Green Lantern is the name of several superheroes appearing in American comic books published by DC Comics. They fight evil with the aid of rings that grant them a variety of extraordinary powers, all of which come from imagination and/or emotions.[citation needed] The characters are typically depicted as members of the Green Lantern Corps, an interstellar law enforcement agency.

The first Green Lantern character, Alan Scott, was created in 1940 by Martin Nodell during the Golden Age of Comic Books and usually fought common criminals in Capitol City (and later, Gotham City) with the aid of his magic ring. For the Silver Age of Comic Books, John Broome and Gil Kane reinvented the character as Hal Jordan in 1959 and shifted the focus of Green Lantern stories from fantasy to science fiction. Other notable Green Lanterns include Guy Gardner, John Stewart, Kyle Rayner, Simon Baz and Jessica Cruz.

The Green Lanterns are among DC Comics' longer lasting sets of characters. They have been adapted to television, video games, and motion pictures.