Rick Flag was SO dead. Killed in Corto Maltese. Born in Washington, D.C.

He was as dead as his father. Rick, Sr. had perished on U.S. soil. Terrorist attack.

He was as dead as his grandfather. Montgomery had been killed in Vietnam. Friendly fire.

He was as dead as his great-grandfather. A professional golfer, Roger had endured heart murmurs all his life, so he had been excused from the World War II draft. Died of, you guessed it, betting too much on his own golf games in the wrong company. At least that's what his fans assumed, he could have simply skipped town and never bothered coming back.

He was as dead as the obscure relatives on his mother's side. What little he knew of them, she was dead too. From what Sgt. Rock had told him, however, she came from the same breed. Most of them had fought in various wars. Most had died horrible, honorable deaths.

As a result of all this heroism, Rick had grown up with a lot of pictures on his walls of people he had never met but had been told were vaguely important in some fashion. Sgt. Rock was not very forthcoming of a person in general, but the young boy was able to wheedle some information out of him nonetheless.

One would assume as an orphan he would have been drawn the most to the pictures of his parents of all those there, but they seemed ethereal somehow. More solid than the others, for sure, but if he hadn't been told those were his parents he wouldn't have paid them any more attention than the other unknown soldiers.

But there were three pictures in particular that for some reason or another that stood out to Rick.

The first was for obvious reasons. The subject was a gruff, unsmiling former Confederate soldier with massive facial wounds dominating the right side of his face to the point parts of the cheek were missing. Even the name was inherently spooky - Lt. Jonah Hex. 1838-1904.

The more "recent" featured a World War I pilot standing in front of his sopwith camel, The Angel, grinning almost foolishly with excitement and holding out an encouraging thumbs up to the cameraman. It read Col. Steve Trevor. It was notable to Rick not just for the relatively more relaxed subject depicted in the picture, but because he knew for a fact the date had changed on the picture.

Sgt. Rock, always conducting regular checks in his "barracks," insisted that cleanliness was as close as a grunt could get to godliness, so Rick was intimately familiar with all of the names and dates. So, of course, he noticed immediately when something was off. Before it stated Colonel Trevor had lived from 1881-1918, but now for some bizarre reason it said 1881-1984. He never bothered to tell Sgt. Rock this, fearing his guardian would assume he had defaced it somehow but this incident always stuck in the back of his mind.

And the third? Well, that featured an elderly Jonah Hex and young Steve Trevor huddled together, both giving the cameraman a very rude hand gesture. It stated; Bounty hunter Jonah Hex and beloved godson Steve Trevor have some saucy words. The connection Rick formed to the circumstances of this picture could not be understated.

And so, bearing the weight of all these photographs, Rick decided when it came time for a higher education, he was going to apply to military school. He told Sgt. Rock this much, who responded thusly;

"Hmmm. You didn't ask me. You told me. Where you're going, they might not appreciate that as much as softies like me do. Good luck, soldier boy. You're going to need it."

And so, as the years went on, Rick Flag proceeded to become the very best he could be. He graduated with honors from West Point. He became capable of using any weapon in the U.S. inventory with the utmost of efficiency thanks to many a weekend taking weapons apart and putting them back together again. He even achieved his lifelong dream, attaining the same rank as Colonel Trevor.

He also golfed with a 3 handicap, perhaps the most impressive of his feats to any politician he shook hands with. His great-grandfather Roger would be so proud.

And yet despite a storied family history and rather impressive military career, his personal life never really truly varied much. Relationships with women came and went. Friendships were maintained conveniently. When Sgt. Rock passed away, Rick allowed himself to feel the full effect of this loss, had a yard sale and signed on for another tour. Life was nice and boring for Rick Flag.

And then Metropolis happened.

Suddenly, it was as if the world had taken a vote to go crazy and Rick had been sleeping when the vote had been taken. But in reality, these aspects of the world, let alone the universe, had always been happening outside of his house. The Sword of Rao's terraformer just made him look out of his window.

It was official. The metahuman existed, and he was American.

It was like something out of Rick's favorite source of childhood nostalgia, Captain Carrot and His Amazing Zoo Crew. Superman could be spotted saving airplanes during baseball games. The Batman was making more and more Gothamites uneasy with each blood-soaked headline. And suddenly those fish stories of why that oil rig back in 2013 had suddenly become ablaze seemed less farfetched with every passing day.

And suddenly, everything Rick had to offer the world came into question. Conventional troops had decisively aided in beating back the invaders, but it was clear without Superman standing against his own people everyone would be speaking Kryptonian now. The heroes were getting larger, and the villains were as well. He was honorably discharged once his time was up, and chose to return to Washington so he could shake hands, play golf and keep an eye on the news. As a matter of fact, it consisted of the majority of how he spent his time.

Supervillain culture similar to superhero culture always was around well before Metropolis, The Batman had operated far too long for it to be a shock if one had the patience to go down a rabbit hole, but it was that event that truly launched it into the mainstream. Prisons now had to account for a water tank to douse a fire-spitting gangbanger, and sentences like that were no longer positively ludicrous.

And it was the sudden boom of supervillains that gave Rick purpose once more. He was recruited by ARGUS to give regular humans some impression that the old guard remained vigilant. It was the perfect job for Rick, his father had died fighting a "War Wheel", whatever the hell that was. He had had friends in Metropolis, it was time to take some power back. It was time to do what he was born to do.

In the course of his rather impressive career, Rick killed terrorists. He killed drug smugglers. Even the odd dictator here and there. He had even nearly out-golfed the supervillain Sportsmaster one time, albeit in civilian identity. But he had never met a witch before. The cavalry was needed.

And that cavalry came in the form of Task Force X, better known as The Suicide Squad. While at first dismissive of his allies, viewing them as goons with garish gimmicks at best and serial killers who took credit cards at their worst, something within him shifted actually seeing them in action.

And so as his superior Amanda Waller repaid the people who had saved her life along with millions of others with a threat to blow the earth's unlikely heroes to kingdom come, his resolve strengthened. The Belle Reve people had no one on the outside looking out for them. And they had saved his girlfriend. Therefore, he owed them a life debt.

Despite Amanda insisting he didn't have to stay on, Rick knew he had little choice. But he knew he'd make his time count.

So when he went into Jotunheim five years later and discovered the American government conducted experiments on a star conqueror and the entire mission was to destroy the evidence that they were done on foreign soil, there was no question what needed to be done. Someone should have told Peacemaker that.

And that is where he was - about to be killed.

An explosion had sent a rebar into Rick's side, but he still fought on nonetheless. Eventually, he had Peacemaker on the ropes, and a steel pipe in hand to insure the world would know what had been done in the name of freedom.

Peacemaker knew at this point if he was going to ensure his mission would be successful, now was his only chance. He fumbled about for a piece of shrapnel, and stabbed it straight into Rick's heart.

In the universe you know, Peacemaker ended up barely winning their duel to the death by this move. However, in this universe, the outcome was entirely different. And neither man would ever truly understand what exactly had happened to change the course of events.

Unbeknownst to Rick, a few days shy of his fifth birthday, the businessman Maxwell Lord had acquired the power of the dreamstone and was transmitting his powers across the world. Sgt. Rock had been watching Hollywood Squares when Lord had taken over the emergency broadcast system, and Rick was busy cleaning the pictures at the same time. Specifically, the one of Steve and Jonah together.

"You want to be powerful?" Lord's booming voice practically shook the house.

"I wish I was like them when I grew up. Flyin' like Captain Carrot or some shit." The boy whispered, shaking his head in mock disbelief. Even at that age, he had little fondness for the supernatural. But just because you don't like something, that doesn't mean it still won't hurt you nonetheless.

Of course, when Maxwell Lord gave up his power all the wishes in the world automatically ceased. But those desires still remained nonetheless. And set into motion the thing that would one day save Rick's life. Namely, a doomed Ungaran's ship crashing not too far away from this very island…

Rick Flag of Earth.

As Peacemaker prepared a second blow to insure Rick's wound would be fatal, a huge flash of light enveloped the wreckage around them. His eyes swimming, he was only partially aware of his intended blow only resulting in delivering a powerful blow to Rick's miraculously healed chest.

You have the ability to overcome great fear.

"The fuck?!" Peacemaker slurred. The rebar and shrapnel had been pushed out of Rick's body, and a bright, glowing ring had been attached to his finger. That glow was now rapidly spreading over his body, causing him to levitate into the air itself. The light seemed to become solid, giving Rick a skintight green uniform.

Welcome to the Green Lantern Corps.

"You know what? Why not. It's been that kinda fuckin' day. Colonel Flag. You know what you have to do." Peacemaker said, diving toward his pistol and aiming it at his former C.O. "There's too much at stake."

*CA-CLICK*

*BLAM*

*PEW*

*SHUNK*

*CLACK*

The bullet ineffectively bounced off of the force field protecting Rick's head, but his first ever construct easily found its way into his opponent's heart, leaving a perfect hole in the shape of a peace sign in his chest over his heart. The giant man staggered back, causing the ground to shake as the titan of peace fell to the ground.

"Peacemaker." Rick sneered. "What a joke."

"Colonel Flag?" A voice amid the rubble asked out softly. The glow from Rick's ring illuminated Ratcatcher and her beloved pet, Sebastian.

"Ratatouille. Good to see ya." Rick used his ring to levitate more of the rubble aside and retrieve the hard drive.

"What are you wearing?" The supervillain asked, squinting slightly.

"The general uniform of The Green Lantern Corps." Rick explained. "We have been chosen by The Guardians of the Universe to serve and protect. Wait, how did I know that? Oh, you know what, it's just been that kind of day. Important thing is we've got the hard drive. Let's go save our team."

And so they did. The death of Rick Flag began, ironically enough, with what appeared to be a deus ex machina at work. With his mighty ring, he went on to almost single handedly insure the defeat of Starro the Conqueror with far less civilian casualties than in the universe you know. And to thank his allies for their help, he carefully used his ring to short out the bombs in their necks.

"I'm a superhero!" Polka-Dot Man gleefully crowed as the giant alien starfish was dispatched by an enormous green javelin to the eye.

And as for getting back to The United States, Rick easily brought back his surviving allies and even the chittering Weasel whom Harley Quinn mentioned having heard surviving during her time as prisoner of Corto Maltese's government.

From there, it was an easy matter for a Green Lantern to create his own computer capable of emailing the contents of the drive to Lois Lane of The Daily Planet among others to shotgun over the news. As fearsome an opponent Amanda Waller was, even she could not fight against the overwhelming calls for her head and a green straightjacket.

The first thing Rick did after dropping off his new friends with promises to reward them with "nom-nom" when he saw them next, he flew over to his apartment to embrace June and enjoy all life had to offer. He thought to himself in her arms, life can't get any better than this.

Only, it could. In the morning while preparing breakfast, who should show up but Superman himself, asking if Rick would be interested in joining something called "The Justice League."

And so Rick did get his wish. He got to become a daring-do hero, make the world a better place for metahumans, and honor all those who came before him.

But all wishes come with a drawback, an unintended consequence. That consequence was the disease that had killed the previous owner of that ring, one Abin Sur, back in 1984. As a result of Rick's wish, Abin had contracted Despotellis, which caused him to crash his ship onto Earth all those years ago.

And eventually, that was what Rick would die from not too long after obtaining the ring. Only living long enough to discover June was pregnant and to weakly feel the kick in her stomach.

But if there is something to be learned in the multiverse, it really isn't how one dies that defines their legacy. It's how they lived.