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Death Battle: Green Lantern vs. Nova

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Ray: Alright, the combatants are set. Let’s settle this debate once and for all…

Steel: It’s time for a DEATH BATTLE...IN….SPAAAAAAACE!!!

--

Earth…
4:30 pm

On the outskirts of the bustling Central City, a man actually floated into the air. He wore a bodysuit that was a mix of emerald-green, black, and white, wore a green domino mask over his eyes, and had short-cut brown hair that stuck up like grass. On his right hand’s middle finger was a ring that looked to be cut from an unknown, alien mineral, and a symbol adorned it of a sort of lantern shape. Strapped to his waist was an oversized, green lantern that glowed with a similar-colored light.

This was Hal Jordan, the first ever human to join the Green Lantern corps.

Hal had had a busy night, protecting Earth alongside the JLA, saving it from a meteorite that spelled doom, and testing out whatever new aircraft that the military had to offer him. The thought of just going home and resting up for the night had just flitted through his mind when something abnormal caught his eye.

Up in the night sky, something was approaching and approaching fast. It was a streak of what appeared to be open flame and was coming at him FAST.

Hal flew out of the way, the ball of fire just missing him, and watched the blazing projectile soar past him and slam into the ground, dragging across the earth’s surface and leaving a trail of smoldering rock, grass, and molten glass.

As the flames died down, a human figure stood amidst the orange glow and turned to face Hal. This person wore an ornate bodysuit of obsidian-black, radiant gold, and a chest adorned with silvery, glowing circles. On his head was a gilded helmet decorated with a red star-like crest on its front. This was none other than the survivor of the Nova Corps, Richard Rider.

Then Richard actually smirked and announced, “Heeere’s Richie!”

Hal cocked a brow, then said, “Uh...hello.”

“Your name’s all over the galaxy, Hal.” Nova pointed out, “Thought I’d see if you lived up to it.”

“Well, I don’t mean to brag, but…” The Lantern got out, but his eyes suddenly went wide when Nova gathered energy in his hands and put them forward, a pulse of fiery-orange matter bursting from his hands. Hal was knocked back and had just dragged himself to a halt when he looked back up to see Nova, his hands still smoking.

“Maybe you don’t understand. THIS is how I usually test people.” Nova explained, “Get it?”

“Well, guess what? I play that way, too.” Hal asked, then put forth his right fist and a beam of green energy erupted from a ring on his middle finger. The burst of emerald energy hit Richard clean in the chest and staggered him.

Yet he didn’t seem that bothered and regained his composure with an eager smile. “Alright! Now that’s more like it! Let’s see who truly is the best of the best!” Just after he said that, his body gained a yellowish-orange aura; a sign that he was getting fired up.

“Alright! Ready when you are!” Hal stated, a green aura enveloping his body.

This was it: a duel between two of the greatest elite soldiers in the galaxy. It would, inevitably, be a duel to rock the entire cosmos…

FIGHT!!!

Both Lantern and Nova moved, propelling themselves at each. Fiery energy burst from the soles of Nova’s feet, turning him into a human rocket and firing him forward. Green Lantern, on the other hand, gained a faint green aura around his body and he levitated off the ground before soaring forward, ring-hand extended in front of him. Both looked ready for a head-on collision, but before Nova was even in striking range, Hal had pulled back his ring hand and swung. A beam shot from his ring, but didn’t just remain a beam of energy like his last one did. It actually took the form of a giant fist and hit Rider head-on.

Nova tumbled back in midair, but quickly regained his balance and shot straight at Hal like a bullet fresh from the barrel. Hal threw another energy fist, only to hit thin air as Nova performed a perfect barrel roll, simultaneously avoiding the attack and racing along its length. He pulled back a fist, now glowing with fiery energy, and slammed it into the midsection of a now-wide-eyed Hal Jordan.

Hal flew back like he was launched from a catapult and, there and then, was thankful for the durability boost that his ring’s energy aura provided him. If he hadn’t, his chest would have gotten a dodgeball-sized hole blown through it.

The Green Lantern regained his balance, then acted fast as Nova appeared just in front of him, fists aglow with energy. From his ring emerged a pair of fists and, just as Nova lunged, Green Lantern did as well. When the fists of these respective corps members met, it created a small shockwave and both pushed against the other for a brief moment, each holding their ground.

When that shockwave died down, both went into a frenzy of punches that created flashes equivalent to a small fireworks show. It only ended when Hal retreated back a bit and brought forth a wall that flew forward to bulldoze Nova full in the face. It pushed him back for a second, but slowed and came to a near-halt. On closer inspection, Hal saw that his opponent was actually pushing against the construct and was matching it muscle-for-muscle.

After he had pushed it to a halt, Nova spiraled to his side and released the energy wall. Once free and the wall now soaring past him, he sped along the trail of emerald energy that led right to Hal’s ring.

Hal saw the streak of orange coming right at him and just barely swerved to avoid a fist in his face. Yet, when Nova made a wide turn to go back at him, Hal used his ring to conjure up a massive baseball bat and wound up for a swing. Nova only had time to gape in shock as the bat slugged him and sent him flying in a traditional homerun swing.

Richard Rider regained his balance in midair in time to see Hal flying straight at him. When the Green Lantern swung a green-energy hammer, intent on sending the Nova Corps champ to terra firma, one could imagine his surprise when Nova actually seized the hammer around the head and swung it around, taking the Green Lantern with it.

Green Lantern dissipated the construct, but didn’t have the adequate time to put up a shield when Nova pulled back a fist and slammed it into his visage. The Green Lantern shot to the ground like a comet.

Hal picked himself up from the crater he created, coughing slightly and brushing dust off of him. He looked up to see Nova gently touching down on the ground, arms folded across his chest in pride.

“That the best you got, Jordan?” Nova challenged.

Hal’s response was simply to smirk and make a “come at me, bro” gesture and reply with, “Trust me. I’m just getting warmed up.”

To follow up that remark, Hal put forth his ring hand and a pillar of green energy burst from it, intent on incinerating the Nova Corps survivor.

So, why was Nova smirking instead of putting up some defense?

The answer came when, just before the blast hit him, the circlets on Nova’s hands glowed brightly. He actually caught the blast in the palms of his hands and gathered any oncoming energy, transforming it from green to the color of fire before putting his palms forward and reversing the energy attack back at the Lantern.

Hal’s response was to put his ring hand forward and, as the blast hit his knuckles, it actually shrunk down a millimeter from the ring and appeared to vanish inside of the ring itself.

“Nice trick.” Lantern remarked.

“Thanks.” Nova said with a grin, “And you can do the same thing, too?”

“Yeah.” Lantern shot back, “Should keep things interesting, right?”

“You bet. Now where were we?” Nova asked.

Both rocketed forward again, but rather than just collide, they bounced off each other in a dizzying array of flashing lights and booming impacts, as though multiple cannons were going off at once.

The two eventually took off in a straight line, exchanging punches, kicks, and energy bursts along the way, until Green Lantern (now clad in emerald-green energy in the form of some hi-tech armor) popped Nova in the face with a solid punch. Nova flew straight down to Earth. By the time the Nova Corps champion got back on his feet, he saw the immediate difference in landscape: a vast desert.

Nova checked around for his opponent, yet the Green Lantern champion was nowhere to be found. Fortunately, he didn’t have just his eyes to search around. A small voice in his head that was none other than the Xandarian Worldmind whispered that something was above him. Richard looked up and just managed to hold up a massive, green anvil.

“Oh, REAL MATURE!” Nova called out from beneath the construct.

“Hey,” Hal said from above, keeping his ring on Nova, “If it works, use it.”

Nova hefted the anvil away, then unleashed a burst of energy at Lantern from below. Yet as Hal swerved to avoid it and conjured another massive fist, Nova was already up to meet him with a powerful haymaker to the midsection.

Green Lantern flew back, but righted himself in midair. Yet when he did so, he was shocked to see that Nova was nowhere to be seen. He scanned the area, yet no trace of Richard Rider was anywhere. Then he noticed that the light above him dimmed and looked up…

WHAM!

Richard Rider had smashed an army tank onto the Lantern like he had struck a stake with a sledgehammer, actually cracking the ground on impact. He stood back to admire his handiwork and chuckled smugly.

“Nice to know your reflexes are tiptop!” he taunted. Then the tank gained a bright-green aura and flew off as though fired from a cannon. As it landed with a “crash” in the distance, Nova spotted Green Lantern standing in the imprint, looking mildly annoyed.

“REAL mature of you.” Hal said, dryly.

“Coming from the guy who dropped an ANVIL on me not even a minute ago?” Richie remarked.

Hal gave it a quick thought, then shrugged. “Point. But playtime’s over, so I think I’ll end this right now.”

Hal threw his ring hand forward and a wave of emerald water rushed at Nova as though a dam had burst in front of him. He only had enough time to activate a visor that covered his mouth before he was washed away in the emerald tide.

When the water vanished, Nova was on all fours, trying to get his senses together. He had just done so when a metallic ringlet clamped itself down on him, snapping his arms to his sides. An instant later, he was smashed into the ground and had his legs bound by another beam of energy.

“Alright. That was fun and all, but I’m a little funned out.” Hal said in a serious tone, “Either stop now or else.”

Nova appeared to give it a quick thought, then stated, “Sorry, but I think I’ll ‘else’.”

Hal’s expression went from mild frustration to shock when the circlets on Nova’s chest glowed brightly and the solid constructs disintegrated into their raw state and spiraled into the circlets, going from green to white as they vanished into the Nova Corps Uniform.

Free of his restraints, Nova rocketed at Green Lantern and slammed into him like a linebacker going at supersonic speeds. After a brief, futile attempt to break Nova’s hold on him, then did the smart thing and created a burst of energy from the green aura surrounding his body. The pulse wave blasted Nova off of him.

After a quick survey of their surroundings, both found themselves on a mountaintop overlooking a series of smaller outcroppings. Snow blew through the air, obscuring their vision and earning an irritated growl from both. Things couldn’t be hard enough…

Hal formed a massive sledgehammer in his hand and was wise to do so, for he spotted Nova almost a split-second too late. A horizontal swing sent Rider veering way off-course and soaring to Hal’s right.

Richard halted his flight, then shook the cobwebs out of his head and formed an energy sphere in his hands. With a grunt, he hurled it at Hal’s general direction, then took off after it, albeit going in an arc rather than a straight line.

From the clouded vision of the blizzard, Lantern spotted the energy disc whirling towards him and just managed to put up a force field around himself. The disc exploded on contact with the energy sphere from Hal’s ring, but was only a distraction.

The minute the explosion cleared from Hal’s shield, Nova was there to meet him and looked about ready to nail him. Hal only just got out of the way, watching Nova’s fist make contact with the stone surface…

KA-BOOOOM!

It was as though a seismic tremor went through the mountainside and anything within a hundred feet of Nova’s crash site was blown away, leaving an enormous crater in the mountain.

When the dust cleared, Nova growled in disdain. He had missed his opponent by a hair. If he had been just a little faster...

He had little time to dwell on the thought, though, when he spotted Hal floating towards him.

“Got an idea.” Hal proposed, “How about we take this outside?”

Richard smirked. “I like your thinking.”

With two massive booms, Green Lantern and Hal shot into the sky. Trails of fire and emerald light lit the way of their ascension and vanished as they vanished from sight and rocketed into orbit...and beyond.

Through the vast reaches of space, Green Lantern and Nova continued their duel. Their paths of orange and green crisscrossed and intertwined like a helix spiral, the two exchanging blows with each cross. They traversed the cosmos in mere minutes, millions of times faster than the fastest man-made spacecraft could ever hope to achieve, their duel taking them through nebulae and multiple solar systems.

One good punch ended the trail and sent Nova careening towards a moon. He skidded on contact with the cold, lifeless surface, then looked up only for his eyes to widen at the sight before him. High above the moon’s surface was a series of multi-barrel machine guns, all aiming right down at him.

Any normal man would have panicked at that kind of sight. Too bad the man known as Richard Rider was FAR from normal. Whereas most men would retreat or run for cover for fear of being blown to pieces, the champion of the Nova Corps charged energy in his legs and flew straight at the blitzkrieg.

It was almost as though an entire battalion of battleships was raining hell on the moon’s surface in the form of an emerald-green precipitation of energy. Yet Nova expertly weaved and whirled through the storm, even briefly charging his fists with Nova Force Energy and slamming a few blasts into oblivion. An occasional burst would graze him, but not enough to slow him down; only jar him slightly. He was going to break through that line if it was the last thing he did.

Hal’s eyes widened behind his mask as Nova cleared the series of chainguns and slammed into him in a hi-speed tackle. Both rocketed through space once again until Lantern Energy pulsed from his body and forced Richard to release his foe. He regained his senses and prepared to rocket at him-

WHAM!

Nova spiraled sideways, then looked around and realized that things had changed since he was in the heat of battle. Asteroids were hurtling through the void of space and created a maze of rock that doubled up as both obstacles and threats to crush the two of them into bloody pulps.

Oh, things were going to get crazy from here…

Green Lantern fired a series of beams at a few asteroids, snaring at least three, before whipping them at Nova, catapulting the space rocks at him. Nova fired three bursts of energy at them, destroying two of the asteroids, but flew directly at the other one and actually catching it. It slowed its momentum, then stopped and steadily appeared to go into reverse with Nova actually pushing it with strength that was far beyond human.

Nova lobbed the asteroid at the last place he had seen his emerald opponent, but was more than surprised to see the Green Lantern had vanished from sight...and that the asteroid he hurled had flown, headfirst, into another one--one that made all the others around it look like pebbles.

Nova flew right at it, being the daredevil he was, then made a sharp turn and actually flew so close to its surface that he left a dust trail in his wake. A brief glance up revealed that Hal was not far ahead of him. A simple speed boost would be all he needed and, with Hal flying straight at a cliff-like outcropping without showing any signs of stopping, Richard knew he had this in the bag…

One could imagine his surprise, then, when Green Lantern glowed bright green a split-second before he made contact with the rocky obstacle and vanished. Nova gawked in disbelief, then screeched to a halt. His eyes scanned the area for Hal, but was finding no trace of him so far.

Not too far away, behind a notably smaller asteroid, a shimmer of green energy brought Hal back into the visible spectrum. The person that Nova had been chasing so far was only a decoy created by his ring. At the same time, he had used the energies of his ring to cloak him to the point of near-invisibility. When he noticed Nova readying to fly off, he aimed his ring and fired a beam of concentrated energy at him.

From behind...

Rider had to admit, sometimes having another mind sharing your body and boosting your abilities helped a lot. He swerved to his left and the beam of green missed him. He turned and saw Hal briefly gape at how he had avoided that sneak attack. The look was short-lived, for Hal used his ring to grab a series of meteors and hurl them at Rider again.

Nova was prepared this time and, with a concentrated burst of speed and power, smashed through each meteor like it was sandstone. Nova burst through in time to receive what appeared to be a fork of emerald lightning burst from Hal’s ring and nail him full in the chest. He felt the energy surge through his body and burn his very core, yet kept his focus and tapped into his energy reserves.

The green lightning actually gathered in his palms and the pain lessened to the point that he could actually put his hands forward and continue catching the electricity. Green Lantern quickly turned off the juice and instead opted to create a barrier around himself just as Nova fired a bluish-white spear of crackling energy. The blast splashed off him like water, yet even when it cleared, Nova had emerged to slug the energy sphere around Hal.

The result was that Green Lantern flew back like a fastball and decided to put a bit of distance between him and his opponent. He charged as much energy as he could into his ring (without draining too much, though), then fired a massive beam at Nova.

Bullseye.

Nova flew backward with a cry in surprise, actually appearing to vanish in the stream of energy and was sent on a ride through the cosmos as the beam gave him a very hard and extremely hot push backward.

Green Lantern sighed in relief, then looked at his ring to see that it was flickering like a lightbulb that was just about ready to flicker out.

“Don’t have much left. Have to get to the nearest inhabitable planet and recharge. If I know him, that won’t be enough to take him down…”

Hal left the scene with utmost haste, heading towards a (thankfully) not-too-far-away planet with white clouds strewn across its bluish surface. If he had to bet, that planet had some form of breathable air…

Out in space, Nova shook the cobwebs out of his head. DAMN, that beam had hurt and he had practically lost track of where he was and where his enemy was.

A thought clicked in his head. Xandarian Worldmind! Duh!

With a little help from the collected intelligence of all Xandar, Nova rocketed through the cosmos, Hal’s energy signature giving away his location like a signal flare.

Unknown, life-supporting planet...

Hal touched down on the surface mere moments before his Lantern uniform vanished in green light, revealing a standard-issue pilot uniform. He took a quick breath through the nose. Good. The atmosphere was okay for him.

Now, onto business.

Hal took the lantern-like device off his belt and held it in front of him. With his remaining hand, he held his ring up to one of the many openings on the device and recited the iconic oath.

In brightest day, in blackest night
No evil shall escape my sight.
Let those who worship evil’s might
Beware my power, Green Lantern’s light!

With each verse of the oath, the lantern device glowed brighter and brighter and energy flowed from within it and seeped into the ring on Hal’s finger. In a swirl of vibrant-green energy, his ring regained its glow and the costume of black, green, and white reappeared on his body, complete with the domino mask.

He looked back up where he had come from and, just as he expected, Nova was rocketing at him, now ablaze from re-entry with the atmosphere. Lantern’s response? Nail him with a right hook in the form of a green boxing glove.

As Nova flew off in the distance, Hal flew after him and formed an iron shackle with his ring. He threw it at the Nova Corps champ, aiming to snare his legs. One could imagine his surprise when Nova veered to the side, grabbed the rope-like construct that connected the shackle to the ring, and gave it a good tug.

Hal was jerked forward and soon found himself whipped, headlong, into the ground. The construct disappeared as he got back up, yet Nova had just gotten close enough to punch the Green Lantern when an energy-comprised sledgehammer swung at him like a pendulum. It smacked him away like a well-timed golf-swing, yet after a sizeable dust cloud surged up, Nova was roaring back at Hal.

Hal coated his hands in a pair of armored gauntlets, then caught Nova’s fist, raising his other to throw it at Nova, who caught it in return. The two, now locked hand-in-hand, pushed against each other with all the force they could muster, teeth gritted and a growl escaping their throats as they attempted to overpower the other.

Then Hal started to give way and slide slightly across the ground. Engaging with this guy in a physical test of strength was starting to turn into a bad idea.

Time to play dirty, then...

The Green Lantern focused the energy in his emerald gauntlet and molded it into what appeared to be a laser cannon. Before Nova could even react to such a change, he was blasted off Green Lantern, who pulled back his fist and slammed it into him in a super-powered punch. Nova shot back like a bullet and disappeared into a rocky pillar with a resounding “boom” and a cloud of dust to be seen for miles.

Then the pillar actually floated off the ground, it seemed, Nova at the very base of it and lifting it clean into the air. With an adrenaline-fueled grunt, he heaved it at Hal like a spear. Hal responded by summoning a giant hand from his ring to catch it and hurl it back at Nova’s general direction. It missed him by a long shot and Nova was fast approaching by the time the Green Lantern caught sight of him.

He had an idea and he hoped to whatever God there was that it would work…

Green Lantern took off into the sky just in time for Nova’s punch to miss him and kick up dust. He looked up to see Lantern going up and swiftly leaving his sight.

“Oh no you don’t!” Nova said with a determined growl, then rocketed after him.

The two raced through the vastness of space once again, but this time Hal was constantly checking his surroundings.

Nothing at risk was around. Good…

Hal whirled around and pointed his ring behind him. Sure enough, Nova was right behind him and Hal had quite the surprise waiting for him. Green Lantern put forth his ring and emerald energy gathered in the space between them.

Nova’s eyes widened and he quickly made a U-turn. Right in front of him, an emerald ball of what appeared to be open flame was blazing in front of him. Green Lantern had summoned a miniature SUN, its gravity threatening to pull Nova in and its heat starting to make him sweat.

Nova put as much energy as he could into his thrusters, but the gravity of the emerald star was slowly, but surely pulling him in because he had gotten too close.

After realizing that this battle was a losing one, Nova began to slow up. Until…

It hit him and he mentally slapped himself for not doing it sooner. Nova killed the brakes and gave in to the gravitic pull.

Green Lantern didn’t know if he had gotten the guy for good, but kept the sun going for a little longer. He couldn’t be TOO careful.

Then it happened.

Starting at the center of the makeshift star, it was slowly turning bright-blue. A little while later and it was slowly spiraling away like someone had pulled a drain inside of it. Green Lantern killed power to it just as soon as it was all gone.

Only one guy he knew was capable of such a thing.

Right where the “sun” used to be, Nova floated in place, his aura now roaring like a bluish-white furnace. Energy was gathering into his fists at a phenomenal rate, which meant only one thing: a final showdown was inevitable.

Green Lantern acted fast, putting as much energy into his ring as he could. Both put their hand forward and a beam of their respective color erupted from their knuckles. The difference was that each of these beams was their respective energy sources in their rawest and most physical form.

A blinding-white light was at the vertex of these two columns of energy and steadily went back and forth as Hal and Rich attempted to get the better of each other, the two beams pushing against each other.

For a few tense seconds, the two seemed evenly-matched. Those seconds ended when the bluish beam started to gain the upper hand.

Hal acted fast and put up a sphere around him just as his beam was about to give out. The bluish nova energy splashed off it like water and Hal was certain he could outlast the attack.

Then something appeared in the spherical energy shield: a crack. Hal’s eyes widened as that one crack spread further and further across the shield’s surface. At this rate, it wouldn’t hold for long-

It gave way.

Hal’s scream slowly died away as he vanished in the beam of raw Nova Energy.

The column slowly thinned out until it faded away, then silence fell as Rich half-expected Hal to come back out at him again.

A green light appeared, but just as Hal was about to blow it to smithereens, it revealed itself to be Hal’s ring. It floated in place for a while, then raced off through the cosmos, leaving Richard Rider in its wake.

It was time to find itself a new owner.

K.O.!!!

--

Steel: THAT. WAS. COSMIC!

Ray: Indeed it was. The two were evenly matched and had blow-by-blow counters such as Green Lantern’s adaptability and Nova’s raw power. Both could absorb energy attacks, so that made it a little trickier to decide the outcome.

Steel: There were a few things to consider first and that was what they could do with the energy they absorbed. A fault of the Lantern Ring is that it doesn’t add that energy to its own reserves, while the Nova Corps Uniform DOES.

Ray: Secondly was just how strong and durable the two could be. By order of physics, the amount of force they can generate is the same as the amount of force they can withstand.

Steel: While Green Lantern needed help from The Flash to hold back a supernova (and only did so for a moment before it broke), Nova survived a three-solar-system-destroying blast and lived to tell the tale.

Ray: The force of a supernova is an estimated ten-octillion megatons. By comparison, the blast that destroyed three solar systems is at least three times that much.

Steel: Also goes to show that the Green Lantern constructs don’t need Red or Yellow Lantern energies to destroy them.

Green Lantern Supernova Stopper < 10 Octillion Megatons
Nova System Destroyer > 30 Octillion Megatons

Ray: Now, we can go through many incarnations of the two, but the biggest factor, by far, was the development of their powers. Green Lantern’s power boosts typically required him to either take someone’s rings or have them given to him.

Steel: And seeing as finding another Green ring would require him to either kill or ask the user to fork it over, that counts as outside help, which is strictly forbidden. And before you bring up other Lantern Rings, that's the same freaking thing! He'd have to find the respective corps headquarters and either steal it or receive it from them. AGAIN, outside help is forbidden.


Ray: By comparison, Nova’s immense power gainage and promotion to Nova Prime was not based on the abilities of others, but of events beyond his or anyone’s real control. It’s STORY-driven, not item- or character-driven.

Steel: While anyone is free to write up a different situation for an all-out battle, in Death Battle, this is the likeliest situation to occur. Hal Jordan simply ringed out.

Ray: The winner is Richard Rider of the Nova Corps.



GREEN LANTERN…
+Broader range of options in terms of abilities
+Likelier to have the speed advantage
+Can absorb energy attacks
-Power upgrades typically requires others’ assistance or inconveniencing
-Not the most imaginative Lantern (Jon and Kyle are more creative than him)
-More limited power supply

NOVA…
+Stronger and tougher thanks to his suit
+Less likely to run out of juice, given he can add absorbed energy to his own reserves
+Xandarian Worldmind is useful in battle
+Upgraded power did not involve the aid/death of others
+Powers are simpler, but powerful and effective
+More extreme survival instances

(I typically don't do music at the end, but today, I'll make an exception. Enjoy...)

Season 2 ends with a bang as the two elite members of their respective Intergalactic Peacekeeping Corps, but only one can walk away alive. Green Lantern, or Nova?
© 2014 - 2024 Dimension-Dino
Comments70
EStar99's avatar
How was Green Lantern KOed? He didn't die?
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