DC Question

[AvatarVecna]

I'm less than familiar with all the lore regarding the DC universe, so I thought I'd ask here: I know that the various DC comics weren't originally written with "be in the same universe" in mind, but they eventually joined universes, so it brings up some interesting questions. An obvious one is "how does Batman stay relevant standing next to Superman, Wonder Woman, and the Flash?", which has since been answered with "he's a lot more capable now than he was", which is an acceptable answer given the universe they're in. A more puzzling question, a question for which no obvious answer has made itself apparent to me, is how the reconcile Superman's origin with the existence of the Green Lantern organization.

To the best of my knowledge, the GLs are some measure of an interplanetary/intergalactic police force of some kind, with a GL for each planet (although not necessarily originating from that planet themselves). GLs can get involved with stuff going on with planets that aren't their "assigned" planet, particularly if it's a more cosmic kind of threat. So...did somebody in the GL organization screw something up when a Kryptonian was allowed to grow up under a yellow sun after his home planet blew up? I mean, I can understand that the Earth GL has had some problems (my recollection is that the human GL got his powers when Earth's old GL bit the bullet in front of him), and so can't really necessarily blamed for not keeping the Kryptonian baby separate from humanity somehow, but you'd think "the last Son of Krypton" growing up under a yellow sun is the kind of power the GLs have a responsibility to not allow to grow up without guaranteeing the child develops a strong moral compass. Hell, if there was a GL for Krypton, where were they, why didn't they come after Superman to keep him separate from humans, or at least watch over him or something? I can understand the possibly Krypton GL not being able to stop the apocalypse, but at the very least you'd think they would protect the last survivor, right?

I can see several possible explanations that make this make more sense and the GLs not irresponsible in regards to this, but it's bugged me for long enough that I'd like to find out which possible explanation is the actual explanation.

[JCarter426]

They actually addressed this back in the 70s (http://dc.wikia.com/wiki/Superman_Vol_1_257).

In the New 52 universe, Krypton was destroyed by a being from the Fifth Dimension trying to assassinate Superman, so that addresses the other issue. Guy had a being more powerful than a god after him.

[ChaosPerfected]

There isn't a Green Lantern per planet, there's a Green Lantern per quadrant of space.

[Traab]

Im no expert, but my head cannon was, braniac had the council fooled into thinking the planet was fine, the council was pretty hard headed. I would imagine they told the green lanterns to talk a long walk off a short pier and stop interfering in their business, they have everything under control. Then boom, and a single escape pod ship doesnt really register when an entire planet has exploded. By the time anyone COULD have known there was a kryptonian on earth, superman was already established and an adult.

As for the batman thing, meh. Its still stupid in the extreme. I liked him as the money man, the detective, etc. His job shouldnt be to punch darkseid in the groin, it should be to figure out darkseids groin is his weak point and tell superman to punch him there. He is there to be a relatively level head, the thinker and planner of the league. But thats just how I think he should be, not how he actually is.

[Foeofthelance]

The thing to remember is that the only people who seriously consider the Green Lantern Corps to be the space police are the Green Lanterns themselves and anyone who wants to ask them for help. There are only so many members, and maybe half of them are spending all their time on Oa doing the equivalent of Green Lantern paperwork and training. The rest tend to hang out around their home planets or around a particularly troublesome spot to try to keep some sense of order while waiting for news of whatever impending cosmic disaster needs the Corps to rally. Most species either don't know or don't care about the Lantern's existence, and by the time they get to the level where they're running into the Lanterns on a regular basis they typically have the power to resolve most issues themselves.

So assuming the local Lantern even was paying enough attention to Krypton's geology (doubtful) there's a good chance that they would have assumed that the Kryptonians were more than capable of handling it or at least evacuating themselves. The fact that the Kryptonians had their collective heads stuffed where the sun don't shine means none of them were looking to ask the local lantern for help, and even if they did want assistance, it would have made more sense to go ask people with actual ships rather than someone with a piece of fancy jewelry.

As for stopping Clark from being raised on Earth, why? There's nothing in the rules that says aliens can't live on other planets, and while Superman is stupidly powerful by most measures, he's typically not a threat to anything. Even if he were to take over the planet, well, them's the breaks. The Lanterns likely wouldn't see it as any much different from any other local warlord taking over.

[dps]

So assuming the local Lantern even was paying enough attention to Krypton's geology (doubtful) there's a good chance that they would have assumed that the Kryptonians were more than capable of handling it or at least evacuating themselves.


Which, indeed, would have been a correct assumption if the Kryptonians had listened to the warnings about what was going to happen.

[HardcoreD&Dgirl]

Tomor ray was busy... he was the GL assigned to krypton's sector... back then there was 1 per secotr, now we have 2 per (except earths) and a few extra jobs (training, honor guard) but yea krypton thing was totally explained before I was born.

[Darth Credence]

As for the batman thing, meh. Its still stupid in the extreme. I liked him as the money man, the detective, etc. His job shouldnt be to punch darkseid in the groin, it should be to figure out darkseids groin is his weak point and tell superman to punch him there. He is there to be a relatively level head, the thinker and planner of the league. But thats just how I think he should be, not how he actually is.

I'm completely with you on this. I really wish they would shift Bats back to more of a detective, and I think it would work today. The better superhero movies are becoming hybrids - GotG was a sci-fi movie, Winter Soldier was an espionage movie, etc... - and a mystery thriller would work really well for a Batman flick. His villains work better for that, too. A movie like Seven, for example, with Batman chasing down whichever villain is appropriate (Riddler seems easiest, but there are other choices) would be a great movie. It would also help out the new JL movie, IMO, because it would take Batman out of the fights and give him a bit of control about what Superman does, which would make both of them more comfortable working with the other one. batman could still go after street thugs, because they are too low powered for Supes or WW to take down without worrying about too much power.

Anyway, back to the original topic. Most things have been covered, but I would expand a touch. There were 3600 sectors in the galaxy, and 100 billion stars, which means each GL would cover close to 28 million star systems. Not all have planets, but we are discovering that a whole lot of them do. The GLs focused on planets that were part of a galactic community, so until Hal got a ring, they didn't even do anything with Earth. Clark was a grown man by the time that happened. Basically if the GL isn't from your planet and you don't ask for their help, they really are not going to do anything for you. Earth is just lucky that it seems that humans apparently make the best GLs, so we have so many of them and they hang around Earth a lot.

One final thing - the Earth is specifically the focal spot of the the multiverse in the DC universe. While Oa is the center of the universe (or galaxy, depending on who is writing), Earth is the center of the multiverse and the spot where the alternate universes spin out from. How this practically affects the question is that as the center of the multiverse, everything else is pulled in the direction necessary for Earth to be close to the 'correct' version. Krypton is going to blow up (or at least come really close) because there has to be a Superman. I think of it like entropy - everything in the multiverse flows towards maximum agreement with the main reality. (I think we are the main reality and every other universe is trending towards us and the comic books we have - Multiversity can be read this way.) Having a Superman is one of the defining things that everything else moves towards. It would take a massive amount of energy to prevent that.

[Zevox]

There isn't a Green Lantern per planet, there's a Green Lantern per quadrant of space.

The thing to remember is that the only people who seriously consider the Green Lantern Corps to be the space police are the Green Lanterns themselves and anyone who wants to ask them for help. There are only so many members, and maybe half of them are spending all their time on Oa doing the equivalent of Green Lantern paperwork and training. The rest tend to hang out around their home planets or around a particularly troublesome spot to try to keep some sense of order while waiting for news of whatever impending cosmic disaster needs the Corps to rally. Most species either don't know or don't care about the Lantern's existence, and by the time they get to the level where they're running into the Lanterns on a regular basis they typically have the power to resolve most issues themselves.

So assuming the local Lantern even was paying enough attention to Krypton's geology (doubtful) there's a good chance that they would have assumed that the Kryptonians were more than capable of handling it or at least evacuating themselves. The fact that the Kryptonians had their collective heads stuffed where the sun don't shine means none of them were looking to ask the local lantern for help, and even if they did want assistance, it would have made more sense to go ask people with actual ships rather than someone with a piece of fancy jewelry.

As for stopping Clark from being raised on Earth, why? There's nothing in the rules that says aliens can't live on other planets, and while Superman is stupidly powerful by most measures, he's typically not a threat to anything. Even if he were to take over the planet, well, them's the breaks. The Lanterns likely wouldn't see it as any much different from any other local warlord taking over.
I was going to answer, but these pretty much cover it. The misconception that there's one GL per planet is a big one that's leading to the confusion here: there's nowhere near that many and each GL has a lot of space to cover, so they simply can't get everything, even during periods when they're not busy fighting threats that require more than just the two of them that each sector normally has.

And yeah, there's really no reason they would be bothered by a Kryptonian being raised on earth. A kryptonian near a yellow star may be strong, but there's plenty of strong aliens in the universe, one more won't make a big difference as far as they're concerned. And the Green Lanterns as an organization aren't really in the business of providing kids with moral guidance - they're self-styled space cops, not a religion. And that's assuming they even noticed it before whenever the first time Hal Jordan and Superman crossed paths was, which they very well may not have.