Absolute Green Lantern: Tomar Re and what red power can do

Absolute Green Lantern: Tomar Re and what red power can do The red level gets a much more practical explanation when Tomar Re starts talking about its abilities. This is where the difference between an initiate and an adept stops being just vocabulary. An Ain Rao, an initiate of the red light, gets a degree of strength and control over bodily processes, including changes in form. An Abin Rao, an adept of that same light, can create constructs with considerable durability. Re describes red power as defensive in nature. Under OA's teachings, gaining it requires restraint. That affects how it is taught and used: it isn't taught as a means of attack. So when someone says red means restraint in Absolute Green Lantern, that doesn't mean red power can't hurt anybody. The distinction is between the capabilities of the power and the training that is supposed to govern them. Re is a pretty clear demonstration of why that matters. He says he didn't receive it through OA's teachings. He stole it, and he doesn't restrain himself. He's perfectly willing to turn those abilities into weapons. He introduces himself as Tomar Re, “Re-who-is-anomaly.” That fits the earlier explanation of Tomar as control without the required understanding. It also shows why Tomar isn't a color. Jo and Re don't have to share a color to share that description. Later, the voice of OA tells Re he must be without anger. He challenges it by asking whether it has ever suffered. That's a much more interesting conflict to me than simply sorting him into “red, therefore angry.” This version has already told us what red is supposed to mean, and then put someone carrying real anger inside that framework, refusing the authority that would tell him how to use it.