(Green Lantern II #132) -Nero started suffering from a persecution complex and delusions of grandeur that culminated in Nero attacking his landlord when he began to fear his landlord was poisoning his water. He was committed to Bellevue hospital and heavily sedated. His doctors were disturbed by the fact that he spent all day making gruesome artwork depicting graphic violence and demonic beings. Qwardians warped into Nero's cell and presented him with a yellow power ring and told him to do with it as he pleased.

(Green Lantern III #133-136) - <one month later> Nero broke out of Bellevue and used the power ring to create a demonic horde and sent them to attack the Brooklyn Bridge. Green Lantern Kyle Rayner and Sentinel arrived to battle the monsters, and Nero told them he was a protector of Earth and they were scourges that needed to be destroyed. He claimed to have been around since the beginning of time and continued ranting and attacking the heroes until he injured Sentinel, forcing Kyle to flee and take Sentinel to safety. The next day Nero created more monsters and sent them out to wreck havoc across NYC. There was no rhyme or reason to their attacks, Nero was just playing with his ring. Kyle Rayner brought in the JLA to deal with the monsters, and Nero struck at the heart of the city, amassing his army in Times Square. He wanted to purge all life from NYC, and engaged in battle with Kyle Rayner. Kyle showed Nero a tape he got from Bellevue of Nero on vacation with his parents. Seeing his parents made Nero have a breakdown, and he created monstrous power ring versions of his parents that tormented him until he was brought to his knees. Nero and his monsters disappeared in a flash of yellow light.

(Green Lantern III #143-145) - Nero hid in the woods of a small European village and bound himself in chains. He kept around the demonic power ring version of his parents who berated him and demanded sacrifice. He made monsters to abduct and murder people who'd strayed into the woods from the village. Nero was motivated to action when he sensed Kyle Rayner tapping into an omnipotent source of energy in the sun. The energy was residue from when Parallax reignited Earth's sun, so Nero flew into space to claim it. Kyle confronted him, and as they fought Qwardians arrived and surreptitiously slipped a device on Nero that would teleport him away if he lost to Kyle. Kyle did defeat Nero, and Nero vanished.

(JSA #35) - The Ultra-Humanite used Johnny Thunder’s Thunderbolt to conquer the world, and imprisoned Nero and virtually every superhuman on Earth in stasis tubes, only reviving them when he needed mind-controlled slaves to serve in his personal guard the Thunderfront. Nero served as a member of the Thunderfront when they attacked the JSA, the only heroes not under the Humanite’s control. During the fight Thunderfront member Captain Atom’s shell was cracked, quantum leaping him and everyone around him, including Nero, one week into the future. By this time the JSA had already defeated the Humanite and freed the Thunderfront from his control.

Comments: Created by Judd Winick, Darryl Banks & Mark Bright