The Green Lantern Corps Returns to Oa as its Home Base

WARNING: The following article contains major spoilers for Green Lanterns #57 by Dan Jurgens, Mike Perkins, Hi-Fi and Dave Sharpe, on sale now.

The old adage "Home is where the heart is" is one that resonates big time within the Green Lantern Corps lore. Each Lantern is designated a segment of the galaxy to patrol -- for example, Earth is Sector 2814 -- but not all of them get to monitor the territory they're from. But even with so many space cops scattered across the galaxy, there's a headquarters they all view as home.

This central hub is where the Guardians dictate their missions, and come Green Lanterns #57, the series finale from Dan Jurgens, Mike Perkins and Co., the Corps is forced to find a new home in the wake of the havoc wreaked by Cyborg Superman (Hank Henshaw). And as luck would have it, it's an all-too familiar place: Oa.

Oa has represented home to the Corps since it debuted in 1960, a place where the Guardians could experiment, house prisoners, direct their Lanterns, and run their galactic court of law. It housed the Power Battery too, the energy source which powered all the Lanterns' portable batteries and rings. In other words, Oa was the heartbeat of the Corps, and in some ways, was the center of the DCU's cosmic adventures. That is, until the villain Relic destroyed it in 2013's Green Lantern: New Guardians, leaving the army to find a new home.

This would end up being Mogo, the living planet which is also a Green Lantern. It understood the Corps and offered them what they needed. But in this issue, we discover Henshaw's attack after escaping the Fortress of Solitude has left Mogo badly wounded and nearly uninhabitable. Following Henshaw's eventual defeat on Earth in Coast City, the entire Corps returns to assess the damage done to the sentient planet by the cyborg, Eon and the Ravagers, and we quickly see it's pretty bad. Hal, as optimistic a leader as ever, begins to rally the troops to rebuild, but the Guardians stop him dead in his tracks, making the surprise announcement: It's time to move back to Oa.

Hal's shocked, because everyone's under the impression Oa remains destroyed. However, he's told by Ganthet (a senior Guardian), they have been secretly rebuilding their base of operations for some time, with Kada Sal (the Guardian who died in this arc) overseeing the project. This would enable them to reestablish their stronghold of old, while allowing Mogo the time needed to recover. It's is a positive move, because the Lanterns could then end up with two hubs in the future, making their duties a bit easier and giving members the option of picking whichever location is closer to rendezvous, or actually be based at.

It's a compassionate decision, too, because Mogo is suffering from trauma after the recent attacks and needs to rest. It works in the Corps' favor, because Oa has a synergy with the Power Battery like no other, and this connection will surely be an asset when it comes to purifying the Power Battery of Henshaw's corruption.

At the end of the day, the Guardians need somewhere they can trust to be safe, and Oa is just that. It remains to be seen what improvements will be made to fortify it, as it has been invaded by the likes of the Sinestro Corps as well. But as of now, Hal and the rest of the Lanterns aren't looking so far down the line; they're living in the moment and are just excited at the thought of setting foot on their old stomping grounds once more.

CBR

DC Gives The Green Lantern Corps A New Home... Sort Of