Atrocitus

Atrocitus
Atrocitus. Promotional cover art for Final Crisis: Rage of the Red Lanterns #1, by Shane Davis.
Publication information
Publisher	DC Comics
First appearance	First appearance: Green Lantern vol. 4 #25 (December 2007) Chronological first appearance: Green Lantern vol. 4 #29 (May 2008)
Created by	Geoff Johns Ethan Van Sciver
In-story information
Alter ego	Atros
Place of origin	Ryut
Team affiliations	Red Lantern Corps The Five Inversions The Empire of Tears
Abilities	Red Power Ring Superhuman Strength and Durability

Atrocitus (Atros) is a fictional supervillain appearing in American comic books published by the DC Comics. Atrocitus is an enemy of the Guardians of the Universe and Sinestro, their former Green Lantern.

Atrocitus first appears in Green Lantern vol. 4 #25 in a two-page "War of Light" spread and was created by Geoff Johns and Ethan Van Sciver. He made his chronological first appearance in Green Lantern vol. 4 #29 as a prisoner of Hal Jordan's predecessor Abin Sur.

When the rogue Manhunters rampaged through Space Sector 666 Atros was one of only five beings in the entire sector to escape death, having been forced to witness his own wife and daughters killed by one of the rampaging robots. Renaming himself "Atrocitus", he and the other four survivors formed a terrorist cabal known as the Five Inversions, bent on the destruction of the Guardians of the Universe and all who served them, with Atrocitus serving as their leader. The Five Inversions performed a ritual which allowed them to peer into the future and discover the prophecy of the Blackest Night, which decreed that all life in the universe would end. Forming an "Empire of Tears", the Inversions attempted to destroy the Guardians, but were defeated and imprisoned on the planet Ysmault.

Some time later, Abin Sur began making periodic visits to Ysmault, and began to ask questions regarding the Blackest Night. Sur even went so far as to free Atrocitus from his imprisonment so that he could lead the Green Lantern to Earth, the prophesised birthplace of "the black" that would one day end the universe. Taken to Earth by starship (due to fellow Inversion Qull predicting that Sur's ring would one day fail him when he most needed it) and bound by energy restraints created by Sur's ring, Atrocitus instilled fear in his captor, allowing the yellow impurity to seep into his willpower constructs and weaken them enough to allow him to break free. After slashing the Green Lantern in the chest, mortally wounding him, Atrocitus jumped from a point high in Earth's atmosphere to escape Sur's failing ship.