Part of the fun of the Green Lantern Corps is its sense of imagination. Each ring-slinger brings their own unique personality and sensibility to their constructs, which are bound only by their imagination and willpower. In turn, the constructs that Green Lanterns create are a reflection of their individual identities. That brings up another equally fun aspect of being a Green Lantern fan: you get to debate with other fans about why your favorite GL is the best one in Sector 2814.

With St. Patrick’s Day just around the corner, it felt only right to devote this edition of DC House of List-ery to our favorite emerald-hued heroes, so sit back, relax and prepare to be wowed as we look at five of the best Green Lantern constructs we’ve ever seen. Which one is your favorite?
 

Kyle Rayner Plays Pinball

Let’s make this clear right from the jump. While all Green Lanterns are great in their own way, I think we can all agree that Kyle Rayner has the best constructs. In Green Lanterns #23 by Sam Humphries, Eduardo Pansica, Julio Ferreira and Blond, he creates a giant pinball machine in which he imprisons his fellow Lantern, Simon Baz. Not only is this hilarious from a visual standpoint, but it’s also extra annoying for poor Simon, who is forced to bounce around inside the construct machine like an actual pinball.

Kyle’s pinball machine is a powerful lesson in the creativity that Green Lanterns have at their disposal that can sometimes go untapped. Often the best way to goad your opponent is not to come at them with a construct shaped like a machine gun, but rather with something more psychological—like a giant arcade game.
 

What’s Past is Parallax

Kyle is a comic book artist and his constructs reflect the upbeat, artistic flair that he brings to the GL role. Furthermore, they confirm that Kyle is a huge fan of anime and manga, given his propensity to create giant mechs or motorcycles that look like they came right out of Akira. In other words, Kyle’s got taste. His activities answer a basic question: what if the biggest anime nerd you know became a Green Lantern?

In 1994’s Green Lantern #0 by Ron Marz, Darryl Banks and Romeo Tanghal, Kyle fights Hal Jordan (in his villainous Parallax form). Kyle creates a construct of a mech that wouldn’t look out of place in a Gundam story. Hal, ever the traditionalist, forms a medieval knight construct. Their clash embodies the watershed moment in which Green Lantern comics found themselves at the time. Kyle represented the future, but the past wasn’t quite dead yet.
 

Mullein Makes a Mean Mech

If there’s a Green Lantern who represents the future now, it’s Jo Mullein. And while we recently learned that she’s a big John Stewart fan (and hey, who isn’t?), it’s clear that she has much in common with Mr. Rayner as well.

In a sweet callback to Kyle’s sensibilities, Jo creates her own mech construct in N.K. Jemisin and Jamal Campbell’s Far Sector #7. However, it’s got a personal touch in its nod to the iconic glasses that Jo wears as part of her Green Lantern uniform, alongside her signature pompadour hairstyle. Jo’s mech is great because beyond the fact that it’s a giant robot, it’s a giant robot that looks like her. Tailoring a construct to the individual identity of its ring-slinger is peak Green Lantern storytelling.
 

Buddha is Life

In Green Lanterns #33 by Tim Seeley, Eduardo Pansica, Julio Ferreira and Alex Sollazzo, the Green Lantern duo of Jessica Cruz and Simon Baz face a difficult predicament: how do you rescue a group of people who insist on being left to die? The faraway planet of Mol is moments away from erupting into a volcanic explosion. However, its people, the Molites, are content with dying in the destruction.

Jessica Cruz, on the other hand, is not. As rocks rain down on the Molites, she expends nearly all of her willpower in a frantic attempt to shield them. But does she use her ring to build barriers or other simple constructs? Not at all! She creates baskets…wielded by Buddhas! Her constructs highlight the unique solutions that Green Lanterns can provide in the chaos of a superhero story. Where else would you ever see a page like this?

(Honorable mention: Earlier in the exact same issue, Jessica manages to shield Simon and herself with a giant construct of Wonder Woman. Why call in your fellow superheroes when you can just construct them?)
 

The Ultimate Hockey Fight

There are few things more fun than a good Lantern vs. Lantern fight, especially when it’s Guy Gardner and Hal Jordan facing off. Both Guy and Hal are drawn to creating constructs with an athletic bent, whether we’re talking a giant baseball bat or glove, or in this case, a full set of ice hockey gear. In Green Lantern: Emerald Warriors #8 by Peter J. Tomasi, Fernando Pasarin, Cam Smith and Gabe Eltaeb, Guy airs his beef with Hal while also showing off his stickhandling skills—who knew he was into hockey?

The fact that Guy chooses to come at Hal with a hockey construct shows that he doesn’t really intend for the construct to do much physical damage. Rather, it gives him an opportunity to take Hal to task about his past crimes as Parallax. A fight of words, pettiness and hockey pucks is a glorious, machismo-fueled mess, and we are here for it! They say there are no winners when superheroes fight, but after seeing this, we must respectfully disagree.
 

Jules Chin Greene writes about comics for DC.com, and his work can also be found at Nerdist, Popverse and Multiverse of Color. You can follow him on Twitter and Bluesky at @JulesChinGreene.

NOTE: The views and opinions expressed in this feature are solely those of Jules Chin Greene and do not necessarily reflect those of DC or Warner Bros. Discovery, nor should they be read as confirmation or denial of future DC plans.