Frank Laminski (Prime Earth)

Call me Frank Laminski. For one brief, shining moment, I thought I was big-time. Taking the Flaming Spear [jet] to mach four. Thousands of feet above the desert. But I made the one mistake no pilot should ever make. I felt fear. And then... my life changed. I saw my future. I saw what I wanted to be. The Green Lantern.

— Frank Laminski ^src

History

Frank Laminski grew up in a life where he was never noticed or appreciated as anything special, he felt unappreciated and completely average. He then decided to join the Air Force to gain a sense of purpose, but still went unnoticed. Soon after he overheard a conversation from his commanding officer's regarding who will test drive a new concept jet, The Flaming Spear. The commanding officer agreed to let Frank test drive it, but he pushed the jet to its limits, and as a result the engines failed. As Frank was crashing, Hal Jordan (who just received his Green Lantern ring) saved him. After he reported his crash, he was grounded, and not allowed to fly ever again in the Air Force, but he did not care about his military career anymore, the only thing he wanted in life was to be a Green Lantern.

Frank soon left the Air Force and dedicated his life to training (both mental and physical) with the hope that whoever gave Green Lantern (Hal Jordan) his ring, would see his dedication and training and give him one as well. He tried this for years and years, all the while tracking every appearance of Green Lantern (Hal Jordan) and learned as much as he could about the Green Lantern Ring. As more time passed he watched as a new Green Lantern was chosen, then another, and then a third. However, Frank did not give up hope, and pushed himself even further, often times taking the most dangerous of jobs such as becoming a security guard in Arkham Asylum, and also honing in his firearm skills, learning as much as he could by reading various literature, etc.

Just about when he was going to give up all hope, a Green Lantern Ring burst through his window, speaking the words: "Frank Laminski of Earth. You have the ability to overcome great fear. You have been chosen. Welcome to the Green Lantern Co-- Error. Welcome to th-- Error. Malfunction detected. Recalibrating. Rescanning. Frank Laminski. You do not have the ability to overcome great fear. You have not been chosen. Correct candidate located. Charting course: Guantanamo Bay, Cuba." The ring then zoomed away and found a new host in Simon Baz.

It was then after this moment that Frank gave up all hope and fell into deep depression. But just when all hope was lost, Frank came back to his apartment after a long day to find a mysterious hooded figure in his room. The figure told him that he was watching him and tracking his movements for quite some time. This figure then tells Frank of a certain ring that did not need to choose its wearer, but one that anybody could use: the Phantom Ring. Frank asks who this figure is, so he removes his cloak to reveal himself to be none other than Volthoom, the First Lantern.^[1]

Soon after, Frank follows the advice of Volthoom and travels to the location of the two current Green Lanterns of Earth, Simon Baz and Jessica Cruz, who just so happen to be protecting the exiled Guardian of the Universe, Rami, the creator of Phantom Ring. He distracts them by setting a house on fire across the neighborhood, and in the distraction he sneaks into the house, takes the ring, and becomes the Phantom Lantern, but due to the nature of the ring it takes the form of the ring that is connected to the emotion he is the strongest in at the moment, in this case willpower, and he becomes a pseudo Green Lantern.^[2]

He then bursts out of the house, and rushes away to "go make a difference in the world", and that is what he does. He goes and rescues cats out of trees, stops forest fires, and rescues a kid from an oncoming tornado. It is soon after the tornado is nullified by Frank that both Simon and Jessica arrive and confront him, telling him he is not "a real Green Lantern". He becomes infuriated with the two of them and begins to glow red with the power of the Red Lanterns, but soon turns his mind to how it is his right to be a Green Lantern, and as a result he explodes with a bright orange light, becoming a pseudo Orange Lantern.^[3]

He then storms off, races back to Volthoom for help, and starts experiencing multiple emotions at once (fear, anger, and greed) and as a result become a pseudo Yellow Lantern, Red Lantern, Orange Lantern respectively in rapid succession. He then maintains his composure and control, and becomes a "Green Lantern" again. He then rushes back to Simon and Jessica for one final confrontation.^[4]

Frank appears before the two Green Lanterns, but due to his increasing emotional instability, he shifts between fear (yellow), rage (red), hope (blue), fear (yellow) again, orange (greed), and fear (yellow) for a final time^[5], then to finally end up feeling compassion (indigo) and as a result becomes a pseudo "Indigo Lantern". His compassion becomes so great that he feels the urge to remove the ring, and indeed does that very thing. After he takes the ring off he comes to his senses and before he can get his ring back on, Simon shoves him and takes Phantom Ring, to then pass it to Jessica Cruz.

Frank is then knocked out, tied up, and beaten. Simon and Jessica call in a favor from Cyborg and has the Justice League relocate and hold him in the Watchtower holding cells.^[6]

Powers and Abilities

Abilities

Weaknesses

Obsession^[7]
Power Instability: Phantom Ring can change its emotion spectrum power source whenever the user feels even the slightest emotion, changing their personality entirely to match that emotion and its perspective power source. It also is not powered by a battery, but instead has direct exposure to the entire Emotional Electromagnetic Spectrum, and prolonged exposure can cause the user to explode like a bomb.

Paraphernalia

Weapons

Phantom Ring
- Red Energy Conduit
- Orange Energy Conduit
- Yellow Energy Conduit
- Green Energy Conduit
- Blue Energy Conduit
- Indigo Energy Conduit
- Violet Energy Conduit
- Energy Construct Creation^[8]
  - Force Field^[8]
- Energy Projection
- Flight^[8]

Oath

"In Desperate Day, In Hopeless Night,
The Phantom Ring is our last light.
We yearn for power, strength and might
I seize the ring, that is my right!"

Frank Laminski (Prime Earth)

Contents