Alan Kistler's History of the Green Lantern - Part 1
Thursday, September 4, 2008 at 11:51PM This is part of my Green Lantern Files. This essay specifically covers the Golden Age and Silver Age histories of the characters involved, ending in the late 1960's.
The Green Lantern Corps represent people from across the universe who are chosen to become sentinels of light and order. But it wasn't always that way. Originally, there was no Corps at all. There was just one guy, a down-to-Earth American named ...
ALAN SCOTT:
The Golden Age Green Lantern
Martin Nodell was a struggling artist who needed money. Inspired by the super-heroes that were appearing in comics, he decided to try one of his own. But what gimmick would his hero focus around? What unique quality would he have?
While at a subway station, a train was delayed due to an obstruction on the tracks. Nodell saw a train employee signaling to his co-worker with a red lantern, indicating there was still work to be done. When the tracks were clear, the worker held up a second lantern, this one colored green, to indicate it was okay for the train to move again.
Nodell’s mind started working. Taking inspiration from the classic tale of Alladin and his lamp, he made up a story about a modern-day hero who got powers from a mystical green lantern that made his thoughts reality, a lantern whose true fuel would be the hero’s own faith in himself, as well as his strength of will. DC liked the idea and gave the concept to Bill Finger, co-creator of the Batman, who worked on the scripts and helped cook up the full origin story.
Originally, Nodell wanted to name the character "Alan Ladd", as a reference to Alladin. The publisher told him that the name was silly though and suggested he change it, so Nodell then came up with "Alan Scott." Soon after his introduction, a Hollywood actor named Alan Ladd started becoming very famous and Nodell joked that they’d missed the opportunity for free publicity. Later, it would be revealed that Alan’s full name was Alan Wellington Ladd Scott. It’s all about compromise, folks!
Alan Scott, the Green Lantern, debuted in All-American Comics #16 in July of 1940. Nodell was credited under his pseudonym Mart Dellon. Like many comic writers/artists of the time, Nodell used an alias because he later hoped to become a “serious” published writer or artist and didn’t want to be perceived as someone who “used to write funny books.”
The basic origin story behind our boy went like this. A green meteor fell to Earth and landed in ancient China. A mystic named Chang heard it speak.
"Three times shall I flame green! First - to bring DEATH! Second - to bring LIFE! Third - to bring POWER!"
Chang then carved the small meteor into the shape of a lamp. Other men in the village feared Chang was messing with forces he couldn’t understand and attacked him. After they killed Chang, green fire suddenly erupted from the lamp and all the attackers were struck dead.
"First - to bring DEATH!"
Centuries passed and the lamp wound up being found by an asylum inmate. The inmate was a natural with metal-work and wound up carving the lamp into the shape of a train lantern. There was a flash of green flame and suddenly the inmate had his sanity restored.
"Second- To bring LIFE!"
Years passed and the lantern wound up on a train in the American Southwest that held Alan Scott as a passenger. Scott was an engineer who had been designing a railway in the Southwest. But the bridge had rigged with explosives by a business rival named Dekker. As the train began to pass over, the bomb went off and the entire thing plummeted to the ground. Seconds before the explosion, Alan Scott happened to take hold of one of the train lanterns which, for some reason, was made out of a strange, green metal.
At the bottom of the cliff, Alan Scott woke amidst the wreckage and was shocked to realize he was the only survivor of the terrible blast. Stranger still ... he had no wounds or injuries. His mind still in a daze, he collapsed into a dream-like trance as the lantern in his hand seemed to glow brighter and brighter with an eerie emerald light.
And then, as he dreamed, the lantern seemed to speak...
"I am the Green Flame of Life! Listen, Chosen One, and hear the tale of the green lantern!"
The lantern told him to carve a ring from the base of its metal and then touch the ring to its light.
He was told that his will and belief were what powered the flames of the green lantern (which seemed like a religious parallel to the idea of faith being the source of strength). Alan Scott touched the ring to the lantern and the ring was filled with the power of the green flame. The lantern warned him though that the ring's magic would only last 24 hours, after which it needed to be recharged.
"Third - to bring POWER!"
Alan Scott then found his friend and business partner Jimmy dead amidst the wreckage and swore vengeance on Dekker. Using the powers of his new ring, he crashed in on Decker's home, looking like a green ghost surrounded in emerald fire. He found he was immune to bullets and most physical blows, thanks to the ring casting a protective aura around him (said to make him “invulnerable to metal”). But during the fight, a wooden club was able to injure him.
Alan Scott then confronted Dekker and terrified him into signing a confession. Moments after signing, Dekker died due to the horrible shock of Alan Scott's bizarre appearance being too much for his own straining health.
Leaving Dekker, Alan decided he had a new calling. Super-heroes had begun showing up in abundance over the last two years in the DC Comics universe and so he figured he too would help people with his extraordinary abilities. Designing a costume he believed would be "too bizarre to forget", he started calling himself The Green Lantern! And thus was born one of my all-time favorite heroes of the Golden Age of comics.
Originally, the outside of the cape seemed to be black with purple highlights to give it some form, much in the same way Batman's cape and cowl were originally meant to be black and were colored with blue highlights to give depth. As time went on, it became clearly colored purple. Seems strange that a guy with the word "green" in his name wouldn't have more green in his costume than just the pants and the inner lining of his cape. But hey, it was the 40s and the guy wasn't a fashion designer, folks.
Alan's vulnerability to wood extended to plant life. Vines, wooden bats, wooden mallets, each of these things would penetrate the aura of protection his ring gave him and he couldn't affect any of these things directly with his power. It was said in the comics that this vulnerability was because the green flame was a manifestation of the power of "green, growing things" and thus such things could not be injured by it. Strange logic, but hey, a guy that powerful certainly needs his own Kryptonite.
Along with near invulnerability and flight, Alan Scott could phase through solid matter (described as the ability to “move through the 4th dimension”), hypnotize and/or blind enemies, melt down metal with heat beams, fire energy blasts and stun beams, become invisible, and create solid objects such as giant hands, walls and force-fields. Of course, even if he didn't use the ring at all, its magical energies would vanish after 24 hours and he'd have to charge it with the lantern again.
Whenever he recharged his ring, Alan Scott almost always spoke the same oath:
"And I shall shed my light over dark evil,
For the dark things cannot stand the light.
The light of … THE GREEN LANTERN!"
Towards the end of his adventures, there were a couple times when Alan recited a new oath. This one would become the standard of Hal Jordan, who would be introduced in the Silver Age of comics. After Hal's introduction, subsequent stories with Alan Scott had him solely using his original oath and acting as if he'd never used any other.
During his first few adventures, Alan Scott moved from city to city with no real direction. He was an Emerald Crusader who went where he was needed. There was an adventure in Metropolis and later one in New York where he met a woman named Irene Miller and helped clear her brother’s name. He then left to go see what new adventure would find him.
In All-American Comics #20, Alan Scott arrived in Capitol City (which later became clearly identified as Washington D.C.), Alan Scott decided to investigate a murder by joining the radio station the victim had worked for. Having experience as a radio engineer, he joined the staff of Apex broadcasting. Irene also worked there, coincidentally, and the two became friends. After the case, Scott stayed on staff. His supporting cast consisted radio newscaster Tyler, long-time radio announcer Charlie, and Mr. Wallace, who owned the joint.
Throughout these stories, Alan Scott showed he did not follow the Bruce Wayne or Clark Kent philosophies on cover identities. Even dressed as a normal civilian, he wasn't any kind of pushover and could clearly handle himself in a fight. Alan Scott was as much a trouble-shooter as Green Lantern was. Sometimes, he would openly investigate a case on his own, offering his aid to people and challenging crooks directly, choosing only to slip on the ring if he later found himself in a situation that his brain and his fists couldn't handle. For him, there was no disguise of personality or character as Superman and Batman always did. He was Alan Scott with or without the mask.
The best example of this was when Irene found herself attracted to the heroic Green Lantern and wondered when she would see him again. Alan then grinned and suggested she settle for him until the hero showed up again. This guy wasn't going to play the celibate game that other heroes endured.
Another thing that made Alan different from Superman and Batman was that, in many ways, he was more of an everyman than either of them. Unlike Superman, he was not born with abilities that gave him a sense of inescapable responsibility. He could, at any time, throw the ring away and resume a normal life. And unlike Batman, he did not have the resources of a millionaire nor the luxury of being totally self-sufficient. He was just a guy working a regular job that paid well enough but that was about it. This all emphasized that even with the magic ring, Alan was one of us and, in this post-Depression era of the U.S., it definitely made him a guy folks could relate to.
In All-American Comics #27, a new addition to Alan's supporting cast was cab-driver Doiby Dickles. Technically, his name was "Derby" Dickles, on account of the hat he always wore, but he pronounced it "Doiby" and so Doiby was what everyone called him. Doiby wound up helping the Green Lantern on quite a few cases and soon realized that he and Alan Scott were the same person. Although a bit simple-minded at times, Doiby was intensely loyal and provided invaluable aid sometimes.
Eventually, Alan made some other very special friends too when he became a founding member of the Justice Society of America, the first super-hero team in history. Originally, the chairman of the team was Jay Garrick, the original Flash, but after a few issues he left the group and Alan Scott was put in charge. Months later, he would turn over duties to Hawkman and left the team for a while, now starring in his very own self-titled comic series. But he would still return whenever the JSA needed his help.
Along with the sorcerer Dr. Fate and the powerful Spectre, Alan was seen as one of the team's power-houses. Unlike the other two though, he still saw himself as an ordinary guy and never looked down on the others or let his magic abilities get to his head.
As stated above, the reason our boy left the JSA was because he was awarded his own series finally (originally, only characters who did not have their own titles were full-fledged Justice Society members). Fans wanted a comic that screamed the name Green Lantern and that's what they got. These comics continued Alan's fantastic adventures and went from crime dramas to bizarre tales involving magic and occasionally there was the silly story to break things up. And with the war in Europe escalating, Alan now began taking on the threat of the Axis powers.
In Green Lantern #3, Alan, Irene and Doiby found themselves (and several other boat passengers) stranded on a small
uncharted island in the Pacific ocean. It was a seeming paradise, until a Nazi invasion force arrived. Not only did Alan fight the Nazis and help the others escape back to the U.S., but he did so without using his ring (it would have been far too risky for the Green Lantern to appear on the near-deserted island where Alan Scott's absence would be noticeable).
Irene fell for Alan after seeing his bravery and the two shared a passionate kiss. This was actually their second kiss, though Irene didn't know it. She'd kissed the masked Green Lantern back in Green Lantern #1. Or perhaps she knew it was him from the way he kissed, in that way that girls know things.
But Irene and Alan weren't just gonna go off and live happily ever after. The attack on Pearl Harbor changed things for the U.S., our boy included. In Green Lantern #4, Alan Scott decided he could serve his country both in and out of costume and so he enlisted for the army, becoming a private-first class under Doiby, who was now Sergeant Dickles.
Of course, much like Marvel's Captain America, Alan didn't exactly distinguish himself as a soldier since he kept disappearing without explanation in order to help out as Green Lantern.
Months later, in Green Lantern #7, his superiors discovered that Scott was a radio engineer and they decided he was more valuable returning to that field as a civilian. Conveniently, Doiby was discharged not long afterwards and the two returned to their lives as super-hero and cabbie/sidekick, though this time they also fought Nazi spies in America. Eventually, they moved to Gotham City in All-American Comics #61 (I guess because Batman and Robin couldn't do everything by themselves in such a big city), leaving the Apex radio station and Irene Miller behind.
Alan took on a job at WXYZ radio in Gotham City and in Green Lantern #20 he actually became manager of the station. Years later, WXYZ would be renamed/retconned into Gotham Broadcasting Company. In the same vein, later stories would retcon it that, after meeting each other in New York, Irene Miller and Alan Scott immediately went to Gotham and applied for a job at GBC together rather than at Apex in Capitol City. Why Irene later left and whatever happened to her has never been said.
BRING ON THE BADDIES
When Alan Scott became manager of the radio station, the first thing he needed was a good secretary. In All-American Comics #89, he chose Molly Mayne, a young girl fresh out of school. Molly was good at her job and very enthusiastic. And, like many girls living in Gotham at the time, she developed a crush on the blond, broad-shouldered Green Lantern.
In her debut story, Molly was supposed to write down a script for a new radio play series that was meant to feature fictional adventures about the Green Lantern. The first story she was given was entitled "Green Lantern vs. The Harlequin." As she looked it over, Molly suddenly thought that if she took on the identity of a costumed thief just like the fictional Harlequin, then Green Lantern would be sure to try and catch her and she could win him over with her charms. Either she was just extremely playful and enjoyed risks in life or the girl was not the most logical of ladies.
Armed with a banjo and employing a pair of illusion-casting glasses (and how she got them was not revealed), Molly debuted as the Harlequin and engaged the Green Lantern in many battles. She never really hurt people, she was always just a playful trickster vying for the hero's attentions. Her illusions also helped her keep her identity secret. But after a while, she realized how childish she'd been and that by acting the part of a criminal she'd actually insured that the Green Lantern would never trust her. So she quickly turned an about face and became an undercover agent for the FBI, hoping that this would show the Emerald Knight that she was a person worthy of his trust and affection.
Many years later, in the crossover Millenium, it was retconned that Molly got her illusion-glasses from the robotic Manhunters, enemies of the Green Lantern Corps (though how she got involved with them was never explained).
The Harlequin wasn't the only member of Alan Scott's rogues gallery.There was the original Icicle, a scientist who dressed like a frost elf and used weapons that delivered blasts of ice and cold. He also occasionally employed henchmen who would dress up like frost elves as well. The Icicle was mainly after money and power and was angered how often the Green Lantern interfered. Thematically, he made a lot of sense as an ice-villain pitted against a man whose power stemmed from flame-like energy. Many years later, the Icicle would die during the Crisis On Infinite Earths and would be succeeded by his son.
There was the Sportmaster, an Olympic-class athlete and thief who enjoyed using sports equipment as weapons. He may have dressed a bit silly, but the guy was definitely a threat to conventional law enforcement. Along with being an Olympic-level athlete and a skilled fighter, he used sporting equipment for a variety of effects. He could fire off ricocheting golf
balls that would strike multiple targets with deadly accuracy. He often used bolos or boomerangs to disable opponents. He'd toss bar-bells at enemies with devastating effect and he was an excellent escape artist.
On many occasions, Sportsmaster would employ wooden weapons such as classic baseball bats or boomerangs. This meant, of course, that Alan Scott would often be forced to fight him hand-to-hand rather than simply disarming the man with his ring, making him a more challenging foe.
Alan Scott's most famous arch-enemy was the creature called Solomon Grundy, who would 
also fight the Justice Society, Superman, Batman, Dr. Fate and many other heroes over the years. In the late 19th century, a thief named Cyrus Gold had been killed on the edge of Slaughter Swamp, outside of Gotham City. Fifty years later, mystic energies in the swamplands somehow brought him back to life as a zombie composed of plant matter. His mind a blank, he was called Solomon Grundy after the nursery rhyme of a character "born on a Monday."
Grundy had phenomenal strength and was invulnerable to conventional weapons. And the plant-matter in his body made him highly resistant to the Green Lantern's ring. At times, Grundy would seem to be killed or destroyed but he would simply resurrect later on. Sometimes he would be smarter. Sometimes he would be more savage. But almost always, he was a threat.
THE BAD TIMES
After World War II, super-heroes began to decline in popularity. And then, various people and parents became more concerned with comics engendering violence in children (thanks to nay-sayers such as Dr. Frederic Wertham and his book Seduction of the Innocent). As a result, many super-heroes began vanishing and some were over-hauled to become less threatening and suspicious to parents.
Batman and Robin became more light-hearted, their enemies more concerned with pulling pranks and being famous rather than hurting anyone. Superman found himself menaced more my magical imps and pranksters rather than deadly scientists and vicious would-be world conquerors. And likewise, Alan Scott’s adventures became more and more comical. The final humiliation came when he was made to play sidekick to a new character called Streak the Wonder Dog, who was essentially a cuter version of Rin Tin Tin.
I'm not even kidding, folks. Streak would narrate the stories (because apparently he had human intelligence even if he didn't have the ability to speak) as he got involved in cases and hunted down criminals. Whenever he got into trouble, Alan would show up as the Green Lantern and help save the day.
As the 1950s approached, it came time for Green Lantern to put his ring away and vanish from the spotlight. Green Lantern was canceled with issue #38 in June, 1949. He remained an active member of the Justice Society (which he had fully rejoined in All-Star Comics #24) until the team's book was canceled two years later in 1951.
As for Alan Scott’s creator Martin Nodell, he later went on to create another widely-known character who struck fear into the hearts of evil-doers … THE PILLSBURY DOUGHBOY!
No, seriously. That was him. I'm not kidding.
ENTER THE SILVER AGE
The years went on. Sci-fi space-adventurers such as Adam Strange and Captain Comet were gaining in popularity during the 1950s. After a few years, DC decided to begin doing super-heroes again. It was decreed that they would use the same names and basic abilities of old characters from the Golden Age but would alter everything else. These would be new characters. The code-names were kept the same, but the real identities were altered and the origins were replaced with those of a more sci-fi basis.
For instance, the new Hawkman was not the reincarnation of an Egyptian warrior but now instead was an alien policeman from the planet Thanagar. The old Flash had been Jay Garrick, a young college student who inhaled fumes that gave him superhuman speed. The new Flash was Barry Allen, an adult police scientist with a noticeably different costume, who gained his powers in a freak accident involving electrified chemicals.
And so, four years after this new Silver Age of comics had begun, a new Green Lantern was introduced. In Showcase #22
(Aug. 1959), we met Hal Jordan, created by John Broome and Gil Kane. Hal Jordan was a test pilot living in Coast City. While working in a simulator, he was summoned to the desert by a dying alien named Abin Sur, who explained that he was a member of the Green Lantern Corps, a group of 3600 intergalactic volunteer cops who patrolled the known universe. Each GL patrolled a different sector of space (as designated by their mentors, the Guardians of the Universe).
Abin Sur was the Lantern of space sector 2814, in which Earth resided. Each GL was given a “power ring” that was mostly limited by will and imagination. Through mental focus, a Green Lantern could use the ring to create images and constructs. They could fly, emit energy blasts, manipulate matter to a small degree (such as giving themselves added muscle or making themselves younger or older). It could become invisible or change its shape (Hal Jordan once had it transform into sunglasses as a disguise and another Green Lantern named Root Lop Fan turned his ring into a bell because his race were all blind and he understood a sonic-based weapon better than a light-based one).
The ring protected the wearer with a personal force field that blocked most lethal attacks and the vacuum of space. An internal database and link to the Green Lantern archives allowed the ring to call up information, act as a communications device and work as a universal translator. It had been designed to be nearly the most powerful weapon in the universe.
The ring had limitations though. Safeguards prevented the ring-bearer from using it to kill directly. Also, its power was programmed to cut off after 24 hours, at which point it would need to be recharge by a power battery that looked vaguely like a lantern (from which the Corps took its name). Constructs and images from the ring were automatically colored green and although other colors could be achieved, this required greater willpower and effort, so much so that it would leave them highly distracted and vulnerable to attack. The ring’s biggest problem was that it couldn’t directly affect anything colored yellow, nor could its constructs and force-fields maintain their integrity if breached by yellow-colored objects. It was explained that this was due to an impurity in the lens of the ring, an impurity that was also necessary for the ring to function.
Like Hal, Green Lanterns were chosen for being honest and without fear and those who began as arrogant people were soon forged into honorable warriors. Whenever they recharged their rings, the Lanterns spoke an oath. Some of them had individual oaths. Hal's friend Tomar Re was seen to use Alan Scott's original oath a few times. But the standard oath was one that Alan Scott had actually begun using towards the end of his career.
"In brightest day, in blackest night,
No evil shall escape my sight!
Let those who worship evil's might
Beware my power – GREEN LANTERN'S LIGHT!"
Hal joined the Green Lantern Corps and became both super-hero and space warrior. Our boy had to balance his new duties as the protector of space sector 2814 (which included many other inhabited planets beyond Earth) along with his every day life as a test pilot for Ferris Aircraft.
A SPACE RACE HERO
Let's take a step back. Have you noticed how the new Comics Code Authority has affected the Silver Age super-hero comics, folks? One of the concerns brought up by Seduction of the Innocent was that super-heroes were, by definition, characters who called for rebelliong against authority figures and the establishment, inciting kids to challenge police, military and federal agents becuase they couldn't do their job properly. So look at how DC Comics was makign sure to quell these fears. The new Flash was a crime scene investigator. The new Hawkman was an alien policeman. And Hal Jordan here was a space cop AND a member of the USAF.
What's more, Hal's dual role as a pilot and space warrior was definitely no coincidence. This was an age where pilots were looked on as heroes, where a plane travel was not taken for granted. This was the era when Chuck Yeager was breaking the sound barrier and when the space race was just beginning. Hal was a symbol of that just as Alan Scott had been very much a product of the Depression-fueled escapist fantasy.
Decades later, in the series JLA: Year One, writer Mark Waid added in that Hal made a point of always removing his ring before he went flying test planes. The reason for this was because Hal felt that his natural instincts as a pilot became dulled if he knew that he had a weapon on his finger which would protect him from any possible harm if things went south. Fans enjoyed this idea and from then on it was considered canon that he always did this.
FRIENDS AND COLLEAGUES
Hal was so dedicated to both of his jobs that he didn't seem to make friends outside of work. At Ferris Aircraft, he had quite a crush on his boss Carol Ferris but never seemed to impress her too much with his occasional, inexplicable absences. And since Hal was, as stated before, honest, he could never bring himself to come up with a satisfying lie to tell her beyond "I got caught up in other things" or simply "I'm sorry, I'll make sure I'm not late next time." Carol also got annoyed how Hal would occasionally push the test planes and jets past their suggested safety limits, as he was more interested in seeing what they could do rather than concerning himself with avoiding injury.
Although he kept his double-life a secret from Carol, Hal did get a confidant when he befriended Ferris mechanic Tom "Pieface" Kalmaku. Tom was an Alaskan Inuit who was called Pieface because his features made his eyes "look like an Eskimo pie." Likewise, he was occasionally referred to as "Hal's Eskimo grease monkey." Eventually, DC dropped such insensitive remarks and just said that "Pieface" was a nickname the man picked up at Ferris. Years later, the nickname was dropped entirely and he was just called Tom.
Despite the nickname, Tom Kalmaku wasn't played as a racial stereotype. He didn't speak in broken English nor did he quote Native American philosophy at odd moments. He was just Hal's buddy, the man who fixed his planes and the friend who knew about his life as Green Lantern. Like Doiby Dickles, Kalmaku helped out Hal on a few adventures. He also kept a journal of Hal's adventures, calling it the "Green Lantern Casebook."
As a super-hero of Earth, Hal quickly made a name for himself. Not only did he get his own self-titled series in 1960, but he also became a founding member of the Justice League of America. Fighting alongside such heroes as Wonder Woman and Superman, Hal joined in several adventures that involved taking out enemies who threatened all of Earth, such as the space villain Kanjar Ro or the telepathic Despero.
Among the Leaguers, Hal developed a very close friendship with Barry Allen, the second super-hero to be called the Flash. Hal and Barry seemed like a strange pair. Hal was, by nature, a man who relied mostly on guts and instinct due to his life as a test pilot. On the other hand, Barry, being a police scientist (what we know today as a CSI), was very calculated and methodical. Hal was the kind of guy who dated a different girl ever couple of weeks. Bary had been with the same girlfriend Iris West for years, eventually marrying her. Hal would often rush into danger, whereas Barry's super-speed and abilities to perceive time differently often allowed him to examine his surroundings and consider several options before he actually acted.
But despite their differences, both Hal and Barry were driven by a deep sense of justice, honesty and fairness and they made an effective duo when they went into battle together. As the years went on, they considered each other practically brothers.
Years later, Hal would also develop a strong bond with Oliver Queen, the Green Arrow (we'll discuss more of that in Part Two).
But enough of Hal's Earth-bound colleagues. Let's discuss his cosmic co-workers and the legacy they upheld.
WELCOME TO THE CORPS
In his travels, he fought alongside other Green Lanterns from various alien races. He met the Guardians of the Universe, a group of short, blue-skinned, nearly-immortal beings who had created the GL Corps thousands of years before. The
Guardians lived on Oa, a planet they claimed was in the center of the universe. It was on Oa that the great records of the GL Corps were held, where young GLs trained, and where the Central Power Battery was housed, from which all the personal batteries drew their power.
As time went on, Hal became friends with many other Green Lanterns. His closest friends in the Corps included Tomar Re, Kilowog and Arisia. Tomar Re was an avian warrior who defended sector 2815, where the planet Krypton had once inhabited. Tomar Re eventually proved himself heroic enough to gain a place among the Green Lantern Honor Guard.
Kilowog was a rough-necked giant who enjoyed himself a good brawl every now and then. As the drill sergeant of the Green Lantern Corps, Kilowog did his best to make sure all rookies and "poozers" who came before him were whipped into shape and became people worthy of the badge and ring of the Green Lantern Corps. He was big, dangerous and fiercely loyal. He was also quite the inventor and loved tinkering with devices.
When Hal first met Arisia, she seemed to him a young girl, barely in her teens. Arisia was young yes, though her people matured faster than those of Earth and so she was 
deemed fully competent by the Guardians. Arisia was still rather star-struck by meeting so many people from different worlds and quickly developed a crush on Hal, who was already known as being among the greatest of the Corps. At the time, Hal brushed off her seemingly innocent feelings, believing she was too young for any romantic consideration. That would eventually change.
There were, of course, other notable Green Lanterns that Hal worked with from time to time. There was Stel, a living robot. There was the sarcastic and dismissive Salaak, There was Katma Tui, a formidable woman from the planet Korugar. There was Xax, a small grasshopper-like Green Lantern. And there was the adorable Ch'p, a "monk without fear" who later took to wearing a white bow-tie and green over-alls.
As the years went on, more of the story came out about who the Guardians were and how the Corps began.
Long ago, there had been a race of highly advanced beings on the planet Maltus. One of their scientists, a man called Krona, wanted to investigate the origin of the universe itself, despite the warnings of his people that this would cause disaster. Krona’s monitors showed him the dawn of time. He saw what looked like a massive hand holding a star-field and then, moments later, the machines exploded. As the Guardians told it, this event unleashed evil onto the universe. Later stories would say that it had actually unleashed entropy into the cosmos.
During the Crisis On Infinite Earths, it would later be said that Krona's experiment also caused the universe to split into separate realities, including the anti-matter universe. Later, this was retconned and it was said that Krona's experiment only bonded the universe to the anti-matter reality which already existed.
Whatever the case, Krona's experiments had caused horrible destruction and endangered reality. He was tried and sentenced to execution, after which his physical form was dispersed into energy. Thousands of years later, he would return to fight the Green Lantern Corps on several occasions. He later adopted a suit of armor and started calling himself Entropy.
To make up for Krona's crimes, the people of Maltus decided to take it upon themselves to become Guardians of the Universe and eventually creating the Central Power battery and the Green Lantern Corps. This decision to act through agents was partly because the nearly-immortal Guardians had become very passive in nature and found it both difficult and distasteful to directly interfere with other races. This attitude brought them into conflict with Hal's passion at times. What's more, there were a few times when Hal felt that the Guardians' attitude of maintaining universal order sometimes meant that they sacrificed mercy and justice in the process.
THOSE WHO CAME BEFORE
It has been theorized by many that the Green Lantern Corps was inspired by the Lensman series by Edward Elmer "Doc" Smith, Phd.
In the books, the Lensmen were a group of people who acted as interstellar heroes, protecting strangers on various worlds and hunting down anyone who threatened innocent life and couldn't be handled by conventional forces. Lensmen were chosen due to honesty, bravery, loyalty, helpfulness and goodness.
Each Lensman was given a Lens, a device that helped make their thoughts reality and acted as a universal translator. The Lens would kill anyone else who tried to use it. The beings who created the Lenses came from a planet called Arisia, (the same name of the afore-mentioned young Green Lantern whom Hal Jordan would become very close to).
The Lensmen books were hugely successful among sci-fi readers and have also been credited as being the inspiration for much of the space opera genre, including Star Trek and the Jedi Knights of the Star Wars films. An anime movie called Lensman was filmed that was based on the same characters. J. Michael Straczynski, comic book writer and creator/head writer of Babylon 5, has said that he cut his teeth on the Lensman books.
Yet despite all of this, Broome and Kane themselves have denied taking inspiration from the Lensmen when they created the Green Lantern Corps. Either way, the similarities are interesting, aren't they?
Something to think about.
THE ENEMIES OF LIGHT
A Green Lantern had to be honest and without fear. Good qualities. Sadly, "trustworthy", "open-minded" and "merciful" were not included in that list. So it may be understandable that a Green Lantern wound up going rogue, becoming an enemy of the Corps. That man in question was Sinestro of the planet Korugar.
Personally, if I were a Guardian of the Universe and met a man with very devilish eye-brows, a pencil-thin villain’s mustache, and a name like Sinestro, I would not consider him recruitment material. I mean, Hell, why don’t you just recruit the guy named "Bloodlust-Overdrive" or "Evil-O"? Ah, well. It was the 60's.
Sinestro was among the greatest of Green Lanterns and his sector was known for being the most orderly of the Corps. But then it was discovered that he'd gone from being a protector of his sector to its dictator, believing that control was the only way to ensure peace. He was later discovered and put on trial by the Guardians.
Though Sinestro defended his actions, the Guardians decided he'd become a tyrant and removed his ring and badge. He was then exiled to the anti-matter universe, a parallel reality where evil and chaos held sway, particularly on the planet Qward (the anti-matter version of Oa). Sinestro would be left to fend for himself in a place full of people who were as corrupt as he'd become.
As a Green Lantern, Sinestro knew about Qward. The Qwardians were a race of people who worshiped the act of bringing
destruction onto others. The Weaponeers of Qward made many dangerous devices and the Thunderers were warriors armed with yellow weapons and golden lightning bolts, making them deadly against Green Lanterns.
Qwardians, like the Guardians, developed dimensional gate-ways that converted their matter so they could travel to and from the positive matter universe without immediately blowing up. During their various invasion attempts, the Qwardians not only fought the GL Corps but also the Justice League of America.
After arriving on Qward, Sinestro approached the Qwardian Weaponers and together they developed a new weapon: a yellow power ring. This ring siphoned the power of nearby Green Lantern rings and batteries, re-releasing it as yellow-colored energy.
With yellow colored constructs, Sinestro could smash through Green Lantern created force fields. His own yellow force field dispersed Green Lantern energy attacks. It was only his own arrogance and the ingenuity and greater number of the Green Lanterns that led to his defeats on many occasions. Over the years, he became a hated foe of the Green Lantern Corps and an arch-enemy of Hal Jordan.
Hal Jordan had other enemies as well, both alien and Earth-born. There was Goldface, whose golden skin and armor negated the ring's effects. There were split personality villains such as the Invisible Destroyer and the magnetically-empowered terrorist called Dr. Polaris.
There was Major Disaster, who had a color-clashing costume with a silly hood but who could cause earthquakes and other natural disasters by force of will (decades later, he'd reform and become a short-time member of the Justice League). There was the Napoleon-esque sonic villain called Sonar, who constantly attempted to conquer the world. And there was the short, wild-haired sorcerer named Myrwhydden, who was actually a former enemy of Abin Sur.
A couple of enemies were equipped with abilities that negated Hal's ring. One was William Hand AKA Black Hand. A simple
thief who had a bizarre love for spouting cliches, Black Hand (who's name was a joke on the fact that he was the black sheep of the Hand family) used a device that made him quite dangerous. The rod he utilized as a weapon was capable of leeching energy from Green Lantern power rings. Black Hand could then use his rod to utilize the GL energies for similar effects. Black Hand could also absorb power ring energy residue from objects that power ring beams or constructs had touched.
Fortunately, despite that he claimed he was smart enough to invent this incredible weapon by himself, Black Hand seemed to be of pretty average intelligence and so Hal was always able to defeat him (though sometimes he needed a little help).
Another enemy that couldn't just be blasted away was Evil Star. He may have had a dumb name and a weird costume, but he was no pushover. Originally a research scientist on the planet Auron, he created a device called the "starband" which absorbed cosmic energy from the stars and suns (much like the cosmic rod of the hero Starman). With this energy, the star brand could manipulate the stellar energy to create energy blasts, force field and hard-light constructs similar to power ring constructs. Using the starband had two unforeseen side-effects. It made its creator immortal and it also warped his mind. Now insane and deeply paranoid of any who attempted to take away his power, the scientist who would be called "Evil Star" wiped out all life on his home world and then set off into space, seeking other worlds to conquer.
By himself, Evil Star was a tough enough foe for Hal Jordan and any Green Lantern. What made him worse was that he could use the starband to create demonic dwarves who served his will, which he called Starlings. These creepy little twerps were not only vicious, they super-human strength, near-invulnerability, and were immune to Green Lantern energies due to the nature of their bodies.
Another major enemy was Hector Hammond, a man who'd developed telepathic and telekinetic abilities after exposure to a strange meteor (the same meteor that evolved the intelligent gorillas of Gorilla City, a hidden place that the Flash visited on many occasions). A side-effect of Hammond's mental evolution was that it caused his head to grow to such a size that his body couldn't support it and most of his muscles atrophied (he couldn't even speak verbally anymore). Floating around in a telekinetically manipulated chair, Hammond became a formidable foe of Hal Jordan's.
A few times, even Hal's own love interest Carol Ferris became an enemy, due to a group of people known as the Zamarons. And it's no coincidence that that name sounds a lot like Amazons.
Long ago, the Maltusians had included females among their race, before they became ageless and reproduction was no longer required. After Krona's crime, the females saw no need to join in the efforts of the Guardians to bring order to the universe and they went off on their own, renaming themselves Zamarons.
Ages later, the Zamarons developed the occasional habit of choosing a woman to be their warrior and queen. This woman would be given a special pink gem with a star design on it. The gem would warp the woman's mind into a new personality who called herself Star Sapphire and she could manipulate the pink energies of the gem in a manner similar to a power ring. The Zamarons came to Earth and selected Carol Ferris as their new warrior, based on her resemblance of past champions.
As Star Sapphire, Carol wanted to dominate Earth's Green Lantern and was willing to engage in quite a bit of wanton destruction while she toyed with him. Hal freed Carol from her possession but over the years the star sapphire gem would come into her possession again and again, causing her to become a criminal again until Hal was able to restore her true personality. Whenever she resumed control of herself, Carol didn't remember what she'd done as the costumed villain.
Although Hal knew that Star Sapphire and Carol Ferris were the 
same person, he didn't allow this to become public knowledge, believing Carol couldn't be held responsible for what she did under the gem's influence.
This was not the first time a DC hero had fought someone named Star Sapphire. Back in the 40's, the Golden Age Flash had fought a woman who called herself Star Sapphire and was apparently the "ruler and sole inhabitant" of a planet said to exist in the "7th dimension." Other than a similar costume, this woman had no apparent connection to Carol Ferris and the Zamarons.
In a story he did in recent years, writer Mark Waid retconned history by saying that this woman who had fought the original Flash was a previous champion of the Zamarons who had been chosen decades earlier.
UNIVERSES COLLIDE
As stated before, Hal was not seen as a successor to Alan Scott. The new Silver Age of heroes was seen as a brand new continuity and characters such as Hal Jordan, Barry Allen and several others were not successors to the Golden Age heroes of World War II. They were completely new characters, what today's media would called "re-imaginings." Alan Scott and his contemporaries may as well have existed in a parallel universe.
And, as it turned out, they did. When Gardner Fox wrote "Flash of the Two Worlds," he had Barry Allen accidentally transport himself to a parallel universe he then referred to as "Earth-2." To his amazement, this was a world where super-heroes had appeared earlier, just before World War II, and where a man named Jay Garrick was the Flash. Thus, it became clear that the stories of DC's Golden Age had all occurred on this parallel Earth, in a universe where there was no Green Lantern Corps, merely a single man from Gotham City who called himself Green Lantern.
It wasn't long afterward when the Justice League of America found themselves in a situation where they felt compelled to call upon the Justice Society of America for help. Thus, Alan Scott and Hal Jordan were able to meet and work together in combating the forces of evil.
As the years went on, the JSA and JLA had several more team-ups and Scott and Jordan would sometimes work together on their own. Sometimes they would clash over how to handle a situation. Hal was more impulsive and operated by the
training and philosophies of the Green Lantern Corps, whereas Alan Scott was a bit more cautious, more suited to his own ways since he was an older man who had learned to be a hero on his own, with no Corps nor people like Kilowog to train and guide him. At times, circumstances would even lead Alan and Hal to fight.
Over the years, artists decided to distinguish between the mystical energies of Alan's ring and the energies of Hal's product of alien science. Whenever a GL Corps member used their rings, the beams and constructs of energy were seen as stable. But Alan's energy beams and constructs now always had an aura of flickering green flames. Some artists would also make the shade of green from Alan's ring different than the shade from Hal's.
Eventually, the DC writers decided to connect Alan Scott to the Green Lantern Corps in some small way. It was revealed that when the Guardians of the Universe first decided to bring order to the cosmos, one thing they did was gather a great amount of the random magical energies in their reality. They collected these energies and sent them into the heart of a star in the universe of Earth-2. This was also meant to explain why magic seemed to have a greater sway in the dimension of Earth-2 whereas science and sci-fi characters were a greater force in Earth-1's reality.
Eventually, the Starheart (as it came to be called) grew sentient and expelled a piece of itself to the planet Earth. This was the green meteor which Chang found. Because the Starheart was a creation of the Guardians, it was influenced by them and the Green Lantern Corps and so this was why it had influenced Earth-men into carving the meteor into a lantern and why it told Alan Scott to make a ring.
And whatever happened to Doiby Dickles? Well, he joined Alan and Hal on an adventure to the planet Myrg. After an adventure, Princess Ramia of Myrg was very impressed with Doiby, rather than with the two ring-slingers, and chose him to be her husband. So the cab driver became king of another world. Now THAT there is an American story.
Towards the end of the 1960's, as Hal was enjoying his tenth anniversary year, he discovered that he had not exactly been Abin Sur's only choice as a replacement Green Lantern. It turned out that when Abin Sur had been dying, his ring found two possible candidates to replace him, two men who were both honest and without fear and were close by. One was Hal Jordan. The other was a high school gym teacher named Guy Gardner. Hal was picked simply because he was closer and was sure to arrive before Abin Sur would actually die, allowing the veteran GL time to explain who he was and the legacy he was about to pass on.
Interesting side-note here. In a story published in Action Comics in the late 1980's, it was revealed that Hal and Guy were actually both second choices. The ring’s first choice had been Clark Kent AKA Superman. But a ring scan proved that Kent was a Kryptonian and Abin Sur dismissed him, apparently deciding that Earth’s champion should be an Earthman. Since many of the Action Comics stories of this era have been dismissed from continuity, and considering that no Green Lantern has ever been limited to only protecting the planet they are native too, this story has never been referenced since.
Learning about Guy's existence and how easily he could've become the Green Lantern of sector 2814 instead, Hal went out of his way to arrange a change meeting with Guy and the two became friends. Guy Gardner even helped out the Green Lantern on a few cases. He was now labeled as Hal's back-up Green Lantern and was even given a temporary ring. It seemed he and Hal would be good friends.
But, sadly, this was not to be the case. And we'll talk about that, and a new character named John Stewart, in Part 2.
Reader Comments (4)