The Blackest Ring

There’s a special Green Lantern comic event called “The Blackest Night,” but for some reason I want to call it the “Darkest Night.” Whenever I call it the wrong name, Ash tells me, “No, that’s Batman. He’s the Dark Knight.” Black Lanterns are like Green Lanterns, but they are zombies who wear black and like to lick Batman’s skull. This event is extra special for fanboys because the comic book comes with a plastic ring with the Black Lantern logo on it. When my husband told me about this, I didn’t think it would be that big of a deal because his wedding band is a size 14, and I assumed that the plastic ring would be too small for him to wear. Unfortunately for me, Ash found out that the rings were going to be made big enough for adult men to wear.

Ash received his comic and plastic Black Lantern ring recently. We already had “the talk” and I explained that it is not okay for him to wear his plastic Black Lantern ring instead of his wedding band. Even though the ring is pretty big, it looked too small for his fingers. No such luck for me though – those jerks at DC made the ring out of flexible plastic with a slit at the bottom to allow large-handed fanboys to wear the costume jewelry!

How many comic book accessories do adult men need? My husband already has t-shirts, pajama pants, hats, pins, and underpants with comic book characters and logos printed on them. Does he really need costume jewelry as well? I have to remind him daily to put on his wedding ring, but he’s been wearing the Black Lantern ring since he got it. This makes me feel a little sad that he takes more pride in his love for comic book characters than me!


If your spouse has one of these toy rings too, remind him that he cannot wear it instead of his wedding ring! Perhaps you can convince him that it is a collector’s item and it shouldn’t be taken out of the package.