Rot Lop Fan
35 years ago - Rot Lop Fan is born in the Obsidian Deeps
8 years ago - 27-year-old Rot Lop Fan is found in the Obsidian Deeps by Katma Tui, who helps him conceive of the F-Sharp Bell, allowing him to join the Green Lantern Corps.
5 years ago - 30-year-old Rot Lop Fan is killed in Hal Jordan’s assault of 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.
Rot Lop Fan is one of the Green Lantern characters that originate from their own short story, which tends to produce some of the most entertaining members of the Corp. He's a great example of one of their more conceptual characters, and is a slick addition to their story.
Rot Lop Fan is one of the Green Lantern characters that originate from their own short story, which tends to produce some of the most entertaining members of the Corp. He's a great example of one of their more conceptual characters, and is a slick addition to their story.
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Rot Lop Fan's Comic HistoryTales of the Green Lantern Corp Annual came out in the late eighties as the Green Lantern comic was winding down in the years following the Crisis of Infinite Earths. It was an absolutely stellar anthology series, featuring tons of great stories by a who's who of amazing writers and artists. Issue #3 started with this story by a certain mister Alan Moore.
It's a simple story, not really featuring a traditional comic book conflict. Instead, it follows Katma Tui as she discovers Rot Lop Fan, a potential new Green Lantern in a part of space called the Obsidian Deeps, which has no visible light whatsoever. She struggles getting the ideas inherent to the Lantern Corp across to this being who has no understanding of the concept of light. Eventually, she helps completely re-imagine the idea of the Green Lantern around sound, helping him conceive of the F-Sharp Bell. Rot Lop Fan would make regular appearances in group shots of the Corp, but the idea of him has always been a little out there, and other than a brief appearance in Grant Morrison's The Green Lantern, I don't know that I've ever seen anyone start to explore this strange character. |
Our Rot Lop Fan StoryA character like Rot Lop Fan is very easy for us to include in our timeline, because he really doesn't have a lot of stories to adapt. We'd kind of like it if there was more, but really, the whole appeal in this case is just how innovative and subversive to the core Green Lantern concept he is, so someone would have to get really creative to find something to do with him.
One unexpected benefit we get by including Rot Lop Fan that was unexpected is that it sets an interesting precedent that actually pays off in the character of Saint Walker. Because of Rot Lop Fan, we know that in certain strange circumstances, the Guardians of Oa will create variations on the idea of what a Green Lantern is. This has actually been enacted in other, less interesting characters, but Rot Lop Fan gives us a very clear and clever example. As for the rest of our timeline, since Rot Lop Fan is such a specific creation of a particular era, counting him among the losses during Hal's attack on Oa does ultimately feel like the right use for him. |
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