How to Make a Simple Rainbow Lantern Corps Costume

When heroes and villains were turned into Black Lanterns and/or deputized by the other Lantern Corps to help fight Nekron, their signature costumes were altered to incorporate the color and symbol of their Corps. Because of the iconic effect of the represented emotions, symbols, and colors of the various Lantern Corps, recruiting yourself as any of the Corps members is fairly easy with a little creativity and of course, willpower.

Bonus points if you can get eight other friends to accompany you as fresh recruits of the other Lantern Corps, similarly to how Jill Pantozzi coordinated her and her friends as Classy Lanterns at San Diego Comic Con this year. Plus, you and your friends can all chip in for a complete set of power rings, if you missed out on obtaining the rings for free at your local comic shop over the past year.

Ryan Orr of Bit Control created this fantastic set of vector images of all of the nine symbols; you can use this for creating stencils and/or printable iron-on transfers of your symbol for your costume (as well as carving a matching Jack-O-Lantern). Be sure to memorize your oath! (White Lanterns and Orange Lanterns are currently exempt.)

While you can purchase the appropriate Corps symbol shirt for Halloween, here are a few tips to create your own customized look. Take a solid t-shirt, dress, track jacket, or any other article of clothing style that yowwu usually wear, in the color of the Corps of your choice; most stores (such as H&M and Forever 21) carry solid basics in most of these colors, but in cinch, American Apparel carries a variety of clothing items in every color featured in the Emotional Spectrum. Embellish your article of clothing with your designated emblem, either with a simple Lantern Corps pin (which you can pick up at your local comic shop, Super Hero Stuff, and on Etsy), or print or stencil the Corps symbol onto your article of clothing. Be sure to complete your look with accessories in matching colors; if you're someone who never leaves the house without a signature accessory, like a hat or a scarf, try to find a similar accessory in your Corps color.

If you can't purchase a power ring at the last minute, you can easily create your own out of by drawing your symbol on shrinky dink paper or clean recycled #6 plastic, such as a salad container (consult this shrinky dink tutorial), or even print out your symbol on printable shrinky dink paper; be sure to enlarge/draw your symbol to about 3" in diameter onto the shrinky dink paper, so that the ring shrinks and bakes to a suitable size. Once the symbol has cooled from baking, glue it onto a blank ring base. As a final last-minute stretch, you can also opt to purchase a plastic ring (Claire's has a wide selection of colors) in the color of your chosen Corps as a substitute.

Play up your respective Corps by adding fun, creative touches to your colorful ensembles. If you're a Red Lantern, apply dripping edible fake blood to your face (à la Guy Gardner). If you're a Black Lantern, be sure to doll yourself up with zombie makeup. Sinestro Corps members can play up both the common fear of arachnophobia and classic Halloween themes by incorporating plastic spiders into your outfit. As for Orange Lanterns, have fun stealing everyone's candy.

Likewise, if you are dressing up with other Lanterns, select a fun styling theme, so that all of you look like a unit. The colors of the Emotional Spectrum would translate perfectly as a group of 60's mod outfits, or a colorful ensemble of b-boy tracksuits. I'm sure that somewhere in the geeky-fashion abyss, there exists a steampunk group of Lanterns. Regardless, have fun with your Lantern get-ups, and remember to charge up your power ring before you head out on Halloween night!