Green Lantern #1-7

 Green Lantern #1-7

Originally released in 1960

Written by John Broome

Art by Gil Kane

My main familiarity with Green Lantern comes from the Geoff Johns run, so I wanted to try out another era for the character. (In this case, the Silver Age) Despite the numbering, this isn't the first issue that Hal Jordan appeared in as the Green Lantern, since he was in several issues of Showcase before this. It's been a year since Hal became the Green Lantern, though the issue recaps Hal's origin as the Guardians Of The Universe try to fill in the gaps of what they know.

The art can be kind of wonky at times, with perspective making it look like Abin Sur either has a gigantic head or baby-like hands.  Also, the writing accidentally makes Abin Sur come across as more than a little sexist, though I'm assuming that comes down to the standards of the time.

The way that a Green Lantern is selected, at least as it's described here, seems inherently flawed.  Candidates are chosen based on if they're fearless and honest, but no mention is made of morality.  Someone could be honest about their cruelty and be fearless, and they could get the ring as a result, though I'm likely overthinking it. (Presumably the Guardians Of The Universe would step in if someone abused their power; I'm not sure how they handle Sinestro)

The story also involves Hal having to save the caveman-like inhabitants of another world from a massive creature known as the Dryg, but that almost feels like an afterthought, or a reason to include an action scene in the story. At least it doesn't do what the early Justice League stories did and have every single threat that the Green Lantern faces inexplicably involve the colour yellow somehow. (Ex. "This bird that's attacking me is bright yellow!" or "this clear diamond has specks of yellow in it! And also tiny flames and bits of Kryptonite!")

To my surprise, Green Lantern's most recurring enemy in these early issues isn't Sinestro, or Hector Hammond, but the Weaponers of Qward. Qward is a world in the anti-matter universe, who view the Green Lanterns' Power Batteries as the biggest threat to their plans to conquer the positive matter universe and seek to take Hal's Power Battery from him.  It's interesting to see how Crisis On Infinite Earths incorporated elements of Silver Age Flash (the multiverse, through the Flash Of Two Worlds story) and Green Lantern (the anti-matter universe from these issues) to create its story.

The Qwardians are cartoonishly evil; usually, villains have some sort of motive for why they commit crimes or try to overthrow governments, whether it's greed, proving their naysayers wrong, or believing that they could do better with ruling a city/country/planet than the people who currently do. Instead, the people of Qward pride themselves on being EVIL and punish anyone who dares to do good.

Thomas Kalmaku first appears in issue 2, and he becomes aware of Hal Jordan being the Green Lantern and acts as a young confidant. He's not quite as young as Robin or Aqualad (he's either old enough to drive or people weren't too concerned about underage driving during the time period), and it's nice to see some positive indigenous representation (he's competent, brave, and willing to sacrifice himself for Hal's sake), but his nickname feels uncomfortable if not outright racist. (So it gets awkward when Hal consistently refers to him by that nickname, both in and out of costume)

This comic even taught me something.  The start of one story had me baffled, as it involved a rampaging monster on the verge of blowing up America, and it had to do with Carol Ferris's budding relationship with Hal (Carol loves Green Lantern, has little interest in Hal Jordan, and Hal wants to win her over as himself rather than through his costumed identity) and the fact that it's a Leap Year.

As I learned, it was a tradition at one point that during a Leap Year, women could propose to men when it's usually the other way around. (Maybe that's still a tradition? I don't know) Carol is determined to propose to Green Lantern, and nothing's going to stand in her way, even when Hal creates a giant monster as a distraction.

These issues are entertaining, with sitcom-esque hijinks.  At one point, Green Lantern is invited to a party, though he makes an excuse to "send" Hal in his stead. Then a burglar posing as Green Lantern shows up, so Hal needs to figure out what they're up to without giving away his identity.

Issue 5 introduces Hector Hammond, a long-standing villain of the Green Lantern.  I'm used to him looking like some sort of mutated caveman with a head larger than his body, so it's weird seeing him being portrayed like Tony Stark, a suave, debonair scientific genius.

Hammond clearly has an interest in Carol Ferris, but Hal is suspicious, as Hammond's areas of expertise correspond with the fields of study of four missing scientists.  As it turns out, the Green Lantern's power ring can make anything, even another power ring (that seems like it would come in handy as the DC universe expands and events get bigger and bigger), so Hal disguises Thomas as the Green Lantern, complete with a power ring of his own, while Hal investigates Hammond.

As it turns out, Hector Hammond is a wanted man (that isn't even his real name) who found a meteor that rapidly evolves anything around it. He used it on the missing scientists, with it having the convenient side-effect of awakening their willpower so they do whatever he asks.

Hal isn't even in most of the story, with the disguised Thomas being the one who is brought to free the scientists. He loses his ring (unlike Hal's, the copy ring can't be recharged once it runs out of power), which is found by Hammond and used to turn Thomas-as-Green Lantern into a monkey.

Hal tracks down Hammond and gives chase, but it's not one of Hal's finest moments.

Still, Hal recovers as Hammond's ring runs out of power, and Hammond is sent to prison where he intends to gather knowledge throughout all of time in the most insidious way possible: reading the dictionary!!

Issue six introduces the first member of the Green Lantern Corps. who covers a different sector, Tomar-Re. When multiple disasters strike at once, Tomar-Re reaches out to Hal to help him out.

At least in this case, the writers realized the problem of Green Lantern being able to duplicate himself and took steps to address it. (Green Lantern Rings are already described as the most powerful weapon in the universe, able to read minds and create atmospheres around planets, so one Green Lantern being able to turn himself into two or three or twenty Green Lantern's seems like it would remove all tension from the story)

Once Hal arrives to help Tomar, two things stick out to me as odd. One is that Hal uses expressions like "Great Terra!" He's made similar comments before (like "Jumping Jupiter!") but unlike Superman talking about Rao or Wonder Woman saying "Great Hera!", it makes less sense here because Hal is a modern-day human who's have no reason to say things like that. Also, Tomar refers to Hal as Green Lantern, while Hal refers to Tomar as Tomar.  It unintentionally makes Hal seem disrespectful.

Issue 7 is the debut of Sinestro.  I was curious to see how his hatred of Hal started, though by the time of this issue, Sinestro is already a supervillain. Hal doesn't know that the Guardians Of The Universe existed until Tomar-Re told him about them, so rather than Hal being responsible for Sinestro losing his Green Lantern role, the Guardians periodically check up on the Lanterns in secret. They discovered Sinestro's dictatorship and stripped him of his power.

The Guardians of the Universe are portrayed as secretive almost to the point of paranoia.  Not many people within the Green Lantern Corps. seem to know that they exist, the location or even name of their home planet (Oa) is unknown, and they wipe the minds of any Green Lantern whose thought projection visits them, leaving them with only unconscious knowledge at best. (They make an exception after telling Hal about Sinestro, letting him retain his memories)

Sinestro is banished to Qward in the anti-matter universe, where he quickly becomes its leader by showing its inhabitants that they simply aren't evil enough. (Living up to his name, Sinestro isn't exactly subtle) Sinestro doesn't seem to have a particular reason for targeting Hal Jordan or Earth beyond proving his worth to the Qwardians, which is a major change from how the two of them were handled in the Geoff Johns run where Sinestro was a mentor and (despite their different personalities) a sort of friend to Hal before Sinestro's dictatorial nature was exposed.

Also, the Green Lantern ring turns Thomas into a seagull due to a dream that Hal's having.  That seems like a design flaw.

These issues were a lot of fun. While the two person love triangle can get old (I don't know how Superman kept it up for decades), I thought they did a good job at justifying it by having Hal want to win over Carol as his normal self rather than taking advantage of his super-powered identity. The villains were cheesy, but the plots were entertaining.