Hello and welcome to Comic Drake, where I talk about comic books and my name is Drake!
One of the greatest things about the shared universes in Marvel Comics and DC Comics is
that the books weren’t initially conceived as such.
They were seen as self contained stories so all the crazy random stuff that happened in
this book over here wasn’t meant to tie into all of the nonsense that happened in
this book over here, but creative writers over the years have taken all of these out
there elements and really tied them together into this giant cohesive world in both Marvel
and DC, but the problem is that when you have these elements out there that were created
outside of each other, it leads to some very interesting plot holes.
A fan favorite plot hole that I have seen asked all over the internet was actually answered
a long time ago in DC Comics which was “If Planet Krypton was destroyed, where was the
Green Lantern that was supposed to protect it?”
Well today, I’m going to give you the answer!
As you may already know, the Green Lantern Corps is an intergalactic peacekeeping police
force created by a race called the Oans who believe themselves to be the Guardians of
the Universe.
They divided the universe into 3600 space sectors and manage the corps from the center
of the universe in Sector 0.
Each space sector was originally manned by one Green Lantern, but that has since been
abandoned in favor of two per sector with the exception of Earth in Sector 2814 which
gets as many as they need.
Each Green Lantern works to better their sector in any way they can from stopping criminals
to assisting with local terrestrial needs.
So with a planet like Krypton being destroyed, where the hell was their Lantern?!
Well for that, let’s turn back time and take a look.
When Krypton was destroyed, there was only one Lantern per sector.
Krypton, which hails closely to Earth in Sector 2813, was being protected by Tomar-Re from
the planet Xudar.
Now Tomar-Re is one of the greatest Green Lanterns who ever lived and was an important
member of the corps as both a trainer of new recruits and as a member of the corps’ highly
prestigious Honor Guard.
However, the destruction of Krypton was his greatest failure.
As seen in Superman #257 in 1972, the Guardians were looking to bring the Green Lantern Corps
into a new golden age.
After hundreds of years, the Guardians decided to let the corps act independent of their
influence.
However, there was not currently a Green Lantern with the qualities to lead this hypothetical
independent corps.
That is until the marriage of the Kryptonian scientist, Jor-El, and his wife, Lara.
On their own, either Kryptonian would have made a great addition to the corps, but a
child raised by them could be even better than both of their parents combined so the
Oans decided to wait it out and see what happened.
Now despite the Guardians’ interest in Krypton, the planet’s core grew unstable and it was
in danger of exploding.
In response, the Guardians enacted standard procedure.
In the event of a planet’s destruction, be it natural or inflicted by its citizens,
the corps was not to directly intervene.
Instead, it’s the job of the planet’s inhabitants to notice the danger and either
fix the issue or evacuate.
The sector’s Green Lantern can help, but only work in secret to delay the disaster
long enough for the citizens to take notice.
Tomar-Re gathered massive quantities of the element, Stellarium, which would help absorb
the radiation plaguing Krypton.
In fact, Tomar-Re worked for MONTHS tirelessly to delay Krypton’s destruction, but only
Jor-El recognized their impending doom.
He pleaded to Krypton’s Science Council, but his warnings fell on deaf ears.
Tomar-Re’s efforts were futile as Krypton erupted, leading to the story that you’re
most likely familiar with already.
Jor-El and Lara sent their son, Kal-El, to Earth to escape a fiery death where Earth’s
lighter gravity and yellow sun granted him the powers to become the hero, Superman.
With all this power, the Guardians chose not to interfere and let Superman do his own thing,
never recruiting him for the corps as intended.
Though because of all the good Superman actively does for Earth and the universe as a whole,
the Guardians do not consider the loss of Krypton as a failure of Tomar-Re which I’m
pretty sure the Kryptonians would highly disagree with.
Regardless, Tomar-Re did everything that he was allowed to by the guidelines of the corps
and ultimately, it was the Science Council’s dismissal of Jor-El’s warnings that led
to the near extinction of the Kryptonian species.
Hopefully you found that interesting and if you have any other questions that are burning
in your soul about the world of DC and Marvel comics then feel free to leave a comment down
there below with your question or tweet me @TrailerDrake and I might just make a video
on it.
But hey, if you liked this video then why not consider subscribing or watching another
one?
I personally want to recommend the video that we did on every single division of the Green
Lantern Corps.
I think it’s a really neat concept that we haven’t really seen dived into on the
internet and especially on YouTube.
So if you like Green Lanterns, you might want to give that one a watch!