Soranik Natu

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caption = Soranik Natu, from Green Lantern Corps: Recharge #5 Art by Patrick Gleason.
character_name = Soranik Natu
publisher =DC Comics
debut = Green Lantern Corps: Recharge #1
creators = Geoff Johns, Dave Gibbons,and artist Patrick Gleason
alter_ego =
full_name = Soranik Natu
species =
homeworld = Korugar
alliances = Green Lantern Corps
aliases =
supports=
powers = Power Ring

Soranik Natu is a fictional comic book superheroine, an extraterrestrial from the planet Korugar, and a member of the intergalactic police force known as the Green Lantern Corps. She first appeared in DC Comics' "" #1 (November 2005), and was created by writers Geoff Johns and Dave Gibbons, and artist Patrick Gleason.

Fictional character Biography

History

A neurosurgeon by trade, Natu, like the rest of her race, saw the Green Lanterns and everything associated with them as a symbol of oppression, because the first Korugaran to have been a Green Lantern was the renegade Sinestro. Sinestro, unbeknownst to his superiors, the Guardians of the Universe, who recruit and administrate the Green Lantern Corps, used his GL power ring to enslave his people and rule over them as a dictator. As a result, he is known among Korugarans as “The Wicked.” Although Sinestro’s crimes were eventually exposed to the Guardians by Earth's Green Lantern Hal Jordan, and he was imprisoned as a result, the Green Lantern power ring and logo became to the Korugarans what the Nazi swastika represents to the people of Earth. When another Korugaran, Katma Tui, subsequently became a Green Lantern, this did nothing to restore the Green Lanterns' image. Rather, Tui was seen as a monster by her own people for allying herself with them, even after she eventually gave her life in the line of duty, and is known among the Korugarans as “The Lost.”

The Corps suffered devastation when the demonic parasitic entity known as Parallax took control of Hal Jordan, turning him into a psychotic mass-murderer, and killing almost all the other members of the Corps, including all the Guardians but one, Ganthet. The ranks of the Guardians were eventually restored by Jordan's replacement, Kyle Rayner, and after the Parallax entity was removed from Jordan, and Jordan restored as a Green Lantern, the Guardians set about to repopulate the ranks of the Corps, searching for 7,200 new Green Lanterns. When Tarkus Whin, the Green Lantern of space Sector 1417 (of which Korugar is also a part) was killed on his first day as a GL after Star 196 collapsed into a black hole, his ring sought out a replacement, and found Dr. Natu in the middle of delicate neurosurgery on her home planet, Korugar.

Green Lantern of Korugar

Natu was horrified at the appearance of the ring, and rejected it, but when her patient’s condition immediately began to worsen before her, Natu, desperate to save him, takes it. She uses it to conjure an elaborate medical apparatus that saved him, though her comrades in the operating room felt that by accepting the ring, she has damned herself. Although she allows the ring to take her to the planet Oa, which serves as the headquarters of the Guardians, she soon left, refusing to be inducted. However, on her way back to Korugar, she is haunted by thoughts of Tarkus Whin, because the rites of death are sacred on Korugar. Her ring takes her to the black hole that had been star 1417.196, which sucks her in as it had Whin. She finds herself somewhere devoid of light, along with Whin's body.

Sensing Whin's killers and realizing they are able to defeat a ringbearer, Natu swallows her ring. She orders it to alter her body so she appears to be a lump of dead matter to the nearby spider-killers. The ring is also programmed to react to other rings. Fellow Lanterns Kyle Rayner and Guy Gardner rescue Natu and convince her to stay in the Corps.

Natu, Rayner and Gardner rendezvous with Corps trainer Kilowog and new recruits Vath Sarn and Isamot Kol. It is learned that the recent rash of stars collapsing into black holes is caused by the subspace web created by the inhabitants of the Vega star system known as the Spider Guild.

Natu demonstrates powerful emotional control against the mechanical spiders and many bounty hunters. She works past the Parallax Fear Anomaly, which makes GL power rings ineffective against anything yellow during times of fear or panic, until and unless the Lantern can muster their courage. With her fellow GL’s power rings depleted in power, it fell to Natu to save them, which she did, by encasing them all in an energy sphere and retreating from the Spider Guild’s Nest. Natu and a small grouping of other Lanterns defeat the Guild's attempt to destroy Oa's sun.

In "Infinite Crisis" #7 (June 2006 [http://www.comics.org/details.lasso?id=256147] ), Natu participates in the defense of Oa from the murderous attacks of Superboy-Prime. She helps form the wall of emerald energy that slows the rampaging Teen of Steel. She arrives on the planet Mogo in time to assist in destroying the kryptonite threatening the life of her universe's Superman.

One Year Later

As of the "One Year Later" timeframe, Natu has completed her training and become an active member of the Corps. After seeking advice from Mogo, she elects to return to her homeworld and continue her work as a surgeon; this along with her Green Lantern duties. This has met with considerable resistance from her former colleagues, who find her use of the Green Lantern power offensive. After using her power ring in a surgery room again, she is forbidden to practice medicine on her home planet forever. Soon after, she is evicted from her home, her things thrown on the street. She burns her old belongings, proclaiming that Korugar had already killed Soranik Natu, and left her home in tears. [Green Lantern Corps" #6]

During the Sinestro Corps War, Sinestro himself returns to Korugar to confront his successor, Soranik Natu. Sinestro defeats her, but spares her life, calculating that this will force her to stay on Korugar to fulfill her responsibilities as "the Savior of Korugar." Sinestro then returns to Qward to join the battle occurring there.

Soranik Natu came to earth to aid her fellow Green Lanterns participating in the events of the Sinestro Corps War. She confronts the Anti-Monitor along with Sodam Yat and witnesses his transformation into the new Ion entity. She acts as field medic for the Corps during the battle in New York City, saving Guy Gardner when he was infected by the sentient virus Despotellis. Natu injects him with a syringe containing Leezle Pon, a fellow Corps member and smallpox virus. After the war's end, Soranik was seen on Oa, fitting an injured Lantern with a mechanical limb.

References

*"Green Lantern Corps: Recharge" #1-5