Tomar-Re
56 years ago - Tomar Re is born on Xudar.
41 years ago - 15-year-old Tomar-Re becomes a starpilot.
37 years ago - 19-year-old Tomar-Re is selected as a Green Lantern. He trains under Ermey with Kilowog.
35 years ago - 21-year-old Tomar-Re is unable to stop the failure cascade of Krypton, suffering his greatest failure.
24 years ago - 32-year-old Tomar-Re is selected to join the Green Lantern Honor Guard.
22 years ago - 34-year-old Tomar-Re is married on his home planet.
18 years ago - 38-year-old Tomar-Re befriends new Green Lantern recruit Hal Jordan Hal saves him from Legion.
17 years ago - 39-year-old Tomar-Re is one of the only Lanterns to believe Hal Jordan about Thaal Sinestro's regime on Korugar.
13 years ago - 43-year-old Tomar-Re is murdered by Thaal Sinestro, sacrificing himself to protect Arisia Rrab.
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.
Tomar Re is likely the most iconic classic Green Lantern alien He was a fixture of the classic comics, and often is the reference people use in outside media when they want to refer to DC's alien Green Lanterns. Even after his death, the fact that his son quickly became a mainstay of the Corp is probably the best indication of just how archetypal Tomar really was.
Tomar Re is likely the most iconic classic Green Lantern alien He was a fixture of the classic comics, and often is the reference people use in outside media when they want to refer to DC's alien Green Lanterns. Even after his death, the fact that his son quickly became a mainstay of the Corp is probably the best indication of just how archetypal Tomar really was.
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Tomar-Re's Comic HistoryTomar Re has the distinction of being the very first alien Lantern to appear in the new silver age Green Lantern series, Abin Sur notwithstanding. The lantern of Space Sector 2813, and the neighbor of Hal Jordan's Sector 2814, He showed up for the very first time in 1961 in Green Lantern #6, even appearing on the cover. In those early years the Green Lanterns actually didn't know anything about the Guardians, they just received mysterious orders from their portable Lantern batteries, so Tomar was actually the one who introduced Hal to the idea of who the Guardians are. Tomar also set a precedent that stuck around for quite a while in those early years; each new Green Lantern we met would have a very human body with an interchangeable alien head. as though the Corp was being populated with action figure variants.
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Tomar continued to appear as one of the most recognizable alien Lanterns whenever the Corp was depicted. He also appeared in a back-up story in Superman #257 in 1971 that revealed that he was the Green Lantern in Krypton's sector, and that he worked tirelessly to try to prevent the planet's destruction. Even with a whole galaxy of more-and-more alien Green Lanterns, Tomar stood out as one of Hal's closest friends among the Corp. When Tales of the Green Lantern Corps introduced the idea that there were Green Lantern Honor Guards, Lanterns with higher rank who spoke for the Corps, the fact that one of them was Tomar was clearly meant to reassure us that at least HE could be trusted. Perhaps most famously, It's Tomar Re that is featured in everyone's favorite Green Lantern story, Alan Moore's "Mogo Doesn't Socialize" telling young Lantern Arisia about one of the most mysterious members of the Corp.
The Green Lantern Corps underwent a massive shake-up in the mid eighties as they dealt with the fallout of the Crisis of Infinite Earths. Tomar was one of many Lanterns who died during those stories, although in the long run his death was probably the most sharply felt, as he really did have a lasting legacy. When Hal Jordan started assembling a new Green Lantern Corp in the pages of Green Lantern vol 3, one of his earliest recruits was Tomar Tu, the son of Tomar Re, who continues to appear in depictions of the Corp to this day. |
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Our Tomar-Re StoryYou absolutely can't do the story of the Green Lanterns without Tomar Re. in addition to being the very first alien Lantern, a concept that has driven the entire aesthetic of the Green Lanterns for their entire existence, he also basically served as the face of the Corp; whenever Hal interacted with the Corp as a whole, you could count on Tomar being front and center giving them a voice.
We've drawn from a few places to build our version of Tomar; the short animated story of Killowog's first training mission in the movie Green Lantern: Emerald Knight suggested that he and Tomar were recruits together, which we really like. We absolutely included his great loss when he failed to save Krypton, and also made sure to show that he was part of the Honor Guard. We changed his background a little bit, making him a former fighter pilot rather than a scientist. His main utility to the larger story is as Hal's friend, and giving them one more thing to share makes that friendship stronger. We're also getting a little creative with his death, since we're not doing the Crisis. His role as a friend of Arisia is absolutely cannon, and making him sacrifice himself to save her really feels like a fitting end for the character most responsible for welcoming Hal to the Corp. |
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