Green Lantern/Characters/Sinestro Corps

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""The only thing to fear... is a giant yellow space bug that might turn you into a mass-murdering psychopath.""

- Linkara, Top 15 Worst Heroes Becoming Villains

"Emotion: Fear

Leader: Thaal Sinestro

Base of Operations: Korugar (formerly Qward)

Entity: Parallax"

"''In blackest day, in brightest night,

Beware your fears made into light

Let those who try to stop what's right

Burn like his power --Sinestro's might!''"

The Sinestro Corps are fueled by fear the way Green Lantern rings are fueled by willpower and their powers are very similar, including flight, constructs and communication. Whereas the Green Lanterns seek to bring order to the universe by promoting justice, the Sinestro Corps want to rule the universe through fear.

Since Sinestro was drafted back into the Green Lanterns, his corps have gone rogue without his rule to keep them in line. When Sinestro discovered that they had taken over his home planet of Korugar, he forcibly disbanded them, and most of the Corps were captured or killed in the aftermath.


 * Ax Crazy: Well over half the team is comprised of violent, unstable psychopaths.
 * The Dreaded: To be part of the Sinestro Corps, you need to be able to inspire great fear.
 * Egocentric Team Naming: They could have been called the Yellow Lantern Corps, but it was named the Sinestro Corps instead.
 * Galactic Conquerors
 * Green Lantern Ring: Yellow power rings work pretty much exactly like their green counterparts, with the addition of being able to sense their opponents' fears and project them as energy constructs.
 * I Know What You Fear: Sinestro rings can materialize a victim's fears out of energy.
 * Psycho Rangers
 * Shout Out: You can find a Xenomorph and a Predator and many others in group shots.
 * And fitting, to boot: where else would horror movie monsters find a home than the Corps of Fear?

Thaal Sinestro
"Homeworld: Korugar"

Sinestro was a former Green Lantern who carried out his oath through the use of tyranny. When exposed, Sinestro was brought in by Hal and imprisoned in the Battery. There, he made contact with Parallax, a living yellow parasitic embodiment of fear. Years later, after his plot against Hal Jordan had run its course, he retreated to the Anti-Matter universe and built a Yellow Power Battery, making him the first to harness one of the new colors to form a Corps.


 * Arch Enemy: To all Green Lanterns, but Hal Jordan in particular.
 * Big Bad: For most of the series existence.
 * Celebrity Resemblance: His original looks were based on David Niven. Some fanon said, however that he was an Expy of Gamal Abdel Nasser.
 * Dastardly Whiplash: At least in appearance.
 * From Nobody to Nightmare: As a young man on Korugar, Sinestro was a simple student of archaeology. Years later, he became a despotic tyrant feared across the stars.
 * Moral Event Horizon: The genocide of Kilowog's race.
 * The Paragon Always Rebels
 * Scary Dogmatic Aliens: If Adolf Hitler had more foresight--and a power ring, and magenta skin--he'd be Sinestro.
 * Well Intentioned Extremist: depending on the incarnation, but the comic usually portrays Sinestro as this.

Arkillo
"Homeworld: Vorn"

Sinestro's right-hand man and most loyal supporter. Arkillo was the first being Sinestro chose to join the Sinestro Corps, and he quickly proved his worth as a leader and taskmaster. The hulking, ogre-like alien is the Corps' main drill sergeant and overseer of the ring forges. After the Sinestro Corps War, when Sinestro was imprisoned on Oa, Arkillo led the faction that remained loyal to him; he challenged the usurper, Mongul, for control of the Corps, but lost and had his tongue ripped out as punishment. Following Sinestro's return, Arkillo resumed his old duties.

Arkillo was off with the New Guardians when the Corps went rogue and Sinestro disbanded them, and was incredibly angered at Sinestro's apparent betrayal. The Weaponer provided him with a new (albeit likely flawed) battery, and Arkillo now serves no one but himself and the Yellow Light.


 * Ax Crazy: When you piss him off.
 * Badass: Sure, he lost to Mongul II in the end, but the fact that he was able to hold his own against him is pretty impressive. So is repeatedly being able to go toe-to-toe with Kilowog.
 * Oh, he's upped the ante even further. When the New Guardians encounter Invictus, a terrifyingly powerful archangel, what does Arkillo do? He charges right at him and decks him. Oh, and keep in mind that Invictus was otherwise curbstomping the rest of the New Guardians. And yet, in spite of all that, Arkillo is STILL going toe-to-toe with him. If this doesn't cement him as one, I don't know what does.
 * Berserk Button: If you either mention Mongu-er, the M-word around him or ask about his necklace, he'll kill you on the spot. No questions asked.
 * Deadpan Snarker: For a being who's generally a violent brute, sarcasm is surprisingly common from him.
 * The Dragon: Sinestro's right-hand man.
 * Drill Sergeant Nasty: If you fail his tasks in any way, shape, or form, he'll devour you then and there.
 * Evil Counterpart: To Kilowog, the Green Lanterns' drill instructor and fellow hulking alien. They dueled twice in the Sinestro Corps War.
 * Flying Brick
 * I'm a Humanitarian: Fail his tasks and he'll devour you on the spot.
 * Jerkass: He's a complete asshole to pretty much everyone in the Corps save Sinestro and Lyssa Drak.
 * Lightning Bruiser
 * Memetic Badass: Considered this in-universe by his men, who simultaneously fear and revere him.
 * The Speechless: After his run-in with Mongul. Saint Walker eventually healed him.
 * Super Strength: Even without his ring.

Bedovian
"Homeworld: Unknown"

A mysterious being resembling a hermit crab, Bedovian usually drifts through space, emerging from his shell only to feed. He was recruited by the Sinestro Corps, as their sniper. It was noted by Lyssa Drak that unlike the others, he did not have to train to conquer his own fears, as the centuries of isolation within his shell had numbed him to all emotion.

He was defeated in battle by John Stewart, who managed to figure out where he was and snipe him back. He survived, and in the Blackest Night, his greatest contribution to the war was to shoot the zombie Anti-Monitor in the head and destroy him.


 * Cold Sniper: Can snipe people from three space sectors away. He's also stoic and humorless to an extreme degree.
 * Eldritch Abomination: Considered something pretty close to it in-universe.
 * Improbable Aiming Skills
 * Really Seven Hundred Years Old: It's been stated that he can go 600 years between meals.
 * Bizarre Alien Biology: He won't go hungry for a while.

Despotellis
"Homeworld: Unknown"

A sentient virus recruited into the Sinestro Corps. Even before joining the Sinestro Corps, Despotellis was a genocidal maniac, having killed over three-fourths of the beings in Space Sector 119. Sinestro used Despotellis to murder Maura Rayner, using her death to break her son Kyle's will to make him susceptible to possession by Parallax. During the Sinestro Corps War, Despotellis infected Guy Gardner, but it was defeated by his counterpart in the Green Lantern Corps, the sentient smallpox virus Leezle Pon, whose partner Despotellis had killed. Despotellis is currently in custody on Oa.


 * Arch Enemy: To Leezle Pon.
 * Evil Counterpart: To Leezle Pon.
 * The Virus

Karu-Sil
"Homeworld: Graxos III"

Born on a harsh jungle world, Karu-Sil was orphaned by a rival tribe. She was soon taken in by a small pack of predators, eventually thinking of herself as one of them and mutilating her mouth to look more like them. Eventually, a Green Lantern found her and killed her "fathers", thinking they were threatening her, and she was institutionalized until her yellow ring found her. She's now constantly accompanied by yellow constructs in the form of her pack.


 * Butter Face: Gave herself a mouth like Mortal Kombat's Mileena.
 * Death World: Her homeworld.
 * Morality Pet: She has three of them in the forms of her three dead adoptive fathers that are resurrected during Blackest Night.
 * Punny Name / Meaningful Name: A play on the word "carousel," as her three animal constructs circle around her like a demonic merry-go-round.
 * Raised By Wolves / Wild Child
 * Stringy Haired Ghost Girl: Sometimes depicted like one.

Kryb
Kryb kills parents she views as unworthy and takes their baby children as her own, keeping them in the cage growing out of her back. Since joining the Sinestro Corps, she has begun targeting the children of Green Lanterns.


 * Abusive Parents: Ironically averted, but she's certainly abusive to the parents.
 * Adult Fear: She's a monster right out of Grimm's fairy tales.
 * Body Horror: The "cage" on her back isn't just an inverted ribcage. It has nipples for her stolen children to suckle.
 * Invasion of the Baby Snatchers
 * Morality Pet: The kids she steals. She was not happy when they were missing.
 * Punny Name / Meaningful Name: She's a crib.
 * Stringy Haired Ghost Girl: Has the hair for it, at least.

Lyssa Drak
"Homeworld: Talok VII"

The Keeper of The Book of Parallax, she records the history of the Sinestro Corps in its pages. Her past is unknown, but she is incredibly loyal to Sinestro and her leader obviously trusts her with their group's greatest secrets. She also supervises the final test for membership: a potential recruit is locked in a Fear Lodge, a sealed box of absolute darkness, with an uncharged power ring. If they can overcome and master their own fears, they can ignite their ring and escape. Failure means death from thirst, starvation, suffocation, or suicide. She noted with interest the example of Bedovian mentioned above, and she unexpectedly gave Amon Sur a bit of encouragement by reading to him the tales of the others before him.

She was arrested and imprisoned on Oa, but broke free from her cell during a prison riot. While searching for her book, she found the mysterious Book of the Black, only for the Guardian known as Scar to trap her within it. During Brightest Day,  freed her and recruited her for his plans.


 * Absolute Cleavage
 * And I Must Scream: When she was trapped in The Book of the Black.
 * Badass Bookworm
 * Badass Cape
 * Blue Skinned Space Babe
 * Chained By Fashion: The Book of Parallax is kept chained to her wrist.
 * Does Not Like Shoes: Though originally shown in a pair of evil go-go boots, her every appearance since has been barefoot.
 * Hot Librarian
 * Humanoid Abomination: If she wasn't one before, she's definitely one in Brightest Day.
 * Long Lost Relative: Her surname implies she's a distant relation to Shadow Lass of the Legion of Super Heroes.
 * Pointy Ears
 * Stripperific
 * Tome of Eldritch Lore: The Book of Parallax holds the life story of every member of the Sinestro Corps, and every atrocity they have done in the name of fear.
 * Thong of Shielding
 * Thong of Shielding

Parallax
"Homeworld: Qward (originally Earth)"

The Fear Entity--the embodiment of the Yellow Light, given life and strength from the fear of every sentient being. It was born when early life experienced fear for the first time. The Guardians bound it on Maltus eons ago, until it was released by Larfleeze. Eventually, the Guardians ended Parallax's reign of terror by trapping it in the Central Power Battery on Oa, where it stayed for countless ages until everyone, even the Guardians themselves, forgot about its existence. Parallax was the Yellow Impurity that prevented Green Lantern rings from affecting the color yellow.

Like Ion, Parallax can possess a living host, but it either dominates them completely or subtly manipulates their actions. Hal Jordan was its best-known host, through whom Parallax destroyed the Green Lantern Corps and nearly remade the entire universe. During the Sinestro Corps War, Parallax possessed Kyle Rayner for a brief time.


 * Arch Enemy: The Spectre.
 * Ax Crazy
 * Demonic Possession
 * The Dragon: To Sinestro in Sinestro Corps War and  in Brightest Day.
 * Eldritch Abomination: It looks like a cross between a giant dragonfly and a serpent.
 * Emotion Eater: Comes with being the embodiment of fear.
 * Energy Being
 * Evil Counterpart: To Ion.
 * Eviler Than Thou: It makes itself clear that while it may be a member of the Sinestro Corps, it owes them no loyalty and they will die if they get in its way.
 * From Nobody to Nightmare: Parallax used to be nothing more than an ordinary little bug... before he became the first being to experience fear.
 * The Heartless: Embodiment of all fear.
 * Sealed Evil in A Can: First it was in a box that was stolen from Maltus by Larfleeze and his crew, then imprisoned within the Green Central Power Battery, and then a Sciencell, and finally got ripped apart and stashed in four separate batteries.
 * The Only One Allowed to Defeat You: It saved The Spectre from the Black Lanterns just so they could have a proper rematch.

Ranx the Sentient City
"Homeworld: Ranx"

One of the most powerful of the Sinestro Corps, Ranx is an interstellar city the size of a moon. Its origins are unknown, but it is said to be as old as the stars. The circuitry running through it allows it to be aware of every activity on its surface, and it can manipulate its own landscape and gravity, similar to Mogo. Ranx's only inhabitants were criminals and drifters, but it developed a grudge against the Green Lanterns for attacking it and taking them away. The other Sinestro Corps members used Ranx as a base and training ground, similar to Mogo and the Green Lanterns.

An ancient prophecy decreed that Ranx would destroy Mogo, but Sodam Yat defeated it and blew it up. Ranx has survived shutdowns and destruction before, and it may rise again.


 * Arch Enemy: Mogo.
 * Evil Counterpart: To Mogo.
 * Genius Loci
 * Malevolent Architecture
 * Shout Out: To the Death Star.
 * That's No Moon

Other Sinestro Corps Members

 * Amon Sur
 * Dirty Coward
 * Green Eyed Monster: He hates Hal Jordan because he thought he should have his father's ring.
 * Jonathan Crane
 * Romat-Ru
 * Ax Crazy
 * Evil Counterpart: To Tomar-Tu
 * Serial Killer
 * The Weaponer
 * Genius Bruiser
 * Screw This I'm Outta Here: When the Corps broke up, he ditched his ring to avoid vengeful mobs. He can always make another, but probably isn't in a hurry to align with a group of ringslingers again.