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.[1] After further changes for the Hal Jordan character over the subsequent years (sacrificing his life in order to reignite Earth's Sun in the 1996 crossover storyline "The Final Night", and Jordan's soul subsequently becoming the newest host of the Spectre in the 1999 miniseries Day of Judgment), 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, from which all Green Lanterns derive their power, and was the reason for the necessary impurity that in the past rendered the rings useless against anything colored yellow.
In 2009, Parallax was ranked as IGN's 92nd Greatest Comic Book Villain of All Time.[2]
Fictional character biography
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/9/98/Parallax_%28Hal_Jordan%29.png/220px-Parallax_%28Hal_Jordan%29.png)
Art by Darryl Banks
In 1994, in an effort to generate interest in its
Hal eventually sacrificed his life to reignite Earth's sun after it was nearly completely eaten. His soul not at peace, Hal then became the new Spectre to seek redemption for what he did as Parallax. The 2004 miniseries Green Lantern: Rebirth, written by Geoff Johns and penciled by Ethan Van Sciver, revealed that Parallax was actually the sentient embodiment of the emotion fear from the Emotional Electromagnetic Spectrum, one of The Seven Forces of the Universe, dating back to the dawn of time. Traveling from world to world, the parasite caused entire civilizations to destroy themselves out of paranoia.
The Guardians of the Universe imprisoned Parallax within the Central Power Battery on
Since Sinestro harbored hatred for Hal, Parallax chose Jordan as its tool to free itself. Parallax apparently spent years influencing Jordan, causing him to experience increasing self-doubt as well as causing his hair to prematurely whiten at the temples. Jordan's grief over the destruction of Coast City let Parallax influence Jordan's subsequent murderous activity, his apparent killing of Sinestro (actually a hard light construct), and Jordan's destruction of the Central Power Battery.
After it was learned something amiss was happening on Oa, a task force (as shown in the Emerald Fallout series), which consisted of
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/e/ea/Parallax_rebirth.jpg/170px-Parallax_rebirth.jpg)
Since Parallax was gone from the Oan Power Battery, the final power ring conferred to
imprisoned the parasite back in the Central Power Battery on Oa.Despite this reintroduction of the "yellow impurity", which is now referred to as the "Parallax Fear Anomaly", the power rings' weakness against yellow no longer applies, as experienced wielders are now able to consciously recognize its source, and overcome the fear associated with it. It is still, however, a considerable weakness for new Green Lantern recruits and rookies, who must be taught the impurity's nature and how to combat it. During training, new recruits' rings may falter at times against yellow objects, and/or when a recruit is experiencing panic or fear.[3]
Sinestro Corps
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/0/0d/Parallax_%28Kyle_Rayner%29.jpg/220px-Parallax_%28Kyle_Rayner%29.jpg)
Later on Earth, Parallax is about to kill Hal's brother and family when Hal confronts him just before his power ring runs out of power. Hal then tries to free Kyle by reminding him of how fearless his mother was even on her deathbed. Parallax then absorbs Hal into himself; this twofold increase of his powers upon combining the strength of both of his hosts turns him his natural yellow color and develop a costume that more closely resembles the one he wore when Jordan was his only host. Soon after, Guy comes to Parallax with Kyle's mother's painting. This, along with Hal's aid, allows Kyle to fight Parallax from within, and the two manage to escape from Parallax. Now in its original form, Parallax begins to attack Hal, Guy, John, and Kyle. Ganthet and Sayd arrive and imprison Parallax within the Earth Lanterns' four Power Batteries.[7] It was never revealed if sealing Parallax within the four Power Batteries had any effect on the batteries or ring-bearers themselves.
It was revealed in the third part of the Agent Orange arc that Parallax was once sealed in a box that Larfleeze had stolen from the Guardians of the Universe. The box was returned to the Guardians in exchange for the orange light of avarice.[8]
Blackest Night
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/c/cc/Parallax%27s_origin.jpg/220px-Parallax%27s_origin.jpg)
While Jordan and his allies defend Coast City against the Black Lantern Corps during the "Blackest Night" storyline, the Black Lantern Spectre attempts to claim him. Believing that the Spectre fears Parallax, Hal Jordan has Ganthet summon the power batteries that currently held it. Once summoned, Hal allows Sinestro to release Parallax and, once it is free, provokes it into merging with him. A resulting explosion of yellow light quickly fades and soon reveals that Parallax is in full control of Hal and eager to challenge the Spectre once more.[9] Parallax tears into the Black Lantern Spectre's body, freeing the real Spectre and destroying the facsimile. Parallax then attempts to destroy the Spectre, who uses his own fear of it, coupled with the love Carol Ferris feels for Hal, to separate Parallax from its host. Parallax is then pulled away by an unknown force to an unknown location.[10]
After Sinestro becomes a White Lantern, he views the history of the emotional spectrum, and discovers that the first creature in existence to feel fear had evolved into Parallax.[11]
Brightest Day
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/e/e0/Parallax_%28Barry_Allen%29.jpg/150px-Parallax_%28Barry_Allen%29.jpg)
During the "
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.
The New 52
In September 2011, The New 52 rebooted DC's continuity. In this new timeline, it is shown that Parallax is in the Yellow Central Power Battery where the entity stays until he is released by Sinestro at the conclusion of the "Wrath of the First Lantern" story. In order to destroy the First Lantern Volthoom, Sinestro allows Parallax to possess his body. Contrary to previous hosts of Parallax, this time, however, Sinestro is in control of the entity instead of the other way around. Their effort in defeating Volthoom, however, proves to be unsuccessful, with Volthoom only being defeated when Hal returns as a Black Lantern and summons Nekron to restore Volthoom's mortality. After Volthoom's defeat, Sinestro as Parallax proceeds to kill the Guardians of the Universe, sparing only Ganthet and Sayd in the process. Sinestro then states his intention to travel far from Oa and release Parallax.[18]
In the "Lights Out" story, the Entity reveals that all embodiments are dying and they must return to the place of their
DC Rebirth
In 2016, DC Comics implemented another relaunch of its books called DC Rebirth, which restored its continuity to a form much as it was prior to The New 52. Parallax is being hosted by Sinestro again as he has plans to rule the universe with fear.[23] The power of Parallax is increased by Sinestro to one thousand percent of the power of fear to face Hal Jordan, who has returned as Green Lantern.[24] Before Sinestro attacks him, he discovers too late that his and Parallax's powers have decreased due to Soranik Natu rescuing people from being imprisoned and escaping with them. Hal then uses his energies as a living construct to incinerate the Fear Warlord. Sinestro tries to use Parallax's powers to stop Hal, but fails as Hal destroys the base of the Sinestro Corps, Warworld, seemingly killing both Sinestro and Parallax in the process.[25]
Parallax is revealed to have survived and found its way to Earth, having shrunk in size. It starts kidnapping children to feed on their fear and regain its strength and power. The entity possesses the body of one of the children, Zachariah Ferruci, and kidnaps another child until they are found by Superman. Parallax uses the children to fight back against Superman and flees. The next day, Parallax welcomes Superman to the place where it is keeping the children. Parallax transforms into his normal size and reveals to Superman who he is. Parallax tries to possess Superman, but Superman is able to force it out. However, Parallax begins draining the children's lives, forcing Superman to submit. Parallax possesses Superman and as it claims that nothing can hurt it anymore, Parallax is struck from behind by Sinestro, who has returned to claim it for himself.[26] During the fight, Parallax refuses to possess Sinestro for this action, so Sinestro teleports to Qward, as the Weaponers are to restrain the entity. While Parallax apparently possesses Superman, he is contained as Sinestro attempts to remove Parallax from Superman; however, Superman tells him that he is not under Parallax's control. Parallax is possessing the Weaponers to attack Sinestro. Parallax separates from the Weaponers and tries to escape. Sinestro fails to capture Parallax and so his power is drained and he collapses; then, Superman takes his yellow ring and files into Parallax's mouth. Superman uses his fear to imprison Parallax within the yellow ring, while Sinestro is no match for Superman and flees.[27]
Later, Superman waits for Hal Jordan to return to Earth, explaining the previous fight with Parallax. Hal imprisons Parallax within a yellow ring for transportation back to Mogo.[28]
Parallax is eventually able to escape its prison and choose as its new host the Reverse-Flash, so it could use his connection of the Speed Force and his willpower to break through the defences of the Green Lantern Corps and shatter their Central Battery.
Powers and abilities
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/1/12/KyleHalParallax.jpg/220px-KyleHalParallax.jpg)
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 understanding and conquering inner fear such as Hal Jordan, Kyle Rayner or Batman.[29] 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[30] 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),[29] although he did experience a fever which led him to increasingly weaken during Parallax's attempts. 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
- In Booster Gold (vol. 2) #2 (2007), one panel shows an alternate timeline where the Sinestro Corps are formed years earlier than they should have been. In this alternate timeline, Tomar-Re is Parallax's host.
- In JLA/Avengers, the Parallax-possessed Hal Jordan makes a brief appearance, flying into a rage after the apparent death of Barry Allen and Clint Barton during the fight with Krona, but the chronal chaos throughout the battlefield quickly replaces him with Kyle Rayner.
- In the Convergence crossover, when the alternate Brainiac miniaturized the universe of Zero Hour, Parallax loses his powers and Hal Jordan returns to his senses. Wanting to atone for the crimes and sins he committed, Hal has himself jailed within the 8th Police Precinct, and is visited regularly by Kyle Rayner. Hal Jordan becomes Parallax again after the dome of Telos releases the city in which Kyle Rayner as the Green Lantern is the only thing standing between Hal Jordan as Parallax and the oncoming doom Parallax plans to unleash upon Electropolis.[31] Parallax confronts Deimos, sick of being trapped on the planet but is attacked by the latter. When Deimos claims that nothing can stop him, Parallax attacks and chastises him for using his powers for his own selfish needs and destroys him. Afterwards, he threatens Telos to return everyone to their respective universes, but all the power Deimos took is suddenly released and will shatter the multiverse.[32] Parallax offers to save them but Telos stops him, refusing to let Parallax cause another Zero Hour-level event. Parallax chooses to go back to the Crisis on Infinite Earths with the pre-Crisis Flash, pre-Crisis Supergirl, and the Pre-Flashpoint Superman and Lois Lane, to help prevent it from collapsing the multiverse, and to also redeem himself for the actions he has committed. Brainiac senses that the group were successful.[33] After preventing the Crisis on Infinite Earths, Parallax (along with the Pre-Flashpoint Superman and Lois Lane) finds himself on the New 52 Prime Earth and witnesses the Justice League's first fight with Darkseid. Parallax considered killing the New 52 Hal Jordan/Green Lantern but decided not to when he realized how happy Carol Ferris was with Hal, and he could not take that away from her. Parallax decided to find Telos and get his help. Parallax finds Telos and rescues him from an Alliance Fleet, destroying them in the process. He reveals that he wants to use the Rosetta Stone of Time that Telos has to create his own Coast City. He offers Telos the location of the latter's family but it is all a ruse and Parallax contains Telos and uses the stone to begin the creation of his Coast City.[34]
- During The New 52, while Hal is acting as a solo agent using an old gauntlet prototype for the rings, he is confronted by a version of himself as Parallax, apparently from the point when he was preparing to restructure time who has been drawn into the future. Proclaiming that he will protect this Coast City to ensure that Hal's 'weakness' will never cause him to fail it again, Parallax-Hal attacks Hal despite his efforts to explain what is actually happening to his 'past' self, but the gauntlet is somehow able to drive Parallax away.[35]
- In the Star Trek/Green Lantern crossover series - where key members of the Green Lantern Corps and other ring-wielders are transferred into the new Star Trek universe after an attack by Nekron - Sinestro makes his way to Oa after uncovering evidence that it exists in his new universe, where he attacks the Central Power Battery and absorbs Parallax into himself.[36]
In other media
Film
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/8/89/Parallax_%28film%29.jpg/300px-Parallax_%28film%29.jpg)
- Parallax appears in T. J. Storm albeit uncredited. 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, task Hector Hammond with performing the autopsy, and Hammond is infected with Parallax's DNA, it uses him in an attempt to kill Hal Jordan. However, Hammond fails and Parallax kills him upon reaching Earth and goes on a rampage until Jordan lures it away from Earth, tricking it into being absorbed by 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. Initially meant to bend Jordan to Sinestro's will, Parallax instead twisted his mind and empowered him while Sinestro submitted to it and became its acolyte. Parallax intends to use Jordan's body to obtain godhood, but the latter is killed by Green Arrow.
Video games
Parallax appears as a boss in
Miscellaneous
Parallax appears in
References
- ISBN 978-1-4654-5357-0.
- ^ "Parallax is number 92". IGN. Archived from the original on 2009-05-08. Retrieved 2023-05-19.
- ^ Green Lantern Corps: Recharge #4 (December 2005). DC Comics.
- ^ Green Lantern: Sinestro Corps Special #1 (August 2007). DC Comics.
- ^ Green Lantern (vol. 4) #21 (September 2007). DC Comics.
- ^ Tales of the Sinestro Corps Presents: Parallax (November 2007). DC Comics.
- ^ Green Lantern (vol. 4) #24 (December 2007). DC Comics.
- ^ Green Lantern Vol. 4 #41 (2009). DC Comics.
- ^ Green Lantern (vol. 4) #50 (March 2010). DC Comics.
- ^ Green Lantern (vol. 4) #51 (April 2010). DC Comics.
- ^ Green Lantern (vol. 4) #52 (May 2010). DC Comics.
- ^ Green Lantern (vol. 4) #53 (June 2010). DC Comics.
- ^ Green Lantern (vol. 4) #59 (November 2010). DC Comics.
- ^ Green Lantern (vol. 4) #60 (December 2010). DC Comics.
- ^ Green Lantern (vol. 4) #64 (May 2011). DC Comics.
- ^ Green Lantern: Emerald Warriors #10 (May 2011). DC Comics.
- ^ Green Lantern (vol. 4) #67 (July 2011). DC Comics.
- ^ Green Lantern (vol. 5) #20 (May 2013). DC Comics.
- ^ Green Lantern Corps #23 (August 2013). DC Comics.
- ^ Sinestro #5 (August 2014). DC Comics.
- ^ Sinestro #13 (July 2015). DC Comics.
- ^ Sinestro #14 (August 2015). DC Comics.
- ^ Hal Jordan and the Green Lantern Corps #1 (July 2016). DC Comics.
- ^ Hal Jordan and the Green Lantern Corps #6 (October 2016). DC Comics.
- ^ Hal Jordan and the Green Lantern Corps #7 (October 2016). DC Comics.
- ^ Superman (vol. 4) #29 (August 2017). DC Comics.
- ^ Superman (vol. 4) #30 (September 2017). DC Comics.
- ^ Hal Jordan and the Green Lantern Corps #30 (October 2017). DC Comics.
- ^ a b Green Lantern: Rebirth #6 (May 2005). DC Comics.
- ^ Green Lantern: Emerald Dawn #1 (December 1989)
- ^ Convergence: Green Lantern/Parallax #1 (April 2015). DC Comics.
- ^ Convergence #7. DC Comics.
- ^ Convergence #8. DC Comics.
- ^ Telos #5. DC Comics.
- ^ Green Lantern (vol. 5) #50. DC Comics.
- ^ Star Trek/Green Lantern #4. DC Comics.
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