Fictional character in DC Comics
Caroline "Carol" Ferris is a fictional character appearing in the DC Comics Universe. She is one of many characters who has used the name Star Sapphire, and the long-time love interest of Hal Jordan, the Silver Age Green Lantern. In her role as Star Sapphire, Ferris has been active as both a supervillain and, more recently, as a superhero.
Ferris has appeared in various media outside comics, primarily in association with Green Lantern. Kari Wahlgren, Jennifer Hale, Olivia d'Abo, and others have voiced the character in animated television series and films. Furthermore, Ferris appears in the live-action film "Green Lantern", portrayed by Blake Lively.
Publication history.
Carol Ferris first appeared in "Showcase" #22, and was created by John Broome and Gil Kane. As a Star Sapphire, she first appeared in "Green Lantern" vol. 2 #16.
Fictional character biography.
Early history.
Carol Ferris is Ferris Aircraft's vice president, as well as the only child of aerospace mogul Carl Ferris and his wife Christine. She hires Hal Jordan and quickly finds herself attracted to him. He is secretly the superhero Green Lantern. However, the young couple's romance quickly becomes complicated when Carol takes over the company from her father. When the Zamarons discover that she is in love with Green Lantern, a servant of their estranged friends, the Guardians of the Universe, they brainwash her with the ring of the Star Sapphire, and command her to destroy him.
Star Sapphire and Green Lantern duel several times over the years. Each time Jordan defeats her, she reverts to normal. The two separate when Carol is engaged to Jason Belmore; later she is confined to a wheelchair. It is around this time that Carol finds out that Hal Jordan is Green Lantern.
Secret Origin.
The "" storyline revises parts of Carol and Hal's history. In this retelling, the two first meet when they are eight, as they watch Hal's father, Carl Ferris' best friend, experience mechanical problems with his plane. With a choice between crash landing in Coast City or the nearby desert, Hal's father chose to fly into the desert. Over the years, the guilt over the accident eats away at Carol's father, eventually driving him to sickness, forcing Carol to give up her dream of being a pilot and take over as CEO of Ferris Air. Unwilling to have people know of her father's illness, Carol tells them that he retired to Miami. Hal hated Ferris for what happened to his father, but, after discovering the truth, he and Carol find solace in each other's grief. However, their relationship is stifled by Carol's refusal to date employees.
Predator.
When Carol Ferris is cured of her evil Star Sapphire persona, she develops a third subconscious identity, the male "Predator". Deprived of Hal Jordan's love at the time, Carol finds everything she wants from a man in the Predator—masculinity, strength, and care. Physically separated from Carol's body, the Predator repeatedly appears as a mysterious figure, protecting Ferris Aircraft from the threats of Eclipso, the Demolition Team and Jason Bloch. He also establishes the company Intercontinental Petroleum (Con-Trol) to let her regain control of Ferris Aircraft. Finally, the Predator starts to court Carol (who does not know what the Predator really is) and battles Hal Jordan for her love. Hal defeats him and witnesses him merging with Carol into Star Sapphire.
Now fully evil, Carol takes over ruling Zamaron but her reign is short; the Zamarons, following the Crisis on Infinite Earths, abandon their queen and their homeworld to live in another dimension with their male counterparts, the Guardians of the Universe. Carol gets furious and vows revenge on Hal and the Green Lantern Corps. After several battles, Carol finds her chance to hurt her ex-lover and murder Katma Tui, whose power ring is rendered inert following the destruction of the main power battery on Oa. Hal keeps John Stewart (Katma's husband) from killing Carol, straining their friendship in the process.
In the third Green Lantern series, the nature of the Predator entity is retconned as being a parasite creature from the planet Maltus. The entity corrupted Carol and is responsible for making her murder Katma. The Green Lantern Corps purge Carol of the entity, saving her life in the process. But her time under the creature's control, along with the destruction of Coast City and the discovery that her father faked her mother's death, causes Carol to reject a distraught Hal Jordan. Instead, she opts to stay with her mother and find her own path.
However, Carol is not gone from the world of super-heroism for long. She becomes the administrator of Extreme Justice's Mount Thunder facility. Her time with the team comes with the revelation that she is pregnant, despite not having sex in a long time. She realizes that Star Sapphire was not a subconscious identity created by her, but an energy-based being who inhabited her body. The child in her womb was conceived when the Predator entity raped the first Star Sapphire. Shortly after she gives birth, Neron appears and offers to purge her of both Predator and Star Sapphire. Carol agrees, and then watches as the now separate entities are killed by Neron, who departs with their baby in his arms.
Ultimately though, the events of "Infinite Crisis" effectively wipe out the above-mentioned stories. "Blackest Night" #1 establishes that in an untold story, Carol gets free of the Star Sapphire persona sometime before Katma Tui's death. The Sapphire found a new, unnamed Star Sapphire, and it was she who committed the murder. Furthermore, much of the Predator's backstory is changed. "The Predator" is re-introduced as one of the manifestations in the emotional spectrum; the living embodiment of love. The entity is held by the Zamarons on their home world. It gets freed during Sinestro's liberation of his Yellow Lanterns during the 2009–2010 "Blackest Night" storyline.
End of Star Sapphire.
In "Green Lantern" (vol. 3) #119, Hal (as the Spectre) decides to visit Carol. He makes himself visible and tells Carol he is going to help her, but that she will not remember his visit. He reaches into Carol and pulls out the Star Sapphire gem, which causes Star Sapphire herself to re-emerge (it appeared she was previously killed by Neron, but somehow a part of her survived in Carol). The Spectre detains Star Sapphire and puts her back into the gem. He hands the gem to Carol and lets her finish the job, which she does (essentially finally killing the Star Sapphire persona that would take control of her), and starts feeling much better.
In "" #6, Hal and Carol finally come to terms with their relationship. In Northern California at Ferris Aircraft, Carol Ferris is reminiscing over her former life when a mysterious power revitalises and reforms the abandoned, condemned fields. Hal Jordan, using his powers as the Spectre, appears. She asks Hal whether he remembers anything from when he was the Spectre. Hal says he remembers it as if he were watching it from the outside. How Spectre thinks, and who he talked to beyond this life, Hal cannot recall. Hal apologizes for everything Carol had to go through. Carol says she survived and that she is not going to sell the airbase. She says that if Hal can rebuild his life, so can she, and that she is going to do so with her husband, Gil. Carol says that she can use a good pilot. Hal says that he appreciates the offer, but he has other plans.
Return.
The Star Sapphire crystal briefly possesses Carol, before detecting that Hal Jordan had feelings for his fellow pilot, Jillian "Cowgirl" Pearlman, and leaves Carol's body. She and Hal work together to free Cowgirl from the crystal. Knowing that she still loves Hal and that it is not fair to her husband, she files for divorce.
The Star Sapphires, sensing the heartache Carol has been carrying over Hal (Hal quit because he could not be near her without wanting to be with her and Carol does not date employees), chose her to become the first human member of the Star Sapphire Corps. She is seen wearing her original Star Sapphire costume, reciting the Corps' oath along with various other members of the Star Sapphires.
The "Blackest Night: Tales of the Corps" miniseries reveals the exchange between Carol and the violet ring sent to her. The ring says that all those chosen to wield the violet light must accept it willingly (this appears to overcome the controlling aspect of the violet light). It also tells Carol that she has a hole in her heart, as she has continually put aside her own happiness for the benefit of others. Because she is capable of doing this, Carol could become the most powerful Star Sapphire in the universe and is therefore the ideal choice to leads them. Carol refuses to accept the ring, which shows her a vision of the War of Light and indicates that Hal Jordan will not survive. It tells her that by accepting the ring, she can save him. Still having feelings for Hal, Carol accepts and is called back to Zamaron by Queen Aga'po. Carol's army awaits to defend the planet from the approaching Sinestro Corps.
In her first battle, Carol takes on Sinestro who says that he has never held ill will toward Carol and wonders why she is doing this for a man who has never truly given his heart toward her. The fight takes a turn when Carol attempts to encase him in one of the brainwashing crystals that the Zamarons use to "recruit" new followers. Sinestro lashes out after witnessing a vision of Arin Sur, his former love, blasting Carol across the battlefield. She is then subdued by Sinestro and two other Yellow Lanterns. Before he can capitalise on the advantage, the Black Lanterns invade, led by Amon Sur, shocking both Carol and Sinestro. The two are rescued from certain death by Hal and the Indigo Tribe. The group escapes Zamaron moments before Black Lantern rings reanimate the bodies of the two beings whose love fueled the Star Sapphire's central power battery, devastating the planet in the process. For some reason, the loss of the Star Sapphire's power source does not seem to affect Carol's powers. It is revealed that the Queen was powering the violet rings in the absence of the central power battery; this, however, is causing her to age.
After a failed attempt to combine the light of her power ring with the six lights coming from the other Corps-Leaders makes Nekron able to possess resurrected heroes, Ganthet forces a secret protocol in her ring, forcing Carol to seek out a deputy. Eventually, she deputizes Wonder Woman as a temporary Star Sapphire, due to her great ability to feel love, thus undoing Nekron's control of the Amazon. The Lanterns are then attacked by the Black Lantern Spectre. In an attempt to stop the Spectre, Hal releases Parallax's essence, deciding to join with him again to fight back. Carol tries to stop Hal, but he refuses to be swayed. Carol kisses Hal, telling him "I love you", before Hal allows Parallax to possess him. In the epilogue of "Blackest Night", Carol wants to talk to Hal about their relationship, but Sinestro comes along and interrupts their talk to serve his own goals. She is in Las Vegas where she takes on the Predator who has possessed a man who is infatuated with a young woman to the point of obsession. She frees him from the Predator by kissing him. After that, Carol and Hal are taken to Zamaron. The Queen gives her life to sustain the central power battery and gives her title to Carol Ferris.
During the "Brightest Day" storyline, Queen Khea opens a portal from Hawkworld to Zamaron. She and her manhawks start an invasion on Zamaron when Carol and the Predator appear. Carol battles the Hawk family Hawkman and Hawkgirl to a standstill while trying not to destroy the universe. She is saved by Hawkman and Hawkgirl. They manage to do this because of their great love for each other, a greater love than she and Hal Jordan could ever have. Carol and the other leaders of the color corps are later sucked into the Black Book, although Hal is able to escape with her ring. Guy Gardner later uses Carol's ring along with Atrocitus's Red Lantern ring