Ahtier

Origin

In the years before the universal Crisis on Infinite Earths, Ahtier of Glazzonio, Green Lantern of Sector 83, was fighting a Coltan Raider ship in space, high above the planet Zymia. Athier seriously wounded when the starship self-destructed. The Green Lantern plummeted in a ball of fire to the planet below. Unfortunately for the injured Lantern, Zymia was a planet known for their strong opposition to the Green Lantern Corps. Ahtier’s impending death was made more tragic by the fact that she was pregnant. Upon death, a Lantern’s power ring was programmed to locate a worthy successor. The ring was not programmed to consider the fate of the soon-to-be-born child within Ahtier’s womb. The ring coldly informed Athier that the child would have to be sacrificed if her life was to be saved. Athier struggled against the ring’s programming, fighting the ring’s directive to keep her alive until the child was born. Exhausted and near death, Athier cradled her newborn son as the ring set off to find a worthy replacement.

A short distance away, Bynari, a local Zymian, faced her own tragedy. Bynari’s husband Brayle had been killed by the falling debris of the exploding Coltan Raider. Despite her intense grief , Ahtier’s ring sensed strength within Bynari and selected her as the Green Lantern’s successor. The ring transported Bynari to the dying mother, however, Bynari was horrified by the sight of the Green Lantern, blaming her for her husband’s death. Despite Bynari’s open contempt, Ahtier knew she was dealing with a woman capable of becoming a Green Lantern. Athier informed the Zymian that she was deemed honest and without fear, and invited to take her place in the Green Lantern Corps. Bynari was even more shocked when the dying Lantern made a more personal request, asking her successor to care for her newborn child. Although still reluctant, Bynari was stirred by this dying request and instructed the ring to recount Ahtier’s past. Bynari was flooded with images of a universal force; a force dedicated to preventing others from experiencing tragedies like the one she had just endured. Bynari looked at Athier with a new respect and understanding. She vowed to uphold the tenant of the Corps and protect all life, including her predecessor’s newborn baby whom she named Brayle, after her late husband.

Creation

Ahtier was created by Richard Bruning and Kevin Nowlan in a 1987 “Tales of the Green Lantern Corps” short story.

Character Evolution

Ahtier appeared years later in a flashback during the Green Lantern’s ” Secret Origin” story arc. It was revealed that Ahtier received her Corps training in the same class as Hal Jordan, under the instruction of Ke’Haan of Varva. Ahtier received praise from Ke’Haan for her skillful ringwork, but the Drill Sargent questioned Ahtier about her shyness. Ahtier confessed her fear over living up to the enormous responsibility entrusted to her by the Guardians of the Universe. Ke’Haan responded by pointing out Hal Jordan and assuring her that if a human could do it, so could she. Ahtier’s insecurities as a rookie contrasted with how strong and confident she was during her original introduction story, implying that Ahtier had grown into a hero during her years of service in the Corps.

Years later, Bynari would betray that vow and serve the criminal empire known as the Black Circle when Brayle’s life was threatened. Bynari was killed in battle with the Green Lantern Shilandra Thane, leaving the fate of Athier’s child unknown.

Ahtier is memorialized in the Crypts of Oa alongside other fallen members of the Corps.

Major Story Arcs

Ahtier appeared in a flashback during Hal Jordan’s “Secret Origin” and as a Black Lantern during the Blackest Night.

Powers And Abilities

The abilities the ring grants him are:

• Animating: A Green Lantern can will things to move how he wants.
• Artificial Intelligence: Every ring has a connection to the Main Battery on Oa, which taps into an artificial intelligence. It acts as an “on-board computer,” telling the wearer what they need to know. It can either respond out loud, or silently directly to the wearer’s mind. The AI contains a large database of information that may be crucial to a Lantern’s success. The ring also translates nearly every language to and from the wearer (though they have difficulty translating profanity), which is why the Corps can communicate with each other. When the bearer of a Green Lantern ring dies, the ring will seek out a suitable replacement for their sector. The AI can be used to play a holographic playback sequence complete with colors across the spectrum based on information in memory banks. The ring can dictate when to pause or stop the playback should an interruption arise where the Lanterns undivided attention is needed. The AI can also alert the wielder of incoming threats or of attempts to manipulate the wielders construct by an outside party.
• Burglar Alarm: A Green Lantern can coat anything with the ring’s beam and thus, if anyone other than himself touches it, his ring will glow, alerting him to the possible theft.
• Communicator: The ring can act as a personal communicator between Green Lanterns. They have also been seen connected to telephones.
• Costumes: The wearer of the ring may create any costume they choose, based on their personal preferences, whenever they choose. The ring projects the costume over any clothes already worn at the time. The only rules that the Guardians of the Universe implement on the creation of a individual costumed is that the ring bearer display the insignia of the Green Lantern Corps.
• Energy Projection: The rings can also project beams, form protective bubbles and force fields, and fire destructive blasts. Sometimes, depending on the wearer, the beams and blasts make sounds. Kilowog‘s ring is one such example of blasts making sounds.
• Energy Constructs: The rings can construct anything the wearer can imagine from hard-light energy, as long as they are willing to make it. The more determined the wearer is, the more complex and intricate these things can be. The constructs can even be so complex as to form working machines, computers, and even people.
• Flight: The ring allows the wearer to fly in atmosphere or in space, and can achieve incredible speeds, moving from planet to planet in a matter of hours.
• Invisibility: The ring can make the wearer or anything else invisible.
• Matter Manipulation: A Green Lantern can use their ring to manipulate nearby matter, such as water, for various purposes such as a construct that acts like an energy construct but can block something yellow and may serve a purpose that an energy construct couldn’t perform.
• Mind Control: The wearer of the Ring can use it to plant post hypnotic commands or control a person.
• Mirages: The Ring can create mirages/illusions.
• Phasing: The ring allows the user to go through walls. This ability however required great concentration on the bearer of the ring
• Power Absorbing: In the JLA’s first fight with Amazo, it was GL who defeated him by drawing out all of Amazo’s powers. In Green Lantern/ Silver Surfer: Unholy Alliances, Kyle defeated Parallax with SS’ power and Thanos with Oa’s energy by drawing out all that extra energy from them which made them unconscious. However he couldn’t hold all that power nor could his Ring like Hal did with Amazo’s powers, so that move isn’t often used with so much power.
• Probing: The ring can probe the Lantern’s or another person’s mind, allowing him to uncover memories or the person’s thoughts. (An ability which has not been seen for some time)
• Recharging: The rings need to be recharged by means of a Power Battery. Other large sources of power may be used to recharge a power ring, however effectiveness may vary. The internal power source of a Manhunter Android is, in effect, the same as a power battery, and can be used to recharge a power ring. During the JLA / Avengers crossover, a Cosmic Cubewas used to recharge a depleted ring, although this is not an ideal solution and is available if there are no other options.
• Ring Duplication: Each ring can duplicate itself, creating a second ring which may be given to another as a backup, for protection, or to help the lantern in times of great need. This duplicate ring is exactly like a normal ring.
• Temperature Control: The Ring can increase or decrease the temperature of anything, even something as large as stars, or even create bubbles of intense heat or cold, even down to Absolute Zero. This could be seen in the recent Sinestro Corps War when Sallak used his ring to incase an enemy in a force bubble an incinerate him.
• Transforming (former): The ring can transform anyone or anything, be it into an animal, altering their state of appearance, or their size. Once Hal and Alan turned the two Flashes ( Barryand Jay) to light protons in order to free them from prisons.
• Electro-magnetic scanning: The ring can allow(through the use of x rays) the user to see through walls, without the people on the other side knowing. it can also scan along the Electromagnetic spectrum.
• Wormhole/Warps: The ring can open wormholes to cut down on distance.
• Healing: A wielder can command a ring to heal him/her/itself of any injures incurred. It can also heal others. This ability however cannot regenerate lost limbs.
• Energy twin: The ring can create an energy copy of the wielder which is connected to the ring wielder, any information the twin gathers is transferred to the wielder upon touch while others cannot see this twin apart from fellow Green Lanterns. (An ability which has not been seen for some time)
• Pocket dimension: Within the ring is a pocket dimension which can altered to the wielders specification. It can be used to contain opponents.
• Sub-routines: The power rings have inner programmings or mechanisms which can executed without the users permission. One such sub-routine is the autoshield. This shield automatically protects a wielder from external harm and has been proven to be capable of protecting the wielder from planetary level attacks.

Retconned

Radiation: Besides light based radiation used to create the energy constructs associated with a Green Lantern, the ring can simulate various forms of radiation. One example of this is the ability to simulate the radiation of Green Kryptonite, a form of radiation that is harmful to Superman. However, this ability is no longer valid and has been retconned.

Time travel: The ring allows the wielder the ability to travel through time, though the process requires great willpower.

Weaknesses

Mental Incapacitation: The ring cannot be wielded correctly if the wearer is under the influence of drugs or if there is an involvement of neural interference.

Yellow Impurity: In the beginning the Green Ring was vulnerable to the color yellow. It was unable to defend against attacks from wielders of the Sinestro Corps as well. This weakness however has now be changed and can be overcome by veterans who have the ability to overcome great fear. Hal Jordan was of the first of the Green Lanterns to show that this weakness could be overcome.

Recharge: Previously had to be recharged every 24 hours or when it has been depleted of energy. This can be accomplished if the bearer of the ring recites an oath into his power lantern while holding the ring to it. However now, the power ring only needs to be recharged when it runs out of energy. Sinestro stated to Hal that it was possible for a Green Lantern to store his.her battery in a pocket Universe and take it with them wherever they went but so far Hal has not displayed the ability to do this.

Red Lantern Corps. Bearers of the red ring have the ability to drain a Green Power Ring of its energy. The ring of a Blue Lantern however has the ability to charge a Green Lantern Ring or negate this negative effect. Blue Lanterns rings also have the ability to purge the negative effects that a Red Lanterns Ring can cause upon the wielder of a Green Lantern Ring.

(Previous Weaknesses)

Ability To Kill: One of the main weaknesses of the Power Rings that greatly disturbed Sinestro was the fact that the bearers of the Green Lantern Ring were unable to kill. Recently however, this restriction on the rings has been lifted but murder is still against the law of the GL Corps. This restriction was lifted by the Guardians of the Universe during the War of the Green Lanterns.