Sheriff Mardin is one of many characters who made their debut in Green Lantern Corps Quarterly, a publication which often featured offbeat stories built around a theme which tied them together. With a single appearance Mardin was just a throwaway character until she was revived during the relaunch of the Green Lantern Corps, benefiting from a complete overhaul. Now Sheriff Mardin has become a mainstay in the Green Lantern Corps title, many readers unfamiliar with her origins would be surprised at how much she’s changed since her first appearance in 1993.
Created by writer Mike Baron, Sheriff Mardin first appeared in a story during told by Arisia about various female members of the Green Lantern Corps in Green Lantern Corps Quarterly #6, an issue which also contained the first appearance fan favorite character Laira. According to the story Hal Jordan once visited the planet Nyberg in Sector 1253 and met the 50 year old wife of the Green Lantern who perished in the line of duty and recommended her as his replacement. Nyberg is a quiet agricultural world and Sheriff, who quite literally is the Sheriff on Nyberg, reluctantly accepted the ring when the Guardians told her she would not be called into space and only needed to use the ring to serve in her capacity as Nyberg’s law enforcement.
Sheriff rarely used her ring since Nyberg was such a peaceful place, but when a Zaza beast threatens the livestock Sheriff uses the ring to trap the beast and remove it without causing any injury to it, although flying caused her great nausea and using the ring left her exhausted.
Post Green Lantern: Rebirth Sheriff emerged as one of the Green Lanterns revived by the Corps, although she now appears very different both visually and in character. Now a more formidable ring slinger she appeared primarily in the background, appearing as one members of the Corps who served on the jury when Hal Jordan was being tried for the murder of the New God Orion during the Final Crisis (issue #5) and joined the team of Green Lanterns who left Oa in a desperate attempt to save the universe from Darkseid’s plan.
Like so many members of the Corps Sheriff’s ring was contaminated by Parallax during the War of the Green Lanterns and fought against the handful of the Corps who were able to avoid the manipulations of Krona.
When several Green Lantern’s disappeared Sheriff was one of a handful of Green Lanterns who accompanied John Stewart and Guy Gardner to the water planet Nerro, only to discover that the water had disappeared and the surface was strewn with the bodies of the deceased natives. The bodies of the missing Green Lanterns were discovered as a message from the Keepers, beings who once tended to the power batteries on the members of the Corps. When the Guardian’s reneged on their arrangement with the Keepers their world was left to deteriorate and only their prolonged exposure to the energy of will allowed them to survive and plan to lash out at their former benefactors.
Sheriff fought against the Keepers when they returned to Nerro but was rescued by the efforts of Green Lantern Porter. Sheriff was angered by her fear of not surviving the first assault of the Keepers and leaving some of her comrades behind due to Porter not being able to teleport all the Green Lanterns off of Nerro. She became a part of Guy Gardner’s assault team leading an offensive on the Keeper planet of Urak to rescue their fellow Corpsmen. (Green Lantern Corps volume 3 issues 1-6)
Since Sheriff’s appearance back in 1993 she’s become one of the go-to characters in the Green Lanterns Corps and has appeared in both the Green Lantern animated features “Green Lantern: First Flight” and “Green Lantern: Emerald Knights”.