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The Green Lantern Corps was a fictional, intergalactic police force of Green Lanterns that existed in the pages of DC Comics, chosen to patrol the vast reaches of the Universe, fighting evil whever it could be found. It was founded by the Guardians of the Universe in the early stages of their existence, and it lasted for over three billion years before finally meeting its end at the hands of one of its own.
In the early days of the Universe, natives of the overpopulated planet Maltus (sometimes spelled Malthus) evolved into immortals of great power. They subsequently settled the planet Oa and declared themselves the Guardians of the Universe and enemies of evil after one of their own, the renegade scientist Krona, performed a forbidden experiment that had terrible consequences for the Universe at large.
Exactly what those consequences were have varied with different versions of the stories; originally, it was supposed to have unleashed Evil in the first place. Later, it was attributed to have created the Antimatter Universe of Qward. Later still, it was used as the explanation for the existence of parallel universes in the DC Universe (and the creation of the Monitor, which eventually led to the rearrangement of Time itself, as seen in the Crisis on Infinite Earths. Finally, it has been stated that it accelerated entropy, shortening the duration of the universe by a billion years.
Some of the Guardians, however, disagreed on how to deal with the chaos that had been unleashed. One group, calling itself the Controllers, separated itself from the others and favored using more violent methods to achieve their ends (a later interpretation says they left over a disagreement on how to use the ManhunterManhunter may refer to: Manhunter an individual who hunts human beings for sport or profit. Manhunter any of a number of comic book superheroes and villains published by DC Comics. Manhunter a 1986 film based on the novel Red Dragon by Thomas Harris.s - see below). They would later found the Darkstars organization. The female Oans, feeling no need to involve themselves in the situation, also left, becoming later known as the ZamaronsThe Zamarons are a fictional extraterrestrial race within the DC Comics universe. Originally, they were the female members of the race called Malthusians or Oans. When the renegade scientist Krona performed a forbidden experiment that had terrible effects.
To enforce their will and guard against alienFor the 1979 movie, see Alien (movie). For live organisms which are not from Earth, see Extraterrestrial life Aliens are foreigners to their surroundings. The word is commonly used in law to denote non- citizens of the country of their whereabouts, and in menaces of all sorts, the Guardians had created a legion of robotic sentinels called the ManhuntersThe Manhunters are a fictional 'race' of robot warriors that exists within the universe of DC Comics. They are humanoid in form and usually red and blue in color. The Manhunters were created by the Guardians of the Universe to help them combat evil all ov. However, the Manhunters eventually came to resent their servitude. They rebelled against the Guardians, eventually breaking away and forming their own robotic society where they pursued their own agenda (which often included interfering with, and foiling the plans of, the Guardians).
Chastened by the failure of the Manhunters, the Guardians decided that their newest force of soldiers for good would consist of living beings, ones who had free will and strong moral character. To arm this new legion of celestial knights, the Guardians created the Power Rings, rings of inconceivably-advanced technology that allowed their wearers to project green beams of energy that had the power to do literally anything, provided the one wielding the ring had the force of will to achieve his goals. The Power Rings were invincible against anything except objects of the color yellow. The Guardians often stated that the Rings' weakness against yellow objects was due to a "necessary yellow impurity" that allowed them to process the green energy, though scholars (and comic bookA comic book (sometimes called funnies or funny paper is a book or magazine and more recently a graphic novel in the artistic medium known as comics. American comic books have become closely associated with the superhero genre, but the subject matter of c fans) often speculated that the "impurity" was actually designed as a mental safeguard, to prevent any member of the Green Lantern Corps from thinking himself or herself (or itself) invincible and above the rule of law.