Green Lanterns' weakness to yellow: how does it work these days?

[Mike Smash!]

This came up in another thread and was the subject of much debate. Since Green Lantern: Rebirth, the yellow weakness is back, but in a much different form.

Today, you could say that yellow is resistant to Green Lantern power rings, but not immune to it.

Rookie Lanterns fall victim to this problem, but not the senior Lanterns. The explanation they give is that a Lantern needs to "feel the fear behind the color and overcome it."

What does that mean exactly? That you need a bit more willpower to overcome the weakness? That you need to let fear take you just a little bit, but overcome it? That you have to ignore it?

And would have pre-Parallax GLs been able to use this trick had they known about it?

The whole thing is just a bit vague and it's never been explained in a specific way.

What is the deal with the color yellow these days?

[marshal99]

Rebirth is bad , the yellow fear demon is just plain stupid. I expected better from geoff Johns but the story was just terrible.

Return Hal back to the way he was , bring back guy gardner to the way he was and just reset everything all back to the 90s.

[BeastieRunner]

Return Hal back to the way he was , bring back guy gardner to the way he was and just reset everything all back to the 90s.

Why not release everything in a foil cover as well. :rolleyes:

[Mike Smash!]

Rebirth is bad , the yellow fear demon is just plain stupid. I expected better from geoff Johns but the story was just terrible.

Return Hal back to the way he was , bring back guy gardner to the way he was and just reset everything all back to the 90s.

Swing and a miss! It would be nice if you tried answering the question.

I personally don't mind the Parallax fear demon plot and I like that they've adjusted the yellow weakness back in (I always liked it -- it forced GLs to be creative).

Technically I'd say that they have returned Hal and Guy to the way they were. And that's why their books are selling so well lately.

As to the yellow question, I gave the whole thing some thought and the problem with yellow isn't in the yellow itself, but in the rings.

If Parallax is trapped in the Central Battery which beams its power into Lantern rings and batteries, the yellow impurity is there. It isn't that the color yellow has pieces of a fear demon in it. The rings do and Lanterns have to overcome the impurity in their rings.

But how does someone "find the fear behind the color", especially if they're specifically chosen to be fearless?

[Mr. Kent]

Why not release everything in a foil cover as well. :rolleyes:

Because that wouldn't be enough to be "Nineties"...you'd have to release 10 different foil covers to catch the Nineties groove...

But anyways, back to the yellow, I didn't mind the yellow fear demon. I think it makes sense, and sure better than whatever the reasoning for the "yellow impurity" was before...

*runs to look up previous origin of yellow impurity...*

I think the take DC is using with this new Parallax Fear Anomaly (formerly the yellow impurity) is that you fear what you do not know/understand. By ackowledging fear, remembering past fearful experiences, one can channel that into a defense against it.

[Jack Zodiac]

This has me wondering, with the Sinestro Corps hailing fear as their power, and reading from the Book of Parallax, do you think their first assault on the Corps will be to free him?

The way I see it, the ringbearers now have two weaknesses. Standard weakness to yellow, and now a weakness to fear, which was never made as powerful a force to fight them considering Hal was the "man without fear." Unlike before, though, they can now overcome their weaknesses. By overcoming fear and their inherent weakness to yellow. Corpsmen like Hal and Guy and John, Kilowog and the old guard, they've already got an advantage because they fought for so long with the yellow impurity, they knew that certain foes were to be feared, and that overcoming that fear was the only way to win, by using their brain along with their ring instead of relying solely on their weapons. For a lot of the, yellow wasn't even a weakness anymore, even if they still couldn't touch it.

Now, subconsciously overcoming that weakness, that fear of yellow, makes it possible for them to physically overcome it as well. However, when they're afraid, that weakness can still hurt them, which is why I think Johns is placing so much power in the idea of fear for the Sinestro Corps.

[BeastieRunner]

I think the take DC is using with this new Parallax Fear Anomaly (formerly the yellow impurity) is that you fear what you do not know/understand. By ackowledging fear, remembering past fearful experiences, one can channel that into a defense against it.

That's what I've been thinking as well. I think we'll get more answers when the Sinestro Corps Special comes out, though.

[Mr. Kent]

Do Sinestro Rings have an impurity/weakness, or haven't they been around long enough to see one? I know they have to be used against a Lantern to recharge, but other than that is there a weakness?

[BeastieRunner]

Do Sinestro Rings have an impurity/weakness, or haven't they been around long enough to see one? I know they have to be used against a Lantern to recharge, but other than that is there a weakness?

Perhaps the color green?:confused:

Good question . . . :confused:

[Stressfactor]

Mike Smash -- I always took it to mean that a GL must acknowledge that fear exists but affirm that they will not let it overcome them. The way Hal fell and the way the others (except Kyle) fell was by denying that anything could put fear into them, by denying that they had any fears. Here, they admit that there is fear but they will not be controlled by it.

Its sort of like having those invisible laser beams. You can't see them, but they're there. If someone blows smoke or a powder across them suddenly they show up. The rookies can't make their rings work against yellow because they can't see or feel the fear yet but the experienced guys can because they know its there.

[Captain Smith]

The whole yellow thing was always silly if one wanted to look at it from the physics and neurobiological point of view.

Yellow is a construct of the interaction of cone receptors and wavelength of light as processed by a set of neural structures.

Yellow can be seen by humans with normal color vision from a monochromatic light of a specific wavelength or a mixture of light sources that look red and green by themselves. It is a specific system in certain primates like us. If you don't have that system - you don't see yellow. So is it the single wavelength - that might have made sense in the physical domain as there are some reactions specific to wavelength bands. Or is it the perception of yellow?

Then, if you were completely a color blind human - do you not have this weakness? Or if you were a tritanope - only seeing reds and greens, do you have this weakness?

It is silly to think that alien and esp. nonhuman critters have the same perceptions if that is the issue.

As far as the giant yellow bug in the battery - that was lame but a way to get Hal back in the fold.

[Stressfactor]

Rot Lop Fan. Born to a sector with no light he was completely blind (eyeless -- just like those fish that live in caves). His language had no names for color because there was no color to be seen. Katma Tui recruited him and got around this by having him imagine the one musical note that gave him the most happiness. Then she gave him the ring and told him to imagine he was holding a bell that rang that note. When Rot Lop Fan "rang" the "bell" it would produce energy in the form of soundwaves which he could shape and control. She did not bother to tell him about the yellow weakness since his world had no color. Essentially, he was the only GL back in the day that had no yellow weakness.

I think, perhaps, this is where Johns got the current idea from -- Sure, the rings produce energy in beams of hues in green and yellow but the color is actually an amotional component. As Rot Lop Fan imagines a sound that signified happiness and strength, so modern GL's feel the emotional strength of willpower. The Sinestro Corps use yellow rings but their agents are actually responding to the meotions of fear -- in this case they get joy and strength out of causing fear in others.

This way the stories essentially bypass the pseudo physics of things and instead focus on emotional content. This is also an "out" for alien cultures with the assumption that most beings experience emotions. Even animals appear to experience happiness and sadness.

[Captain Smith]

One may remember in the early days of the Justice League when they were captured by Amazo. Hal inhaled and then exhaled some cholrine gas as it had some yellow in it. That was to block Amazo's ring. Then he used his ring to zap old Amazo.

The chemistry and physics was mindboggling. A deep breath of cholrine is not that good for you. :)

[Mike Smash!]

One may remember in the early days of the Justice League when they were captured by Amazo. Hal inhaled and then exhaled some cholrine gas as it had some yellow in it. That was to block Amazo's ring. Then he used his ring to zap old Amazo.

The chemistry and physics was mindboggling. A deep breath of cholrine is not that good for you. :)Hal could have spared his health a bit by spitting some lemonade at him. :)

[mattx110]

eh, i love yellow painted bullets

[Mike Smash!]

eh, i love yellow painted bulletsIn Jack T. Chance's first appearance, he fought a villain who prided himself on killing Lanterns and used golden bullets.