The principal villains were the rogue Green Lantern, Sine-stro, and the powerful Star Sapphire-in reality Jordan’s schizophrenic girlfriend Ferris. Hal Jordan was based on Gil Kane’s neighbor at the time (an up-and-coming actor by the name of Paul Newman), and despite an attractive supporting cast, including girlfriend Carol Ferris and best buddy “Thomas “Pieface” Kalmaku,” he was something of a loner. The Lantern stories were dynamic and inventive, often revolving around some alien menace or scientific conundrum, but characterization was not a strong feature. The Green Lanterns were picked by small, blue-skinned aliens, known as the “Guardians of Oa,” as the bravest individuals on their own planets, and with their almost omnipotent rings they were sworn to uphold justice and defeat evil wherever it may appear. It was the ring’s background that differentiated the two strips it seems that the later Green Lantern was but one of many ring-wielding superheroes across the universe-members of a sort of intergalactic police force. Let those who worship evil’s might, beware my power-Green Lantern’s light!” When the Lantern (nicknamed the Emerald Crusader) recharged his ring every day, he recited an oath that soon became his mantra: “In brightest day, in blackest night, no evil shall escape my sight. Like his predecessor, this Green Lantern could use the ring to make his thoughts reality and he, too, needed a lantern to recharge the ring, but its weakness this time was to anything colored yellow (which inevitably was the cue for countless stories about yellow aliens, villains, and monsters). With his dying breath, the alien passes on his green ring to Jordan, whereupon he becomes transformed into an identically clothed superhero. The new Green Lantern premiered in September 1959 in DC’s Showcase #22, with a new history: Test pilot Hal Jordan chances upon the crashed space ship of an emerald-garbed, red-skinned alien named Abin Sur. Following the successful revamp of the Flash in 1956, editor Julius Schwartz (along with John Broome on scripts and Gil Kane on art) turned his sights on Green Lantern. In addition to appearing in more than eighty issues of All-American, he also starred in his own solo comic for eight years, in Comic Cavalcade, and in many issues of All Star Comics as one of the principal members of the Justice Society until that comic’s cancellation in 1951.Īlan Scott continued to appear throughout the 1960s as part of the Justice Society and has been a constant member of the group in its many revivals, rebirths, and relaunches ever since. By this point, DC had limited the hero’s abilities somewhat by making his ring powerless against wood, but he was still a very potent wish-fulfillment figure for his fans. Colorful criminals such as the Sportsmaster and the Harlequin (a female villain who was also in love with Green Lantern) began to predominate, but by far the most remarkable protagonist was Solomon Grundy-a giant reanimated corpse-created by noted science fiction author and regular Green Lantern writer Alfred Bester. Initial stories concentrated on the Lantern’s dispatching ordinary hoods, often in a surprisingly ruthless manner, but as his powers became increasingly mind-boggling (from flying to mind-reading and, eventually, imperviousness to bullets), his villains also needed to be more far-fetched. In short order, Scott fashions himself a garish red-and-green costume (duly acknowledging, “I must have a costume that is so bizarre that once I am seen I will never be forgotten”) and then, of course, embarks on a career of crime fighting. Indeed, the power ring enables Scott to fly and take on any kind of superpower. The ring would transform thought into reality as long as he touched the lantern once every twenty-four hours. Somewhat improbably, the lantern speaks to Scott, instructing him to make a ring out of its extraterrestrial material. Like many early superheroes, his origin was based in magic while working on a bridge, construction worker Alan Scott comes across a green lantern, which he later discovers was made out of a meteor. The character was first launched in July 1940 by artist Mart Nodell, with additional input from Batman writer Bill Finger, in the pages of All-American Comics #16 and immediately became one of DC Comics’ biggest and most powerful stars. (Cover art by Gil Kane.) Green Lantern (pop culture)įrom humble beginnings, the Green Lantern concept has evolved through numerous revamps (with five Lanterns as of 2004), a complex mythology, and countless spin-offs.
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