Today the character of Green Lantern brings to mind imagery of space adventure, interplanetary travel, wondrous aliens and quite possibly, the most poetic oath ever uttered by a hero. The name of Green Lantern also signifies an elite police corps of ring-bearers who do their best to stop crime as well any other disturbance, be it cosmic or mundane, in the Universe. With the film version of Green Lantern and the story of Hal Jordan set to open on screens across America on June 17, 2011, ComicsPriceGuide.com takes a look back at the long and varied history of the character itself.
When Green Lantern first appeared in All-American Comics #16 (July 1940), he was something completely new. His first appearance was less than two years after the incredible science fiction of Superman had set the comic world aflame in 1938. While comic books had existed for a few years before Superman's debut, his appearance ignited a new industry that was barely on its feet, comic books. The demand for new heroes to fill those books was clear, but few knew what the secret formula for success actually was.
With one foot in magic and the other in science fiction, the creation of Green Lantern by Martin Nodell and Bill Finger was a product of his day. In 1940 a mystical based character was as common as a science based character, but no one had successfully combined the two concepts in such an original way.
The idea for Green Lantern actually began on a train platform. Writing in his preface to the 1999 publication of The Golden Age Green Lantern Archives Volume 1, Nodell tells the story of waiting for a train to come into a station when he saw a trainman "waving a red lantern as he checked the rails." After determining the rails were clear, that same trainman than waved a "green lantern, indicating that all was safe."
Now armed with a name for his new creation, Nodell imaginatively added a few more details. He checks off the details of the process in the previously referenced Archives volume: "a mysterious meteor falling in ancient China; Wagnerian opera – the Ring Cycle – from which I borrowed the ring; and a bit of an ancient Greek look for the costume." He than added the one new factor which would become a key to the nature and longevity of the character, the hero's will power. While the origin of Green Lantern may have changed with the needs and standards of new generations of readers over the next seventy years, the most consistent part of the character has never wavered. The bearer of the ring must have incredible willpower.
Alan Scott, the original Green Lantern, stumbled across the first known lantern as the sole survivor of a train wreck. The lantern instructs him to make a ring from the metal that it's made of so that Scott can tap into the lantern's power. At the very end of its tale, the lamp relays this last thought "The Green Lantern …to shed light upon dark evil." And thus is born one of the key ingredients in the mythology of the Green Lantern, his oath. A much more familiar version of the oath is written by Albert Bester and shows up in Green Lantern #9.
Since nothing in life, or comics, can ever be perfect, the ring holds one very real flaw; it cannot function on anything made of wood. As explained over the years, the standard weapons of the time were almost always made of, or contained some, wood. This made the limits placed on the power of the ring a lot more real for the readers of the day. Wood as a flaw may not seem practical to a reader in 2011, but in 1941 it was very real.
This was the Golden Age of comics and Green Lantern is one of its most powerful and popular characters. But as the war wound down, publishers begin to panic when readership decreases. Funny animals begin to show up in DC titles and Green Lantern and his sidekick Doiby Dickles found themselves in trouble. In February 1948, the same month as DC's newest teen sensation Leave it to Binky shows up, Streak the Wonder Dog appears in Green Lantern #30. Eight issues later GL's solo title is canceled with #38.
The Golden Age Green Lantern's last appearance was All-Star Comics #57 (March 1951). Issue #58 features the new title All Star Western. This change says volumes about comic publishing over the next six years.
The next few years saw DC dive into westerns, romance, science fiction, horror and more funny animals while Superman, Wonder Woman and Batman kept the banner of superheroes flying.
In 1956, the company faced declining readership and declining sales. Looking for a way to bring in new readers, the editors at DC decide to look backwards to their own history for salvation. With a new generation of readers out there, the idea was floated to update The Flash. They decide to give him a new science-fiction-based origin and a sleek aerodynamic costume; one that would appeal to the new generation.
Barry Allen debuted in Showcase #4 and, due to the vagaries of distribution in those days; it took almost six months for the real distribution numbers to come in. The Flash looks to be a hit but, not entirely sure of how much of a hit he actually is, the editors decide that The Flash should get a few more try-outs in Showcase before he gets his own title.
When they do decide to award him his own book, no one at DC believes that a reader would pick up a book that doesn't have a long history behind it. So they decide to start this new Flash with #105, which would have been the next issue of the Golden Age Flash if he hadn't been canceled with #104.
Once DC was sure that the Flash was a hit, they go back into the deep well of company history. For their second hero, they choose the Green Lantern. With their second attempt at updating a Golden Age hero, they decide to make this hero even more science-based and modern than hey had done with The Flash.
The creation of John Broome and Gil Kane, coupled with the guidance of Editor Julius Schwartz; the new Green Lantern made his debut in Showcase #22. Every part of the hero has been created from scratch. Gone was any reference to the mystical aspect of Alan Scott's incarnation. The modern Green Lantern is a pure product of science.
Instead of receiving his ring from a magic lamp, the new Green Lantern is now a test pilot. This is an occupation that would have thrilled any kid of the late fifties. In reality, the idea of flight has been a staple of pulps and comics for years, so it really isn't that hard to understand. Kids had been crazy about aviation since before Lindbergh had flown across the Atlantic. Think of Smilin' Jack or the Zeppelin tales written by Lester Dent. However, Jordan was a test pilot during the earliest days of the space race. This in itself was a new concept that was quickly taking over the headlines in newspapers across America.
Test pilot Hal Jordan is summoned by an alien named Abin-Sur who has crashed landed his spaceship on Earth. Jordan was singled out above all others because, according to the alien's power ring, he is without fear. Nothing in the essence of the concept, especially the space alien and the spaceship, really suggests magic. The new Green Lantern is an immediate hit.
Unlike the editorial decision to start the Flash with the old numbering, this time DC decides to make a clean break with the past. After a quick run in Showcase, Green Lantern made his debut in a solo title the cover of #1 dated July, 1960.
For the next ten years, Broome and Kane expand on the mythology of the character. But it's their early part of the run that sets the tone and really establishes the mythology of the series. Within a few issues Jordan's role as a test pilot as well as great supporting characters such as Carol Ferris, Tomar-Re and Thomas are established in more and more detail. The Guardians are introduced, the existence of other Green Lanterns who police other sectors of space is revealed and we met Jordan's greatest foe, Sinestro. That's just by issue #7.
As their run on Green Lantern begins to come to a close in the late 60s, Broome and Kane expand on a character they had introduced early on, Guy Gardner. It was revealed that as the battery had initially sought out a replacement for Abin-Sur, it had actually found two choices, but Hal Jordan was chosen because he was physically closer to the crashed ship.
The ring's second choice, Guy Gardner, had started out as a logical, solid man. But time and an exploding battery changed that. By the eighties Gardner had morphed into a reliable tough guy who held true to his very closed beliefs, often at his own peril.
By the early seventies, a new generation has grown up with comics. The style of Kane and the stories of Broome seem to have run their course. While the work of these two creative giants held some of the best science-fiction and most dynamic art ever seen in comics, a new generation of readers with different expectations and different experiences has risen in America. They are more open-minded and demand more of their heroes. In the years since Jordan's first appearance many of them have drifted over to the more socially relevant work found at Marvel.
Facing cancellation of the title, DC decided to turn over Green Lantern to writer Dennis O'Neil and artist Neal Adams. Adams had actually started working on the title with a striking cover created for issue #63. Knowing that they were going to get the title a few issues later, the two, working closely with Schwartz as editor, began revamping another hero, Green Arrow. This revamp of a relatively minor character (compared to GL) laid the groundwork for what they hoped to accomplish with Green Lantern.
Ironically, given his status as a "Batman knock-off", Green Arrow was one of the few characters who had been continually published since his debut in 1941. His status as a member of the JLA, as well as being a back up feature in titles such as World's Finest or Adventure, had helped GA weather the death of other superheroes during the late forties and early fifties.
To his credit, when GA was teamed with Batman in The Brave and the Bold issues of the late sixties, the numbers always went up. (Wildcat was another hero that saw circulation rise in B&B. Can you imagine if they gave Adams and O'Neill Wildcat?!!!) So he was definitely loved by someone beside Mort Weisinger. Still, it was the fact that he wasn't a front line hero that allowed Arrow to undergo such radical reinvention under O'Neill and Adams.
Adams had shocked long-time fans of the archer with a new costume and attitude when he shared an appearance with Batman in The Brave and the Bold #85 (September 1969). Over in the pages of Justice League O'Neill had been changing the Emerald Archer's attitude at the same time. The two men had a plan for GL and they went in well-prepared with the backing of Schwartz. The two made their debut in Green Lantern #70, (April, 1970).
Writing in 1983, O'Neil says of the revamp of Green Lantern and Green Arrow that, though it first debuted in 1970, "the stories belong to the previous decade as surely as do Owsley Acid, The Fillmore, protest marches, draft-card burning, the Johnson Presidency and those innocent, arrogant naïf's, the flower children." He also points out that it was the same decade that gave comics a new audience. One that was "… a cadre of knowledgeable, enthusiastic readers."
Unlike the Golden Age, where the publisher was unsure as to how to greet the changing times and often coated their heroes and titles in a staunch patriotic fervor, this time DC made the bold leap to address the world around it. The stories of O'Neil and Adams openly confronted racism, the war, religion, poverty, cults, sexism and most memorably, with a visceral directness seldom, if ever, seen in comics before, the effects of parental neglect and drug abuse. The site of Green Arrow's ward and sidekick Speedy on the cover of #85 (September 1971), still clad in his uniform but noticeably without his mask; holding his arm as a needle sits front and center on the table before him is still one of the most striking and disturbing covers in comics history.
While rightfully lauded and praised for their vision, style and execution, many forget that O'Neill and Adams also created a new Green Lantern as well. John Stewart made a larger than life debut in issue #86. One of the first major black characters at DC, Stewart revealed even more humanity than Hal Jordan or Oliver Queen did. As he moved into the eighties he appeared in a short-lived title, Green Lantern Mosaic and continues to be a major part of the DC Universe to this day.
Unfortunately even the hard work of O'Neill and Adams could not save the title. The first solo title of the Silver Age Green Lantern was canceled with #89. After the cancelation GL moved into his buddy Flash's title as a back-up feature for a short while afterward.
Throughout the eighties the character, as well as his title, would undergo periodic revitalization. A third run of the title begins in June 1990. After a relatively short run, DC was once again faced with declining interest and sales on the Green Lantern character and titles. This time they don't cancel the title. Instead DC decides to go another direction with one of comic history's most respected heroes.
In 1994, during the storyline "Emerald Twilight," Hal Jordan is driven insane by the destruction of his home town, Coast City. He becomes the monstrous villain Parallax and destroys the entire Green Lantern Corps and all the Guardians of the Universe except one, Ganthet.
It is during this crisis that we meet a new Green Lantern, Kyle Rayner. In an alleyway, the lone remaining Guardian (the others were victims of Jordan's madness), appears to the young artist and gives him the last power ring of the Green Lantern Corps. DC's gamble with making Jordan a villain and introducing a younger, much less certain version of Green Lantern pays off as Rayner becomes a respected member of the DC Universe.
As Parallax, Jordan plays a central role in the "Zero Hour" storyline as he attempts to rebuild the DC Universe along his own guidelines. It takes a few years, but Jordan redeems himself in "Final Night." As everything in the known universe faces destruction while the Sun begins to quickly die, Jordan uses his own power to reignite the Sun and in the process, sacrifices his own life.
Redeemed and recognized as the hero he always was, Jordan's soul is than raised from Purgatory to inhabit the character of The Spectre. In 2004, Jordan stages one of the most welcome comebacks in the history of comics in Green Lantern: Rebirth. All of which sets the stage for the "Blackest Night" storyline that ran through 2010.
As many of the Green Lantern storylines are still running in the DC Universe, Warner Bros. prepares the world for the character's feature film debut.