The great thing about being a Green Lantern fan is the scope available to the writers and artists who create these amazing stories. With 3600 sectors in the known universe and 7200 Lanterns patrolling they are not short of material to work with. We have been lucky enough to read tales of fantastical adventures on a grand scale as well as personal vignettes hope or tragedy or struggle but, most importantly, of will. And yet for all this variety and diversity there are some things that we rely on to remain constant. First among these, I think, is the Green Lantern oath.
From the golden age of the 1940's, through of the silver age when the cast of Green Lantern was expanded to take on a mighty Corps, and into modern times, we find our heroes reaching out to charge their depleted power rings on glowing green lanterns as they recite the "solemn oath".
It does not matter how many comics I read over the years. As soon as the immortal words "In brightest day, in blackest night" appear on the page I get a tingle down my spine and a pounding in my chest. From writer to writer, artist to artist, style to style the inclusion of the oath in a story means only one thing... it is time to get it on! And woe betide anyone who stands in the way. "Beware my power, Green Lantern's light." Nasties, monsters, bad guys and disasters will all meet with the same indomitable courage and force of will when a GL joins the fray.
No matter if recital of the oath is a stolen moment in the midst of battle, a secret ritual in a locked dressing room, or a war cry chanted by hundreds of Green Lanterns all with their fists pressed against the central power battery on Oa, we have had the signal that there will be no turning back, no quarter given until the job is done. This is how legends are created.
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