We have all seen how the various Lantern Corps are more like physical manifestations of various emotional spectrums. The energy that powers their power battery comes from the fact that different emotions exist in the universe. Fear, rage, greed, hope, compassion, love, and life are all examples of willpower. Death, on the other hand, is the Black Lanterns’ source of power.
Nekron, the physical incarnation of death, is the brains behind the Black Lanterns and, as the embodiment of death, he cannot be slain. The origins of the Black Lanterns can be traced back to three different beings. William Hand, Nekron, and Scar- the Death Guardian William goes on to become the first Black Lantern, the Black Hand.
We have all seen how the various Lantern Corps are more like physical manifestations of various emotional spectrums. The energy that powers their power battery comes from the fact that different emotions exist in the universe. Fear, rage, greed, hope, compassion, love, and life are all examples of willpower. Death, on the other hand, is the Black Lanterns’ source of power.
Nekron, the physical incarnation of death, is the brains behind the Black Lanterns and, as the embodiment of death, he cannot be slain. The origins of the Black Lanterns can be traced back to three different beings. William Hand, Nekron, and Scar- the Death Guardian William goes on to become the first Black Lantern, the Black Hand.
THE MAN WHO WOULD ONE DAY BE KNOWN AS BLACK HAND
The guy who would become Black Hand was born an imaginative prodigy with a proclivity for speaking in exceedingly old clichés. William’s family, the Hands, were well-known in Coatesville, a Coast City, California neighborhood. He, on the other hand, learned to loathe them early in life. He decided that the only way to disassociate himself from them, particularly his three brothers, was to begin a criminal career.
He became an accomplished criminal after a lengthy study and he eluded cops at every opportunity. He eventually evolved into a costumed supervillain known as “Black Hand”. William Hand’s parents own and operate a coroner’s/funeral home, the badge of which is the same insignia, William will use at the start of his criminal career.
Hand, as a young kid, was revealed to have a strong fascination with death and the deceased. His energy-absorbing device is now seen to have been created by Atrocitus, a fanatical foe of the Guardians of the Universe. Atrocitus has seen the future of and is scavenging the earth to find the creature responsible for the events known as The Blackest Night, William Hand.
He finds William but is stopped by Green Lanterns Hal Jordan and Sinestro. During the fight, William discovers and steals Atroctius’ power rod. This occurrence will have an impact on the following events in Hand’s life, particularly the specifics of his Black Hand profession. Hand created his most notable creation in preparations for a showdown with the Coast City-based Green Lantern Hal Jordan.
The gadget was capable of absorbing the energy remnant of a Green Lantern power ring from whatever object it came into contact with. When powered by this energy, his equipment functions similarly to a Green Lantern Power Ring. Along with Hal Jordan, Black Hand has faced Kilowog and the second Flash Barry Allen during his career.
He tried to manage an adult theatre for a period when he resigned from a life of crime. This fresh perspective on life ended abruptly when Guy Gardner and his girlfriend Ice disrupted it. Even though the act was small in their view, it inspired Hand to become a criminal once more. Further experiences with a ringless Gardner left Hand mentally and emotionally damaged.
BLACKEST NIGHT: THE ORIGIN OF WILLIAM HAND AKA BLACK HAND
Black Hand was lazing in an open grave with several skeletons after returning to Earth following the Final Crisis when he started to hear the voice of the Guardian of Death, the entity that made the Black Lantern on Ryu. The voice began to proclaim the names of numerous heroes who had died and resurrected, such as Hal Jordan, Superman, Wonder Woman, Kilowog, The Flash, and Kid Flash. When Hand returned to his family’s house, he slaughtered each member of his family one by one before ultimately turning his cosmic diving rod on himself.
Scar, who worshipped The Guardian of Death as well, created a Black Lantern Power Ring that resurrected Black Hand, whom they dubbed the herald of their lord. Hand traveled to Gotham City, uttered the Black Lantern oath, and dug up Batman’s skull. Following this, the Nekron unleashed hundreds of Black rings from the Black Lantern Central Battery, dispersing them around the galaxy.
Previous Justice League members J’onn J’onzz, Ralph Dibny, and Sue Dibny were among those who joined the Black Lantern Corps. J’onn was dispatched to track down Hal Jordan and Barry Allen, while the Dibnys were dispatched to track down Hawkman and Hawkgirl, who had been trapped in a cycle of death and rebirth for almost three thousand years.
The Dibnys assassinated the Hawks, and Black Hand dispatched rings from Batman’s skull to join the Black Lantern Corps. Black Hand was last spotted at Boston Brand’s grave. A group of magical users had gathered to investigate the vanishing of Brand’s body. Black Hand reappeared, still clutching Bruce Wayne’s head. Crispus Allen, the Spectre’s host, was hired into his corps.
The Black Lantern was now able to rely on the energies of the spirit of vengeance thanks to the black ring trapping the Spectre in Allen’s body. Black Hand traveled to Coast City, where the power requirements in the black rings were reaching 100 percent, still holding Bruce Wayne’s skull. He stated that the Guardians had a terrible secret that they had kept hidden from the rest of the cosmos.
He went to his family’s old company and stood in front of the entrance. Shortly later, the Black Lanterns’ power levels reached 100 percent, and Scar carried the Black Lantern Power Battery from Ryut to Earth.
Flash arrived at the Hand’s former house to retrieve William when, in a massive explosion, the Black Lantern Central Power Battery, Scar, and the prisoner Guardians appeared precisely in front of Black Hand, demolishing his old home. Black Hand stated with a smirk “Nekron Rise”. With the help of the rogue Guardian Scar, Black Hand observed the rise of the Lord of the Unliving, the actual genius behind the Black Lanterns. Barry Allen charged for the newly awakened Nekron, but Black Hand sprang in front of him, stopping him and slamming him to the ground.
He informed Flash that he was now deceased and felt much better about it and that Flash should immediately die since he would feel the same way. Flash observed Bruce’s skull in the villain’s palm and tried to wrench it away, but was hit by immense anguish as the skull revealed the connection of an emotional tether.
While Black Hand prepared to murder Barry, several of the Black Lanterns held him down, telling him that he’d never do anything to his body as he wasn’t his type. Wally West emerged seconds before executing him, saving Barry and temporarily knocking Black Hand away.
When Nekron revealed that he was the one who had brought all of the heroes who had died and returned to life before back to life, a black ring shot from his scythe and Black Hand propped up Bruce’s skull, becoming a full Black Lantern Batman. Black Hand observed the heroes as they all felt emotionally invested in this specific Black Lantern and were all ready for Batman to spit out Black Power Rings at them, making them into Black Lanterns.
The creature of life was then unleashed by Black Hand’s leader, Nekron. Black Hand used his innards, which were made up of all the hues of the emotional spectrum, to rip open one of the Guardians of the Universe. He summoned The Trespasser, the pure manifestation of life, using the organs.
Following Sinestro’s capture of the entity, Black Handled his Black Lantern warriors in a battle against the whole colored corps. When Deadman arrived at the battle, he told Hal Jordan that Hand was the tie that kept Nekron linked to the realm of the living and that he needed to be “fixed” if they were to destroy Nekron. Deadman stated that they would need to “repair” Black Hand in order to bring him back to life.
Hal then devised a strategy to attack Hand, battling his way past him to reach the white thing. Hal then joined with the creature in front of Black Hand and transferred his life-giving power to all that Black Hand had killed using the Black Lantern Batman. He turned their black power rings into White Lanterns after destroying them.
They then launched an attack on Black Hand, hurling the very strength of life on him. Black Hand was ensnared and brought back to life by the creature. Hand coughed out a white power ring that flew past Nekron and into the Black Lantern Central Power Battery, reviving the Anti-Monitor.
Hand spits forth a big bunch of white power rings that all went directly into Nekron, killing him in a blinding blaze of light after the Anti-Monitor had failed to destroy him. The rings Hand spit forth brought back to life twelve of the Black Lanterns, including Aquaman and the Martian Manhunter. The Indigo Tribe then magically took Hand and enrolled him into their ranks. He seemed bewildered, with a blank countenance that just said “NOK”.
WHAT MAKES SHADOW KING SO DANGEROUS?
He now has the ability to replicate his hand thanks to the activities of extra-terrestrials who exposed him to testing. The experiments gave Black Hand the capacity to absorb the life-force of the living in order to generate a new hand. The quantity of life force he uses is proportional to the duration he can operate the limb.
This ability was surpassed by his transformation into the Avatar of Death. William Hand, the first Black Lantern, possesses the capacity to manufacture Black Lantern Power Rings from his own flesh, as well as the capability to resurrect himself after death. After escaping the Indigo Tribe and dying again, Black Hand demonstrated the power to slaughter individuals and revive dead bodies into zombies under his command, albeit without the use of Black Lantern Power Rings.
Black Hand spent years building a book that provided the answer to each issue a criminal could encounter, and his photographic memory allowed him to recall every detail in it. It’s difficult to top Black Hand’s heinous crimes after receiving his Black Lantern ring from Nekron, the personification of death.
Black Hand disseminated Black Lantern rings around the DC Universe, bringing the dead back to life to slaughter the living. Many fallen Justice League heroes were among the dead, but Black Hand and Nekron ultimately began enslaving heroes who awoke from the dead, including Superman, Wonder Woman, and Green Arrow. It took the united forces of the Justice League and each Lantern Corps to build the White Lantern rings and expel Nekron from this world.
SUICIDE SQUAD RECRUIT’S BLACK HAND
The Suicide Squad’s most recent mission leads them to space, where they meet a Green Lantern and a mysterious Black Lantern who has gone missing. The Green Lantern adversary the Black Hand has made an unexpected return to the DC Universe, and the Suicide Squad is looking to add him to their ranks. Task Force X is dispatched to space in Suicide Squad, where the crew is on a perilous rescue mission.
It turns out that their objective is the most lethal Black Lantern in the cosmos, who has been imprisoned by the Green Lantern Corps. The Black Hand has been a Green Lantern enemy for over 50 years, first debuting in Green Lantern by John Broome and Gil Kane. Originally, Black Hand earned his strength by inventing a gadget that allowed him to drain power from the Green Lantern’s Power Ring.
Later retcons made the gadget created by Red Lantern Atrocitus, which caught the eye of the Green Lantern Corps. Black Hand sometimes heard voices asking him to resurrect the dead after being imprisoned. The villain would slaughter his own family and commit suicide, only to be resurrected by the Guardian Scar, who bestowed upon him a Black Lantern Power Ring.
Black Hand would resuscitate a number of heroes into Black Lanterns with his newfound ability to reanimate the dead, triggering to the events of Blackest Night. Suicide Squad, written by Robbie Thompson, Eduardo Pansica, Julio Ferreira, Dexter Soy, Marcelo Maiolo, Allen Passalaqua, and Wes Abbott, follows a superteam of villains as they attempt to return to Earth from space.
However, they are apprehended by Jo Mullein’s Green Lantern and imprisoned on Sciencell 0803. Match quickly understands that being apprehended was all part of Waller’s plan. Culebra eventually discovers that the jail also houses another enemy, the Black Hand. The Black Lantern is wearing a mask, which means he can’t use his powers.
Despite this, he is frequently shown wielding a skull, which he frequently uses when resurrecting heroes as Black Lanterns during Black Night. Amanda Waller, it turns out, intended the Suicide Squad to be apprehended so she could find Black Hand.
Nothing, according to Waller, will be able to stop her with the undead villain on her side. It’s another big swing by Waller, who has gone to tremendous efforts to put together one of the most formidable Suicide Squads of all time. It will be interesting to discover what abilities Black Hand possesses and whether he is still as powerful as Waller claims. Regardless, resurrecting the deadliest Black Lantern is terrible news for the rest of the DC Universe, as Black Hand will almost certainly become the Suicide Squad’s newest member. Amanda Waller is clearly not joking.
WE MAY SEE BLACK HAND IN THE DCEU
Matt Reeves approached WB, with a proposal for an adaptation in the late 2030s. The legendary Blackest Night mini-series penned by Geoff Johns. He met with Johns, and they discussed several adaptation possibilities and what needed to be changed to make it work in the DCEU. For the most part, Johns was unimpressed in the remake and preferred to work on projects outside of the DCEU, although he gave Reeves his OK.
He visited with higher-ups, who were also uninterested since it would have required the actors from the Justice League films, and they wanted to focus on minor characters for the post-Justice League V slate. Reeves went on to say that they could easily turn it into an Elseworld narrative and that it would be part of a distinct continuity with other actors.
They were now more interested in the concept, and it was finally greenlit for a 2042 delivery date. Reeves intended to write and direct the picture, as well as cast performers who had already appeared in other films to save the headache of recruiting fresh actors.
The film’s budget was set at $200 million, and Reeves was in the process of casting when he was informed that because of the high budget, the picture would be canceled, and the much lesser funded Justice League Dark 2 would be greenlit instead. They did, however, offer Reeves a mini-series with a far lesser budget for the same year.
While Reeves thoroughly considered the idea, he finally declined because Blackest Night required a large, epic scale feature, and he didn’t believe it could work as a mini-series. As a result, he abandoned the idea. In its place, Orphan was created. Reeves noted that his Blackest Night adaptation would have been “at least 4 hours long” and “extremely epic in grandiose.”
While DC execs were aware of this and were willing to let him pursue his artistic vision, it was very plausible that the picture was canceled due to this, in addition to the exorbitant budget. Reeves indicated that as a precursor to the major plot, he would have combined elements from Rebirth and Sinestro Corps War. Because he didn’t have to worry about consistency with the main DCEU, he could have adapted the tale quite faithfully. There were minor changes, but Reeves stated that the goal was to tighten the tale and keep the tempo moving.