The Green Lantern Ring – Chapter 1
I bought a merch power ring... and it gave me superpowers?
I was finally ready to open the package that contained a real Green Lantern power ring! I’d ordered it from a merchandise shop in Germany, having dreamt about owning a GL ring since I was a child. I opened the cardboard box and found a smaller, green box with white letters that said Green Lantern. Inside was a small pouch: I held it in my hand and could already feel the ring. It was quite heavy, which was a pleasant surprise – I don’t like when a metal ring is too light. I took the ring out of the pouch: stainless steel, perfectly machined, relatively thick, not a flaw in its shape, with the GL logo on the rectangular signet part. I tried it on and it fit my right index finger just like I’d hoped. In the bathroom, I looked at the mirror and a smile slowly spread across my face: it looks awesome!
Excited about my real-life Green Lantern ring, I went back into the bedroom. “Woooo, I love it,” I said out loud, then made a fist with my right hand and pointed the ring toward the window, imagining that I now had superpowers and could crack a hole in the glass from a distance. “Bam!” I said.
The window cracked.
I stepped back, surprised. What the… I slowly moved closer to the window. Did a bird fly into it? Or did a neighbour throw something at it? But I would’ve noticed that, right? And I didn’t see anything. I touched the cracked glass and a small piece fell onto the floor. I looked at the neighbouring windows: nobody around. Could it be…? I moved back to the position I was standing in before, a few meters away from the window. I had to try this again.
If only I could get a Green Lantern ring, all my problems would be solved, I thought about 20 years ago, back when I was still in primary school in Hungary. I remember looking up at the starry night sky, wishing that somehow I could get my hands on one of those magical objects that would grant me superpowers.
I wasn’t doing very well in school at the time and I had accumulated some bad grades over the previous months. The next parent-teacher conference was going to be held the following day, which meant that I could no longer hide my poor performance from my parents – my life was about to get much worse.
Not that my parents were going to beat me or anything like that. But school was quite strict and rigorous in Hungary and there wasn’t much breathing room for a child: you had to excel, otherwise you would miss the opportunity to get into a good high school, then a good university, and you’d end up as a garbage man or a bum.
That was the fear of my parents as well, and understandably so – back then, even if you were highly educated, you were likely underpaid and undervalued in a country still struggling under the weight of its past. So, basically, there was a lot of pressure to do well and to keep up, and my anxiety and OCD were not helping the cause. But oh, if only I had a Green Lantern ring, all my troubles would go away! I would have superpowers for Christ’s sake! I could do whatever I wanted, I would be capable of things that no other person on this earth is capable of – why would I worry about my grades after that!
Also, the Green Lantern ring would’ve helped me protect myself (and my family) from the bullies. There were bullies in school, among the teachers, among the children, and among people in society at large. And somewhere deep inside I was terrified of them. I hated them. And occasionally, in the midst of all the anger and frustration that permeated society, I also became a bully – sometimes righteously so, sometimes not so much.
My grandfather, a hard-working and honest university professor, got into a car accident one time. Though the accident wasn’t his fault and nobody got hurt, the guy in the other car got out, walked up to my grandfather and punched him in the face. I remember how shocked I was that an innocent man could be treated with such uncalled-for brutality and anger.
I often fantasised about being able to rise above it all using superpowers given to me by a Green Lantern power ring.
Of course, I wasn’t granted my wish that night. I had to continue living in reality, where superpowers don’t exist and the bullies are still a physical and emotional threat to contend with every single day.
18 years later, I was scrolling on YouTube one day, when I found the first trailer for the new Lanterns series developed by HBO Max. I liked it quite a lot and it reminded me that I should take another look at the Green Lantern rings available for purchase on the internet.
Since I’d become an adult and started earning money, I hadn’t thought much about purchasing a Green Lantern ring. I guess my desire to own one was buried deep beneath the realities of life. That is, until 2025, when it finally occurred to me: wait a minute, there are so many cool products out there nowadays… could there be Green Lantern rings available as well? It was exhilarating to rediscover a passion that had lain hidden for such a long time. So I did some research.
I found several DC licensed products, but they either didn’t appear to be high-quality or outright seemed super cheap, like something you’d buy for a Halloween costume and throw away the next day.
Then, I discovered an interesting company: The Ring Foundry. They’re not officially licensed, but make different types of power rings from the Green Lantern universe. Quite good quality too: green, anodised willpower rings, yellow fear rings, silver Kyle Rayner rings, and even a brass ring based on the new Lanterns series. I love the fact that such a company exists. But they make every ring to order and their prices are relatively high (not to mention the customs fees that are added once the package arrives in the EU). And I wasn’t sure any of them would look good on me, so I decided not to buy.
But when I saw the first Lanterns trailer in early 2026, I decided to take another look and see what’s out there again. I went on Google and wrote: green lantern ring. This time, a new ring popped up at the top of the page, among the suggested products list – one I have not seen anywhere else before. It was a stainless steel signet ring with a dark-grey Green Lantern logo on the rectangular signet part. It appeared to be relatively thick, and it seemed like it would fit my style quite well. It looks so cool.
I clicked on the picture, which took me to the website of a German merchandise store for sci-fi, anime and gaming fans. They had it in three sizes, so I quickly took some measurements and chose the one that would likely fit my index finger. I paid and placed the order. Now I only had some waiting left to do: the confirmation email said the ring would arrive in 3-4 days.
I kept living my life, patiently waiting for my ring to arrive. I’d quit my job two months prior, so I had been officially unemployed for about a month at that point. It felt nice to be free from the 9-to-5 hamster wheel and the bullies, snakes and backstabbers that I’d worked with on a daily basis. The nerve twitches below my right eye finally stopped as well.
Then the 4 days had passed and I’d still not received my Green Lantern ring. I checked the tracking info and saw that the package had apparently arrived in my city but was sent back to Budapest – very strange. Fucking Hungarian Post can’t deliver an international shipment. To be fair, they’d successfully delivered domestic orders before, so I wasn’t complaining that much… but still.
Sure enough, the next day, I was sitting in the restaurant, eating the menu of the day, when the phone rang. “Hallo?”
“I’m calling from Magyar Posta [Hungarian Post], I have an international package for you. Do you happen to be home at the moment?” asked a man in his fifties or sixties.
“Oh… no, I’m not at home right now, but I’ll be back in about an hour.”
“That’s fine, I can drop your package at the nearest post office, that okay?”
“Yeah, that’s perfect… thanks!”
“Great, bye!”
“Bye, have a nice day!”
The guy didn’t say ‘have a nice day’ back… so I shouldn’t have said it either… fuck.
Never mind, the day has come, I’m finally getting my Green Lantern ring. On my way home, I stopped by the post office and picked up the package – I was thrilled.
I’d fantasised about this ring since childhood. Freedom. Power. Wonder. And when I finally arrived in my apartment with the package in my hands? I put it down on the dinner table, went into the bedroom and jerked off on some porn. I don’t remember why… probably saw some hot chicks in town or something. And since I masturbated, I had to wait until the next day with opening the package – my OCD insisted. The ring couldn’t be associated with jacking off, so I had to purge that by entering the next day and taking a shower in the morning. Only then could I receive the ring properly… that’s the kind of brain I live with.
The next day I woke up excited, my mind free from distractions this time, ready to take a shower and open the package. After a 40-minute shower, I was clean, fresh and eager to see my Green Lantern ring in person! I still had some uncertainties in my mind though: will it fit? Does it look as cool as on the pictures? Will it look good on me?
I opened the package.
I went back to the position I stood in before, about two and a half meters from the cracked window. “Okay, let’s see if this really is happening.”
With the ring still on my index finger, I made a fist with my right hand and stretched my arm towards the window. Once again, I thought about cracking the window, imagined my ring’s powers hitting the glass and… bam!
The window cracked, again.
Even harder than last time. Several pieces of glass fell on the floor. There was now a gaping hole in my bedroom window, but that didn’t matter.
My mouth opened in amazement and all I could say was:
“Oh… my… god.”
To be continued next week…