Who TF Is Star Sapphire? Meet Carol Ferris, Green Lantern’s Complicated Violet Counterpart

Carol Ferris just entered Lanterns — and if you know your Green Lantern lore, that name carries a whole lot more weight than “Hal Jordan’s ex.”

If you watched Episode 6 of Lanterns and thought Carol Ferris seemed a little too important to just be “someone from Hal Jordan’s past,” congratulations: your instincts are good.

Because in DC Comics, Carol Ferris is Star Sapphire.

And that means she isn’t just one of the most important people in Hal Jordan’s life. She is tied to an entirely different corner of Green Lantern mythology: the violet light of love, the Star Sapphires and the wider Emotional Spectrum.

So, who the fuck is Star Sapphire?

Let’s get into it.

First: Who Is Carol Ferris?

Carol Ferris has been part of Green Lantern mythology since the earliest days of Hal Jordan’s story.

She is a longtime love interest for Hal, but reducing her to “Green Lantern’s girlfriend” misses most of what makes the character interesting. Their relationship has always been complicated by Hal’s life as Green Lantern, Carol’s own ambitions and, eventually, her transformation into Star Sapphire.

DC’s official historical timeline identifies Carol as Hal Jordan’s lifelong friend and love, and notes that she begins experiencing fugue states while unknowingly becoming the Zamaron-empowered Star Sapphire. (DC Comics)

That last part is important, because Star Sapphire did not begin as simply “Carol gets a purple Lantern ring.”

The mythology evolved a lot over time.

So What Is Star Sapphire?

The original Star Sapphire was effectively an alternate identity imposed on Carol by the Zamarons, an alien civilization with its own ideas about love, power and who should wield it.

Carol’s first transformation into Star Sapphire dates back to Green Lantern #16 in 1962. DC’s own archive material describes Star Sapphire as the “deadly alter ego” of Hal Jordan’s girlfriend. (DC)

In those early stories, Carol could become Star Sapphire without fully understanding or remembering what had happened to her.

And yes, this gets extremely messy.

Because Star Sapphire wasn’t initially framed as the healthy embodiment of love.

It was obsessive.

Possessive.

Jealous.

Dangerous.

Carol could be transformed into someone who wanted Hal Jordan badly enough to hurt people around him — including people John Stewart loved.

That history is part of why the name Star Sapphire can carry very different connotations depending on which era of Green Lantern comics you’re reading.

Then Green Lantern Lore Got Much, Much Bigger

The modern version of Star Sapphire becomes much easier to understand once you know about the Emotional Spectrum.

Green Lantern mythology eventually established that different colors of light correspond to different emotional forces.

Green represents willpower.

Yellow represents fear.

Red is rage.

Blue is hope.

Orange is greed.

Indigo represents compassion.

And violet represents love. (DC)

That violet light is where the Star Sapphires come in.

Instead of Star Sapphire simply being one strange villainous persona attached to Carol Ferris, the mythology expands into an entire group of violet-powered wielders associated with love.

That group becomes the Star Sapphire Corps.

And Carol eventually becomes one of its most significant members.

Yes, Carol Gets a Ring Too

This is why that line in Lanterns about Hal’s only lasting relationship being “the one on his finger” is so funny if you know Carol’s comic history.

Because Carol Ferris eventually has a power ring of her own.

DC has explicitly identified Carol as a Star Sapphire in stories such as Blackest Night: Tales of the Corps, where her role is tied directly to love, and later Green Lantern: New Guardians, which features Carol again operating as Star Sapphire. (DC)

Violet power rings allow Star Sapphires to perform many of the same broad functions associated with other Lantern Corps: flight, energy projection, protective fields and constructs.

But their power source is fundamentally different.

Green Lanterns draw on will.

Star Sapphires draw on love.

And in Green Lantern comics, love is not treated as soft or harmless.

It can save people.

It can consume them.

It can become obsession.

That tension is basically baked into the Star Sapphire mythology.

Is Star Sapphire a Villain?

This is where it gets complicated.

Sometimes.

Carol Ferris has been an antagonist, a victim of outside influence, an ally and a hero at different points in DC history.

The character’s earliest Star Sapphire stories positioned her against Hal Jordan. Later stories significantly expanded the mythology and gave Carol much more agency in her role.

By the Blackest Night era, Carol was functioning as part of a much larger cosmic conflict alongside the other Lantern Corps. DC’s own material describes Carol fighting with the Star Sapphires for the survival of Zamaron and “the purity of love.” (DC)

So if Lanterns eventually introduces Star Sapphire, don’t assume that automatically means Carol becomes the show’s next villain.

There are a lot of directions they could take her.

Carol Ferris and Hal Jordan Are… Complicated

You know how some comic-book relationships are complicated?

Hal Jordan and Carol Ferris looked at that and said hold my power battery.

They’ve been lovers.

They’ve been enemies.

They’ve hurt each other.

They’ve tried to build lives together.

Hal has repeatedly struggled to balance being Green Lantern with actually staying on Earth long enough to maintain a relationship, and DC has even highlighted a major point where Hal stepped away from the Corps because he wanted to build a life with Carol. (DC)

That makes Carol’s arrival at Hal’s funeral in Lanterns particularly interesting.

She doesn’t arrive making grand declarations about him.

She understands exactly what kind of man he was.

She even tells John Stewart that Hal probably liked him — and probably never said it.

That is a woman who knew Hal Jordan very, very well.

Star Sapphire Has Some Dark History With John Stewart Too

And this is where things could get especially interesting for Lanterns.

In one major comic storyline, Star Sapphire murdered Katma Tui, John Stewart’s wife.

John then blamed Hal Jordan because Star Sapphire had targeted Katma as part of her connection to Hal. Carol later appeared to John in her Ferris identity while Star Sapphire manipulated the situation further. (DC)

Now, there is absolutely no reason to assume Lanterns will adapt that story directly.

Different continuity. Different version of the characters. Different circumstances.

But it does mean Carol Ferris and John Stewart have significant history in the source material, and not all of it is pleasant.

So putting Carol into a John Stewart-led story is potentially a much bigger choice than it appears at first.

What Does Carol Ferris Mean for Lanterns?

Right now?

We know Carol Ferris exists.

We know she and Hal had a relationship.

We know she cared enough about Hal to attend his funeral and bring his eulogy.

That’s it.

The series has not established that Carol is Star Sapphire.

It has not introduced a violet ring.

It has not established the Star Sapphire Corps.

And it has not confirmed that the full Emotional Spectrum operates in this version of the DC Universe.

But Green Lantern fans are going to watch Carol very closely from here on out.

Because introducing Carol Ferris into a Green Lantern story is rarely just introducing Carol Ferris.

It’s potentially introducing an entirely new color.

And if Lanterns is already putting Sinestro, the Guardians, Batman, Superman and Starro references on the board?

A little violet light suddenly doesn’t feel very far away.

That’s Who TF Is Star Sapphire.

And yes — if Carol ever puts on a purple ring, things are about to get complicated fast.

New episodes of Lanterns air Sundays on HBO and stream on HBO Max. Catch up on all of our coverage at The Nerd Wire’s Lanterns hub.