Abin Sur
From Green Lantern Wiki
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| Green Lantern | |
| Real name: | Abin Sur |
| First Appearance: | Showcase # 22 |
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Created by: | John Broome Gil Kane Joe Giella |
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Team affiliations: | Black Lantern Corps Former Green Lantern Corps |
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Abilities: | Green Lantern Power Ring |
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Sector: | Space Sector 2814 |
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Home planet: | Ungara |
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Partner: | TBA |
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Portrayed by: | Corey Burton (Voice) |
Contents |
[edit] History
[edit] Origin
Originally a history professor on the planet Ungara, Abin Sur was soon appointed Green Lantern of Space Sector 2814 in the mid 1860's. As a child, he become best friends with Ruch Ehr and later, by association, Munni Jah. The two of them were a couple and Abin secretly loved Munni, but never overtly spoke of this.
Recruited by the Green Lantern known as Starkaor, he is known to have come to Earth on several occasions. In the Old West, he teamed up with an ancestor of Hal Jordan's to battle an alien named Traitor (who was responsible for the death of Starkaor). During World War Two, he briefly encountered Starman and Bulletman when the three battled an alien being under the control of Mr. Mind. He also visited Earth at some point between the Golden and Silver Ages, when he encountered the Martian Manhunter.
[edit] Early Years
While on patrol, he was attacked and pursued by the being known as Legion while on its way to Oa. Badly injured and with his spaceship seriously damaged, he made an emergency landing on the nearest habitable planet (Earth) and began using his power ring to search for a successor to wield the ring after he passed on. The ring settled on Hal Jordan as the most suitable replacement right before his death.
For a brief time during Zero Hour, he was pulled to the present, where he assisted the Darkstars in their battle against Entropy before being returned to his own time.
In the afterlife, Abin Sur assisted Swamp Thing (Alec Holland) in rescuing his daughter Tefé from Hell. It was later revealed that part of his very own soul was being tortured in Hell while his spirit acting as a companion to Hal Jordan during his brief stint as the Spectre. Eventually, he freed himself from Hell and assisted Jordan on several spiritual adventures and metaphysical dilemmas. Eventually, Abin Sur engaged in the Karamm-Jeev Descent, an Ungaran form of reincarnation, and was reborn as Lagzia, the daughter of Sur's old friends Ruch Ehr and Munni Jah.
During some point in his life, Abin sired a son, Amon Sur, who grew up to become the man in charge of the Black Circle crime syndicate. Amon was angry at his deceased father for abandoning him for the Green Lantern Corps and decided to take his anger out on all Green Lanterns. Amon was eventually stopped by Abin's successor's successor, Kyle Rayner and a second-generation Guardian of the Universe called Lianna.
[edit] Spaceship
In the Silver Age comics, as the abilities of Hal Jordan's power ring began to show it was capable of practical long range space travel, that raised the question of why Abin Sur needed a ship. However, Hal Jordan himself later adopted a spaceship.
[edit] Pre-Crisis Explanation
In the story "Earth's First Green Lantern," Jordan revealed that he wondered that himself and asked his ring to explain.
The ring told the story of how Abin Sur discovered a parasitic energy being species that fed on sapient beings ' "I-factor," a substance that enabled inventiveness, attacking civilizations and stalling their development. Sur captured them to stop their destruction, but one of their number had escaped and vowed to free his brethren. To do so, he tracked down Sur's planet and created a disaster to force him to appear to stop it. Since Sur did not mask himself, the being recognized him immediately and followed him to his home. As Sur neglected to charge his ring before going to sleep, he was unable to stop the being from taking control of him.
With the being in control of his body and about to force him to go and free his fellows, Sur tricked the being into thinking that he would not be able to do so because the ring would be low on power after the trip there while in reality the ring's charge is purely time based. The being decided to have Sur take a ship to the destination, but before leaving, Sur managed to get a hold of his invisible power battery. On the ship, Sur piloted the ship and waited until he moved into a green colored planetary radiation belt which allowed Sur to charge his ring without the being noticing. Thus armed, Sur battled and captured the being. However during the fight, the ship wandered into Earth's radiation belt (which was apparently yellow colored in the Earth-One universe). With his ring useless, Sur lost control of the battered ship and crashed. Mortally wounded, Sur sought out his replacement and drew Jordan to him.
According to Jordan, this account prompted him to keep a secret identity as a security precaution, to carefully navigate around Earth's radiation belts and presumably make a point of usually keeping his ring charged to prevent similar sneak attacks.
[edit] Post-Crisis Explanation
In Tales of the Green Lantern Corps Annual #2, writer Alan Moore pointed out an odd discrepancy in Hal Jordan's origin story: why would Abin Sur, capable of flying through space on his own, need a spaceship? He answered this question with a story of how the hero once vistited Ysmault, a prison planet for an ancient race of demons, the Empire of Tears, vanquished millennia ago by the Oans.
While there, Abin Sur met a demon named Qull of the Five Inversions, a humanoid with a gaping mouth in his chest and a tongue-shaped head, crucified by three glowing spikes topped with the symbol of the Green Lantern Corps. This unholy messiah predicted the hero would die when his power ring ran out of energy at a critical moment, while he was fighting an opponent or unprotected in hard vacuum. Abin Sur, worried by this prophecy, began using a starship for interstellar voyages, as an additional safeguard.
A decade later, fleeing his enemy, his spaceship collided with a girdle of yellow radiation around Earth that rendered his starship and his power-ring useless within moments. Had he relied on his ring alone, he realized, he might have tested the planet's magnetosphere before rashly entering it. Thus, while Legion may have wounded him, it could be argued that it was Qull that was actually responsible for Abin Sur's death, having sown the seeds of doubt in the Green Lantern's mind.
[edit] Secret Origins
In the Secret Origins story, Qull did indeed tell Abin Sur the prophecy of his death after his ring failed him. However, the circumstances for his going to earth were different. Along with Qull were the other 4 of the 5 Inversions, including its leader, Atrocitus. Atrocitus continuously warned Qull against telling the Lantern everything they knew. Qull e ventually told Sur about the Blackkest Night Prophecy, and Sur took Atrocitus with him on a mission to locate the being that would prove instrumental in bringing about "The Black". Atrocitus directed him to Earth, imprisoned in the back of he ship Sur was driving, behind a wall of willpower energy. Atrocitus talked to Sur, taunting him and reminding him of Qull's prophecy about him. Qull turned out to be correct. The Lantern's doubt in his power ring weakened his barrier construct, allowing Atrocitus to break out and deal Sur a mortal wound. The ship crashed to Earth, where Atrocitus escaped tot he planet's surface to find the source of "The Black", and Abin Sur ordered his ring to find a replacement.
[edit] Powers and Abilities
[edit] Powers
[edit] Abilities
- Coming Soon
[edit] Equipment
[edit] Weapons
[edit] In Other Media
- Abin Sur appears in the animated film Justice League: The New Frontier, where he is voiced by Corey Burton. In the movie, he gives his ring to Hal Jordon before dying of the vast amount of yellow energy from the rocket ship explosion.
- Abin Sur first appeared in animation on the Super Friends series. He appears in the Challenge of the Superfriends episode "Secret Origins of the Superfriends."
- Abin Sur was featured in an animated episode of Superman: The Animated Series involving Kyle Rayner and Sinestro. The episode was called "In Brightest Day." In the episode, Abin is used for Kyle's GL origin in much the same way he was used for Hal Jordan's. Abin battles with Sinestro, who is hunting Green Lanterns and stealing their rings. He crashes his spaceship on earth and sends his ring off to find a suitable replacement just before his death.
[edit] Notes
- Like Abin Sur, Hal Jordan himself later adopted a spaceship in Green Lantern Volume 2 #158.
[edit] Trivia
- Coming Soon
