Green Lantern (Voz)

Believe it or not, but we just reached the last Green Lantern from Lucy W.‘s request: this one is yet another cameo from the overcrowded Green Lantern movie, and is the Sasquatch-like creature moving in the background on Oa. That’s Voz, a Lantern who’s been portrayed in a variety of ways in the comics: always big and hairy, he sometimes resembles an ape, some others a huge mastiff-like dog, or even a giant mole-sloth thing. The movie version apparently goes for the latter, but it’s hard to say. Anyway, let’s take a look to the original.

Voz was born on Eciram, a distant planet known as one of the most dangerous ones in the universe: this world, in fact, was inhabited by several races of gargantuan predators, who used to prey on the sentient inhabitants of the planet. Not remotely as big and strong as the top carnivores, Voz survived thanks to his resourcefulness and his sheer willpower, a feat that attracted the attention of the Guardians of the Universe, who chose him as one of the very first recruits for the Green Lantern Corps. Voz accepted the offer, and became the Green Lantern of Space Sector 571, again one of the most dangerous around. One of the gravest threats he had to constantly face was represented by the Draal, a belligerent species always trying to oppose the Corps. Growing in ambition, the Draal abducted Voz along with five other Green Lanterns, Guy Gardner, Graf Toren, RRU-9-2, Gpaak and Bivvix, wanting to use them in their ultimate plan: they would have cloned them, stolen their Power Rings and infiltrated the Green Lantern Corps, to destroy them from the inside. The Draal, however, gravely underestimated their prisoners, and the five Lanterns joined forces and proved to be formidable fighters even without their rings: they escaped their prison, reclaimed their Power Rings and dismantled the Draal from within, just as they wanted to do with the Corps. This was quite a major victory, that however preceded a catastrophe: another Lantern, Hal Jordan, went mad, and single-handedly destroyed the Guardians, Oa and the Central Power Battery, thus putting an end to the Green Lantern Corps. Powerless and alone, Voz was captured by a slavers ring.

Time passed before Voz, and many others who had suffered his same destiny, were rescued by Guy Gardner. After regaining his freedom, Voz was among the few former Lanterns who answered the call of the sole Green Lantern remaining, Kyle Rayner, who had called for backup in his effort to dismantle the Black Circle crime cartel… but upon seeing he was human, just like Jordan, Voz left, not trusting him. It was Raker Qarrigat, an old friend, who vouched for Rayner and convinced Voz to change his mind: the veteran space-cop helped Kyle against the Black Circle, and collected yet another victory. His trust proved to be well placed, as soon after Rayner reformed the Green Lantern Corps, even bringing the Guardians of the Universe back to life. The Guardians remembered Voz’s success against the Draal, and valued his experience, as he was one of the few veterans remaining: they offered him the direction of the most guarded prison in the universe, the Sciencells, a task that the old Lantern gladly accepted, having already decided to focus on guarding Oa this time. As chief warden, Voz took care of the most nefarious criminals ever captured by the Lanterns, and he managed to obtain their fear if not their respect, proving to be someone not to be messed with. He successfully kept in line the many members of the Sinestro Corps who had been captured and incarcerated during the war, Sinestro included, and when the leader of the Yellow Lanterns was freed by his men on his way to the execution ground, Voz kept the news secret from his inmates, letting the other prisoners believe that their leader had been killed as planned. Used to the violence and empty threats of the inmates, there was but one prisoner that truly got under his skin: one of the newest arrivals, Red Lantern Vice, who had an aura of pure malice around him. Voz didn’t know yet how much his instinct was right about Vice, until the Red Lantern managed to break free…

Voz is a brave and fierce warrior, a veteran space-cop who relies mostly on a nearly infallible instinct. As an Eciramite, he’s extremely strong, fast and agile, and he possesses sharp fangs and sharp claws on both hands and feet; as a Green Lantern, his Power Ring allows him to fly, to survive in any environment, to communicate in any known language, and to create will-powered energy constructs: Voz’s constructs are usually of basic and primordial form, and tend to explode before they’re fully developed. A warrior like few others in the Corps, Voz is a force to be reckoned with, a Green Lantern always on the verge of being corrupted by rage (the power source of the Red Lanterns), saved only by his firm loyalty to the Corps… not that this means that his inmates have to fear him less.

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