As far as enemies and rivals go for the Green Lantern Corps, none may be more iconic than the once legendary Green Lantern turned foe, Thaal Sinestro. Once the longtime friend of heroic Green Lantern Abin Sur and the first mentor of Hal Jordan of Earth, Sinestro eventually found himself falling to the dark side.
After discovering the power of the yellow light of fear, Sinestro turned away from the Green Lantern Corps and the law of the Guardians of the Universe. Becoming the villainous Sinestro, he left a mark on the DC Universe. Here are ten things to know about the villain.
10 Originally An Anthropologist
One of the first things to note of Sinestro was that his need to bring order and structure to the universe began early in his life. Born on the planet Korugar of Sector 1417, Sinestro didn’t begin in law enforcement, military or some police like position on his world. Instead, he began his life as an anthropologist.
Working to restore the ruins of ancient civilizations from his people’s past, it was during a job renovating such a set of ruins that he first encountered the Green Lantern Corps. Soon Sinestro was forced to take up the role of defender to stop a powerful threat.
9 Stole Green Lantern Ring
When he was renovating the ruins of his planet, Sinestro encountered the Green Lantern known as Prohl Gosgotha, who had been injured in a battle. Asking for Sinestro’s help, he gave Thaal the Green Lantern Ring just as a weaponer of Qward arrived on Korugar, forcing Sinestro to turn into a Green Lantern.
After the foe had been defeated, Sinestro saw the ruins he had been restoring had been destroyed in the battle. Finding Gosgotha alive amongst the ruins but injured, the Green Lantern asked for his ring back. However, Sinestro refused to give up the power, leaving Prohl to perish and taking his place as Green Lantern, unbeknownst to the Guardians.
8 Exposed As Dictator By Hal Jordan
While Sinestro’s fall from grace and rivalry with Hal Jordan is well known, the circumstances of these events are not as well known. Hal Jordan found Sinestro to be a totalitarian style trainer when he first joined the Green Lantern Corps, often leading to clashes between the two as Sinestro believed this was the best way to maintain order.
During a battle to stop an alien invasion of the Khunds on Sinestro’s homeworld, Hal discovered Sinestro had declared himself the planet’s dictator. Reporting it to the Guardians, Sinestro’s ring was stripped from him and he was imprisoned, replaced by another of his people named Katma Tul.
7 Banished To Antimatter Universe
Being found guilty of using the power of the Green Lantern ring to instill fear into his people rather than hope and willpower, the Guardians sentenced Sinestro to a hellish landscape known as the Antimatter universe. Settling on the antimatter version of Oa known as Qward, Sinestro came into contact with the Weaponers of Qward.
Hoping the experience of being surrounded by the Green Lantern enemies would humble Sinestro, it had the opposite effect instead. Sinestro and the Weaponers formed an alliance based on their hatred for the Guardians, and helped Sinestro form the Yellow Lantern Ring turning him into the first Yellow Lantern.
6 Infected Hal Jordan With Parallax
In the Pre-Crisis era of DC Comics, the first origin story of Sinestro saw him and Hal battle multiple times after Sinestro’s imprisonment on Qward. Often finding ways to escape the Guardians punishments and manipulating beings into freeing him, he eventually found ways to gain nearly god-like power to commit genocide on star systems.
After escaping execution for his crimes, he put his entire essence into the Central Power Battery, discovering the yellow impurity within was none other than Parallax, while the green light was Parallax’s counterpart Ion. Sinestro released Parallax in his defeat, reveling in Hal Jordan’s corruption as fear began to seep into him slowly.
5 Yellow Ring Stolen By Guy Gardner
After being trapped inside the Central Power Battery of Oa and releasing Parallax onto Hal Jordan, Sinestro’s yellow power ring found itself being stolen by a legendary Green Lantern of Earth. That Green Lantern was none other than Guy Gardner, one of the toughest and most hard headed of the Corps.
After defeating Sinestro’s spirit possessing John Stewart, Guy used the Yellow Lantern Ring twice in his travels. However this was short lived, as Sinestro saw his ring destroyed thanks to his manipulation of freeing Parallax. The entity possessed Hal Jordan, and Parallax ultimately destroyed Sinestro’s power ring, releasing Guy from it.
4 Faked Demise At Hands Of Hal Jordan
After releasing Parallax and watching as Hal Jordan became the monster Sinestro had become over time, Sinestro escaped and enjoyed watching his enemy turn into one of the universe’s greatest villains. After some other adventures involving time travel and duplicates using computer constructs, Sinestro returned as his ghost came into conflict with Hal Jordan, who had since become The Spectre.
Trapping Sinestro in a dream world where he had never become a Green Lantern, Hal (as the Spectre) gave Sinestro the choice to remain in the dream world or go to hell. Sinestro chose hell, being dragged into the underworld, but this turned out to be a ruse, using a fear construct to fool them all.
3 Formed Sinestro Corps After Infinite Crisis
After the events of Infinite Crisis saw the major Battle of Metropolis ended, Sinestro retreated from the DC Universe into the antimatter universe to regroup. There, he made a pact with the Anti-Monitor, who convinced him to give into the concept of fear altogether and rule the universe using it.
After Hal Jordan’s resurrection and the recreation of the Green Lantern Corps, Sinestro takes a cue from his foe and creates the Sinestro Corps, utilizing the yellow light of fear as their weapon. Creating an army, he orchestrates the passing of Kyle Rayner’s mother to make him the new host of Parallax and defeats his daughter Soranik in battle.
2 Captured By Atrocitus
In the Post-Crisis universe, Sinestro found his story rewritten so that his fall from grace was influenced by the villainous Atrocitus. After helping Hal Jordan stop Atrocitus on Earth, Atrocitus infects Sinestro with fear for his homeworld, creating the need to utilize the yellow light of fear.
After establishing the Red Lantern Corps, Atrocitus ambushes Sinestro’s prison transfer after the Sinestro Corps War. Nearly succeeding in executing Sinestro on Ysmault, Hal Jordan and the Blue Lanterns lead a rescue mission to free him. After Sinestro survives a fierce battle with an enraged Hal Jordan, he flees back to his homeworld.
1 Temporarily Became Guardian Of The Universe
During the Blackest Night event, Sinestro went through quite a lot. After joining forces with the other Lantern Corps to defeat the Black Lantern Corps, Sinestro discovered one of the Guardians' greatest secrets along with everyone else. Earth is the birthplace of the universe and the living entity that represents all life.
Enraged this secret got his friend Abin Sur to lose his life, Sinestro stabbed Guardian Ganthet and dove headfirst into the living entity of life, emerging in all white light and becoming the Guardian of the Universe. However, his ego-maniacal outlook on life proved him unable to handle the full power of the entity.