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When it comes to strange and quirky characters, no one has the Green Lantern Corps beat. The main principle of the Corps is to recruit intelligent beings from all across the universe, whether they’re humanoid, have tentacles, composed of crystal, have bird beaks and fins, or look like giant hippopotamus/human hybrids. The diversity of the Green Lantern Corps is second to none.

Sometimes it appears as if creative teams of GL past took Earth animals and made them into alien beings like Ch’p, the Lantern who looks like a squirrel, Xax of Xaox, the grasshopper Lantern who was a good friend of Hal Jordan’s, or Bzzd, the fly who is a partner to Mogo, the Lantern who is an entire planet. And of course there’s the dog-like G’Nort, arguably the coolest Lantern of all. Some of the Lanterns don’t even fall into the category of anything recognizable, like Chaselon, the Lantern made of crystal and artificial tentacles. My favorite of these strange looking characters might have to be the plant based character Medphyll who has the body of a human man, and the head of a cycloptic bundle of celery.

If there is a lesson to be learned from the Green Lantern Corps., it would be a message of tolerance of all lifeforms and working together despite our differences. And who better to teach such lessons to new Lantern recruits than Kilowog, who has the head of an angry hippopotamus, and the body of a weight-lifting man on steroids. Killowog is a great character as he is probably the toughest member of the Corps being the best drill sergeant in the universe, yet would be the first to have a beer with you after a job well done. Oh, and apparently, he flirted with communism briefly.

The most recognizable of the Corps aliens by far, would have to be Tomar-Re from the planet Xudar (what’s with all these planets and names with X’s and Z’s?) best known for his parrot beak, and fish like fin protruding from the top of his head. Don’t let his appearance fool you though, Tomar-Re would become one of the most highly honored Lanterns, and after his death, his son Tomar-Tu would fill in as the Corps resident beak and fin Lantern.

There’s a lot of weird characters out there in comic-dom, but the Green Lantern Corps is a team of weird characters spanning the universe. And if you were to ask any member of the Corps which species was the strangest, most of them would answer humans from Earth.

-Jim

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