Star Sapphires

The Star Sapphires is a fictional organization appearing in American comic books published by DC Comics, they are one of the seven Corps empowered by a specific color of the emotional spectrum within the DC Universe. Though their roots can be traced back to the earliest appearances of the Star Sapphire queens, they have entered into a significant plot role as part of the 2009–2010 "Blackest Night" crossover event. First formed by the Zamarons at the conclusion of the "Mystery of the Star Sapphire" storyline running in "Green Lantern" vol. 4, issues #18–20 (May–July 2007), their abilities come from violet power rings which wield the power of love. At present, members of the Star Sapphires have only been depicted as being females. During the "Blackest Night" panel at Comic Con International 2009, Geoff Johns explained that: "anyone can join, but most men are not worthy."
Group history.
The Star Sapphires are first mentioned in the context of a group during a conversation between Carol Ferris and Hal Jordan immediately after Ferris has just recovered from having been possessed by the Star Sapphire stone during "Mystery of the Star Sapphire". Ferris explains that while under the possession of the stone, she learned a number of things about its history and capabilities. She says that it told her that billions of years ago, when the Guardians of the Universe decided to form the Green Lantern Corps, a tribe of women left Oa because they did not agree with the Guardians' belief in living a life without emotion. They said they would continue on their own existence living with emotions, starting with love. They searched the universe for billions of years for the thing the Guardians feared, and eventually found it on a planet called Zamaron. They learned of love from the first Star Sapphire gem, which was discovered locked between the embrace of two crystallized skeletons inside a cave. She explains to him that despite the fact that he had been able to defeat the various incarnations of the Star Sapphire he'd encountered up until then, other Green Lanterns had not been as fortunate. She describes another Star Sapphire falling in love with a Green Lantern and encasing his world in violet crystal so that the two could be together forever. She also mentions that the Star Sapphire gem is like the green power rings used by Green Lanterns and the yellow power rings used by Sinestro Corps members.
After this exchange, Jillian "Cowgirl" Pearlman (being possessed by the Star Sapphire) attacks the two. Jordan uses his ring to grant Ferris enhanced abilities needed to help fight Cowgirl. The two fight with the Star Sapphire and she is defeated by their combined efforts. An energy vortex opens in the room and a voice is shown as saying that "a new Corps is rising and so must ours." Four Zamarons step out of the portal, and one announces that both Cowgirl and Ferris will become the first two members of their Corps. Jordan tells Ferris to attempt to remove the Star Sapphire from Cowgirl while he confronts the Zamarons. Though she is able to do so, the stone immobilizes the two Earth women while the Zamarons gain the upper hand over Jordan. The stone asks Jordan which of the two women he desires most, and that the woman he chooses will be able to be with him forever. In response, Jordan kisses one of the Zamarons, convincing the stone to release its hostages (Cowgirl and Carol Ferris), and possess her instead. The stone reacts with its new host violently, prompting the Zamarons to retreat with her to their home planet to remove the star from their ally and discuss the gem's future.
At the end of the final issue in the storyline, the Zamarons are shown to have removed the Star Sapphire from their sister-in-arms at the cost of her life. The Zamarons agree that Jordan was right in showing how the Star Sapphire's power is too overwhelming to one host. The farther from the center of the emotional spectrum, the greater the influence a powered light has over its bearer (a plot element which would again become significant at the opposite end of the spectrum with the Red Lanterns). The Zamarons claim they could rectify the problem by taking a page from the Book of Oa. They are shown transforming the Star Sapphire into a violet power ring which they place on a pedestal along with a violet power battery. In discussion, they also describe how they'd been focused on love so long that they were almost like the emotionless Guardians. Depicted in the same room as the violet ring and battery, are a green and yellow set of powers rings and power batteries. Upon revealing this to the reader, the Zamarons comment that they "must collect them all."
Sins of the Star Sapphire.
"Sins of the Star Sapphire", running in "Green Lantern Corps" vol. 2, issues #29–32 (December 2008 – March 2009), is the story arc in which the formation of the Star Sapphires is shown. It both introduces important members of the new corps and reveals distinguishing features which set them apart from their peers. At the beginning of the arc, the Zamarons have crafted their own main power battery. Inside of their main battery are the crystallized "Adam and Eve" skeletons and Star Sapphire gem found when they first arrived on Zamaron. While experimenting with their new means of controlling the violet light of love, the Zamarons (perhaps intentionally) attracted the attention of the Guardians on Oa. Perceiving their visible power fluctuations as a threat, Guardian Scar decides to act on the display rather than wait and "hope for the best." In response, she requests a diplomatic audience with Zamaron's Queen Aga'po. Two other Guardians accompany her, while Lanterns Guy Gardner, Arisia, and Sodam Yat serve as escorts. While on Zamaron, the delegates from Oa find that the Zamarons are in possession of a number of yellow power rings that were left unclaimed after the "Sinestro Corps War" plotline. The rings are shown being drained of their power (which Arisia interprets as a deliberate display of how the same could be done to green power rings). More importantly, the delegates also discover that a number of female Sinestro Corps members have also been collected after the war and are imprisoned in violet crystals.
Queen Aga'po explains that the women imprisoned in the crystals (Fatality, Karu-Sil, and Kiriazis are specifically named, though other filled crystals are shown in "Green Lantern" vol. 4 #36) are being rehabilitated. The yellow light of fear is being drained from their rings and replaced with the violet light of love. Queen Aga'po also claims that violet light is filling an emptiness in their hearts and replacing their capacity for creating fear. The delegate meeting ends poorly for the Oans, as the Zamarons refuse to stop their pursuit of the violet light. Perhaps in response, the Guardians unanimously vote that love between Green Lanterns is forbidden within the Corps.
A sub plot is also shown to the reader in "Sins of the Star Sapphire" which introduces a key member of the new Corps. In the secondary story, Mongul frees himself of Mother Mercy's vines after being imprisoned in "Green Lantern Corps" vol. 2, issue #26 (September 2008). Ravenous after his imprisonment, he destroys a space craft belonging to newlyweds Kered and Miri Riam (on their way to their honeymoon) in order to ransack it for food. Kered approaches Mongul to ask him to spare their jet packs and enough food for them to find help. In response, Mongul cracks the face plate of Kered's pressure suit, killing him. After Mongul leaves, Miri drifts in space alone for two days before deciding to kill herself out of grief. Before she is able to complete her suicide, a violet power ring finds her and offers to fill the hole in her heart with violet light. Miri accepts and becomes the first new recruit to the Star Sapphires. Miri quickly finds herself fighting for love as she assists a group of Green Lanterns attempting to apprehend Sinestro Corps member: Kryb. Through their temporary partnership they are able to defeat the yellow ring wielder. Though an argument ensues between Miri and Kyle Rayner (one of the Green Lanterns involved in the incident) over whether Kryb should be sent to Oa or Zamaron for detainment, it's agreed that Miri will escort Kryb back to Zamaron for reconditioning and re-education.
Blackest Night.
In the issues of "Green Lantern" and "Green Lantern Corps" serving as preludes to the "Blackest Night" event, the Star Sapphires continue to make preparations for the predicted conflict. After undergoing treatment within a violet conversion crystal, Fatality emerges as a newly transformed Star Sapphire. Her first thoughts upon being released are to seek out John Stewart (a Green Lantern she'd been trying to kill for causing the destruction of her home planet). Upon finding him, however, she saves him from Agent Orange's attacking Orange Lantern constructs, demonstrating that they are unable to absorb constructs made from violet light. She admits that revenge is no longer her goal, and that she has other plans. In the following issue, she reveals that she's attracted to Stewart, may have always been, and the Star Sapphire has given her the ability to finally absolve herself of her survivor's guilt. After Fatality's successful conversion, Miri and Queen Aga'po observe that Kryb appears to be crying inside of her crystal (seemingly distraught over being separated from the children she kept imprisoned on her back). Queen Aga'po remarks that it is a sign the treatment is working.
Carol Ferris once again gains the attention of the Zamarons as well. After a divorce and giving up the chance at being with Hal Jordan, he is no longer in her life and a hole in her heart has formed. While flying his former plane, the Zamarons send her one of their new violet power rings to fill it. Ferris' reunion with the violet light is not fully shown until "Blackest Night: Tales of the Corps" #2 (July 2009). In "Tales of the Star Sapphires: Lost Love", Ferris initially expects to be possessed by her violet power ring as had been the case with the Star Sapphire gem. The ring explains to her that the Zamarons have changed service to the Star Sapphires: it must be voluntary and now extends to an entire violet Corps. The ring reveals that Ferris has the potential of becoming the most powerful Star Sapphire, and also has the ability of leading the Star Sapphires into war alongside the Green Lantern Corps. At the end of the story, the power ring keeps its word and does not recruit Ferris until she gives it permission. She is, however, manipulated by being told that her love (Hal Jordan) may die depending upon the outcome of the War of Light. By joining the Star Sapphires, Ferris may be able to prevent that from happening.
After his run-in with the Red Lanterns and Blue Lantern Corps during the "Rage of the Red Lanterns" plotline, Sinestro's attention turns from Oa to Zamaron. Before attempting to defeat a splinter cell of yellow ring wielders led by Mongul, he decides it's necessary to rescue the captured members of his Corps that are being converted into Star Sapphires. Glimpses of a planned Sinestro Corps attack are first shown coming to fruition in "Blackest Night" #1 (July 2009). Carol Ferris is depicted confronting the Sinestro Corps robot, Tekik, as conflict between the two Corps rages in the background.
The passage taken from The Book of the Black at the end of "Blackest Night" #2 states that love will be the first emotion to fall in the Black Lantern Corps' crusade against the colored lights.
"Green Lantern" vol. 4 #45 and 46 depicts the battle between the Sinestro Corps and the Star Sapphires. During the conflict, the conversion crystals are compromised and the Sinestro Corps members inside are released. Kryb immediately abandons the battle to see to her children; she is followed by Sapphire Miri Riam and the two eventually reach Kryb's planet to find her children are gone. Kryb begs Miri to help her find her children promising to return to Zamaron of her own free will if Miri helps her. Miri senses that Kryb's love for her children is genuine and, despite the fact that Miri is repulsed by Kryb, agrees to help her. Back on Zamaron the battle takes an unexpected turn when deceased Sinestro Corps members resurrected as Black Lantern arrive. Carol Ferris and Sinestro are forced to work together until Hal Jordan and the Indigo Tribe arrive. The battle rages on until two black rings head for the violet Central Power Battery, bonding to the two crystallized lovers inside (who are Prince Khufu and his consort Chay-ara; the original forms of Hawkman and Hawkgirl). The two are transformed into Black Lanterns and their escape causes the battery to explode, causing widespread devastation to the planet and freeing the Predator. The damage is so great that the Sapphires are forced to abandon the planet to the Black Lanterns, fulfilling the Book of the Black's prophecy. Carol joins with Hal, Sinestro, and Indigo-1 to face Mongul on Korugar. The loss of the Central Power Battery does not appear to have affected Carol's powers.
Carol travels with the rest of the group to Okaara to recruit Larfleeze and Atrocitus. Then they head to Ryut to determine the status of the Black Central Power Battery. Finding that it has been moved, they head to Earth with the intention of destroying the battery with the combined white light of creation. Ultimately though, the white light they produce fails to destroy the battery, and appears to feed Nekron's power.
When Ganthet duplicates the seven colored rings to deputize partners for each of the bearers, the violet ring chooses Wonder Woman as Carol's partner, deciding that she has great love in her heart, has love for all the creation and no one loves the light more than her on the planet. Wonder Woman was under the control of a black ring (from being one of numerous resurrected superheroes), but she and the violet ring's power are enough to break the black ring's hold, turning Wonder Woman into a Star Sapphire.
Brightest Day.
In the aftermath of the Blackest Night, the Zamarons rebuilt the Central Power Battery and Queen Aga'po began using her life-force to power the battery until they could capture the Predator and reseal the entity into the Violet Power Battery in order to recharge it.
For that mission the Zamarons contacted Carol Ferris on Earth, and reveal to her that the Predator was on the planet. While searching for the violet emotional entity, Carol travels to Las Vegas where she locates the Predator, now inhabiting the body of a man who is infatuated with a woman who does not even know who he is, and defeats it alongside Larfleeze and Hal who also had come searching for the love entity. The three then take the Predator back to Zamaron, however when Carol discovers the intentions of the Zamarons, she argues that the Guardians' technology that the Zamarons-based the battery on can be powered by the ambient love in the universe and refused to deliver the Predator. Upon hearing Carol's words, the Zamaron Queen Aga'po used the last of her life force to charge the Central Power Battery, leaving her title of Queen of the Star Sapphires to Carol.
Not much later, Zamaron is invaded by Queen Shriek of Hawkworld and her Hawk-Men. Carol and the Predator with the help from Hawkman and Hawkgirl tried to stop the Queen from taking the power of the Battery for herself, until the Predator bonded with the Queen. The Hawks eventually separate the Queen from the entity, as the skeletons from the Hawks past incarnations come alive due to the power of the Violet Battery and take Queen Shriek to the inside of the battery where she's sealed away with all the skeletons.
New 52.
The Zamarons are the first to acknowledge, after learning of Larfleeze's role in banishing the Orrery of Archangel Invictus into another dimension, that the events like Sinestro becoming a Green Lantern once again, the fall of the Sinestro Corps, the Red Lanterns' Central Battery being poisoned, the return of Invictus and the Reach invasion in Odym are no coincidence, a fact that was currently revealed to be the Guardians of the Universe doing as they try to bring about the rise of the Third Army.
Prominent members.
Conversion crystals.
A distinguishing feature that marks the Star Sapphires as unique among their peers, in "Green Lantern" and "Green Lantern Corps", is their use of conversion crystals. While other Corps exclusively recruit their members by sending out their rings in search of sentient beings, the Star Sapphires are also shown as being able to convert other Corps members into Star Sapphires. By encasing the members of other Corps within violet rehabilitation crystals on Zamaron, the light of their rings is slowly transformed into violet, whereupon they emerge as newly formed Star Sapphires, such as Yrra Cynril (Fatality). Similarly, violet power rings also momentarily encase new members to the Corps in crystal before granting them their Star Sapphire abilities and uniform. Those imprisoned within the crystals can be freed by an outside force, or free themselves if sufficiently motivated, interrupting the transformation process before it's complete.
The silhouettes of numerous Sinestro Corps members are shown within conversion crystals, but they are all released before their conversions are complete. The following characters have been depicted as escaping their crystals before becoming Star Sapphires:
Lobo was placed in a crystal by Carol Ferris during his battle with her, Hal Jordan, Sinestro, Atrocitous, and Dex Starr. We never see what he does, but Lobo breaks out thanking her "for the peep show." He then whispers to her what he really wants, causing Carol to smack him with a giant hand created by her ring.
It was originally believed that this process simply awakened the love each of these people already had inside them, allowing them to love without being inhibited by other emotions. Statements by Fatality after her ring is destroyed seem to indicate that the conversion process instead forces the convert to feel love regardless of their actual feelings, placing them essentially under mind control.
Entity.
Originally believed to be one of the subconscious identities developed by Carol Ferris, which acted as a masculine "animus" to the feminine "anima" of Star Sapphire, the Predator repeatedly appeared as a mysterious figure, protecting Carol's beloved company from the threats of Eclipso, the Demolition Team, and Jason Bloch. He also established the company Intercontinental Petroleum (Con-Trol) to let her regain control of Ferris Aircraft. Finally, the Predator started to court Carol (who did not know that the Predator was a part of herself) and battled Hal Jordan for her love. The Predator was later assumed to have been killed by Nekron.
During the Blackest Night, it was revealed through the Guardian known as "Scar" that the Predator is actually the sentient embodiment of Love: 'love with nothing to temper it'; and one of seven Embodiments of the Emotional Spectrum resembling a reptilian creature, which had been held captive by the Zamarons within a crystal chamber; the length of this containment is unknown.
The entity emphasizes the aggressive nature in one's being, making the subject paranoid and highly obsessive. The Predator imbues its host with the power to latch onto and manipulate people's minds, and is able to change and affect them at the host's will. Queen Aga'po mentions to one of her attendants that Carol Ferris would be an ideal candidate for taming the Predator.
When the planet Zamaron was attacked by Black Lanterns who succeeded in destroying the Star Sapphire Central Power Battery, the Predator was able to escape its crystalline containment and return to the universe at large.
The Predator, like all the other emotional entities, was attracted to Earth by the Entity and is now being hunted by Krona. The white entity intones for Hal, Carol, and Sinestro to find them before it is too late. According to Atrocitus' divining ritual, the emotional entities had come to Earth and the Predator should be located somewhere in the southwestern United States.
After battling an Ophidian-possessed Hector Hammond, Hal and Larfleeze traveled to Las Vegas, where Carol Ferris was already hunting the love entity. There the Predator possessed a man named Abraham Pointe, who was obsessed with a woman named Lisa. After attempting to have its host meet the target of his affection, the Predator became corrupted by the man's infatuation with the woman, as Abraham did not know what true love was.
Discovered by Carol, Hal, and Larfleeze, the four battled within a casino as the Predator-possessed Abraham attempted to reach Lisa. Knowing the only way to win was to allow Abraham to feel love, Carol kissed the man and severed his connection to the Predator. With the entity subdued, Carol, Hal, and Larfleeze were teleported to Zamaron with the Predator. Carol successfully defended the Predator from having the Zamarrons imprisoning it back within the Star Sapphire Central Power Battery and, in doing so, became the new Queen of the Star Sapphires.
Zamaron was soon after attacked by forces from Hawkworld. The Predator was ridden into combat by Carol, until it sensed the complete lack of love in the heart of Hawkworld's leader, Queen Shrike (mother of Shiera Hall). The Predator then proceeded to bond with the evil queen, however the entity was soon drawn out of its host by the love felt between Hawkman and Hawkgirl.
Later it is revealed through Carol that the Predator was captured by Krona. The Predator was later seen with Krona on Oa where it possessed one of the remaining six Guardians of the Universe. Predator was eventually free from Krona's control when the rogue Guardian was killed by Hal Jordan and is once again at large in the universe.
Oath.
Just as the Green Lanterns and other Lantern Corps recharge their own rings, the following is the oath used by Star Sapphires to recharge their violet power rings:
Powers and abilities.
Violet power ring.
Corp members of the Star Sapphires use violet power rings, fueled by the emotion of love. They allow the wearer to fly, generate a protective aura, and create violet light constructs.
Violet rings have several unique abilities. They can create crystals which can be used to imprison members of other Lantern Corps on Zamaron. Over time, the rings of the prisoners trapped in stasis within the crystals are infected with violet energy. After spending enough time inside, the prisoner will emerge as a Star Sapphire. The rings can also detect when a love is in jeopardy, locate it, and then create a connection to the embattled heart that can be used as a tether. Sapphires are also shown as being able to show others their greatest love. Unlike constructs created by Green Lanterns, Orange Lanterns cannot absorb those made by Star Sapphires. Star Sapphires appear to be able to teleport in order to escape attackers, while their energy constructs release a disorienting dust when destroyed. These two abilities can be combined effectively to avoid being pursued. Violet power rings have the ability to restore the recently deceased to life by drawing power from the heart of one that loves them.
Though Star Sapphires do not have a weakness to other Corps (they are immune to the energy stealing properties of an Orange Power Ring), they are more susceptible to being controlled by their own power. Love is one of the two emotions on the far ends of the emotional spectrum, and has a much stronger influence over its users. Unlike the Star Sapphire gem, which could force itself on a user, violet power rings must be accepted by the wearer.