Parallax (character)

Parallax
Parallax as depicted in Sinestro #13 (July 2015) Art by Andrew Hennessy.
Publication information
Publisher	DC Comics
First appearance	Green Lantern (vol. 3) #50 (March 1994)
Created by	Original concept: Ron Marz Darryl Banks Parallax creature: Geoff Johns Ethan Van Sciver
In-story information
Species	Embodiment of fear
Team affiliations	Sinestro Corps
Notable aliases	Entity
Abilities	Hal Jordan/Kyle Rayner: Large-scale reality alteration Control over time Parallax creature: Flight Possession Mind-control Fear-induction Solid energy constructs

Parallax is a supervillain appearing in American comic books published by DC Comics, primarily as an enemy of the Green Lantern Corps. It is the embodiment of the emotion of fear, and serves as the power source for the Sinestro Corps.

Publication history

Created by writer Ron Marz and artist Darryl Banks for Green Lantern vol. 3 #48 (January 1994), Parallax was originally devised as the new supervillain identity for then-former Green Lantern protagonist Hal Jordan. After Jordan sacrificed himself to reignite Earth's Sun in the 1996 crossover storyline "The Final Night" and his soul became the newest host of the Spectre, 2004's Green Lantern: Rebirth once again cast Jordan as a heroic Green Lantern and explained Parallax as an ancient entity embodying the yellow light of fear which possessed Jordan and drove him to his villainous actions. Parallax was revealed to have been once imprisoned within the Central Power Battery on the planet Oa, creating the impurity that previously rendered the rings useless against anything colored yellow.

In 2009, Parallax was ranked as IGN's 92nd Greatest Comic Book Villain of All Time.

Fictional character biography

The Hal Jordan incarnation of Parallax as depicted in Green Lantern (vol. 3) #50 (March 1994). Art by Darryl Banks.

In 1994, in an effort to generate interest in its Green Lantern comics, DC replaced Hal Jordan, who had been the primary Green Lantern since the late 1950s, with the character Kyle Rayner, and eliminated the Green Lantern Corps which had served as supporting characters in the series. This was done in the story "Emerald Twilight", beginning in Green Lantern vol. 3 #48 (Jan. 1994). After Mongul destroys his home town Coast City, Hal Jordan descends into madness, destroys the Green Lantern Corps, and becomes the supervillain Parallax. In Zero Hour: Crisis in Time!, Parallax attempts to destroy the universe before being stopped. The universe is then restarted after Damage uses his powers to trigger a second Big Bang.

In The Final Night, Jordan sacrifices himself to reignite Earth's sun and becomes the Spectre. The 2004 miniseries Green Lantern: Rebirth, written by Geoff Johns and penciled by Ethan Van Sciver, reveals that Parallax is an ancient embodiment of fear who possessed Jordan during Emerald Twilight.

Sinestro Corps

The Kyle Rayner incarnation of Parallax as depicted in Green Lantern: Sinestro Corps Special (August 2007). Art by Ethan Van Sciver.

In Sinestro Corps War, the Sinestro Corps capture Kyle Rayner, remove the Ion entity from him, and temporarily force him to become Parallax's host. After separating from Rayner, Parallax absorbs Jordan before being defeated.

Blackest Night

In Blackest Night, Hal Jordan battles the Spectre, who has been transformed into a Black Lantern. He summons Parallax to boost his power, but is defeated and separated from it.

After Sinestro becomes a White Lantern, he views the history of the emotional spectrum and learns that Parallax was originally an insect before being transformed after becoming the first creature in existence to feel fear.

Brightest Day

The Barry Allen incarnation of Parallax as depicted in Green Lantern (vol. 4) #59 (November 2010). Art by Doug Mahnke.

In Brightest Day, Parallax is revealed to have been transported to the planet Ryut, where Krona imprisons it in an energy bubble. Parallax later escapes and possesses the Flash (Barry Allen) before the compassion entity Proselyte frees him. However, Krona captures Parallax and the other emotional entities.

War of the Green Lanterns

When Krona attacks Oa, he places Parallax inside the Central Power Battery, restoring the yellow impurity and giving him control over almost all Green Lanterns. Hal, John, Guy, Kyle and Kilowog resist Parallax's influence due to their past experience with it, but Kilowog is captured while the other four escape by removing their rings. With no other weapons available, the four Earth Lanterns use the rings of the other Corps to fight off Krona's forces, culminating in Guy using the rings of the Red Lantern Corps and the Star Sapphires simultaneously to remove Parallax from the battery. After Krona's defeat, Parallax escapes with the other entities and is left at large.

The New 52

In The New 52 continuity reboot, Sinestro frees Parallax from the Yellow Lantern power battery and allows it to possess him while maintaining control of his body. In the "Lights Out" story arc, the emotional entities return to the Source to restore the emotional spectrum, with Parallax not doing so due to possessing Sinestro.

DC Rebirth

In the DC Rebirth relaunch, Parallax is separated from Sinestro and seemingly killed. It survives, but is greatly weakened and begins kidnapping children to sustain itself. Later, Parallax possesses Reverse-Flash to attack the Green Lantern Corps.

Powers and abilities

Parallax upon absorbing both Rayner and Jordan, revealing its true color. Art by Ivan Reis.

Parallax has immense fear-casting and mind-control powers, strong enough to easily frighten and control the likes of Superman, Wonder Woman, and even a being like the Spectre, except those who are capable of facing powerful fear such as Hal Jordan, Kyle Rayner or Batman. However, it was unable to control Alan Scott, even though he experienced fear from Parallax (Abin Sur explains that in humans fear is intellectual, which may have something to do with the ineffectuality of Parallax's powers and the fear entity itself mentioned that Alan's power differs from the fear entity, the Guardians, and the Green Lantern Corps, as they derive their powers from the emotional spectrum), although he did experience a fever which led him to increasingly weaken during Parallax's attempts that almost kill him. It can take possession of someone's body when they feel even the slightest fear. Parallax is also capable of creating solid light constructs, such as creating a convincing duplicate of Sinestro for Hal Jordan to kill. Parallax can create both green and yellow objects or creatures. As a being of pure energy, Parallax has no true physical form of its own; it generally changes into forms that will instill fear in its victims.

Other versions

• An alternate timeline variant of Parallax who possessed Tomar-Re appears in Booster Gold (vol. 2) #2.
• The Hal Jordan incarnation of Parallax makes a cameo appearance in JLA/Avengers.
• The Hal Jordan incarnation of Parallax appears in Convergence.

In other media

Film

Parallax as it appears in Green Lantern.

• Parallax appears in Green Lantern, voiced by Clancy Brown and motion-captured by an uncredited T. J. Storm. This version feeds on life forces via organisms' fear and was created when Krona was corrupted by the yellow energy of fear after failing to control it. Abin Sur imprisoned the entity on the remote planet Ryut, but it later escapes and seeks revenge on the Green Lantern Corps, absorbing fear and life forces from multiple inhabited planets to strengthen itself and killing Abin in the process. After the Department of Extranormal Operations (DEO) recover Abin's body, they task Hector Hammond with performing the autopsy, during which he is infected with Parallax's DNA. It uses him in an attempt to kill Hal Jordan until he lures it away from Earth, where it is absorbed into the sun.
• Parallax appears in Green Lantern: Beware My Power, voiced by Nolan North. This version is an alien parasite created by Sinestro to infect Hal Jordan. It attempts to use his body to obtain godhood until being killed by Green Arrow.

Video games

• Parallax appears as a character summon in Scribblenauts Unmasked: A DC Comics Adventure.
• Parallax appears as a boss in DC Universe Online.

Miscellaneous

Parallax appears in Smallville: Lantern. After corrupting Hal Jordan, Parallax goes on to kill Kyle Rayner and Guy Gardner, reprogram the Manhunters to serve it, and send Yellow Lantern rings to Earth to combat the Green Lantern Corps.

External links

• Parallax entity at the Comic Book DB (archived from the original)
• Alan Kistler's profile on Green Lantern
• The Origin of Parallax at DC Comics.com Archived 2008-08-09 at the Wayback Machine