DC’s Green Lantern has proven to be one of their more popular characters over the years. As a cosmic defense, the Green Lanterns are typically used to explore the intergalactic world of DC. As such, Green Lantern is open to a wide array of villains. Over the years, he has fought all sorts of aliens, cosmic entities, and even gods. However, one villain that often seems to be forgotten is Star Sapphire.
Though she isn’t quite as popular as Sinestro, Star Sapphire has still proven to be quite the antagonist for Green Lantern. Her personal involvement in Hal Jordan’s life, specifically, makes her all the greater an adversary. To get a closer look at one of the Emerald Knight’s more formidable foes, here is our list of 10 Star Sapphire facts that every DC fan should know.
10 Origins of Star Sapphire
Since there have been several versions of Star Sapphire over the years, it is important to understand how the character has evolved. Originally, Star Sapphire was the alien queen of the Zamarons. However, the queen requires a host that identically resembles the last one.
As a result, this villainous queen has a particularly limited number of options when it comes to choosing a new body to inhabit. While that certainly hasn’t held her back from being a massive threat to Green Lantern, it certainly limits her ability to make a reappearance.
9 Carol Ferris
Carol Ferris is the most common and most popular version of Star Sapphire. Not only is she the deadliest interpretation of the villain, but she is also the most common love interest to Hal Jordan himself. That’s right, one of Green Lantern’s biggest adversaries is also one of his closest romances. Carol is also Hal's boss.
As Star Sapphire, she would continually clash with Green Lantern all the way up until Hal Jordan became The Spectre. Once he became the Spectre, Hal Jordan would find a way to successfully remove the Zamaron queen from Carol’s body, thus returning her to her original, human self.
8 In Other Media
Being among the more popular Green Lantern villains, Star Sapphire has made appearances in mediums beyond comics. She appeared on occasion in both Justice League and Justice League: Unlimited cartoons. She also played a major role in the Justice League: Doom animated feature that was loosely based off the JLA: Tower of Babel comic.
Likewise, she has also appeared in the Green Lantern Animated Series. Furthermore, the character has even held a minor presence in games like Lego Batman 3: Beyond Gotham and DC Universe: Online. While many may still be unaware of Star Sapphire as a character, she has a surprising amount of appearances in other media.
7 Other Versions
Of course, since the queen needs an identical host body to inhabit, there have been several different people to hold the title of Star Sapphire. Dela Pharon actually appears as Star Sapphire alongside Carol Ferris, though the two actually begin to fight upon their encounter. Remoni-Notra also came to call herself Star Sapphire, though the honor was bestowed upon her by Ferris.
Nol-Anj and Jillian Pearlman would also come to hold the mantle, though Pearlman would accomplish much more as Star Sapphire than anyone else aside from Ferris. Though Ferris has been the most notable version of the character, Star Sapphire has consistently been a thorn in Green Lantern’s side regardless of who the host is.
6 Transition to Corps
When superstar author Geoff Johns took over Green Lantern in the mid-2000s, he made some significant changes to both Hal Jordan and his villains. One thing Johns did was introduce the concept of other Lantern Corps within the universe. In doing so, he reworked the Star Sapphire character to fit in with his corps concept.
The Zamarons became the first race to wield the Star Sapphire, otherwise known as the Violet Lantern's representation of love. From there, it is also revealed that the Star Sapphires were a group of women who left the planet Oa due to a disagreement with the Guardians of the Universe. Whether he meant to or not, Geoff Johns firmly established the Violet Lantern Corps as a group of incredibly skilled warrior women.
5 In Blackest Night
Following the changes that Johns made to the Star Sapphire character, the Corps version is seen heavily throughout the Blackest Night event. This storyline saw the rise of the Black Lantern Corps and the resurrection of many deceased DC heroes. In order to defeat the evil Corps, all other Lantern Corps needed to band together.
During this massive story, the Star Sapphires went against the Sinestro Corps. After an impressive battle, Carol Ferris is able to convince Sinestro to work with her and Hal Jordan to take down the Black Lantern Corps. This story also saw Wonder Woman be inducted into the Star Sapphires for a brief period.
4 In Brightest Day
Immediately following the conclusion of Blackest Night, Brightest Day focused heavily on the universe's recovery. During this storyline, the Star Sapphires are seen rebuilding Zamaron after it was nearly destroyed by the Black Lantern Corps.
Furthermore, Queen Aga’po, the leader of the Star Sapphires, formally establishes Carol Ferris as Queen of the Corps. This not only showed the evolution of the Corps but also established Carol Ferris as a very strong leader and much more relevant character within DC.
3 The Predator
Aside from Green Lantern, The Predator is also considered to be a great opponent of the Star Sapphires. This one, however, is much different from the alien that tried to kill Arnold Schwarzenegger. This Predator is believed to have been derived from Carol Ferris’ subconscious, eventually using the power of Star Sapphire to develop its own identity.
From there, the Predator battled both Green Lantern and Star Sapphire. Shortly following the establishment of the Corps, it is revealed that the Predator is actually the living embodiment of love. Though also a relatively minor character within DC Comics, it is interesting to see other Corps aside from the Green Lanterns have their own problems to deal with.
2 Ideologies
While it may seem obvious, it is still worth mentioning that members of the Star Sapphire Corps are primarily female. However, they aren’t at all exclusive to the female gender. Females are simply just more common and susceptible to love, according to the corps.
In fact, Guy Gardner of all people has even been a Violet Lantern at some point, proving that even the most surprising of individuals can master the emotional spectrum. However, before the Star Sapphires were established as a Corps, the Zamaron queen hated men and sought their destruction.
1 Powers & Abilities
As members of the Corps, Violet Lanterns can create powerful constructs by tapping into their love, similarly to how Green Lanterns create constructs out of their will. Likewise, the stronger the emotional connection, the stronger the construct and the more powerful the user. Unlike other lanterns, Star Sapphires actually have a unique immunity to all other colors on the spectrum.
However, since they are on the far end of the emotional spectrum, they pose as much a danger to themselves as any other adversary. Violet Lanterns can easily be consumed by the power of love if they are not careful. While they are no longer a direct threat to Green Lantern, the Star Sapphires are still very powerful beings, and certainly the kind of group you would want on your side.