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Green Lantern

Green Lantern: First Flight


images-3Green Lantern

Is the name of several superheroes from the fictional DC Universe, all of whom are characterized by a power ring and the ability to create solid constructs with the ring.

The first Green Lantern (Alan Scott) was created by writer Bill Finger and artist Martin Nodell in All-American Comics #16 (July 1940).

Each Green Lantern possesses a power ring and power lantern that gives the user great control over the physical world as long as the wielder has sufficient willpower and strength to wield it. The ring is one of the most powerful weapons in the universe and can be very dangerous. While the ring of the Golden Age Green Lantern (Alan Scott) is magically powered, the rings worn by all subsequent Lanterns are technological creations of the Guardians of the Universe, who granted such rings to worthy candidates. These individuals made up the intergalactic police force known as the Green Lantern Corps.

images-1After World War II, when sales of superhero comic books generally declined, DC ceased publishing new adventures of Alan Scott as the Green Lantern. In 1959, at the beginning of the Silver Age of Comic Books, DC editor Julius Schwartz assigned writer John Broome and artist Gil Kane to revive the Green Lantern character, this time as test pilot Hal Jordan who became a founding member of the Justice League of America. In 1970, writer Denny O’Neil and artist Neal Adams teamed Green Lantern with archer Green Arrow in groundbreaking, socially conscious, and award-winning stories that pitted the sensibilities of the law-and-order-oriented Green Lantern with the populist Green Arrow. Several cosmically-themed series followed, as did occasional different individuals in the role of Earth’s Green Lantern. Most prominent of these are Hal JordanJohn StewartGuy Gardner and Kyle Rayner.

Each of the Earth’s Green Lanterns has been a member of either the Justice Society of America or the Justice League of America, and John Stewart was featured as one of the main characters in both the Justice League and the Justice League Unlimitedanimated series. The Green Lanterns are often depicted as being close friends of the various men who have been the Flash, the most notable friendships having been between Alan Scott and Jay Garrick (the Golden Age Green Lantern and Flash), Hal Jordan and Barry Allen (the Silver Age Green Lantern and Flash), Kyle Rayner and Wally West (the modern-age Green Lantern and Flash), and Jordan also being friends with West.

Publication history – Green Lantern (comic book) 

Golden Age

200px-All-American_Comics_16Green Lantern’s debut in All-American Comics#16 (July 1940). Art by Sheldon Moldoff.

Martin Nodell (using the name Mart Dellon) originated the Green Lantern. He first appeared in the Golden Age of comic books in All-American Comics #16 (July 1940), published by All-American Publications, one of three companies that would eventually merge to form DC Comics.

This Green Lantern’s real name was Alan Scott, a railroad engineer who, after a railway crash, came into possession of a magic lantern which spoke to him and said it would bring power. From this, he crafted a magic ring which gave him a wide variety of powers. The limitations of the ring were that it had to be “charged” every 24 hours by touching it to the lantern for a time, and that it did not work on objects made of wood.

Nodell had originally planned to give the Green Lantern the alter ego “Alan Ladd,” this being a linguistic twist on Aladdin, who had a magic lamp and magic ring of his own. DC considered the wordplay distracting and foolish, and the character’s name was changed before publication to “Alan Scott.” In May 1942, the film This Gun for Hire suddenly made the journeyman actor Alan Ladd a movie star. Nodell would always joke that they had missed a great opportunity.

As a popular character in the 1940’s, the Green Lantern featured both in All-American Comics and in his own title, as well as co-starring in Comic Cavalcade along with Flash and Wonder Woman. He was a charter member of the Justice Society of America, whose adventures ran in All Star Comics. After World War II the popularity of superheroes in general declined. The Green Lantern comic book was cancelled with issue #38 (May–June 1949). All Star Comics #57 (1951) was the character’s last Golden Age appearance.

Silver Age revival

200px-Showcase_22Cover to Showcase#22 (October 1959), the first appearance of Hal Jordan.

Following the successful revival of the Flash in Showcase #4 (Oct. 1956), a new Green Lantern was introduced in Showcase #22 (September–October 1959).

This Green Lantern was Hal Jordan, a test pilot who was given a power ring by a dying alienAbin Sur, and who became a member of the Green Lantern Corps, an interstellar organization of police overseen by the Guardians of the Universe.  The Corps’s rings were powerless against anything colored yellow, due to a yellow-colored “impurity,” or “dopant,” in the master power generator located on Oa, where the Guardians maintained their headquarters; the yellow dopant was described as being a “necessary” one, for without it, the master generator could not function as such. Jordan’s creation was motivated by a desire to make him more of a science fiction hero, editor Julius Schwartz having been a longtime fan of that genre and literary agent who saw pop-culture tastes turning in that direction. Despite multiple characters taking on the role of Green Lantern for Earth, Jordan remains the most well known in both comics and media.

Later developments

With issue #76 (April 1970), the series made a radical stylistic departure. Editor Schwartz, in one of the company’s earliest efforts to provide more than fantasy, worked with the writer-artist team of Denny O’Neil and Neal Adams to spark new interest in the comic and address a perceived need for social relevance. They added the character Green Arrow (with the cover though not the official name retitled Green Lantern Co-Starring Green Arrow) and had the pair travel through America encountering “real world” issues, to which they reacted in different ways — Green Lantern as fundamentally a lawman, Green Arrow as a liberal iconoclast.  Additionally during this run, the groundbreaking “Snowbirds Don’t Fly” story was published (issues #85 and #86) in which Green Arrow’s teen sidekick Speedy (the later grownup hero Red Arrow) developed a heroin addiction that he was forcibly made to quit. The stories were critically acclaimed, with publications such as The New York TimesThe Wall Street Journal, and Newsweek citing it as an example of how comic books were “growing up.”  However, the O’Neil/Adams run was not a commercial success, and after only 14 issues, the two left the title, which was cancelled.

The title would know a number of revivals and cancellations. Its title would change to Green Lantern Corps at one point as the popularity rose and waned. During a time there were two regular titles, each with a Green Lantern, and a third member in the Justice League. A new character, Kyle Rayner, was created to become the feature while Hal Jordan first became the villain Parallax, then died and came back as the Spectre.

images-4In the wake of The New Frontier, writer Geoff Johns returned Hal Jordan as Green Lantern in Green Lantern: Rebirth (2004–05). Johns began to lay groundwork for “Blackest Night” (released July 13, 2010), viewing it as the third part of the trilogy started byRebirth. Expanding on the Green Lantern mythology in the second part, “Sinestro Corps War” (2007), Johns, with artist Ethan van Sciver, found wide critical acclaim and commercial success with the series, which promised the introduction of a spectrum of colored “lanterns.”

Awards

The series and its creators have received several awards over the years, including the 1961 Alley Award for Best Adventure Hero/Heroine with Own Book and the Academy of Comic Book Arts Shazam Award for Best Continuing Feature in 1970, for Best Individual Story (“No Evil Shall Escape My Sight”, Green Lantern vol. 2, #76, by Dennis O’Neil and Neal Adams), and in 1971 for Best Individual Story (“Snowbirds Don’t Fly”, Green Lantern vol. 2, #85 by O’Neil and Adams).

Writer O’Neil received the Shazam Award for Best Writer (Dramatic Division) in 1970 for his work on Green LanternBatman,Superman, and other titles, while artist Adams received the Shazam for Best Artist (Dramatic Division) in 1970 for his work onGreen Lantern and Batman.  Inker Dick Giordano received the Shazam Award for Best Inker (Dramatic Division) for his work onGreen Lantern and other titles.

In Judd Winick‘s first regular writing assignment on Green Lantern, he wrote a storyline in which an assistant of Kyle Rayner’s emerged as a gay character in Green Lantern #137 (June 2001). In Green Lantern #154 (November 2001) the story entitled “Hate Crime” gained media recognition when Terry was brutally beaten in a homophobic attack. Winick was interviewed on Phil Donahue’s show on MSNBC for that storyline on August 15, 2002 and received two GLAAD Media Awards for his Green Lantern work.

In May 2011, Green Lantern placed 7th on IGN’s Top 100 Comic Book Heroes of All Time.

Fictional character biographies

images-5Golden Age Green Lantern – Alan Scott

Alan Scott’s Green Lantern history originally began thousands of years ago when a mystical “green flame” meteor fell to Earth in ancient China. The voice of the flame prophesied that it would act three times: once to bring death (a lamp-maker named Luke Fairclough crafted the green metal of the meteor into a lamp; in fear and as punishment for what they thought sacrilege, the local villagers killed him, only to be destroyed by a sudden burst of the green flame), once to bring life (in modern times, the lamp came into the hands of a patient in a mental institution who fashioned the lamp into a modern lantern; the green flame restored him to sanity and gave him a new life), and once to bring power. By 1940, the lantern passed into the possession of Alan Scott, a young engineer. Following a railroad-bridge collapse of which he was the only survivor, the flame instructed Scott how to fashion a ring from its metal, to give him fantastic powers as the superhero Green Lantern. He adopted a colorful costume and became a crime-fighter. Alan was a founding member of the Justice Society of America.

After the Crisis on Infinite Earths (although the original origin story was still in continuity), a later Tales of the Green Lantern Corpsstory was published that brought Scott even closer to the Corps’ ranks, when it was revealed that Alan Scott was predated as Earth’s Green Lantern by a Green Lantern named Yalan Gur, a resident of China. Not only had the Corps’ now-familiar green, black and white uniform motif not yet been adopted, but Yalan Gur altered the basic red uniform to more closely resemble the style of clothing worn by his countrymen. Power ultimately corrupted this early Green Lantern, as he attempted to rule over mankind, which forced the Guardians to cause his ring to manifest a weakness to wood, the material from which most Earth weapons of the time were fashioned. This allowed the Chinese peasants to ultimately defeat their corrupted “champion”. His ring and lantern were burned and it was during this process that the “intelligence” inhabiting the ring and the lantern, and linking them to the Guardians, was damaged. Over time, when it had occasion to manifest itself, this “intelligence” became known as the mystical ‘Starheart’ of fable.

Centuries later, it was explained, when Scott found the mystical lantern, it had no memory of its true origins, save a vague recollection of the uniform of its last master. This was the origin of Scott’s distinctive costume. Due to its damaged link to them, the Guardians presumed the ring and lantern to be lost in whatever cataclysm overcame their last owner of record. Thus Scott was never noticed by the Guardians and went on to carve a history of his own apart from that of the Corps, sporting a ring with an artificially induced weakness against anything made of wood. Honoring this separate history, the Guardians never moved to force Scott to relinquish the ring, formally join the Corps, or adopt its colors. Some sort of link between Scott and the Corps, however, was hinted at in a Silver Age cross-over story which depicts Scott and Hal Jordan charging their rings at the same Power Battery while both reciting the “Brightest Day” oath. During the Rann-Thanagar War, it was revealed that Scott is an honorary member of the Corps. During the Golden Age of comics, it was shown that the Green Lantern’s one weakness was wood, but was later changed during the Bronze Age from wood to the yellow energy of fear.

On June 1, 2012, DC Comics announced that it would be introducing Alan Scott as a gay man in the title “Earth 2.” The issue was released on June 6, 2012.  In its story, Alan Scott and his male lover were both passengers aboard a train, but before Scott could propose marriage to his lover, the latter was killed when their train was wrecked in the railroad-bridge collapse that Scott alone survived.

images-6Silver Age Green Lantern – Hal Jordan

The second Green Lantern to see publication is also the most notable. The character of Harold “Hal” Jordan was a second-generation test pilot, having followed in the footsteps of his father, Hal Jordan. He was given the power ring and battery (lantern) by a dying alien named Abin Sur, whose spaceship crashed on Earth. Abin Sur used his ring to seek out an individual who was “utterly honest and born without fear” to take his place as a member of the corps. At one point, when Hal Jordan was incapacitated, it was revealed that there were two individuals matching the specified criteria on Earth, the other being Guy Gardner, and the ring chose Jordan solely because of his proximity to Abin Sur. Gardner then became listed as Hal’s “backup”, in case there was an instance in which Jordan was unavailable or otherwise incapacitated. Later, when Gardner was put into a coma, it turned out that by then there was a third human suitable for the task, John Stewart, who was designated as the Earth Sector’s “backup” Lantern. Jordan, as Green Lantern, became a founding member of the Justice League of America and as of the mid-2000s is, along with John Stewart, one of the two active-duty Lanterns in Earth’s sector of space.

Jordan also automatically became a member of the Green Lantern Corps, a galactic “police” force which bears some similarities to the “Lensmen” from the science fiction series written by E.E. Smith, although both creators Julius Schwartz and John Broome denied ever reading Smith’s stories.  Nevertheless, the early 1980s miniseries “Green Lantern Corps” honors the similarity with two characters in the corps: Eddore of Tront and Arisia. A different interpretation of Jordan and the Corps appears in Superman: Red Son.

Following the rebirth of Superman and the destruction of Green Lantern’s hometown of Coast City in the early 1990s, Hal Jordan seemingly went insane and destroyed the Green Lantern Corps and the Central Power Battery. Now calling himself Parallax, Hal Jordan would devastate the DC Universe off and on for the next several years. However, after Earth’s sun was threatened by a Sun-Eater, Jordan sacrificed his life, expending the last of his vast power to reignite the dying star. Jordan subsequently returned from beyond the grave as the Spectre, the divine Spirit of God’s Vengeance, whom Jordan attempted to transform into a Spirit of Redemption, which ended in failure.

In Green Lantern: Rebirth, it is revealed that Jordan was under the influence of a creature known as Parallax when he turned renegade. Parallax was a creature of pure fear that had been imprisoned in the Central Power Battery by the Guardians of the Universe in the distant past. Imprisonment had rendered the creature dormant and it was eventually forgotten, becoming known merely as the “yellow impurity” in the power rings. Sinestro was able to wake Parallax and encourage it to seek out Hal Jordan as a host. Although Parallax had been trying to corrupt Jordan (via his ring) for some time, it was not until after the destruction of Coast City that it was able to succeed. It took advantage of Jordan’s weakened emotional state to lure him to Oa and cause him to attack anyone who stood in his way. After killing several Green Lanterns, Jordan finally entered the Central Power Battery and absorbed all the power, unwittingly freeing the Parallax entity and allowed it to graft onto his soul.

The Spectre bonded with Jordan in the hopes of freeing the former Green Lantern’s soul from Parallax’s taint, but was not strong enough to do so. In Green Lantern: Rebirth, Parallax began to assert control of the Parallax-Spectre-Jordan composite. Thanks to a supreme effort of will, Jordan was able to free himself from Parallax, rejoin his soul to his body and reclaim his power ring. The newly revived (and rejuvenated) Jordan awoke just in time to save Kyle Rayner and Green Arrow from Sinestro. After the Korugarian’s defeat, Jordan was able to successfully lead his fellow Green Lanterns in battle against Parallax and with help from Guardians Sayd and Ganthet, imprisoned it within the personal power batteries of Earth’s Lanterns, rendering the Green Lantern’s rings free of the yellow impurity, provided they had the power of will to do so. Hal Jordan is once again a member of both the Justice League and the Green Lantern Corps, and along with John Stewart is one of the two Corps members assigned to Sector 2814, personally defeating Sinestro in the Sinestro Corps War. Jordan is designated as Green Lantern 2814.1.

Post-Sinestro Corps WarDC Comics revisited the origin of Hal Jordan as a precursor to Blackest Night storyline, the next chapter in the Geoff Johns era on Green Lantern. Hal Jordan is the Green Lantern portrayed by Ryan Reynolds in the 2011 Green Lantern film.

imagesBronze Age Green Lanterns – Guy Gardner (comics)

In the late 1960’s, Guy Gardner appeared as the second choice to replace Abin Sur as Green Lantern of sector 2814. Gardner was a candidate to receive Abin Sur’s ring, but Jordan was closer. This placed him as the “backup” Green Lantern for Jordan. But early in his career as a Green Lantern, tragedy struck Gardner as a power battery blew up in his face, putting him in a coma for years. During the Crisis on Infinite Earths, the Guardians split into factions, one of which appointed a newly revived Gardner as their champion. As a result of his years in a coma, Guy was very emotionally unstable, although he still mostly managed to fight valiantly. He has gone through many changes, including wielding Sinestro‘s yellow Guardian power ring, then gaining and losing Vuldarian powers, and readmission to the Corps during Green Lantern: Rebirth. He later became part of the Green Lantern Honor Guard, and oversees the training of new Green Lanterns. Gardner is designated as Green Lantern 2814.2 within the Corps.

Guy Gardner helped lead the defense of Oa during the events of Blackest Night.

Following his outstanding acts of valour, the Guardians appoint Guy to a unique role behind Honour Guard, answering directly to the Guardians themselves.

John Stewart (comics)

In the early 1970s, John Stewart, an architect from Detroit MI, was selected by the Guardians to replace a comatose Guy Gardneras the backup Green Lantern for Jordan. When Jordan resigned from the Corps for an extended period of time, Stewart served as the regular Lantern for that period. Since then, Stewart was in and out of action due to various circumstances, even becoming the first mortal Guardian of the Universe. He also joined and led the Darkstars when the Green Lantern Corps were destroyed by Parallax. After that, he took over being Green Lantern for Kyle Rayner when he left Earth, also taking his place in the JLA. Now he has begun serving with Jordan as one of his sector’s two designated regular-duty Lanterns, designated as Green Lantern 2814.3.

images-2Modern Age Green Lanterns – Kyle Rayner

Kyle Rayner is a struggling freelance artist when he is approached by the last Guardian of the Universe, Ganthet, to become a new Green Lantern with the last power ring. Ganthet’s reasons for choosing Rayner remained a secret for quite some time. Despite not being cut from the same cloth of bravery and fearlessness as Hal Jordan — or perhaps because of that — Rayner proved to be popular with readers and his fellow characters. Having continually proven himself on his own and with the JLA, he became known amongst the Oans as The Torch Bearer. He briefly operated as Ion after using the power of the entire Green Lantern Corps. He was responsible for the rebirth of the Guardians and the re-ignition of the Central Power Battery, essentially restoring all that Jordan had destroyed as Parallax.

Kyle Rayner was chosen to wield the last ring because he knew fear, and Parallax had been released from the Central Power Battery. Ganthet knew this and chose Kyle because his experiences dealing with fear enabled him to resist Parallax. Because Parallax is a manifestation of fear, and yellow, none of the other Green Lanterns, including Hal, could harm Parallax and, therefore, came under his control. Kyle taught them to feel and overcome fear so they could defeat Parallax and incarcerate him in the Central Power Battery once again.

Kyle became Ion, who is later revealed to be the manifestation of willpower in the same way Parallax is fear. During the Sinestro Corps War between the Green Lantern Corps and the Sinestro Corps, Ion was imprisoned while Parallax possesses Kyle. In Green Lantern (vol. 4) #24, Parallax consumes Hal Jordan. Hal Jordan enters into Kyle’s prison, and with his help, Kyle finally escapes Parallax.

Afterward, Ganthet and Sayd trap Parallax in the Lanterns of the four Green Lanterns of Earth. Ganthet asks Kyle to give up his right to be Ion and become a Green Lantern again. Kyle accepts, and Ganthet gives Kyle a power ring. Kyle is outfitted with a new costume including a mask that looks like the one from his first uniform. Kyle is now a member of the Green Lantern Corps Honor Guard, and has been partnered with Guy Gardner.

Kyle now shows up mostly as part of the ensemble cast of Green Lantern Corps. Corps rookie Sodam Yat took over the mantle of Ion. Sodam has made an appearance in the Legion of Super Heroes Final Crisis tie-in Legion of Three Worlds as the last surviving Green Lantern/Guardian of the Universe.

Kyle is designated as Green Lantern 2814.4 within the Corps.

Kyle Rayner died in Green Lantern Corps #42 (Jan. 2010) after sacrificing himself to save Oa from an attack by the Black Lantern Corps. The following issue, Kyle is brought back to life by the power of a Star Sapphire who connects Soranik Natu’s heart to his heart.

Simon Baz

Simon Baz is a Lebanese American Muslim from the Detroit suburb of Dearborn, Michigan. He first appeared The New 52! FCBD#1 before making his first full appearance in Green Lantern #0 during the “Rise of the Third Army” story line written by Geoff Johns. He was caught by the police street racing in a stolen car with an armed bomb in the back of the van. While being questioned by authorities, Sinestro’s Green Lantern ring chose Simon as its next ring bearer, recruiting him into the Green Lantern Corps. The Justice League eventually tracks him down and questions him as to how he came into the possession of a Green Lantern ring. Batman tries to disarm him by removing Simon’s ring, but self-defense mechanisms of the ring prevent this.  Simon Baz plays an important part in the “Rise of the Third Army” storyline.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Green_Lantern

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