History of Green Lantern - Part 2
Friday, April 3, 2009 at 04:03AM This is part of my Green Lantern Files and is continued from Part 1. This section covers Hal's adventures in the 1970's and early 80's, up to Crisis on Infinite Earths, and also discusses the introduction of John Stewart.
HARD-TRAVELING HEROES
The 1970s was a changing time for comics. As the Comics Code Authority began to lessen in power, writers were allowed to bring back beloved horror-type characters such as vampires and werewolves. They also began seriously touching on social issues. Part of this was because the comic book audience was getting older. People who had read comics in the 60's when they were kids had not just gone away. Remarkably, many of them were still reading into their twenties and beyond. Some were now actually working as comic book writers and artists themselves. If the audience was older, the stories needed to reflect that and be a bit more sophisticated.
As DC writers started looking at tackling social problems that were more relateable and, in some opinions, "more realistic" than what comics where famous for, many came to believe that the heroes of the DCU needed to follow suit. Instead of surrounding them in hyperbole and always making sure they were powerful enough to solve any problem, it was believed they needed to become somewhat more grounded. Limits needed to be established and certain questions would have to be addressed.
Naturally, Hal presented a problem. How did you do down-to-earth stories with a space cop armed with one of the most powerful weapons in the universe? What's more, a lot of the more successful stories were those dealing with characters who questioned themselves or felt out of place with society somehow. Yet not only was Hal always described as "honest and without fear", he had, by this time, become less the cocky pilot and more a level-headed, by-the-book hero who was hailed as among the greatest and most resourceful of the Green Lanterns. Writer Denny O'Neil described Hal's basic premise as being "the best cop who ever lived." So why would he question himself or his place in society all of a sudden?
DC decided to emphasize the man behind the ring by causing disruptions in his civilian life, with problems a power ring wouldn't be able to solve. He lost his job at Ferris Aircraft and wound up having to take work as an insurance claims investigator. When that didn't seem to be working out, he later became a traveling toy salesman and found himself sort of dating a woman working for the competition.
But these stories weren't really grabbing readers. So Denny O'Neil came on to give the book his own spin. When he took over the title, he added Green Arrow as a new regular guest-star. Originally, Green ArrowAKA Olliver Queen had been a rich playboy who had adopted a super-hero lifestyle half out of boredom, equipping himself with trick arrows, an arrow-cave, an arrowmobile and an arrowplane . But in recent stories, he had lost his fortune and most of his equipment. Now relying on real arrows as much as he did on trick arrows, Ollie took to the streets and had become a hero of the common man.
In O'Neil's first issue, Hal was patrolling the streets and came onto what he thought were criminals attacking an innocent man. Green Arrow showed up and told him he was fighting the wrong people, not just here but in general. He declared that Hal was so concerned with alien conquerors and super-villains that he was ignoring the common people who desperately needed help against social evils such as corrupt landlords, corporate criminals and drug kingpins.
The most famous scene of the issue was when, later on, Hal was approached by an elderly black man who said that he'd heard tales of Hal working for blue-skinned aliens and that he worked alongside orange-skinned aliens. And yet, he pondered, what had the Lantern done to help the black-skinned people of his own world?
Hal was forced to question if he'd fallen short in his role as a hero by focusing on alien menaces and never pondering what he could do for common people on a more personal level. He also found that he didn't have any new solutions immediately popping into mind. After all, what could a power ring do to help starving people or poverty or drug addicts? Was he limited because social ills were not his jurisdiction or was that just an excuse he'd made for himself?
When the Guardians wanted to know what was wrong with Hal's attitude, Ollie plead the same case to them as well, saying that they could not meddle in the affairs of people on another planet if they made no effort to understand those same people more directly rather than viewing things via statistics and data and official reports. He suggested the Guardians learn how human beings felt and thought rather than simply raining down power and judgment on them by proxy.
Fearing that he had lost touch with common people, Hal and a Guardian named Appa Ali Apsa (who made himself human and was nicknamed "Old-Timer") joined Ollie Queen on a cross-country road-trip to "discover America." Despite the differences in their personality (Hal doing his best to be professional and Ollie being a passionate firebrand), the two found themselves growing a very tight personal bond that would make them strong friends for years.
The stories made fans take notice and the beautiful artwork of Neal Adams (who had done excellent work on Marvel's X-Men and would later work with O'Neil on many Batman stories) helped make the title a must-read for many.
On some of these adventures, the two emerald heroes were joined by GA's love interest Dinah Lance AKA Black Canary II. At one point, they also met up with Roy Harper AKA Speedy, Ollie's ward and sidekick. In a now-famous issue, Roy revealed that he had felt abandoned and dismissed when Green Arrow, his father figure, had left him to go road tripping with Hal. This, added with the pressures of being a teenage super-hero who was suddenly forced to operate on his own, led Roy to begin using drugs and he had quickly become a heroine addict.
Ollie realized that in his desire to battle social ills and help the common man, he had forgotten that it was important not to forget your own family in the process and ignore the signs that they too need help. Roy eventually beat his drug habit and would become a full-fledged hero again, first calling himself Arsenal before, in recent times, renaming himself the Red Arrow.
How effective the road-trip stories by O'Neil were is up for debate. Some thought these were very interesting stories dealing with deep social issues and gave Hal a more human feel, as a green boxing glove or power blast couldn't immediately solve most of the troubles he faced now. Some felt that the stories were over-preachy and so specific that they became very dated very quickly. Some also said it was the start of Hal becoming perhaps too much of a self-reflecting hero and less of the "honest and fearless" warrior that he'd been before. Whatever the case, it’s definitely a chapter of Hal’s history that can’t be ignored.
These stories have been collected in trade so feel free to check them out for yourself and come to your own conclusions.
DON'T CALL HIM BLACK LANTERN
Guy Gardner had always been the alternate GL of Earth, just in case something happened to Hal. But when Hal rescued Guy and one of his students from a bridge collapse, the red-headed gym teacher was left unable to walk. Due to Guy's injuries and how often Hal was involved in cosmic battles and life-or-death struggles, the Guardians decided a new person had to be chosen to act as Hal Jordan’s stand-in should he suddenly be incapacitated or killed.
Taking a break from his travels with Ollie, Hal met the new alternate GL of Earth, a man named John Stewart (no relation to the comedian who would become very popular several years later). John was an architect with a chip on his shoulder, regularly mouthing off about how unfair much of the world was and how often the little guy was stepped on because he was poor or a minority or came from the wrong place. Hal was put off by John's attitude, believing he might've been too volatile to be a proper GL. But the Guardians were insistent that John had a strong will and was both "honest and without fear."
So Hal introduced himself to John and gave the guy some training, bringing him along on a few cases. Although John was a lot more headstrong and cocky than Hal, his heart was in the right place and he was an effective Lantern. Although John was a black man, this was not the central focus of his character. He was not presented as "ooh, look, now we have a black Green Lantern to show that we're diverse." He commented on issues that many black men in the 1970s and early 80s were concerned about, but he was not just a voice box for these issues nor was he a one-note symbol or a parody. You never saw John muttering things like "Sweet Christmas!", as Marvel's Luke Cage did or feeling the need to identify himself by his skin color, as did other heroes of African-descent such as Black Lightning or the Black Goliath (not that I dislike those characters, by the way, just making a point).
And what about Guy Gardner? Well, after months of recovery, and some time after Hal and Ollie were done road-tripping, Guy was able to walk again with the aid of a cane. He also started dating a psychic named Kari Limbo who told him that he was the heir to a tradition involving the color green. Guy was unsure what this meant until Hal approached him and finally revealed that Guy had been very close to becoming the Green Lantern of Sector 2814 many years ago.
Hal went on to explain that he was having trouble with his ring and was going to Oa to check it out. In the meantime, he wanted Guy to mind the shop for him. With Guy getting his mobility back, Hal believed he would be a better alternate GL. John was effective, but still a bit brash and cocky for Hal's tastes whereas Guy had a pretty level head on his shoulders. Before leaving for Oa, Hal gave Guy a duplicate ring he made and then lent him his power battery.
But Hal’s problems were not because of the ring, it turned out. They were because the power battery was faulty. When Guy tried to recharge the ring soon after Hal had left for Oa , the thing literally exploded in his face. Guy found himself exiled to the Phantom Zone, that same strange other-dimensional prison that housed criminals from Krypton. Somehow, the energies from the battery explosion had shifted his form into this "twilight dimension" where time didn't pass and you existed only as a phantom. To make matters worse, the blast had caused some brain damage and later on he was tortured by Sinestro, who journeyed into the Phantom Zone himself.
Believing Guy was dead, Hal tried to comfort Kari Limbo. In a relatively short time, they fell for each other and even got engaged. From his exile, Guy saw snippets of Hal and Kari and became enraged.
Kari had a vision about what had happened to Guy and this led Superman and Hal to discovering the truth about him, that he hadn't been atomized but still existed in the Phantom Zone. They journeyed into the Zone, fighting Sinestro and a brain-damaged, enraged Guy Gardner who wanted revenge on Jordan. When the two heroes won and finally returned Guy to the physical world, he slipped into a coma due to the trauma of his experiences. Feeling guilty over Guy's fate,Kari and Hal broke off their engagement.
INTRODUCING ... ITTY!
When Hal had left Ferris Aircraft, he'd also left Tom "Pieface" Kalmaku behind. After his road-trip with Ollie was over, DC decided Hal needed a new helper. But this was not to be some young apprentice. No Lantern Boy or Lantern Lass or Kid Lantern. Nope, instead, this sidekick was truly worthy of Earth's resident space cop, an alien creature with a far more fearsome moniker: "ITTY!"
Yeah, you heard me. "Itty."
See, Hal was involved in an adventure against the alien ravagers of Olys. During this, he was aided by a tiny little alien who looked like an orange and purple flower. Hal was glad for the assist and stuck his new nameless friend with his unfortunate nickname since he was (wait for it) "itty bitty."
Following his travels with Green Arrow, Hal had decided he liked the road and got a new job as a trucker. Now, not only did Hal have a sidekick, but he became a trucker, traveling across the highways as he made deliveries all over the country. Apparently having no home of his own,Itty now joined Hal on these adventures, which made the Green Lantern comics seem hauntingly like an alternate reality version of BJ and the Bear. For you folks who are too young to remember or who aren’t TV trivia geeks like myself, BJ and the Bear was a show about a young trucker and his pet/sidekick monkey who was bizarrely named "Bear."
Joining some of these adventures was Harold Lawrence Jordan, the second hero to be called "Airwave" (his father had been the original). It was revealed that Airwave II and Hal were cousins. Originally Airwave had briefly been called Hal Jordan (guess an editor forgot that name was already taken). Later, to avoid confusion, he went by "Larry", revealing that this was his middle name.
Eventually, DC seemed to realize that Hal spending all his time with Itty was a really silly idea. So they did what any reasonable/altruistic team of writers does when they have a cute, cuddle character that isn’t catching on: they killed him.
It started when Hal found the normally active Itty lying completely still for five days. Believing the alien dead, they buried him and had a funeral service. Yeah, I’m not kidding. They buried him outside Carol Ferris’s home and gave a funeral service for a damn alien flower.
Some time later, a big dark blobby thing attacked Carol’s house, a blob that wasn’t affected by Hal’s ring. Apparently, Itty hadn’t died, but had undergone some kind of metamorphosis, like a butterfly except blobbier (that's a word, right?) and with more violence and property damage, feeding off calcium and now able to teleport over short distances. Black Canary and Green Arrow joined the fight and Green Arrow was seriously messed up when Itty absorbed calcium from his bones.
Figuring that the alien wasn’t in his right mind, Hal gave Itty a big mound of pure Grade A calcium. Amazingly, the idea worked and Itty's metamorphosis completed, turning him from a big amorphous glob into a blue humanoid who apologized for his actions before teleporting away.
Sadly, because some writers can’t let things go, this was not the last of Itty. Several years later, a group of Green Lanterns read from the Great Book of Oa and found out what had happened to the alien critter after he left Earth. It showed that Itty’s race (called the Lasma) was being hunted down by a group of aliens called the Laroo. Grabbing a female Lasma and several larva of his people, Itty headed back to Earth to get Hal’s protection. Together, he and Hal defeated the Laroo.
Itty and his gal then went off to make sure the other members of the Laroo race didn’t come to Earth for retaliation, leaving behind the larvae in Hal’s care. Hal built a new Vivarium for the critters to live in, having been reassured that they would not turn into calcium-sucking blobs for another four thousand years at least, by which point Itty hoped to return and move them somewhere else.
We haven't seen him since, so maybe this time he's finally gone. Or maybe he'll return again, looking like an ice cream cone with a mustache.
It could happen!
ALAN SCOTT: REVISIONS AND RETCONS
Hal was not the only Lantern whom DC tried to make more fallible and grounded. Alan Scott was examined and serious questions were asked. For instance, as powerful as Alan Scott was, why hadn't he just stopped World War II? Yes, he'd fought Nazis here and there, but why hadn't he simply flown to Europe, blocked the bullets of enemy fire with his ring, seized Hitler and then brought him to justice or simply hurled him into the sun? In fact, why hadn't the Golden Age powerhouses such as Dr. Fate or the Spectre done the same thing?
The answer was revealed via the untold original adventure of the JSA. In their first appearance, the Justice Society of America had already formed as a team and everyone was familiar with everyone else. Now, it was finally shown just how it was the team came to be. During this same adventure, it was revealed that Hitler had gained control of the Spear of Longinus, also known as the Spear of Destiny.
For those of you who didn’t study Christian mythology, a brief explanation. The Spear of Longinus is believed to be the spear that a Roman soldier used to pierce the side of Jesus Christ as he was dying on the cross. It is believed by some that this item grants its wielder incredible power and there are accounts that Hitler very much wanted possession of it. Hitler's desire for religious objects was spoken of by many people, inspiring this DC Comics story as well as a movie called Raiders of the Lost Ark tbat would come out years later.
So in the comic, it was said that this fictional counterpart of Hitler succeeded in attaining the Spear of Destiny and discovered the legends were true, it had some serious magic around it. Using the Spear, Hitler was able to use it to create a "sphere of influence" over Nazi-controlled territories. Now, if you wielded magical energies (Alan Scott, the Spectre, Dr. Fate, etc.) or you were at all sensitive to magic, you would fall under Hitler’s spell and become loyal to his commands almost instantly.
For the safety of everyone else, Alan Scott couldn’t wield his ring in direct conflict with the Nazis, despite his wishes otherwise. It was later said that meta-humans who entered the sphere of influence would wind up having their personalities corrupted and debased, so not even folks like the Flash could risk entering the territory. Just like in our world, the war was left for normal, human beings to handle on their own.
In a later All-Star Squadron issue, it was shown that during WW II, Alan Scott began to fear his own power when he came to consider just how much his ring could do if he willed it so. For this reason, he began imposing serious limits on himself and this was part of the reason why he relied on hand-to-hand fighting whenever he could.
Years later, in an issue of BATMAN: Gotham Knights, Alan Scott told the Batman that a major reason for his retirement in the 1950s was because it was becoming too tempting to try using his ring to alter the minds and personalities of those who followed McCarthy's philosophy. He had even wondered if he could eliminate all evil on Earth and so he'd decided that he needed to get away from the power for a while and remember what it was to just be human for a while.
All of this returned Alan Scott to the role of being a more grounded character rather than, as he had been portrayed since his return in the 1960s, just an older Green Lantern who used magic.
Speaking of older, the problem of the ages of the JSA was becoming more and more prevalent. Superman, Batman and other contemporary heroes lived on a sliding scale so they were allowed to age very slowly over time. Robin was seen as a thirteen-year-old in the 1960's and was college age in the early 1980's and we all accepted that. But the JSA members were all firmly cemented in World War II. It had been one thing when they were teaming up with the Justice League in the 1960's, but by the 80's readers began wondering just how it was they were still so formidable and none of them had completely gray or white hair.
Roy Thomas did a flashback JSA story where they were fighting the Golden Age villain called Ian Karkull. Karkull had originally appeared in the 1940's and wielded shadow-based magic that allowed him to be fairly formidable and even gave him the ability to become an intangible, living shadow.
Karkull was attempting to absorb temporal energy and his scheme involved killing the next eight people who would be President of the U.S. after Roosevelt. The JSA split up and protected these people, but Alan Scott failed in his mission to protect a young child who Karkull believed would be President after Ronald Reagan. This failure would haunt him for some time.
At the end of the adventure, Karkull's body was overloaded with energy and he exploded into nothingness. The temporal energies he'd absorbed were released as a shockwave onto the JSA and a few allies who were nearby. Rather than harming them, it resulted in the collective heroes gaining retarded aging rates and increased vitality. And so, we finally learned how it was that folks like Jay Garrick and Alan Scott could've been fighting evil since the late 1930's and yet not look older than their fifties.
CHILDREN OF THE LANTERN
In the 1980s, a new team formed called Infinity, Inc. This group involved the sons, daughters and successors of several Golden Age heroes. To Alan's surprise, two of the members claimed to be his own children.
Jenny Lynn-Hayden and Todd Rice were twins who had been separated in an orphanage and raised by different families. Todd had powers of shadow manipulation, calling himself Obsidian as a result. Jenny had a strange star-like mark on her hand, her "power-pulse", which could emit green energy when she concentrated, energy which she could manipulate to fly and create force-fields or solid objects. Calling herself Jade, she believed her powers were so similar to that of Earth-2's Green Lantern that she must have been his daughter.
Please note that although Jade's power was similar to Alan's on the surface, there were definite differences. She couldn't become intangible or warp space or hypnotize people or do some of the more unearthly and incredibly powerful effects that Alan Scott was able to achieve with his magic ring. On the other hand, she didn't have a vulnerability to wood and plant matter and she didn't need to ever recharge since her power was internal.
Jade was an optimistic, bright girl who enjoyed her life and didn't really bother with a secret identity, allowing her skin to stay in its green hue rather than consciously shifting back to a "normal." Obsidian, however, had been raised by an abusive father and had a lot of resentment over the fact that his real father, a super-hero, had not been around to protect him. Obsidian was a loyal hero, but he was also a pessimist, subject to depressions. At times, Obsidian seemed almost obsessively protective of Jade.
Soon after Infinity, Inc. appeared, the Harlequin returned onto the scene. After a few encounters with Alan Scott and the Infinitors, Harlequin finally revealed herself to be Molly Mayne (removing the illusion glasses which had made it look like she hadn't aged). She and Alan began a true relationship after that and the two began to fall in love.
Eventually, the truth behind Jade and Obsidian's birth was revealed. It was now said that, years ago, Alan had met and fallen for a woman named Alyx Florin. On their wedding night, there had been a horrible fire and Alan believed his wife had died. But now he discovered that Alyx Florin had actually been Rose Forest, the Golden Age villain called Thorn.
Thorn had been Rose's evil split personality, a plant-based villain of a different appearance that Rose would sometimes transform into and who fought Jay Garrick a few times. When it appeared that the Thorn persona was gone, Rose had attempted to make a new life for herself with a new name. Since Rose and Thorn had different physical appearances, Alan had no way of recognizing her as the Golden Age plant-controlling villain.
On the wedding night, the Thorn personality had returned and Rose had done her best to fight it off, resulting in the fire. Rose had then escaped into the night, believing it was too dangerous for Alan to be around her when her dark side could return at any moment. When she learned she was pregnant with twins, she arranged for them to be sent to an orphanage as soon as they were born, not wishing to endanger them as well.
Thus, Jade and Obsidian were truly Alan Scott's children. After years of using his magic ring, Alan's body had absorbed enough of its energies that he passed it on to Jenny. And Todd's shadow-based powers were possibly due to Alan having absorbed Ian Karkull's energies (he was a shadow-powered villain, remember) years before.
Quick side-nite, the villain Thorn mentioned above and her alter ego Rose were the first characters using those names and should not be confused with the vigilante Thorn (whose alter ego was named Rose) who operated in Metropolis in later years.
PASSING THE RING
Hal was going through some tough times. The Guardians decided that since he had focused so much on Earth over the years, he needed to make up for his absence on the many other inhabited worlds in Sector 2814. Thus, they exiled him from Earth for a year's worth of stories, despite his protests. Hal was resentful of this treatment after his years of service and began to question his view of the Guardians.
When Hal returned to Earth, he had a few more adventures, both alone and with the JLA. By this time, though, Aquaman had become disturbed by how few of the Leaguers seemed to be able to dedicate enough time to the team. The Flash was on trial for manslaughter, Hal had been gone for quite some time, Superman seemed busier than ever. Aquaman decided to use his authority as a founder to disband the Justice League of America and reform it only with those who could commit full-time. As a fellow founder, Hal was shocked by this but couldn't argue the point. The fact was, he did feel that he had less and less time to be himself, much less to try and juggle responsibilities as both a Leaguer and a member of the GL Corps.
Finally, Hal decided he'd had enough of this. 
Having reunited with Carol (who was now completely aware of Hal's double-life), he didn't want to keep putting her on hold for duties as Green Lantern, especially when the Guardians seemed to feel they could do with him as they pleased. He turned in his ring and suggested they find a replacement.
To his shock and dismay, they chose John Stewart, whom Hal still believed was too cocky and reckless for the job. He felt his fears were justified when John later unmasked before the public, feeling he had no need for a secret identity when his ring could protect him from any threat. But despite Hal's misgivings, it seemed that there was a now a new GL living the life.
John's different and shocking behavior was, of course, writer Steve Englehart's attempt to emphasize that this was not a Hal clone any more than Hal had been a clone of Alan Scott. John Stewart was his own man and needed to be judged on his own merit, not just how he compared to Hal. Likewise, he became very close with his new teacher, Katma Tui (Sinestro's replacement in his sector), whereas Hal had mostly seen Kilowog as a beloved drill sergeant. This was definitely a new take on GL.
As John continued his career and spent more time being trained by Katma Tui, he began to lose chip on his shoulder about the bad breaks he'd had in life and his suspicion of authority in general. He was still a bit headstrong, but he was slowly showing that he had chops as a hero.
Then, a crossover occurred called Crisis on Infinite Earths. Basically, DC decided to celebrate their 50th anniversary with a story in which all the heroes of their various parallel universes had to team-up to save all reality.
John, along with many other heroes and villains, was recruited by a man called the Monitor who was trying to save reality. His opposite number, the Anti-Monitor, was attempting to destroy each parallel universe and absorb the energy from its death until he finally became God. To make sure the Guardians of the Universe weren't able to immediately jump in and stop him, he blew up the Central Battery onOa, killing some Guardians in the process.
The Guardians who remained became divided. Some believed they had to rally the Lanterns to help other maintain the stability of the cosmos. Other believed they needed to take a more proactive stance, sending Green Lanterns to directly attack the unseen enemy. These proactive Guardians went off on their own and decided to recruit their own new Green Lantern who would be their weapon. They chose Guy Gardner, giving him his own ring, just before they were killed by the Anti-Monitor. Guy declared he would prove himself to be the greatest GL and went off into space, sporting a new costume of his own design.
Interesting side note. During the course of the Crisis, it was revealed that the anti-matter universe of Qward had actually been created by the same energies released when Krona’s machines blew up so long ago. This same event had split the normal universe into a multiverse . When the Crisis was over, the surviving parallel realities were merged into a new single reality, as they were always meant to be.
For whatever reason, after Guy got the ring, the GL Corps were not really featured during the rest of the main Crisis storyline. In the Green Lantern comic, however, the characters definitely had a lot on their hands.
Believing the GL Corps were not up to their jobs, Guy (who was still behaving irrationally due to brain-damage and his last experiences with Hal) teamed-up with Star Sapphire and recruited several GL villains to his side, believing this would be an army under his command who could take on any threat to the universe. This small army wound up battling several GLs and even Hal Jordan joined the fight, despite not having a power ring.
During the battle, Tomar Re was killed in action. When everything had settled, his ring sought out a replacement and went to John Stewart. They understood that this was because. Tomar intended for John's own ring to return to its old owner. John took Tomar's weapon and his ring went back to Hal, who re-enlisted now as a Green Lantern. He couldn't deny it anymore. This was who he was, for better or worse.
While all of this was happening in space, Alan Scott decided to take advantage of a lull in the battles of the Crisis and finally married Molly Mayne, with the JSA and Infinity, Inc. all in attendance. It was just soon after the wedding that Jade, Obsidian and Alan learned the truth about Alyx Florin and Thorn and that Alan was indeed their father.
The Crisis ended and the result was that the surviving universes were merged into one, unified reality (with Earth-1 maintaining the dominant influence). Thus, instead of Alan Scott being the only GL of his universe and Hal and the Corps existing independently from him, history now said that there was this one Earth where the GL Corps was formed and then, centuries later, an Earth-man got a magic ring and coincidentally (or not) called himself Green Lantern, and that decades after that, Hal Jordan became the first Earthman to be an official member of the GL Corps. The JLA and JSA were no longer counterparts. Rather, the JSA had been the first generation of heroes and the JLA formed years later during the "modern age of heroes", naming themselves in reference to the famous Golden Age team.
So Alan had gotten hitched and discovered he had kids, Hal was back in action, John was becoming a real Lantern worth his salt, Guy Gardner was still a misguided enemy, and the DC Universe was now one mainstream reality. Things were pretty interesting for anyone associated with the name Green Lantern. And things were about to get wilder following the events of the Crisis.
But we'll talk more about the Post-Crisis events in Part 3.
Reader Comments (6)
Thanks for reading, btw. The praise is appreciated.
I am particularly intrigued by the early (Alan Scott) incarnation of the character that you have outlined. A question: Do the early Alan Scott Green Lantern stories have the same kind of political messages that you say featured in the early Superman stories of the 1930s?
It is interesting to learn how characters like Green Lantern and Flash were completely reinvented in the 1950s - I had always thought "ret-cons" were a more modern phenomenon...
Anyway, I am eagerly awaiting Part 3 of this article.
Now, can I make some requests? :-)
Lee Falk's "The Phantom" has always been HUGELY popular here in Australia (and throughout Europe.) I would love to see a history of this character. Some of the early stories such as "The Singh Brotherhood" and "The Golden Circle" remain great comic classics. Also, some of the stories of the ancestral Phantoms gave me my first understanding of historical events such as the Black Death, the life and times of Rembrandt and so on.
Another comic I loved was "Atari Force." It was basically just a huge advertisement for Atari computer games but the characters were quite compelling, including an empath who was an overgrown Praying Mantis and a giant baby named Babe who was to eventually turn into a huge mountain.
Better stop there - reliving my childhood too much now! :-)
Well, as I mentioned, Alan Scott was definitely a product of the politics and culture of the time in that he was an everyman despite his great power and was a person who preferred to rely on his wits and fists as much as on his ring. You can see that in the U.S., following the Great Depression, there was a surge in our culture in wishing heroes who did not just rely on being more powerful so Alan Scott was definitely a product of that. You knew he could handle himself even without magic. And when we entered the war, you see that he too enlisted, which is not something a lot of super-heroes did (even Superman didn't, though he tried). However, it was not quite as "in your face" with political messages as Superman sometimes was. It was relateable, yes, but Alan Scott wasn't a guy you saw directly challenging the government or world leaders that were meant to resemble certain dictators.
The Phantom would certainly be an interesting study in the future. Right now I'm trying to focus on finishing my files on the Infinite Crisis, Final Crisis, Flash, Green Lantern and Hawkman & Hawkgirl. But don't take that to mean I will NEVER look at the Phantom, he is a character I've always enjoyed.