, the Corps operates throughout the universe with thousands of “Lanterns” in thousands of sectors of space. They are equal parts warrior, law enforcement, and diplomat. From dismantling slave rings to conducting high-stakes mediation, the Corps continues to uphold the peace and security of the universe independent of the great universal powers. But being independent does not mean that they are without their own agenda and their own goals.

C H A R A C T E R M O T I V A T I O N S & G O A L S:

---

I want to turn the GLC into a more hardcore organization, more martial than it's been in the past. Instead of the waves and waves of redshirts that the GLC is in the comics, I want each Lantern to be a potential force of destruction on their own. I've been reading a history on the Texas Rangers recently and I am really seeking inspiration in the idea of doing the GLC as a space western. They'll act as a combo of Texas Rangers and space marines. Peacekeepers who are trained to handle countless functions and scenarios, but they serve nobody's agenda but their own. They are powerful enough that they are essentially a political force unto themselves. They're going to be scarier and more aloof, and more powerful. In this version of space, you got guys like Thanos and Galactus and Annihilus running around so they need to be beefed up to keep them in check.

C H A R A C T E R N O T E S:

---

Hal Jordan -- "Mad, bad, and dangerous to know."
Sinestro -- "Whatever exists without my knowledge, exists without my consent."
Jessica Cruz -- "I just don't want to be killed for lack of shooting back."
Guy Gardner -- "Go west, young man."
Kilowog -- "You gotta hit 'em to hurt 'em."
Salaak -- "In the hands of politicians, grand designs achieve nothing but new forms of the old misery."

S A M P L E P O S T:

---

Scylla
Sector 2814

Quarra rubbed his insectoid hands together, all three of his eyes glancing towards the sky. He chirped nervously and checked the time once more. The Lanterns were due to arrive any moment now. He stood on the mesa that overlooked the Maw, a vast chasm that went nearly forty miles below the planet’s surface. Down at the bottom of the Maw was Scylla’s worst penal institution, the Madn N. Zondar Memorial Learning & Rehabilitation Center. No learning or actual rehabilitation took place at the bottom of the Maw. In Scylla’s native language, words would occasionally have the opposite meaning of their true purpose. It’s why Remul Sewage Water was the name of the best selling soda on the planet, and the name brand Healthy Water was the finest toilet declogger this side of the galaxy. It was also why The Zondar was not a place for growth and change, but instead of beatings and confinements.

The worst of the worst Scylla and her neighboring planets had to offer were down at the bottom of that chasm. Rapist and murderers along with political radicals and enemies of the state.The Zondar was a powderkeg of violence and anarchy. And now some dumb son of a bitch had lit the fuse.

Quarra shielded his eyes when he saw the light. It was a tiny dot of emerald at first, but then it began to rapidly expand and expand, glowing so brightly that he had to turn away lest he be blinded by it. There was a hum of energy to accompany the light, loud enough that Quarr now had to cover his ears. The hum vibrated his exoskeleton as it built to a crescendo. Finally, a small pop echoed across the mesa and the light and hum disappeared.

“You the guy I’m supposed to meet?”

When he looked towards where the light had been, he found a Lantern. He was tall, taller than Quarra by nearly six inches, and an alien type he couldn’t quite place. Mammal-like with two arms and two legs and dark hair on the top of his head. He wore some kind of uniform, metal body armor that was painted black and emerald. Prominently on his chest plate was the logo known across the universe as the Corps’ brand.

“I am,” Quarra finally said. “You’re a Lantern?”

“Hal Jordan of Earth, Sector 2814.”

His eyes drifted down towards the Earthlings right hand. He saw the ring there and swallowed hard. The thing seemed to smolder with energy, a smoldering that could turn into an inferno if the Lantern so desired. Quarra looked away from it and back towards the Earthling’s eyes.

“It’s down in the Maw,” he finally said. “There’s a prison down there at the bottom. For the past three days a riot has been consuming the place. There’s nearly a million criminals inside the building and they’ve taken control of it, taken the nearly one hundred thousand staff members hostage. Our peacekeepers and military are too worried about the hostages to go in there, so the planetary government requested help from your people to put the riot down before they can get to the surface and attempt a revolution.”

Jordan nodded and looked across the mesa towards the pit. His eyes seemed to glaze over before a green glow began to shimmer in them. Quarra took an instinctive step back when he saw a film of emerald energy cover the man’s body. He began to levitate from the ground before flying across the surface of the mesa towards the Maw.

“Wait!” he cried. “Didn’t you hear what I said? There’s over a million men down there. Men with weapons and bombs. You’re only one Lantern.”

“And there's only one riot,” said Jordan without stopping.

Quarra watched in stunned silence as he flew across the mesa and down into the darkness of the Maw, a green tail of energy following in his wake.

P O S T C A T A L O G:

---

"Boomtown"

1.
2.

Name Change Request

There you go.

Dead Presidents - A Funky Cyberpunk Heist Gun Blazing Adventure

Great fucking idea. Not joining but I'll be watching.

False Motives [OPEN]

I am interested. I just need time to write something out. Seeing another sheet has given me a rough idea on what kind of tone to strike

Shuffle your music player and post the first 10 songs

1. "Guitar Town" by Steve Earle
2. "I Like it Down Here" by Will Kimbrough
3. "Decoration Day" by Drive-By Truckers
4. "Which Side are You On?" by Peter Seeger
5. "Turntable" by Dead Horses
6. "Runaway Train" by Adam's House Cat
7. "All Your'n" by Tyler Childers
8. "The Guitar" by Guy Clark
9. "The Prettiest Waitress in Memphis" by Cory Branan
10. "The King of California" by Dave Alvin

Can I pretty please with a cherry on top, have these posts removed?

No.

Name Change Request

I cam very close to changing it to "Filthy Yoda Stan", but you got lucky.

...

This time.