Jo Mullein is Green Lantern, a hero granted power over the "Green Level of Light" by an encounter with a mysterious alien known as Abin Sur.
History
Origin
Darkseid created the Absolute Universe to be a world where heroes were the underdogs, and lacked the advantages of their Earth 0 counterparts.[2] As such Jo Mullein was not a member of a galaxy-spanning Green Lantern Corps who solved mysteries in the furthest reaches of space; but just a small-town ex-cop.[1]
Jo is originally from the small town of Evergreen, Nevada; where she worked as a deputy alongside Sheriff Guy Gardner. She later relocated to Coast City and got married, but her marriage eventually ended in divorce and she moved back home. Guy invited her to return to Evergreen Sheriff's Department but she refused due to an unresolved personal conflict between the two of them. She refused to speak about her life in Coast City, insisting it was in the past, but continued to wear her wedding ring.
One day as she was having lunch with her old friends John Stewart and Hal Jordan, a translucent green dome suddenly dropped around the town. A biker riding at full speed down the road smashed headlong into the dome and was instantly killed, his body splattering into blood and gore and his bike exploding. Hal ran over to help the guy but found he could not get through the dome. Jo went to check out the force field with Hal while John tried to call for help but found that he had no signal. They saw some more bikers approaching on the other side of the dome, but the men simply turned around when they got close, seemingly not noticing the force field or their dead friend. Jo looked up to the top of the dome and saw a starship in the shape of a giant green lantern hovering far up in the air with a huge four-armed alien floating in the centre of it.[1]
The alien beamed down to the surface and the entire town turned out to see what was happening. He announced that he was Abin Sur and that he existed at the "Green Level of Light", ordering the people of Evergreen to "be without fear". Guy Gardner approached Abin Sur and said that he was the authority in Evergreen. Abin Sur summoned green energy in his hand and levelled it at Guy, saying that judgement would commence. Guy and his deputies Ron and Rita interpreted this as a threat and drew their weapons, while Abin Sur calmly told Guy that he did not exist in the "Spectrum of Light" and once again instructed him to be without fear. Jo was able to convince Guy not to escalate and the sheriffs stood down. Guy asked Abin Sur to tell them what he wanted, but Abin Sur obliterated Guy with a blast, declaring that he had been judged.
Guy's deputies opened fire on Abin Sur but he blocked their bullets with a force field, decapitated Rita with his bare hands and cut Ron's hand off. John and Jo rushed to stop the bleeding from he stump and save Ron's life; but Hal ran up, grabbed Rita's gun and pointed it at Abin Sur. Abin Sur showed no fear of this and told Hal that his judgment was in progress, even addressing Hal by name. John got in between them and told Hal to lower the gun, saying that Abin Sur would just kill him too if he tried to shoot him; and Hal reluctantly did so. Abin Sur told John to be without fear, also addressing him by name, and then flew back up to the Lantern. That night; John, Hal and Jo met up again. John said that they needed to remove Abin Sur from the equation and that he knew how to do it, pulling out a gold ring.[3]
The next morning, John revealed to them that the ring was an earring which the biker had been wearing when he crashed into the dome, meaning it had somehow passed through, and that he had been able to throw it outside the dome again. John also realised that it was unlikely the ring was actual gold and so wanted to determine if anything which appeared to be gold would also work. He got Jo and Hal to join him, asking Hal to bring along any cheap toy he had which was gold coloured. Hal brought him a gold plastic statuette which John discovered he could push through the dome. He then tried his grandmother's actual gold engagement ring, which not only went through the dome but violently disrupted the field and actually left a hole in it for a few seconds. Jo wondered if there were enough gold objects in town to allow them to open a hole large enough for someone to leave and John said it was possible, but that he didn't think that was the lesson they were supposed to be learning. Before he could say anything else Abin Sur flew down and told John he had been judged, then obliterated him with an energy blast. John was not afraid and accepted his death with a calm smile. Enraged, local diner owner Todd Rice tried to shoot Abin Sur with a shotgun, but he simply blocked the bullets and flew away.[4]
Green Lantern
Five days after it had first appeared, the lantern crashed down onto Evergreen, levelling multiple blocks and killing an untold number of people. Jo's ring now gave her powers over the same green energy that Abin Sur had wielded, and whenever she closed her eyes she saw a vision of a ring of swirling light in the darkness and heard a voice telling her to "be without fear" just as Abin Sur had. She was drawn to a diner called "Mae & Moe's", where she found Hal alone inside the destroyed building. His left hand had transformed into solid darkness with tendrils of shadow radiating from it.[1][3]
Hal warned Jo not to get close because the Hand destroyed anything that it saw as a threat and he couldn't control it. Jo asked Hal what he had done with Rita's gun, and it flowed out of his hand. Hal warned Jo that the hand was hungry and wanted to subsume the light. Jo nervously asked him to put the gun down but he ignored her. Hal said that the darkness was very old, and should be weak and forgotten, but something fed it and allowed it to survive so now there was a small piece of it everything. Hal told Jo that he was fighting it and trying not to listen, but it kept telling him he was right. He opened his eyes to reveal they had turned black.[3]
Against Hal's wishes, the Black Hand pointed Rita's gun at Jo and fired a concentrated stream of darkness at her, trying to consume the light. Jo instinctively created a force field bubble around herself to hold it off and rose up into the air. Hal couldn't stop the shadows and yelled at Jo to just let it take the light, but she summoned up a construct of a fist that punched him out of the diner and far into the desert beyond. Jo flew out to where Hal had landed and warned him to get himself under control or she would do it for him. The hand reached out to her even as Hal tried to pull it back, and he asked her how she was able to control her power.[4]
Powers and Abilities
Abilities
Paraphernalia
Weapons
- Ring: Jo's wedding ring was somehow imbued with the "Green Level of Light".[3]
Notes
- Green Lantern/Jo Mullein was created by N.K. Jemisin and Jamal Campbell, first appearing in Far Sector #1. However, the Absolute Universe version of Green Lantern/Jo Mullein first appeared in Absolute Green Lantern #1 by Al Ewing and Jahnoy Lindsay.
Related
- 3 Appearances of Sojourner Mullein (Absolute Universe)
- 5 Images featuring Sojourner Mullein (Absolute Universe)
- 1 Quotations by or about Sojourner Mullein (Absolute Universe)
- Character Gallery: Sojourner Mullein (Absolute Universe)
Footnotes