Since its debut, Green Lanterns has consistently one of DC Comics' best Rebirth-themed books and possibly the title with the biggest scope, spanning the entire multiverse and millions of years in its current story detailing the debuts of the first Green Lanterns and the rise of Volthoom. Over the course of the past few issues, we’ve been introduced to the first six Green Lanterns to ever sling a ring; in the most recent issue (by Sam Humphries, Eduardo Pansica, Julio Ferreira and Blond), we meet the seventh and final Green Lantern, and she’s from a very familiar and very important planet in the DC Universe.

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So far in Green Lanterns, we’ve met Alitha of the Galactica, a New God of the Third World; Z’krann Z’rann who is basically a White Martian Batman; Tyran’r of Tamaran, a warrior beast from when Starfire’s people were more barbaric; Kaja Dox of Yod-Colu; a supergenius repairwoman with some connection to the Brainiac dynasty; Calleen, a planet elemental of the same race as a very obscure Justice League villain and Brill, an artificial intelligence and forefather of the modern day Green Lantern, Stel.

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All of the first Green Lanterns have some connection to the modern day DC Universe in one way or another, but the final member has perhaps the most significant link yet. In Green Lanterns #27, we’re introduced to Jan-Al of Krypton, a devotee of the god Rao and member of the first crew of explorers to depart Krypton for the wider galaxy. We’re told that Jan-Al means “Faith” in Kryptonese; specifically, faith in Rao. with Jan-Al’s guidance, the survivors of her crashed ship survive a hellish sandstorm which would have killed them if they had retreated to what seemed to be the safety of their shuttle.

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Jan-Al is deemed of sufficient willpower to join the newly formed Green Lantern Corps and is whisked away to the far-off planet Sol-3, or as we know it, Earth, where she meets her fellow Green Lanterns for the first time, along with the time-tossed Simon Baz and Jessica Cruz. However, after a message from Rami about the threat of Volthoom, the first Green Lanterns turn on each other, and Jan-Al’s decision in that battle leads to her ultimate fate.

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Although we’ve only seen her for this one issue, it’s quickly established that she’s a firm believer in providence and attributes everything that’s happened which has kept her and her crew alive to the divine intervention of Rao. So when she witnesses the power of the Green Lantern rings, there’s no doubt in her mind; she needs to steal them. She attempts to overpower the other Lanterns in order to take their rings and bring them back to her crew, but discovers that these first-stage Green Lantern rings don’t have a safety feature later models do. Thus, Jan-Al’s overwhelming willpower causes the ring to overload... and incinerates her on the spot.

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The First Kryptonian Green Lantern is... Dead?

It’s hardly a dignified way to go for Krypton’s first Green Lantern, but it sets the stakes higher than they would be in any story. If a runaway Green Lantern ring can flash-fry a Kryptonian with the added benefit of the Earth’s yellow sun giving them full superpowers, the other Green Lanterns need to be very careful when it comes to taking on Volthoom. We know from previous issues that Tyran’r survives to the present, and even remembers Cruz and Baz, but it wouldn’t be surprising to see one or two more GLs fall to their own uncontrollable willpower.

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What is surprising is that Jan-Al is the first in-continuity Kryptonian to bear a power ring and serve as a Green Lantern. It would seem obvious that DC would take its most famous alien race and its team of alien space cops and put two and two together, but there hasn’t ever really been a Green Lantern from Krypton before; at least not one we’ve seen in mainstream DC continuity. The closest the comics have come is with Steve Gerber and Doug Wheatley’s Elseworld miniseries Superman: Last Son of Earth, which flipped the tables on the Superman myth by having the human Clark Kent rocketed to Krypton where he was raised by Jor-El and Lara Lor-Van before acquiring a Green Lantern ring, saving Krypton from destruction and returning home to Earth.

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Grant Morrison’s JLA visited the concept in a dreamworld created by the Key, where Superman grew up on a Krypton that never exploded and became his sector’s Green Lantern. There was also the Smallville: Lantern miniseries set in the aftermath of the CW show, which featured Clark Kent receiving the long-dormant Green Lantern ring of Sector 2813 after the return of Argo City.

Of course, we have seen multiple Green Lanterns from Krypton's space sector (2813), which is just one over from Earth’s. In fact, Green Lantern Tomar-Re and his son Tomar-Tu are two of the most visibly recognizable alien Green Lanterns in the history of the franchise, and in one of the most iconic stories starring a non-human Lantern, we saw Tomar-Re’s quest to save Krypton with the rare element stellarium, and the fallout of his failure to do so.

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Tomar-Tu was recruited into the Green Lantern Corps by his father’s best friend Hal Jordan, but after Jordan went mad from the Parallax parasite, Tu was thought dead. In fact, he and several other “Lost Lanterns” were prisoners of the Cyborg Superman, and after being rescued by Jordan and Guy Gardner, the Lost Lanterns were inducted into the reformed Green Lantern Corps. In a very recent story in Hal Jordan and the Green Lantern Corps, Tomar-Tu was responsible for the breakdown of alliances between the Green Lanterns and Sinestro Corps after he murdered the Sinestro Corpsman and his arch-rival Romat-Ru.

It’ll be interesting to see if the original seven Green Lantern rings are programmed to seek out new bearers, and if we’ll get another Kryptonian to take Jan-Al’s place. There’s been no real mention of space sectors, so it’s possible/likely the Guardians of the Universe haven’t even drawn those boundaries yet. It’s also possible that the currently ringless Simon Baz will acquire Jan-Al’s ring, which will provide a potentially deadly test of his own willpower. Whatever happens, you need to be reading Green Lanterns every fortnight, because it’s building a whole new history for the DC Universe, one that's equally compelling and immersive.