So I’ve never hid the fact that I’m a big, big comic book geek. In fact I guess you can call me a fanboy. Growing up I couldn’t wait till I got my allowance and was able to go to the comic shop and just gaze at all the comics on the wall. From Batman, to the X-Men to SpiderMan they were all my heroes. Although the Dark Knight Detective fascinated me and was a favorite of mine, the hero that I always the biggest fan of was the Green Lantern.
From the first moment I saw the cover to Emerald Dawn II pt 1, I wanted to be a Green Lantern.
And more than being the Green Lantern I wanted that ring. Batman might have had his cars and gadgets and what not but with that power ring you could do anything! Unfortunately it took DC Comics awhile to build on the high demand of peoples’ desire for their own Green Lantern Power Ring.
Like all of us, I grew up and although comics were an on again/off again relationship with me, I never forgot about wanting that ring. It wasn’t unil years later that the desire returned with vengeance. I was getting into a lot of new hip hop at the time and I remember hearing Visionaries The Blessings at a friend’s place. I asked to see what cd was playing and he handed me The World Famous Beat Junkies vol. 1
Of course the first and probably the only thing I noticed about the cd was that there on the front of this really dope mixtape was a big old Green Lantern emblem. I was blown away that this ill DJ crew would be using a comic book characters insignia as part of their crew name. I was then more blown away when i saw a picture of Mr. Choc in an issue of Beat Street I think holding up a plastic Green Lantern ring! Now I know that as ill as this crew was they didn’t have the means of producing that ring, so I knew my answer lay in the domain I knew, comic books. So I began the -hunt. Now remember this was pre-eBay and the internet was still relatively new so I had to call comic shop after comic shop to try and track this thing down because I just had to have that ring. I finally found a shop that had some and drove there to purchase it. I come to find out that these rings were promo giveaway rings DC had used to promote the Green Lantern mini series “Mosaic”. So I arrive at this shop and fulfill a lifelong dream of owning a Green Lantern power ring. And not just a plain plastic ring but a plastic ring witha glow in the dark center!
So seeing the fervor in my eyes from getting my hands on this ring and after selling it to me for like $4-$5 the comic guy busts out this gem:
Now this made my jaw drop. While I held a plastic toy, this guy had in a nice felt ring box a real, metal Green Lantern ring! The kicker? It was gonna cost me a whopping $60!! Now I didn’t have a problem dropping the few bucks on the plastic ring but I wasn’t ready to spend that kind of cash. I thanked him and left with the desire burning in me. Needless to say a week later I was back in that comic shop buying that ring. Over the years since DC released that ring it got wise to the demand for power rings and released a variety of them in many different incarnations. Some included with certain action figures, others as part of bust statues and even a full size green lantern. Now I had been out of the comic book game for a few years now, but I finally decided to make the trek and experience San Diego Comic Con for the first time. In the months leading up to the ‘Con I began reading up about what to expect and also familiarize myself with the goings ons in the comic book community. And that’s when I saw it. Up to this point I was only familiar with of course the Green Lantern green ring and Sinestro’s yellow power ring, but this just threw me for a loop. What did I see? Nothing less than a Black Lantern Ring!!!
Scheduled to be given away in conjunctionwith Blackest Night #1, you know I just had to get my hands on this ring. When Comic Con occurred I was so caught up in the excitement of the SDCC experience that I forgot about this book release. Fortunately I found a vendor that had a fresh new bag of rings and I scooped up a plethora from him. In addition to the Black Lantern ring I also was fortunate enough to get an led light up Green Lantern ring the WB/DC were giving away to promote the upcoming DVD release of the animated Green Lantern movie. Upon arriving back to LA I decided to begin getting weekly comics again and of course continue the Blackest Night story arc because hey this was a major story arc involving my favorite comic book hero. And of course I was once again back in full Green Lantern ring mode. So I began to surf the net and ebay on the hunt for a prior year’s SDCC Green Lantern ring giveaway and also see if I could find some more of the Mosaic rings for cheap when I came across an auction for 8 different colored Corps rings. Whaaaaaat?
Having been out of comics for awhile I was unaware that a full spectrum of color Corps had emerged in the Green Lantern universe. I only knew of course of the Green Lanterns, then apparently Sinestro had his own yellow corps and the newly introduced Black Lantern Corps. What I did not know was that there was also an orange, red, sapphire(hot pink), indigo and blue Corps! And to top it off each one of the Corps was going to get a ring!! Now of course I needed to find some concrete evidence and after a few minutes online I came upon various blog entries confirming that DC was going to release promo plastic rings similar to the Black Lantern ring of all the various corps INCLUDING GREEN LANTERN CORPS, to coincide with various issues of different books that fell in the Blackest Night story line. By now you know I was not gonna miss out on this. After finding the release schedule I developed a good relationship with my comic shop staff, provided the owner with how the rings were to be released and I worked out a deal to be laced with more than enough rings to satisfy me.
After months of anticipation I’ve finally got a complete color spectrum of color rings:
They are a magnificent sight. I’m going to look for a pretty black ring/jewelry box to make a snazzy display of all of these rings. So if you’re interested in having your very own set of Corps color rings, hit up your local comics shop before they run out. I’m sure they will be more than happy to sell you a complete set or if they’re nice enough just give them to you. Oh and I couldn’t leave without giving you a shot of my Green Lantern only ring collection:
