Green Lantern (Tomar-Re)

Still listing the Green Lanterns who make a cameo in Injustice: Gods Among Us. This time it’s the turn of Tomar-Re, the parrot-like one that appears on Hal Jordan‘s left side in his victory pose. Along with all the others, even Tomar-Re appeared in Green Lantern movie, portrayed by Academy-winner Geoffrey Rush. He appears in the film as one of Hal Jordan’s mentors along with Kilowog and Sinestro, and he saves Hal at the end of the movie from falling into a burning star, without taking any more action. In the comics, he’s a little bit more active figure in the life of the Corps…

Tomar-Re was a brilliant scientist on his homeplanet, Xudar, who was chosen by the Guardians of the Universe to become the new Green Lantern of Space Sector 2813 because of his strong willpower and his wisdom and knowledge, of which he gave good proof during his work on Xudar. He had an unborn talent in the use of his Power Ring, and his good character made it easy for him to make friends with many of his fellow Lanterns, especially with Abin Sur, who would have become the protector of the Space Sector neighbor to his own. Tomar-Re gave a good evidence of his skills during his probationary period, and entered the active service relatively soon for a Lantern. Unfortunately for him, his first mission would have become one of his rare failures. In his Sector there was a planet, Krypton, inhabited by a race of wise and advanced men and women. The core of the planet was unstable, and Krypton was about to explode; the Guardians, anyway, had foreseen that the child of Jor-El and Lara Lor-Van, two scientists from the planet, would have become a genetically perfect specimen, and a champion of good: the perfect choice for a future leader of the Corps. Tomar-Re was assigned with the mission of stabilizing the planet’s core long enough to allow Kryptonians to fix their problems; a global evacuation was impossible due to the Eradicator, a machine implanted on Krypton against alien invasions that prevented Tomar-Re’s direct intervention. The Lantern’s only option was to gather Stellarium, a rare element that would have absorbed much of dying Krypton’s radiations and tectonic pressure, thus saving the Kryptonians without taking them away from the planet. He found a vast amount of Stellarium in the Ariel star system, and, after taking the more he could with him, he came back on his route to Krypton. Unfortunately, a star in the Ariel system went nova and exploded, leaving Tomar-Re blind. The Lantern managed to find his way to Krypton thanks to his Power Ring only, and started to regain his eyesight just in time to see Krypton explode. The Guardians, who had the Manhunters (the droids used as space-cops before the Lanterns were created) escort young Kal-El in his travel to Earth, collected the wounded and exhausted Tomar-Re and took him back on Oa, where he could rest and heal. From that moment, Tomar-Re decided he would have served every living being the best he could, without letting himself be overwhelmed again by his own weakness, even if, according to everyone else, Guardians included, he did everything and more to save Krypton.

In the following years, Tomar-Re’s efforts made him one of the most honored and respected Green Lanterns of all times. Using his scientist skills, he created a special device, the Zathon Ray Communicator, capable of noticing and pointing out any natural disaster in a single Sector, thus preventing tragedies like Krypton’s one to ever repeat. Tomar-Re suffered a great loss when his friend Abin Sur was killed in action, but tried to welcome his replacement, Earthling Hal Jordan, the best he could. Immediately after Jordan’s arrival, Oa was threatened by the collective being known as Legion, the same creature that had killed Abin Sur. Unfortunately, nor Tomar-Re nor the other Lanterns managed to stop the monster, and only rookie Hal Jordan, fresh from his training with Kilowog, ultimately defeated him with his last energies. Up to that point, Jordan left Kilowog’s class and was promoted to Thaal Sinestro‘s one: Sinestro was universally recognized as the best Green Lantern the Corps had ever seen… well, almost universally, since Tomar-Re had been controlling him for a while. He had, in fact, some contacts with Korugar, Sinestro’s planet, on which Katma Tui, a female Korugarian, was leading a revolution against what she declared was a tyrannical rule from the acclaimed hero Lantern. Tomar-Re secretly investigated on the issue, and found out that Sinestro had indeed gone far beyond his duties as a Green Lantern, and had become a tyrant. Thanks to Tomar-Re’s accusations, Sienstro was put on trial and found guilty, and then dismissed from the Corps; following the hero’s disgrace, Tomar-Re had Katma Tui promoted to the new Green Lantern of Sector 1417, in place of her former ruler. After many years of service, Tomar-Re ultimately retired from the field, and was made one of the Green Lantern Honor Guards, a title that deeply praised him. He was still active, helping his fellow Lanterns with his precious advises and technical backup and mentoring new Lanterns. He had the chance to apologize for his first, unforgotten failure when he met Superman, who managed to relieve him from a guilt he never forgave to himself.

Tomar-Re is an extremely brilliant scientist, with a good heart and a sharp mind. He possesses an extremely strong willpower, thanks to which he never gives up to a task, even if it’s far beyond his possibilities. As a Green Lantern, he possesses the Power Ring, a tool he managed to master to perfection, that allows him to survive in open space, understand and speak any known language and materialize any object he can think of; it is powered by his will. As a Honor Guard, Tomar-Re has free access to the Book of Oa, which gathers all the knowledge in the universe.