Who the Clix? is a series of articles featuring information on comic book characters that have been made into figures for the popular tabletop game Heroclix. These articles are meant to help Heroclix players learn more about the characters behind their favorite pieces.
Today we look at the daughter of Sinestro: Soranik Natu
Appearances in Heroclix: War of Light
First Appearance: Green Lantern Corps: Recharge #1
Team Affiliations: Green Lantern Corps
Powers/Abilities: Green Lantern Power Ring
Created by: Geoff Johns – Dave Gibbons – Patrick Gleason
Natu was a neurosurgen on Korugar and, like the rest of the planet, viewed the Green Lanterns and everything to do with them as tyrannical oppressors because of their first Green Lantern: Sinestro. Even after Sinestro was exposed and punished by the Guardians, the Korugans’ hatred of the Lanterns remained.
When the Green Lantern of Sector 1417 (which Korugar belongs to) died on his first day, his ring sought out a replacement and chose Dr. Natu in the middle of brain surgery on Korugar. She refused the ring, at first, and only accepted it in order to save the life of her patient. Unfortunately, even witnessing this did not change the opinion of her comrades in the operating room. They felt that she had damned herself by accepting the burden of the ring.
She only begrudgingly accepts the role of a Green Lantern after being sucked into the black hole that killed her successor and using her ring to accept a similar fate, before being saved by Kyle Rayner and Guy Gardner. Natu goes on to fight bravely against the Spider Guild and Superboy Prime, saving her fellow Green Lanterns and Oa in both instances. She eventually accepts that Korugans’ feelings about Green Lanterns are false but still feels as though her particular ring (which belonged to Sinestro) is tainted by his evil.
Soranik eventually returns to Korugar, only to be ostracized and forced onto the streets for accepting her role as a Green Lantern. There, she begins using her ring to treat the poor and homeless. Helping people brings her joy but she is uncomfortable when the underclass lift her up as a revolutionary symbol against the planet’s elite.
During the Sinestro Corps War, Natu finally faces Sinestro. Though the former Green Lantern defeats her, he spares her life because he believes this will force her to stay on Korugar and defend it until he is ready to return. The people of Korugar, believeing that she repelled him on her own, begin to respect her. She does not wait, however, and goes to Earth to fight the Anti-Monitor as well as serve as a field medic for the other Green Lanterns.
Sinestro later returns to Korugar and reveals to Natu that he is her father. She does not believe him until he tells the whole story. How her birth spurned him to become more dictatorial on Korugar and his change in actions caused her mother (Arin Sur) to leave Sinestro, eventually leaving her small child in the care of the doctor that delivered her. Sinestro admitted that he eventually found her and gave her the mark under her eye, which his ring could always find, so that he could visit her through her life without her knowing.
During the Blackest night, Soranik helps defend Oa from the Black Lanterns. She comes face to face with a Black Lantern resurrected Jade (former lover of Soranik’s lover, Kyle Rayner) as well as bringing Kyle back from death with the help of the Star Sapphires. After Nekron’s defeat, Jade is one of the Lanterns brought back to life by the White Lantern. Jade and Soranik discuss Kyle and Jade promises not to interfere in their relationship, as she is happy that Kyle has moved on and found someone else.
Soranik is later abducted by the Qwardian Weaponer that made Sinestro’s yellow ring. Kyle contacts Sinestro for help in rescuing Soranik which leads to the revelation of her true parentage. Kyle and Sinestro succeed in rescuing Soranik, but her anger at her father has not ebbed.
After Krona’s attack on the Green Lanterns and mind controlling of the Corps by infecting the Central Power Battery, Soranik is angry. Angry at her loss of control, angry at her father’s return to the Green Lantern Corps, and angry that Kyle had lied about his encounter with the Star Sapphires and felt that Jade was his true love.