Abin Sur
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Abin Sur is a fictional character and a superhero from the DC Comics universe. He first appeared in Showcase #22 (September-October 1959): "SOS Green Lantern". He was a member of the Green Lantern Corps and recruited Hal Jordan as a Green Lantern.
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Fictional character biography
Originally a history professor on the planet Ungara, Abin Sur was soon appointed Green Lantern of Space Sector 2814 in the mid 1860s. As a child, he became best friends with Ruch Ehr and later, by association, Munni Jah. The two of them were a couple and Abin secretly loved Munni, but never overtly spoke of this.
Recruited by the Green Lantern known as Starkaor, he is known to have come to Earth on several occasions. In the American Old West, he teamed up with an ancestor of Hal Jordan's to battle an alien named Traitor (who was responsible for the death of Starkaor). During World War II, he briefly encountered Starman and Bulletman when the three battled an alien being under the control of Mr. Mind. On a later visit, his ring was immobilized by the foe he was tracking, but, after discovering Alan Scott and Jay Garrick (who had been knocked out by the foe), he borrowed Alan's ring and used it against his adversary, taking advantage of its lack of a yellow weakness. He also visited Earth at some point between the Golden and Silver Ages, when he encountered the Martian Manhunter.
While on patrol, he was attacked and pursued by the being known as Legion while on its way to Oa. Badly injured and with his spaceship seriously damaged, he made an emergency landing on the nearest habitable planet (Earth) and began using his power ring to search for a successor to wield the ring after he passed on. The first possibility was Clark Kent. Since he was not native to earth, he was not chosen. Next, Hal Jordan and Guy Gardner were chosen. As Jordan was closer, the ring settled on Hal Jordan as the most suitable replacement right before his death.
For a brief time during Zero Hour, he was pulled to the present, where he assisted the Darkstars in their battle against Entropy before being returned to his own time.
During some point in his life, Abin sired a son, Amon Sur, who grew up to become the man in charge of the Black Circle crime syndicate. Amon was angry at his deceased father for abandoning him for the Corps and decided to take his anger out on all Green Lanterns. Amon was eventually stopped by Hal Jordan's successor, Kyle Rayner and a second-generation Guardian of the Universe called Lianna. Amon eventually had a confrontation with Hal Jordan himself, who returned to his Green Lantern role after being freed from the influence of Parallax. Hal defeated the insane youth, but Amon received a duplicate of Sinestro's ring from the Qwardians and vanished. After Hal finally took Abin's body home and buried it, a mysterious yellow light appeared in the sky after Hal left, presumbly Amon arriving to visit his father's grave.
During The Sinestro Corps War, it is revealed that Abin discovered a prophecy concerning of the Multiverse and "The Blackest Night" prior his death.
Spaceship
In the Silver Age comics, as the abilities of Hal Jordan's power ring began to show it was capable of practical long range space travel, that raised the question of why Abin Sur needed a ship.
Pre-Crisis explanation
In the story "Earth's First Green Lantern," Jordan revealed that he wondered that himself and asked his ring to explain.
The ring told the story of how Abin Sur discovered a parasitic energy being species that fed on sapient beings' "I-factor," a substance that enabled inventiveness, attacking civilizations and stalling their development. Sur captured them to stop their destruction, but one of their number had escaped and vowed to free his brethren. To do so, he tracked down Sur's planet and created a disaster to force him to appear to stop it. Since Sur did not mask himself, the being recognized him immediately and followed him to his home. As Sur neglected to charge his ring before going to sleep, he was unable to stop the being from taking control of him.
With the being in control of his body and about to force him to go and free his fellows, Sur tricked the being into thinking that he would not be able to do so because the ring would be low on power after the trip there while in reality the ring's charge is purely time based. The being decided to have Sur take a ship to the destination, but before leaving, Sur managed to get a hold of his invisible power battery. On the ship, Sur piloted the ship and waited until he moved into a green colored planetary radiation belt which allowed Sur to charge his ring without the being noticing. Thus armed, Sur battled and captured the being. However during the fight, the ship wandered into Earth's radiation belt (which was apparently yellow colored in the Earth-1 universe). With his ring useless, Sur lost control of the battered ship and crashed. Mortally wounded, Sur sought out his replacement and drew Jordan to him.
According to Jordan, this account prompted him to keep a secret identity as a security precaution, to carefully navigate around Earth's radiation belts and presumably he made a point of usually keeping his ring charged to prevent similar sneak attacks.
Post-Crisis explanation
In Tales of the Green Lantern Corps Annual #2 (1986), writer Alan Moore answered the question with a story of how the hero once visited Ysmault, a prison planet for an ancient race of demons, the Empire of Tears, vanquished millennia ago by the Oans. He was on a rescue mission and felt he could not wait for instruction from the Guardians, who likely could have warned the Lantern of the planet's inhabitants and their dangerous psychological manipulation powers.
A decade later, fleeing his enemy, his spaceship collided with a girdle of yellow radiation around Earth that rendered his starship and his power-ring useless within moments. Had he relied on his ring alone, he realized, he might have tested the planet's magnetosphere before rashly entering it. Thus, while Legion may have wounded him, it could be argued that it was Qull that was actually responsible for Abin Sur's death, having sown the seeds of doubt in the Green Lantern's mind.
In other media
Abin Sur was featured in an animated episode of Superman: The Animated Series involving Kyle Rayner and Sinestro. The episode was called "In Brightest Day", likely a nod to the Green Lantern Oath.
In the episode, Abin is used for Kyle's GL origin in much the same way he was used for Hal Jordan's. Abin battles with Sinestro, who is hunting Green Lanterns and stealing their rings. He crashes his spaceship on earth and sends his ring off to find a suitable replacement just before his death. Template:-
