Arkkis Chummuck
42 years ago - Arkkis Chummuck is born on Toomey VI, raised to value honor over even life.
25 years ago - 17-year-old Arkkis Chummuck begins his warrior training, excelling beyond all others.
21 years ago - 21-year-old Arkkis Chummuck chooses to become an archivist and non-combatant, viewing his people’s warlike ways with sadness.
14 years ago - 28-year-old Arkkis Chummuck is selected to join the Green Lantern Corps.
11 years ago - 31-year-old Arkkis Chummuck defeats his people’s ruler in single combat, ending bloodshed on his homeworld. He is brought to trial by the Green Lantern Corps for killing & eating him, but is freed because this was a sign of great respect among his people.
5 years ago - 37-year-old Arkkis Chummuck is killed in Hal Jordan’s assault on Oa.
The extended membership of the Green Lantern Corp comes from a few different sources, but interestingly, those same sources all seem to happen in cycles. There are characters introduced more or less as background characters who have a line here and there but who gain popularity because of some quirk of their design, there are characters introduced in their own standalone stories whose role may or may not expand over time but who remain popular because that original story was so clever, and there are characters that are actually introduced with the intention of playing a role in the main continuity Green Lantern story. These different character sources repeat through the various eras of Green Lantern Corp mythology, resulting in a pretty deep roster of potential characters for us to go over.
Lots of Lantern characters had their first appearance in backup stories, but Arkkis Chummuck is one of the very first. His standalone story remains one of the high points of that era, showing that often, the story of the Green Lantern Corp was actually at it's best when they stopped following the humans around.
Lots of Lantern characters had their first appearance in backup stories, but Arkkis Chummuck is one of the very first. His standalone story remains one of the high points of that era, showing that often, the story of the Green Lantern Corp was actually at it's best when they stopped following the humans around.
Arkkis Chummuck's StoryThe three part story 'The Trial of Arkkis Chummuck' took place in 1980 across issue #'s 130-132. It uses a trial as a framing device (which happened a lot in the old Green Lantern stories for some reason), but follows the tale of new recruit Arkkis, who's path to joining the Corp involved him battling his predecessor to the death, eating his corpse as a sign of respect, conquering his own people and then conquering their sworn enemies all in an effort to stop their generational war. It really was one of the best Green Lantern stories published in a long time, and it featured none of the normal Green Lantern characters.
Arkkis made a few appearances over the next few years, until Tales of the Green Lantern Corp Annual #1 in 1985, where he went on a mission with several other alien Green Lanterns, and wound up sacrificing himself to save them all. You do still see the character pop up here and there, but generally in flashback. We're using an altered version of Arkkis's story, having it take place a few years after his selection as a Green Lantern just to flesh out our timeline a little bit. He's not the most prolificly appearing character in the ranks of the Green Lanterns, but his story was a great one, and including it is an absolute necessity. |