5 Green Lantern Power Ring Abilities Most People Don't Know About

The ring that Hal Jordan (Kyle Chandler) wears in "Lanterns" is one of the most powerful weapons in the DC Universe. While protecting their sectors of intergalactic space, members of the Green Lantern Corps wear rings that allow them to both fly and create whatever glowing green constructs they can imagine. TV audiences have already seen some of these powers in HBO's gritty and witty adaptation of the comic books.

Yet the Green Lanterns' rings boast more powers than just flight and energy projection. They can do a whole bunch of incredible things, in fact — to the point where, for a while, it all got a little silly. Back in the Silver Age of Comics, from the mid-'50s through to about 1970, issues of "Green Lantern" would give the rings truly incredible powers, like phasing through walls or traveling through time, only for them to never come up again. The more recent "Green Lantern" comics, which the show seems to be based on, have featured even more abilities, and most of these are closer to what you might consider "canonical" — even if it's not yet clear whether the rings in the HBO adaptation possess them, too. Here are five Green Lantern abilities that you might not have known about, as seen in DC comics.

In the first episode of "Lanterns," Hal Jordan explains that, when he put on the Green Lantern ring he got from the shipwrecked Abin Sur, he found he could suddenly understand every word of Abin's alien language. Clearly, the rings in the HBO series act as universal translators — and this is true in the comics, too.

While not the flashiest superpower, the rings' ability to help alien races understand each other is extremely useful. The Green Lantern Corps is a universe-spanning police force whose members hail from many different worlds. The sectors they're charged with protecting have countless different alien species living in them, and being able to communicate with the beings they're supposed to be protecting is very important.

The ring's universal translator power is also narratively essential. The "Green Lantern" comics wouldn't be nearly as enjoyable to read if none of the alien characters on Oa, the planet the Lanterns use as their home base, were able to understand one another.

Green Lantern rings can construct whatever the ringbearer can imagine, so it really shouldn't be that surprising that they grant their wielders other abilities that involve the mind. For instance, Green Lanterns can use their rings as superhero walkie-talkies, allowing them to communicate telepathically. This can come in handy whenever Lanterns find themselves in a situation in which they must stay quiet — or when they're flying in the vacuum of space, where, according to physics, they wouldn't be able to hear each other if they spoke out loud.

There are other mental powers associated with the rings, too. A story in the 2003 anthology comic "DC Power: A Celebration" revealed that John Stewart used his ring to compartmentalize his own memories, locking away a traumatic childhood moment inside an emerald green mind palace.

Kyle Chandler's Hal Jordan stopped wearing his Green Lantern uniform at some point before the events of the "Lanterns" TV show, but in the comics, that uniform is another superpower. Green Lantern rings are able to summon the clothing that all of the Lanterns wear. Unlike the rest of the rings' constructs, these clothes are not typically glowing green, nor are they even all green — most uniforms have green, black, and possibly some white in them.

There are so many Lanterns from so many different alien species, all with their own body structures. Many Lanterns also have costumes that reflect their personality. For this reason, it makes sense for the rings to be able to generate the clothing, rather than forcing the Guardians of the Universe to get their threads from a massive fashion district on Oa.

Notably, though, this is not a power that the rings have in "Lanterns." In an interview with SYFY Wire, costume designer Cynthia Ann Summers explained that the uniforms were designed as real suits rather than ring constructs in an attempt to ground the show. "The suit needed to fit within our world," she said.

The ability to bring a ringbearer back from a fatal injury and keep them functioning in a state of near undeath isn't exactly a "standard" ability of Green Lantern rings — but it can happen.

Driq, a Green Lantern who made his debut in the '80s, is killed in the line of duty in "Green Lantern Corps" #223. Due to an apparent glitch in his ring, however, rather than zoom off to find a new wearer, it resurrects him. The zombie-like Lantern continues to fight against the evil Sinestro, and any time he gets hit with an attack that should kill him, the ring simply reforms his body. Driq eventually dies for real when the central battery powering all the Green Lantern rings explodes. Without a functioning ring, there's nothing keeping Driq "alive."

Driq would later show up in the major comic event "Blackest Night," in which an evil villain uses black power rings to resurrect fallen superheroes and supervillains as zombies. Upon being revived, Driq's restored Green Lantern ring once more allows his willpower to shine through, and he's able to help the heroes fight to save the day.

In the comics, not every Green Lantern has access to every one of the rings' myriad abilities. For example, the human Green Lantern Simon Baz has a unique ability that few other Lanterns possess.

In 2017's "Green Lanterns," a comic series that follows Baz and another relatively recent human Green Lantern, Jessica Cruz, Baz suddenly experiences visions of future events. As his eyes glow green and he's overcome with images of him and his partner in peril, the ring informs him that he has been granted "Emerald Sight." (It's never fully explained why Baz, of all Lanterns, receives this power from his ring.)

That's not Baz's only unique ability, either. He also uses his ring to heal somebody else's injuries in a 2011 issue of "Green Lantern," something that other Green Lanterns believed to be impossible. When it comes to Green Lantern ring powers, it seems, it really depends on the Lantern in question.