Bat Lantern: 15 Times Batman Wore A Lantern Ring 

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Batman do? Although he is only human, Bruce Wayne has managed to train his body to peak perfection, and with his seemingly unlimited monetary resources, he has a vast array of incredible technology and weaponry at his disposal. He’s fought Superman and subdued the entire Justice League, he’s traveled to Apokolips and taken on Darkseid’s forces, he’s brought the dead back to life, he created a machine to create other Batmen and he’s traveled to the far reaches of space and even time itself.

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Whether he’s perched on a rooftop protecting Gotham City or at the Justice League’s side as they stand armored and powerless in an arena to face off against monsters and robots, Batman has a plan and a solution. He’s the ultimate warrior, and one of the greatest superheroes in the world, not only because of what he can do, but because of his strength of character. Even though he is merely human, he has proven more than capable of wielding many various Lantern rings, rings that belong to various colored Lantern Corps powered by different emotions and entities. Today, CBR scours through comics, television and video games to list 15 times Batman has managed to wear a Lantern ring.

, Batman was “killed” by Darkseid’s Omega beams. While Superman emerged out of the battle’s wreckage with what he believed to be Batman’s corpse, Bruce Wayne was some

when else entirely. But as far as the heroes of the DC Universe were concerned, this corpse – which was in fact a clone – was unequivocally the body of Batman.

Buried next to his mother and father, that corpse was reanimated and brought back to distorted life as a Black Lantern by Nekron and Black Hand in the Blackest Night event series by writer Geoff Johns. Batman had been turned into a zombie-like creature whose purpose was to establish a link between various heroes who had once died and been brought back to life like Superman, Wonder Woman and Green Arrow. And that emotional connection to Bruce Wayne led to them turning into horrifying Black Lantern soldiers.

event ended with the White Lantern entity bringing many dead heroes back to life — characters like Aquaman, Hawkman, Hawkgirl and Firestorm. But only one of them, Deadman, was gifted with a White Lantern ring, choosing him as its guide as they went along seeking the champion of Earth as its host. Naturally, Deadman thought that the only person this champion could be was Batman.

When he found him, Deadman thrust the ring on the Caped Crusader, shouting that Batman would know what to do because Batman always knows what to do. But while Batman was able to wield the life-powered ring for a short amount of time, it also had a mind of its own and deemed that the burden of the white ring should not be on Bruce Wayne.

Hal Jordan and Bruce Wayne have always had a bit of a rivalry, different personalities that clashed in the ranks of the Justice League. Hal is reckless, while Bruce is calculating and precise. The two have butted heads many times before, trading insults and even punches. But after he was dead for a long time, Hal Jordan returned to life and he extended a hand out to Bruce.

He offered him his ring, to wield it for a short period of time, to let his willpower overcome his fear, to let go of his parents murder and move forward. It was rare and introspective moment between the two, equally heart-warming and character-defining as Batman, after using the ring to see his parents, said he wasn’t ready. Yet. But, at least, he was happy to see that Hal was back, and he told him so.

event would ravage the cosmos and planet Earth itself, Sinestro sent out hundreds of rings into the universe to seek out hosts who had the ability to instill great fear in others. Naturally, one of those rings came to Earth and it found none other than a bat-clad vigilante who makes it a habit to strike fear into the hearts of criminals.

The ring latched itself onto Batman, and it transformed his costume into a version of a Sinestro Corps recruit. Fortunately for the Dark Knight (regardless of how much good he could do with a power ring), the fear-powered weapon detected willpower inside of the Dark Knight and previous contact with a Green ring, and it went on to seek another host instead.

The Sinestro Corps’ recruitment phase wasn’t the only time that Batman grasped a yellow Lantern ring. In fact, in the Forever Evil event by writer Geoff Johns and artist David Finch, we came to learn that, after the Sinestro Corps had been defeated on Earth, Batman had managed to keep a yellow ring in his private arsenal, in the spirit of being prepared for any and all eventualities.

Such planning was justified when the Justice League was presumed dead, beaten by the Crime Syndicate — an evil version of the Justice League from another reality. The Syndicate counted among its members Power Ring, an evil version of Green Lantern, and Batman had no choice but to arm himself with a yellow ring of fear to fight him. The ring didn’t have much of a charge left, but Batman fought Power Ring long enough — until Sinestro arrived to dispose of the evil Lantern.

Many fans are quite familiar with the origin of Hal Jordan as a Green Lantern, that he inherited his ring from a dying Lantern named Abin Sur who crash-landed his ship on Earth. But in the Elseworlds – a series of alternate reality stories – comic 

 by Mike W. Barr and Jerry Bingham, it was not Hal Jordan who inherited the ring, but Bruce Wayne, who was just on his own way to becoming Batman.

But instead of dressing up as a bat, Bruce became the Green Lantern of Earth and changed events as we knew them. He managed to stop the Joker from ever becoming the Gotham menace he was supposed to be, he helped create an even more deranged version of Sinestro and Harvey Dent, Selina Kyle became a Star Sapphire and Clark Kent, Diana Prince and Barry Allen also all became Green Lanterns.

animated series, Green Lantern Hal Jordan arrived on Earth in pursuit of Sinestro. But it was the Penguin who ended up with Hal’s ring, and who was on the receiving end of Sinestro’s wrath. Batman, Robin and Hal all fought to reclaim the ring and prevent Sinestro from destroying the Penguin. Although, somehow, the Penguin proved semi-efficient with the ring, and difficult to track down.

To no one’s surprise, Batman was the one who was able to find the Penguin. Fearing Sinestro’s might, Cobblepot quickly relinquished the rapidly depleting ring to Batman, who put it on with ease for a short amount of time to battle against Sinestro. But the ring eventually ran out of power, and Hal Jordan reclaimed what was his, charged it up, and took the fight to Sinestro.

When he first met Hal Jordan as a Green Lantern in the New 52’s

by Geoff Johns and Jim Lee, the Dark Knight was obviously very curious about the green ring, having never seen one before. When the two were together in the sewers tracking a Parademon, Batman discretely, and unknowingly, managed to take the ring from Hal’s very hands.

He didn’t mean to put it on. He just meant to be observant – while also using this as a show of force, of what he was truly capable of. It’s no easy feat to take a Green Lantern ring without its wearer noticing, but Batman managed to do just that. He might not have worn the ring this time, but he did carry it and could have easily put it on. But that’s how awesome Batman is. He doesn’t need to put the ring on — he just needs to show that he could.

#155, “The Fugitive From Two Worlds” by Bob Haney, Mike W. Barr and Jim Aparo, Gotham City was on the verge of total destruction because a massive rock had been taken from the city’s foundations. The culprit responsible for this action was an alien named Tri Vul, and Bruce Wayne and Green Lantern Hal Jordan had to join forces to save Gotham from collapsing.

After they managed to find Tri Vul in the far reaches of space, the three of them had to quickly travel back to Earth to save Batman’s city in time. But with Hal’s ring almost depleted, Hal needed all three of them to combine their willpower and fuel the ring to create a space warp back to Earth. Batman may not have technically “worn” the ring, but he did help Hal do it, and they wouldn’t have been successful without Bruce’s willpower.

There is only one Batman. But don’t tell Damian Wayne that. The son of Bruce and Talia Al Ghul, Damian was trained by the League of Assassins and later became the newest Robin to fight alongside Batman. But Damian has an ego matched only by his temper, and he already sees the mantle of Batman as his by right. This might be considered as a bit of a cheat, but in some ways, he sees himself as Batman, now and in the future.

series starring Stephanie Brown under the cowl, Batgirl and Damian developed a friendship, a big sister/little brother bond that brought Damian to the fold quite a few times. In the series’ last issue, we saw a series of images of the further adventures the two would have had together, and one of those adventures featured Damian fully-powered by a rage-fueled Red Lantern ring.

 cartoon, the series would team Batman up with a new character from the DC Comics stable every episode. When the villain known as Despero attacked the Guardians of the Universe and the Green Lantern Corps, Hal Jordan made the ultimate sacrifice to protect them all. In doing so, his ring found its way to Earth, in the possession of Batman.

The episode saw Batman fly to Oa and team-up with Green Lanterns Sinestro, Guy Gardner and G’nort. When it came time to fight Despero, the Lanterns couldn’t let Batman wear the ring, so instead they combined their powers to make him a Green Lantern suit that was powered by his will instead, and with this power at his command, Batman proved instrumental in the defeat of the evil Despero.

videogames proved incredibly popular from their inception, so much so in fact that they inspired the character to be featured in

, which in turn led to Batman’s very own popular spinoff movie, the aptly-titled The Lego Batman Movie. But things got particularly interesting in the third video game in the series, Lego Batman 3: Beyond Gotham.

In this game, there were many characters from the DC Comics pantheon that players could unlock like Firestorm, Hawkman and Green Arrow, but also many different costumes for Batman. Among these was a Green Lantern Batman suit, named Darkest Knight, a suit with a green cowl that allowed Batman to fly and shoot green energy. And, if all that wasn’t enough, there was also a Sinestro Corps version that could be unlocked.

When Batman died at the hands (beams) of Darkseid, he was hurtled on a harrowing journey through the past. But, Batman being who he is, he found a way to come back to the present after having been gone so long. But before he would step back into the cape and cowl, Bruce Wayne donned a different costume – the Insider Suit – to secretly observe his allies, to see that state of things after his disappearance.

This ingenious stealth suit was designed to be much different than the Batman costume. It had various powers like super-speed, flight and heat vision for brief amounts of time. But the most awesome power it had at its disposal was the ability to harness willpower and generate the energy and power of a Green Lantern. It might not have been an official Lantern ring, but this Insider suit certainly counts.

In the comic book event series Justice League: Darkseid War by writer Geoff Johns, various members of the Justice League effectively became New Gods: Superman became the God of Strength, for example, and Batman became the God of Knowledge, sitting on the Mobius Chair. The chair, which formerly belonged to Metron, is an all-powerful cosmic artifact that holds the answers to all questions in the known universe.

But the chair proved to be addictive. With so many answers at his disposal, Bruce couldn’t bring himself to step out of the chair. It would take Hal Jordan’s intervention to eventually free him from the chair’s grasp. Putting his life on the line, Hal removed his own Green Lantern ring and slipped it onto Bruce’s finger, triggering a spike of will in Bruce that managed to overpower the hold the chair had on him.

Now that the Dark Nights: Metal event by Scott Snyder and Greg Capullo is underway, we know that a legion of evil Batmen will emerge from the Dark Multiverse to haunt the Justice League and the entire reality of the DCU. Each of these Batmen is molded after a different member of the Justice League, and one of them is a Green Lantern Bruce Wayne, who goes by the moniker of The Dawnbreaker.

An issue focusing on this evil version of Batman is slated for release in October, so we don’t know much about him yet, other than this: the night his parents were killed, a Green Lantern ring immediately came to a grieving and horrified Bruce Wayne, and with this ring, the young Bruce decimated his parent’s killer beyond recognition… That’s just for starters. And it doesn’t bode well for the future of the event, and the Justice League, at all.

Do you think Batman could wield all the Lantern rings like some sort of Infinity Gauntlet? Let us know in the comments!

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